Can someone enlighten me on this Barf diet i keep hearing about. Some believe their dogs behaviour has improved on it.!!
Budmag

If you do a search under BARF and raw diet/feeding you should find posts discussing it
Anne

I too am investigating the BARF diet for dogs. It is basically a diet of raw meat (chicken wings, necks, backs, Oxtail) and vegetables as well as some eggs, offal, supplements. One of the main proponents of this diet was Ian Billinghurst. he has written "give a dog a bone" and "grow your pups", both easily available. you can email me at lisa-matt@cottage51.freeserve.co.uk and I'll give you a list of websites that I have found useful on this subject.
lisaW

Hi Lisa,

See you've got the books....definately get him on the diet he'll love it and from reports I've had it'll be of great benefit to him in the future...

Hi
I am new here :-) I too have thought about feeding the barf diet, but don't know of anyone who will supply me with these leftover bits. My butcher supplies raw pet mince which is a mix of all sorts, but is not happy to supply it left in whole pieces :-( If I change my dogs to raw feeding what do they eat to take the place of the usually recommended biscuits in the diet? My greyhound/deerhound cross, has developed an itchy skin which he nibbles at, making bald patches. he has had the various tests for mites etc and it is thought to be an allergy. He has had evening primrose daily since I had him (Sept 2002) to improve his thin coat, which it did, but now he is scratching again. I thought this raw diet might help him.
Sue

Hi Sue,

Anglian Meat Products sell the raw food, I use K9, this has raw chicken, tripe, liver, heart and vegetables, you don't give them any biscuits, give them raw meaty bones for them to clean there teeth on, I give dried fruit as treats and his whole diet is then totally natural and how there digestive system is designed to cope with, not processed food and biscuits that has been cooked and had all the goodness taken out of, I'm sure his skin will improve!!

phone 0800 0183770 for Anglian Meat products

Hi there,

I am interested in this, but how do you know what the protein content of this is? Having a hyper 11 month old GSD I don't want to feed him anything too high protein as it would send him through the roof! Did you start your dog on this diet gradually or straight away? Were you not worried about the bacteria in raw meat, eg campho ( can't remember the full name but you know what I mean!! ) and e coli, salmonella in raw chicken?
I would love to feed my dog ( and cats ) this way, but I must be honest, it scares me a bit.

Hi there,

The K9 that I feed him from Anglian MEat Products has only 12.1% protein so your hyper dog should be ok. I introduced it to him over a week at the age of 6months. No probs with salmonella etc, can't remember why, but the book says its ok......check out the site www.ukbarfclub for more info

This has lots of good info

Mmm,
I think, being genetically designed to eat raw meat, a dogs stomach acid is far stronger than our own, so that kills the bacteria. I have a friend whos dog has an immune disease (Addisons i thnk thats right) and she feeds raw, in fact, she is 100% certain taht if she hadnt switched to raw feeding, her dog would not be around now!

I can certainly testify to the raw food having improved my dogs skin, both rocky and saffi where pretty itchy, a bit pongy, and had scurf, and runny poo. Now they NEVER have runny bottoms, i rarely see them scratch, i can rub the fur up the wrong way, and its still shiny underneath, there is NO scurf and they dont smell bad at all!

All in all, i cant imagine a scenario taht woujld force me to go back to complete diets!

Em

Hi Bear

Regarding protien content. Leather boots contain protein as do many other things - not necessarily good quality.

I would tend to look at the quality of the protein being provided rather that the percentage - are you sure it not the colouring and additivies in the food that would send your GSD "though the roof"

I have always fed raw and cooked meats, fruit and veg a few times a week to my dogs but not bones. When I switched to raw it did it suddenly one day they had biscuits the next raw and we have never gone back (the rest of the bag got given away)

Christine

Not sure if there is any truth in this, but we switched our older dog over to a raw diet as we were told that the additives in the complete that he was on might be causing him to be hyper :)

We were never sure if this was true - he did calm down, but it may have been down to the training that we were doing with him.

Any thoughts about the effects of additives in complete ?

Daisy

Hi Daisy, they`ve got to have the same effect on animals as they do on humans, surely.
Christine, Spain.

Thats what I would think Christine ,
I have all mine on raw now even 5 month sharpei . they are doing well and the coats are shiny the teeth are snow white .I have a bag of royal canin complete in case I run out .
I love to see them enjoying their meat and bones and veg .
Marie

this barf diet may have a lot of bonuses but i heard of my vet that especially terriers
if they eat a lot of raw meat they get the taste for blood
and over time with excessive eating of the raw meat makes them snappy and sometimes vicious .

That is an old wives tale! :D

Perhaps Blabla's vet is an "old wife" ! :D

I don't know about terriers but that's what happened to my son's ferret. :)) When he ate dried food fine switched to chicks and heb tried to take my fingers and arms off.

Well my dogs have been fed raw meat for nearly a year now and have yet to try and chomp my arms off!

Must admit I have lost count of the times I have been told (usually by non-dog owners!) that feeding raw meat will make a dog viscious.

Lisa
xx

I think they may enjoy their food a lot more - when it's raw - and therefore may be a bit more possesive over it. I still think it's down to temprament. I started feeding Murphy raw this week and tried him with a chicken wing. When he tried to swallow a big piece without chewing, I was able to take it from him with no problem whatsoever! Sonny was another story - I wouldn't have dared to do that with him. Murphy's a lot quieter and doesn't seem to have as much 'attitude' as Sonny did:)

Ruth