Is BARF right for us and our puppy?

[alp]

We have a 8 month old springer pup who has always been on the skinny side - she is currently on Burns food and we moved her from Burns Mini Bites to Burns High Energy Lamb about 8 weeks ago and in that time she has put on about 1kg so she has put on weight but not masses. (Shes currently 8.5kg up from 7.3kg)

She looks a bit better but we can still see her ribs - especially when she is runnign about.

Her poops are inconsistent - somewhere between solid and soft with the occasional runny day.

we don't feed her any human food and all her treats are homemade (spoilt) she does have some dried tripe sticks everynow and then.

So, as we still seem to have a skinny pup do I - keep on the same food or change to BARF - Natural Instincts shop is local to us and yesterday they did a good sales job on me and i came away with a free sample of puppy food and a lambs spine!

So wise MNetters - would BARF be good for pup? I don't really want bones being chewed all over the place and would prefer to keep her food in her bowl!

Im afraid to say my vision of BARF is a little like feeding the lions - especially as Natural Instinct mentioned half a lambs head!

If its not right then I have a pack of defrosting puppy food which I will happily give to a local MNetter!

Only you can decide if a BARF diet is right for you and dog.

If going that route do it gradually though, also she might not like it either and prefer the ready mixed dinners. Also for her age she sounds fine weight wise to me.

Does she do a lot of running around or sleep a lot as the former will burn more energy as if you didn't know that already.

She does run about a lot! She has a minimum of 45min off lead walk a day and then mooches about at home/ chases leaves in the garden.

I will research more!

Thank you

I have to say I have never fed my dogs a lambs head, they have chicken wings, or turkeys necks, the occasional ribs but mainly the packets of ready minced meat and bone. it works for my dogs, works out a lot cheaper than the high end foods and the poo is fantastic. Eric is 5 months and nis on one meal of kibble and 2 meals of raw (cant wait till he is down to 2 meals I always nealry forget to give him lunch). If you have a shop near you I would say go for it, wwe have a shop near us, I would never be organised enough to make sure we didnt run out otherwise.
I must say both y dogs are on the skinny side though, i have never met a fat barf dog.

BARF? there is a kind of dog food called barf? That's asking for trouble!

selks I am wondering

Glad that the need for feeding heads is fairly low!

Not worried about her being fat just want to make sure she is getting best for her

Having been on poo patrol duty since we got her I will be pleased if the up side to barf is that job will become shorter!

Yu can go for a raw food diet without going down the BARF /Natural Instincts route which is quite expensive.

I did a lot of research before trying my Goldie on it & got lots of different tips.

We have a local butcher who sells pei mince, & it's all the trimmings & offal that comes off the human grade meat. That way we get a nice variety of meats, with a bit of bone churned up in it too.

Once a month I get a whole variety of veggies & put them in the food proccessor raw & freeze in batches. I mix in about 2-4 tbsps of veggie mush each day with about a third of a pound of meat for breakfast, & then she has 2/3 chicken wings or thighs a day for tea. If her poo's are a bit loose I do veggies every other day. Also I adjust her meat intake to her girth, at first because she loved it so much ( & my inexperience) I found she was stacking on the weight! I'm not too rigid about it all, today for example she will have meat twice as I'm out of chicken. She is very active.

I have to say the first time I gave her chicken bones (I buy trays of the value chicken portions or get my butcher to save me a few carcasses ) I stood over her & had my phone in one had & the vets number in the other!! However it was soon evident that she crunches them up well & truly & the chewing is good for their jaw & neck muscles as well as teeth.

We've never looked back-good luck!

There's so much conflicting info and scare stories about dogs choking and bones perforating their stomachs, it reminds me of the Baby Led Weaning versus commercial baby foods debate,
I started my 15 month lab on a raw diet yesterday, am giving chicken (Tesco value wings and legs) for a week, then will start gradually introducing various meat. He seemed to love it, was a bit surprised at first, sniffed, licked then carried the chicken leg around for a while wagging tail furiously before settling down to 10 minutes of concentrated chewing. Much more fun than kibble which he inhaled in 20 seconds without chewing at all.
I was a bit worried when he didn't rush outside for a poo first thing this morning, he usually does about 3 lots over an hour or so, but he went later on during his walk, just the once, small and firm (trying to restrain myself from keeping a stool chart) I'm not convinced dogs need veg so won't give any for now but might change my mind.

I love Natural Instincts, we give it to doggo (GR/GS/husky x) frozen so it lasts longer. He also has chicken wings & great big beef bones from butcher. He takes it out to the garden, or his bed if it's very dark. We don't even bother with dog bowl any more, just put it in his jaws.

I think he's gluten intolerant, he can't eat regular dog food at all without dire results and very runny eyes. He's gone from bloated and farty to svelte with lovely white teeth and does teeny poos like a cat.

So today for lunch pup had natural instincts puppy food - was unsure on amount so I gave a third of her amount for natural instincts. I will give her usual measure of Burns at tea time.

