BARF Diet for dogs? Anyone do this?

[purpleduck]

I'm really tempted to let my dogs have some raw chicken with the bones...does anyone do this? Has it been ok?

The logical part of me says that this is how dogs would naturally eat, but the "what if" side of me is argueing back...

Yep I barf feed my dogs. The important thing to remember is that they must never ever have cooked bones. So you could give raw chicken wings (I always freeze them first).

Be careful though as some dogs do not know how to chew food and do try to swallow them whole. The first time I would hold onto one end of the wing to make them chew it first.

BARF feeding does take some research but once you have done so it is an easy and healthy way to feed you dog but I do strongly recommend doing some research first. There is an active yahoo group barfuk that has very useful and knowledgeable people on it.

Thanks! I will have a look

A Book on the subject are Give the dog a bone by Ian Billinghurst. A good book but some of the measurements are a bit out he advocates much more bone in the diet than now is recommended. We recommend about 10% he says more.

A link that may be of interest raw feeding FAQ

I asked my vet about this the other day and he said categorically that it was a bad idea and that doggy life expectancies had gone up as a result of high-quality dry foods coming on to the market. (They don't actually sell food at the practice, except special things for dogs and cats with particular diseases, so I don't think it was marketing speak).

We do barf. We havew tried dried foods occasionally but immediately notice the difference. We do it for health reasons (as well as small poos). You need to research it. We buy it prepackaged and frozen and get it delivered once a month. What breed of dog do you have?

Yes many vets are against Barf feeding. It certainly to start with, is not as straight forward as giving a bowl of kibble. However you will find that many vets are now changing their attitude towards Barf. In fact the original Barf diet was devised by a vet.

You have to balance the diet as you would with yourself. The correct % of bone to offal to muscle meat etc. It does require initial research.

I am in no way encouraging others to feed this way but just know from my experience it works for me. I have had dogs for many years and none of mine have died of cancer, liver or kidney disease or had colitis or allegies type issues which do occur with kibble fed dogs. (Actually that is not true I had a chocolate lab I rescued with terrible skin allergies and changed to Barf and has had no trouble since and needed no steroid treatment for 8 years).

There can be a huge debate on feeding and it does always seem to raise many emotions but if you do research into what goes into kibble you can see that it is not ideal. In this country we put in additives and preservatives into dog foods that are known to cause cancer and are banned in Europe. Ironically these preservatives are put into Prescription food that is recommended by vets. My vet was unaware of this until I mentioned it to him and he researched it independently. You will find a lot of dog food contains beet pulp which is totally indigestable by dogs also dogs do not digest grain so they do not need rice, grain etc in their diets.

Think about how long a bag of kibble or even the tray food lasts? "Normal" food would not last for months so all of it has preservatives added of some sort.

I personally do not want to get into a debate about how to feed dogs as I know what is right for me and my dogs and everyone to their own.

I think there are strong arugments on both sides, tbh. I've fed dry complete foods for the last 15 years but am swaying more towards BARF - type diets now. The key with BARF, as a few people have said, is to make sure you get it really balanced.

I think whatever you feed a dog needs a big raw marrowbone every so often. Their enjoyment of them is palpable

We gave the dogs some chicken wings yesterday. We had to hold them to make sure they chewed it - the greyhound did. The little dog was baffled - bless him (he's baffled by most things that aren't a tennis ball or a pat on the head )

I think I will gradually introduce it. The greyhound threw up last night, so I think she needs to get used to it, or I didn't get it quite right.

Thanks everyone for all you input

i barf feed my dogs - they love it. good luck!