I know this is a subject that has been covered time and time again but can someone please tell me a bit about the BARF diet. I have heard a lot about the benefits of feeding it but is there any bad points? And if anyone does feed raw, what made you change to it? We have a seven-year-old wheaten terrier that has been fed on NatureDiet for the past 6 months but we have notice that her teeth need more cleaning than they did before and we think that is because she was used to eating crunchy do food and is now only eating soft food. We also have our puppy coming on Sunday and we are discussing it diet for when its older and we would like to know more about BARF. Please could you help me on this, as I really have no idea!!!
 
Sarah xxxx

If you are ONLY changing because of tartar this can be resolved by a) cleaning teeth b) administering fragaria c) giving a raw knuckle bone once a week to gnaw on.

If you do a search on BARF you will find all the info you need.

How does the fragaria work Tohme, and in what form?

http://freespace.virgin.net/iow.ca/fragaria.htm

Fragaria (wild strawberry) is the homeopathic treatment for tartar.  Dorwest sell it as well as the above links.

HTH

Thanks for the link :) Im just going to read a bit about it. I've just read my post again and realised that I sounded as if I was asking the questions because I wanted to change my dog diet. There is no way Rosie would eat bones and it not because of her teeth, she can't be bothered!! She just about finds enough energy to chew a denta stick!! :D
Anyway what I meant was I wanted to know about the bad points of BARF and to see why people change to it. I mean what makes you choose between cooked and raw? What are the plus points and what are the bad point? Would you recommend it to anyone or what? I really don't know much and even if it taught me which dogs would benefit from BARF as im interested in nutrition in general.

sarah xxxx

Hmmm I could write a novel on this.

Basically

For Raw:

It is what dogs were designed to eat, just as Koalas are designed to eat eucalyptus and Pandas to eat bamboo shoots and cows to eat grass.  In the wild they hunt, catch, kill and eat small prey animals and scavenge.

The diet they were designed to consume contains all nutrients required for a healthy life and no harmful additives etc. 
It keeps teeth clean and digestive system healthy.

Cooking destroys vitamins and vital enzymes making the body work harder in order to digest the food; it changes the molecular structure of the food so that some nutrients become unavailable to the dog.  Obviously you cannot give cooked bones as this will splinter and damage the dog.

I would recommend raw feeding for all dogs, just as I would recommend keeping off processed foods for humans, and recommend that ALL animals stick to a species appropriate diet; when we meddle with it, like feeding dead chickens and lambs to cows etc, we have to take responsibility for the terrible results.

Against Raw:

It is slightly more time consuming than buying bag, opening, dipping measurinig cup in once per day.

Thank you tohme :) Do you think that we should fed our puppy on it when she is old enough? At the moment she is eight weeks old. She is a soft-coated wheaten terrier and is fed on nutro.
 
Sarah xxxx

I think you should feel what you feed comfortable with.

There is no "old enough" with raw food, lots of people wean their litters straight onto bashed chicken wings etc.

If you are really keen on the idea of raw, I would advise that you purchase some literature on it and become very familiar with the theory, nutritional aspects, and then look into the practicalities such as extra freezer, suppliers etc and join a net community such as Britbarf before embarking on it.  I did a solid year's research into all aspects of raw feeding before I "crossed over" so to speak; and it was well worth it and am continuing to learn 3 years down the line.

Thank you, you have been really helpful and i will do a lot of research into it now and maybe when i feel i know all that i need to start it, i will change to raw. Its something that i have always liked the idea of but have never really thought about changing my dog to it yet I think that she will benifit from it. Its is something that i will really consider and learn alot more about. Thanks for all your help. :)

sarah xxxx