I mainly did this as I need to use the tub up and hate waste! She loved it!

If she passes her silver dog training course tonight she can have the lamb spine tomorrow

Our dog trainers raw feed so will chat to them about it too.

I think I might prefer the ready mixed foods as I don't feel confident about giving her the right foods at the right time. ( I do worry about these things) but as confidence grows I might add extra things on.

How do you cope when you go away? Do you pack a tray of ready mixed or a cool box of bones?

The small poops are a huge draw

Thanks for all your help - I am still a little concerned as pup is already lean so I don't want to make her skinner.

ThunderboltKid - I've been like that for months, deciding to go for it then loosing my nerve. It takes time to sift through all the information. The tipping point came when my dog caught and ate a whole rabbit - I tried to get it off him but that made him run off with it so I watched from a distance, he ate the lot, fur, feet, everything, in about 20 minutes and was absolutely fine afterwards. His poo the next day was small and non smelly. It was a revelation as I was so used to him pooing vast quantities of soft smelly stuff.

I too was a a bit unsure at first! I'm now a total convert and have become an annoying woman who tells every dog walker I chat to!

It really is easy once you relax about it. I started with chicken wings and the prize choice frozen minces. Dead easy. Now I just ad lib with whatever I've got- chicken carcass FREE from my butcher, tripe nuggets from pets at home, cheap mince from Asda, pull legs off a bird before I cook it, and so on. Our pup is fed after his morning walk, when my DD2 wakes up from her nap and when the DCs are eating tea. We do have a dog bowl but it's currently in use as a boat for Lego men (very well cleaned 1st!) I just chuck it out onto the lawn, it dissapears pretty quick! Poos are 1/2 a day nice neat sticks, he doesn't have doggy breath or smell, it's cleared up his slightly runny eyes he got on kibble.

Anyone contemplating BARF/raw food for their dog: do it, do it, do it!

It's not rocket science and you don't have to get involved in serious offal, mine eats mainly chicken legs/carcasses and our leftovers and even on this fairly low-tech raw food diet he's 1000% happier and healthier than on kibble.

My dog has managed to get fat on raw because he loves his food so very much (we have to cut his food back a bit for a few days till he's got ribs again!)

Glad to hear so many encouraging stories.

I don't tend to go the butchers but perhaps will start now just to try and grab some freebies

I think I will use natural instinct to start with as they are local and means I can nip there to pick up some food as freezer is currently full of food for Xmas!

I'm currently giving her lunch raw and will up this as time goes on until she's totally raw.

Good to see that dogs can put on weight too!

I think Natural Instinct are quite good if a little pricey, alp if you've got a local outlet, as it's the P&P that bumps the price up,they do quite good multibuy offers if you have freezer space.

It'll give you confidence with raw food until you've found other sources.

My Goldie was geting very bored with kibble, although hungry, she used to give me the "is this it?" look. Now she dances around the kitchen & wolfs her food down!

Ooh Thunderbolt! You bought the chicken wings!

Yes I think Natural Instint is a bit pricey but until I get my confidence at least this way I can take pup in and discuss face to face my questions.

I would be interested in other suppliers that can be recommended though.

Thunderbolt you'll never look back!

Well done thunderbolt!! See, that wasn't so bad!

(was it you I tried to convince about RAW on new puppy thread??)

Sorry, thunderbolt!!

Thunderbolt - do you think that one chicken wing is enough? Are you upping other meals or just replacing with the wing?

Don't forget alp the raw diet is packed with protein/goodies where kibble is bulked out with cereals so you don't need the same volume to keep them fed.

That's why my Goldie,Millie, stacked on the weight at first as I was giving her what looked like the same size portion as her kibble which was far too much!!

Here's a handy claculator

The beauty of this diet is it can be very gradual, if you under/overfeed a bit while you are experimenting it won't hurt as long as you adjust. I laughed at Uptown almost doing a stool chart as I was the same! You tend to watch them at first to make sure they're not constipated but after a while you relax.

Millie loves the odd raw carrot or eating apple too, I give her one to take into the garden & she'll crunch it up quite happily.

This is fun although I might be getting a bit obsessed, haven't done anything about family christmas food yet.
After 3 days of raw chicken I've been to PAH and stocked up with bags of frozen meat, rabbit, beef, tripe. Price seems very reasonable. Luckily just had kitchen done so have a spare fridge freezer. Gave tripe this morning, the big chunks rather than mince as dog loves to chew. Was expecting it to be stinky so held my breath and covered bowl in cling film to defrost, weird looking stuff, supposed to full of goodies like digestive enzymes and probiotics. I could see bits of grass and other planty things. Dog was thrilled, pranced about with a chunk in his mouth and had to be restrained from taking it on a lap of honour round the sitting room.
Bossy - thanks for the calculator, very handy.

Maybe one wing and small portion (think tablespoon) of mince? My boy eats 3 wings as a meal now- but he's a beast!