Last summer having read so much about the Barf diet I changed my dogs over to it.  It really didnt seem to agree with them and their coats went a bit tatty for want of a better word.  No skin complaint but it didnt have its usually glow.  I have now changed them back to James Wellbelloved with fresh meat and eggs on top and their coat and general condition back to normal.

Just wondering if anyone else had experienced this or maybe I just did it wrong? 

Not every food suits everydog!  We feed pedigree, but a friends dog comes out with bad skin after eating it!  It was the same food etc!

Out of interest how long did you feed raw for?
Archer

i kinda agree,i barfed for 3 years,then changed back last year because i was doing alot of camping at shows and couldnt cope with the meat. i never thought they looked bad at the time but they look better now. i billingshursted

So what do you agree with M/d? You changed from barf because of a lot of camping due to shows & couldn`t cope with the meat. What exactly was wrong for it regarding your dogs & not you coping?

Christine, Spain.

Tried it for about 3 months but I just found my dogs coat was not as good.   I am not looking for a arguement I was just curious whether it was something I had done wrong.  I have now reverted back to James wellbeloved with the addition of fresh meat and pasta and their coats have gone back to their previous state.

Got to agree about pedigree the only time I use it is when I get it as freebies.  But my  mum never used anything else and swore by it!

Not looking for an arguement either...but unless you give us more details about what you fed and for how long etc we can't say if you did 'anything wrong'
Archer

God cant remember all the details now I can barely remember last week! I got all the information out of a supplement about it which I shall have to dig out to tell you the exact details. 

Please tell us the exact details! Like you I can barely remember what I did yesterday let alone last week but if you want a positive response then we would need to know what your dogs diet consisted of!!

Me neither RR....don't need exact...just a rough idea.
Archer

i couldnt cope with having aload of freash meat in the tent for up to 3 or 4days,
so i started taking a bag of burns & ND to shows, & just started to revert back after that.

what i believe with is feeding to suit yourself & your dogs. my dogs never looked BAD on barf but do look better now. JMO :)

Must admit when i first started feeding raw i very nearly gave up . Baron my Afghan really got the runs and an Afghan with a full coat is not  nice  with the runs LOL.But my friend encouraged me to keep on with it and am so glad i did, as he soon got used to it and has never ever looked back.I also started my Cresteds on it and they are doing great also my baby boy has never had complete since he came to me at 8 weeks. And he has done wonderfully .He has grown well. Has great muscle. lovely teeth and fabulous skin all without the help of the so called best completes on the market.I am very happy with feeding my lot Raw i must say.

There is no ONE way to feed barf either,same as commercial.There are many things you can do right or wrong.
Some varieties suit some dogs that dont suit others,some dogs get violently ill eating pork while the next dog does fine on it and so on and so on.

I've heard of a couple dogs that didnt do well but once the owner twiddled with the diet they did just great :D

Then you get the people who feed it for a week,their dog gets diareah or the coat sheds more etc. etc. they freak and say this barf diet does not agree with my dog! When what is really happening is the dog is detoxing,after years of eating processed dry food,the body all of  sudden gets fesh food and it then proceeds to flush out the  "toxins" that have built up in the body.

I wont go on any further at this point,i have had no sleep(over the last month),have been helping look after sisters new born colicy baby and i can barely see the screen lettalone write an intelligent post :o

I look forward to more replies,this could be an interesting thread :)

I cant find the flaming supplement but I was talking to my husband and this was ROUGHLY what we fed!  Chicken wings, Tripe minced, rabbit minced, fish minced, lamb minced, raw eggs and loads of fresh vegetables they especialy loved carrots and apples (not a veg I know) I think I put pasta and rice with it as well. I think there were another few bits and bobs but it was roughly what a human being ate but raw.  I did also try some sort of ready barf diet for want of a better word my friend let me have some to try as I was concerned.  They had all the stuff done and I just had to pop it in the bowl!

I hope that helps because I am really curious.

The diet sounds ok but personally I wouldn't feed rice or pasta as these are IMO of no benefit.Many dogs are allergic to grains and this is basically all what rice and pasta is.Veg should ideally be fed 'processed' not whole since dogs cannot digest whole veg.The other thing is your diet includes no offal which is important to feed .
Archer

do the chicken backs from landywoods contain offal ?

Never had the backs from Landywoods because I get carcasses free but I wouldn't have thought so.I make a veg and offal pulp which I mix into their mince a couple of times a week
Archer 

Really interested in this thread (sorry to hijack it) as I'm BARFing with my 7 week old puppy. Older dogs have been on it for about 18 months with excellent results. But because my 2 weren't pups when I started it, I am now a novice when it comes to the pup.

