decided to switch tobarf diet, any advice from you experts?

[ditavonteesed]

she has not been eating post op and the only thing I could get her to eat is chicken breast, so it got me thinking.

Anyway I went into the raw food shop near me yesterday and had a really good chat with the owner. she gave me a couple of bits to try. cherry has wolfed down her food this morning.

the meat is complete (has the ground up bones in it already). worjking on the weight guides online she shoulld have a third of a lb bag a day split between 2 meals, it doesnt seem very much and also seems -far to cheap (will cost me about £1 a week to feed her, she is a border terrier and weighs 13lbs.

Also tell me about raw meaty bones, I was going to pop in to the butchers to see if I can get some for free, do you feed these instead of a meal or as a supplement? How many? do they actually eat the bone (I know that sounds stupid) or just scrape them clean?

What about chicken wings? do they actually eat the bones then or just the meat?

anything else you think I need to know?

what are the advantages? what are the disadvantages?

also forgot to ask but training treats if I give her the processed treats that I currently do would that upset her tum, can I get any raw treats?

BARF is great once you get your head around it. There are many different approaches so you need to work out what works for you and your dog.

I only feed BARF. I do not give grain or cereal or vegetable. Some people do.

this link has some fact sheets

this sheet in particular should help you get started

This company sells ready made BRAF food link here obviously much more expensive but does help at the beginning or if leaving the dog for someone else to look after.

This company will supply cheap food and is great for BARF feeders landywoods link

Yep they do eat chicken wings bones and all but it must be uncooked. Hold onto the bone at first so the dog gets the idea he must chew it. Some people feel uncomfortable with this and you can still BARF if you give ground bones in the meat.

Advantages - you will soon see for yourself, healthy dogs, super fur, clean teeth, less poos, sometimes less manic dogs, usually cheaper.

disadvantages - need freezer space - can't think of any others once you get your head around it.

Go slowly at first to give the dog time to adjust. Introduce food slowly over a few days or weeks.

Training treats I make my own liver cake or sardine cake, cheese, cooked chicken, you can give bits of apple carrot etc so they do not need processed treats. To be honest I think the processed treats are the worst thing to give them. You can give it though on a BARF diet if you want to but would be better not to.

She should be having about 2-3% of her body weight. If she looks skinny up it a bit etc

BARF is fantastic! I feed my dogs BARF and yes it's so much cheaper than complete food.

IMO the best training treats, for my dogs anyway, are dried liver, either make it yourself or buy some ready dried and smash it up into tiny little bits, dogs go daft for it!

I'm currently buying stuff from Pets at Home freezer section, but I am in the process of hunting for space for a 2nd hand chest freezer so I can start ordering from Landywoods.

It's great for Devil Dogs skin and they both are lovely and shiny with nice white teeth.

Devil dog is not keen on chicken wings. He likes lamb ribs and backbone and marrow bones and I top him up with ground bone (which you can buy in Pets at Home or any other decent pet shop) when I think he is not getting enough.

I am lazy I use Nature Diet treats. Both dogs seem to love the beef flavour.

Hi

We have just bought a chest freezer too. I get wings and carcasses very cheeply from local butchers and they eat the bones too.

Fruit and veg needs to be blitzed but mine love it You can get it already done in the pets at home freezer. The love eggs too.

Hi,
What is BARF?

Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, basically raw minces ground with the bone, organ meat, tripe, various bones, some add a plain biscuit mixer such as Laughing Dog (I don't), I don't worry too much about veggies and just add a few bits and pieces here and there from what I'm cooking for the family. I also add fish oil, vit e and kelp powder for their coats.

I was waiting for a thread like this to ask if it's possible/desirable to feed BARF to cats? - have you BARFers done this?

thank you.....sounds interesting.
will look into it.

You can BARF cats but they have very different requirements than dogs. As they can be fussier it can be harder to introduce variety to their diet. link for barf cats

that is fascinating, thank you minimu.
I have taken on what appears to be an indoor cat, and I don't think his little guts are coping well, he needs to have something live/fresh

If you decide to feed the minces without mixer, don't their teeth get gungy? Or would a raw meaty bone once a week or something sort that out?

ok just been to butcher, got a massive bone with beef scraps on which cherry is digging into, it is one of the bones with a round bit and I am not 100% sure that she should be having it, am keeping a very close eye on her. butcher said it is marrow bone and very good for her, he cut it in half and other half is in freezer. Also how long do I leave her with it? and then do i just chuck it away?
Do I give her dinner as well? I know theaoretically I shouldnt but it doesnt look like any actual food.

also the bone itself weighs a ton, how do I work out how much she should have. Am I right in thinking once a week for this type of bone when she is having the minced stuff?

Snigger. I wanted to say that my labrador often liked the barf diet - eat until you barf, then eat the vomit. :o

I don't feed BARF (yet) but I do give fairly frequent meaty bones. I tend to leave them until a) The dog totally tires of it, or b) It gets too small to be safe.

Even long after all the meat is gone off a bone, it obviously still tastes good because they'll still go back to it - sometimes days after it appears to be "finished".

My dogs don't bury bones, but some do. It would appear that to a dog, a soil-encrusted bone with bits of smelly meat hanging off it is a real delicacy :D

I let my dog have the big meaty marrow bones for half an hour then put in plastic bag and into the freezer. Too much of the marrow gives mine the runs.

I don't give her these sort of bones too often (maybe one every couple of month for half an hour a day) she LOVES them but I worry that they are pretty tough on her teeth.

I don't really count them as a meal, more a treat and I reduce breakfast and dinner a wee bit.

I'm careful with mixing barf and kibble (can do kibble for breakfast and barf for dinner) too close together and the results are not pleasant to clear up.

I will have to upload the photo of the landywoods delivery from Friday. HOLY COW (literally). £35 of raw meat goes a long way.

I had to play freezer tetrus for a while to get it all in.

she has had the runs all week, I am guessing it is from the pain meds. she wouldnyt actually eat her kibble, I am now worrying about changinh her too quickly but since she wont eat anything else I havent really got any choice. do you think the runs is from the op and meds or the meat? and if the meat when will it clear up?

I havent got much freezer space, but there is a raw food shop round the corner so i can just pop in once a week.

Oh gosh Dita. Poor thing. I really couldn't say what is giving her the runs. Certainly in my dog her poos are much smaller and firmer (and smell so much nicer if that is possible when describing dog poo) using barf. If anything I have to be careful with them getting TOO hard iykwim and watch her bone amounts.

Experience has told me that too much marrow, or kibble plus barf close together, or a whole tin of pilchards will have non desirable results, but every dog is different.

I would stick to the complete with ground bones in (is it chicken based?) until her poos firm up.

she is stripping the bone she has and hasnt even started on the marrow bit yet, so I think I will take it off her soon, is it really ok to put in freezer after she has been chewing it for half an hour? (trying to strengthen my own stomach to all this), was it you that got a visla pup about the sam time I got cherry? if so how is she?

oh and yes it is chicken.
they do all the meats there as well as the green tripe (I am guessing not until her stomach has got used to barf though).

I think it's fine to take it off her and put it in the freezer in placcy bag, you might not get a very happy response though .

No I think you are thinking of tulpe with the visla. I got Elsie (lab) quite soon afterwards though.

re tripe suprisingly despite smelling FOUL it produces the nicest looking poos of the lot.

i know I'm amongst freinds and can reveal my ongoing facination with dog turds.

Landywoods photo now on profile (I hope)

I did tripe as the next meat after chicken. It HAS to be eaten outdoors though.