What exacty is the BARF diet and will The Devil Dog like it?

[DooinMeCleanin]

He has been upgraded from Devil Dog to The Devil Dog after eating his way out of his metal crate

So it would seem stainless steel is palatable, but JWB and Arden Grange are not

I keep hearing about how BARF is good for dogs with skin conditions, but I don't understand it. Surely I don't just feed him raw meat and bones? And where do I buy these bones? I keep reading about lamb backbones and whole rabbits??? Where the hell do I get those? What are ground up bones? My blender is older than me, there is no way in hell it will grind up a bone, so I presume I am to buy this bone dust somewhere?

How can this possibly be cheaper than kibble?

It might be simpler if someone just told me what excatly I should feed him over the course of a week, which Google cannot seem to tell me. He is a fox terrier x and weighs around 10.5 kg and is very active, whether I like it or not

This is quite a nice personal introduction to BARF.

You can spend a lot of time on google sifting through information about the diet and (what I found initially quite frustrating) was that everyone does it a bit differently.

I've been doing it a few months now and I realise that people do it differently to suit the needs of their dog - similar to how you would feed your dc, and I like that one-size doesn't fit all aspect.

If you do a search here on mn then there are several threads where (mostly minimu) explains the bare bones [pun] of the diet...but yes you do just feed raw meat and bones . 1-2% of your dog's body weight per day, but once you get into the swing of it you do it all by sight and modify depending on exercise levels, number of training treats used in a day etc.

I also feed quite a lot of green tripe which comes in frozen bags - the first link I gave you it a site which will supply all your raw food needs, chicken mince, about one tin of pilchards in tomato sauce a week (probably the most expensive part of her diet), raw eggs shell and all. Some of the meat bit (10%) should be organy bits (heart, liver kidneys etc)

I also add in every now and then a little pot of veg that I've whizzed up in the blender. Pumpkin, swede, appples, carrots, cabbage, whatever. I put it in little pots in the freezer and dump one in with the mince or tripe. Plenty of barf feeders don't do the veg thing at all though.

I get all my RMBs (raw meaty bones) free from my new butcher. It took quite a while trailing through the butchers in town to find one but now I get as many chicken carcasses and wings for free as I can carry

You can spread out what your dog gets over the week so they don't HAVE to have a bit of liver every day. Same as humans really, we don't eat everything we need to survive at every single meal just spread out over time.

There are some companies out there that will do a whole barf diet in a pouch for you. When I first started out I went with this crowd. Not cheap but it eased me into barf, like an old lady getting into a swimming pool.

hth

I don't grin up any of the bones...that's what my dog's teeth are for and grind them up very efficiently they do too.

Thanks Slubber. After more reading I'm finding that it's v similar to the diet he gets anyway, as his skin seems to react to most tinned foods and he despises kibble, he is topped up with raw and cooked meats, so I guess I just dump the kibble and stop cooking the meats.

He likes sardines in tomato sauce. Never tried him with raw egg, but he does usually get the raw chicken wings before I cook the roast.

Now it is not looking so daunting I might give it a try.

oh well if he's already had raw chicken wings then you're pretty much there!

There is a really good group on yahoo groups BritBarf that you can join. Really helpful (not that I've asked anything yet) but very intersting to lurk read the mails.

PAH have (well mine do) a freezer section which has bags of the tripe and meat minces. probably a good place to start as with Landywoods you have to do a £30 order up front (and clear out your freezer).

oh yes, if you BARF feed it's worth getting a second freezer.

DH was planning on getting a second freezer for the shed we don't own. I don't think he was planning on keeping frozen pigs hearts in there though

I think we have a Pets At Home (our town doesn't even a Sainsburys) so I'll have a look.

My butcher gives me the cooked meat scraps (usually pigs ears, innards and gristle he says) so I'll just ask him if he could leave them raw from now on and we already get raw bones from there. Infact I have just had to go home and get the buggy to carry home the new bag of bones he has just given us. I share them with my mums dogs.

Sounds like a butcher to cultivate

Yes to not cooking anything, and you have to watch the bone content as too much bone and the dog can get very constipated. I do roughly about one meal in every three/four as RMBs, any more than that and she gets bunged up.

I have a 32 kg bitch and a 13 kg puppy ( both ridgebacks)
I feed mostly raw
Zola my eldest gets chicken wings (5-600 gms a day)
Raw minced green tripe.
I also order from natural instincts ( good but pricey) a balanced mixed raw diet
Have to confess the puppy on raw and a little Arden Grange looks amazing in coat
Zola is fussy, won't eat biscuits except sometimes robs the puppy biscuits from the Kong toys
There are good sites for BARF
I totally recommend chicken wings though... My two love them