She was on Nutro from the breeders but I have gradually started decreasing this and adding chicken, tripe, veg, fish, I haven't done lamb, offal or beef with her yet as I've only had her 2 days. She still has the usual new pup settling into new home squits but is very robust and eats well. I'm crushing the chicken wings for her as her back teeth aren't in evidence yet.

Could anyone advise me,  from their own experience with young pups, what to continue and introduce to her? I think I'm getting it right but would like another opinion on it ;) I'm also feeding her 5 times a day as 4 just doesn't seem enough.

If you want to feed a dalamtian on Barf or raw feeding I suggest you join one of the raw feeding lists.

Dalmatians are different from other breeds in that they produce uric acid. Veggies are important for them and offal must be used sparingly.

Although the only raw feeding list is American some helpful information can be obtained there.

The British list does have at least one experienced owner on it.

Thanks Sheena I always feed my dallies on raw carrots regardless of their diet as I read it helped with the uric acid.  Just out of curiousity where is this list being a novice I have not heard of it.

Good point though about pasta and rice I never realised that.  They just love pasta draped in evaporated milk. But I have always fed them on it with no bad affects.  I am sure it is probably me as so many people swear by it they cant all be wrong!

I am going to sound a bit thick here but is tripe offal?  They did have this very occasionally.

They are Yahoo groups

Rawdiet4dals is the American

Britbarf and Britishcaninebarf are British ones.

Thank you I will check them out. 

" I have now changed them back to James Wellbelloved with fresh meat and eggs on top and their coat and general condition back to normal. "

What is the point in feeding the complete then adding the fresh meat and eggs.. the eggs could be the thing giving the shine and nothing to do with the complete food. :-)

What is the point being honest in almost criticising the Barf diet when you a still feeding some of the main ingredients IE the meat and eggs..

I am not saying what should or will work for your dogs even though I do feed raw but I think you have to be consistant in your posts if you get my drift :-)))

I was not critising the diet at all.  I was actually asking if anyone else had experienced problems with their dogs coat condition and if you read through the posts you will see I am not the only one.

If it was just the eggs which was making their coats good then why didnt it make them shine when I was only feeding barf?

I think as one of the very early posters said the best food is the one which suits your dogs and in my case it is JWB which has low protien which dallies need combined with fresh food which I know is not neccessary but I like to give them is the right combination for me and if I have given the impression I am critising those that choose to feed Barf sorry I didnt mean to.

goodness me , ive been feeding barf lately and it works for me, but the original poster was only saying it didnt work for him, whats wrong with that, ive noticed people are very defensive when it comes to barf.

" Defensive"  :-))   Quite the opposite actually !!!!, I am not defensive at all about diets. My post is not in defense of either diet just that to criticise one you have to be CONSISTANT.  I rarely get into the food posts as I think each to their own.

Had the original poster said, " I had to go back to complete and I see a huge improvement and I am only feeding JWB" that would have made perfect sense that the diet perhaps was not working for him and they went back onto the complete.  BUT they didn't they said they went back on the JWB but were ADDING raw egg and fresh meat which is not part of the complete diet. 

I would have said the exact words had the poster say I had to go back on the barf diet because the complete wasn't working but the complete they were using was junk..

Infact I would go as far to say I used the word Barf in my earlier post because the poster did but I don't even call it Barf I call it raw feeding normally..

Goodness me ;-)

Sorry if my post came over as pro Barf that is not what I meant , not sure if I word myself well sometimes. I meant that what is the point in criticising either complete or raw barf if you are doing neither.. That is what I meant. The fact you add the eggs and meat means that you cannot 100% ascertain what is working and not. Does that  make sense?

I feed all my westies raw and our lab is on a complete diet that is what works for us. ( Lab gets RMBS though often)

Believe me I am not a " push it down your throat person" read any of my posts ver several year and although I do like the raw diet I do not condem anyone for feeding what the like. :-))

I probably didnt explain myself very well at the begining either so it is properly partly my fault . The problem arose with the coat when I went entirely over to what a raw or barf diet.  When the dried was added back to the food they went back to normal.  Perhaps I am a closet barfer - HEHE!

i was a bit silly jumping in, when i didnt read the post thoroughly, well there i go again, typing first thinking second !!

Hi T-the-S :)  I think it is fairly safe to say that the best diet for YOUR dog is one that he does well on...Plain and simple ;)  I am a raw feeder, my hound has guts of steel :D  She loves pork, beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, duck, poussin, fish, eggs, cottage cheese, offal/tripe, table scraps - with no ill effects.  I have friends who BARF but their dog's are allergic to beef so they adapt it slightly.  I just wonder how much you looked into the diet that your dog was getting - the reason I say this is because you didn't know off the top of your head what you were feeding!  That said, it may just be that it wasn't for your dog...
Sarah :)
PS When you say rabbit etc minced, do you mean the prize choice frozen minces you can get in pet stores or a nice fresh bunnie from the butchers you minced yourself?  Quality supplies could make all the difference!

Hi Sarah

I got the wings along with any other bargain meats from tescos  and yes the other meat from prize.  They catch rabbits themselves as we are unfortunate enough to have rabbits with mytsi in this area so it means they are slower.  Not sure if it does them any good but seen no ill effects yes.  They quite often find dead geese and ducks as we live near welney which is a wild bird reserve.  The only thing I do think I may have done wrong by reading other posts is not giving extra vitamins so I think now I am happy that they are getting all the vitamins from the dried and still get lots of fresh as well.  I find if I feed them entirely on dried it gives them BAD wind when mixed with fresh I dont have the problem.

TTS

Trawling the net I came across this article which seems to be helpful for a diet which takes into account our breed's particular requirements.

Basically offal and red meats are risky in quantity due to the high purine levels, leading to higher risk of stones.

the other problem i had with barf,is i found it really hard to get flynn to eat enough to keep him looking like i want him to look. hes a big collie with a small appitete & just wouldnt eat that many chick wings (or whatever) at least with going back to a complete i can feed him smaller portions of a higher protien food,so im not constantly worried about him not eating enough.
the girls were fine because they did well on the amount they were given,wereas flynn did not. (that was another reason why i changed,that i had forgotten about)

I am a little confused on the subject of offal.  Does this include tripe?  Reason being I was once told to feed it to my dogs for a healthy coat and yet a I have seen quite a few people say avoid it for spotties.  Any opinions gratefully recieved.

I think tripe is okay for them. Not liver or kidney etc. Heart is a muscle, not offal, but I'm not sure it's okay for spotties.

Why can dallys not be fed offal JG??

They're reputed to be the only breed which produces uric acid, and are at much higher risk than other breeds of developing stones in the urinary tract (which can prove fatal, especially in males, whose urethra is narrower than that of bitches). So any foods which are high in purines (which encourages stone formation) should be limited. That includes offal.

This shows how complicated it is!

Thanks JG

Offal does not include tripe.offal is kidneys,kidneys and lungs.Heart is classed as a muscle meat.
Tripe is a good raw food for dogs ...can be used to put weight on a dog but I use it as party of thier nornal diet.
Archer

That was what I was told as well Archer my boy is very faddy and I was told it would help his coat and make him put on weight but all the spots love the smelly stuff so I let them have it :)

This list says tripe is moderate, so that's okay (I think)!

Excellent list I am going to print a copy of for myself and new puppy owners.  If you try explaining it to them it gets very confusing.  It does for me and I kind of understand it all now but as I have found out today there are things on that list which have quite surprised me.  

You must spend all day collating this information perhaps you should write a book JG :) 

The trouble is, just like the health warnings issued to people, the information changes almost day-to-day! One week something's good, the next it's terrible. I'd take it with a pinch of salt (except that's a dietary no-no! ;) ) :D :D Anything in moderation seems to be the way that suits us best.
:)

The coat problem may have come from the barf not having enough oil for your dog.  As has been said, what suits one, may not suit another. 

I fed barf to my dally to clear up dally rash when he was younger, he was fine on it.  But for my convenience I changed him back to complete which he is thriving on.  I did find I couldn't use a very high protein complete though.

If your dog is doing well on JWB then I would stick to it, I can't see an occasional egg or some mince is going to do any harm.  I add those and table leftovers to my dogs dinner and they look great on it.

Sandra

Luckily my complaint never got to dally rash BUT the person who swore by barf spent most of the season with their dog covered in which I think was the point I thought it was time to call it quits before I had it. Having been so lucky as to never have had the dreaded rash it scares the life out of me.  I gave it a 3 month trial and it wasnt for me on its own.

Got to agree mine have all the leftovers Sandra their personal favourite is the leftovers from Sunday dinners. They also love cooking oil which bacon has been fried in dribbled over their food.

 

Now, if I could only discover the cause of and a cure for dally rash ... :)

I have never thought of giving them the bacon oil, bet they would love it.  Favourites here are cassorole gravy, sunday dinner, pasta and M&S mashed potato, it isn't lumpy like mine. :D

I wanted to feed Abby on BARF but it turns out that she is allergic to protein in meat so is on a perscribed veg diet, hopefully when we get our next dog I will be able to feed BARF.
Mary

I went over to BARF last year for several months, but all my dogs' coats went dull and woolly.  They seemed fit enough, but just didn't look as good as usual.  As I do like the idea of natural feeding, I've gone back to my usual complete food for one meal and give tripe or chicken wings (plus veg, whole body fish oil and herbal mix) for the other meal.  So I suppose I'm really sitting on the fence.  They look fine though.