Hi All,

I'm currently in the process of researching BARF diet and just wondered if any of you have any experience with toy breeds? My little one is about 3.5kg, I just wondered what sort of bones I would give her?! A chicken carcass is about the same size as her! lol. Shes had chicken wings before and she managed it ok. Am I ok to feed her bones and the like considering how small she is? What bones would you suggest?

Also, how do you ensure your dog is getting all vitamins and minerals they need? I am concerned I could end up with all sorts of problems if I'm not careful!?

Currently she is fed Natures Menu and has Garlic tablets from Dorwest Herbs (flea prevention). Whilst I am aware Natures Menu is one of the better wet foods out there she will not touch dry and I worry about her teeth. I want to make the move to BARF to improve her overall condition (shes needs to build up some condition) and health. I'm quite into all this being green and organic malarky.

I have had a browse through the forum but can only find threads related to larger dogs. I know you are all lovely on here so am hoping someone has experience!

Thank you
Em :-D

My smallest dog weighs 2 kgs (fully adult) and ALL my dogs had raw meaty bones yesterday. It just took this one a bit longer than the rest to eat (in the end it was binned as she'd never manage it all) -then again her bone was as long as she is herself LOL. 3.5 kg is quite big compared to some. :) If you can get them, lamb rib bones are ideal for toy dogs.

My toys (I have 8) are fed Natures Menu with bones now and then rather than 100 % raw -the bones really are for the benefit of their teeth. They get the occasional meal of raw meat but I find Natures Menu is so good and so easy that we leave the raw meat mainly to the big dogs.

The one disadvantage I find with bones for toys is that their coats get very greasy and dirty when eating them and they all need a bath afterwards -mine are all longcoated though, 7 Papillons and one Cavalier. So 8 newly bathed dogs here today LOL.

The toy poodle in my avatar eats an all raw diet and loves chicken wings, during the week I didn't have any defrosted for her so I gave her a raw chicken drumstick.  She was in doggie heaven, it take much longer but she never left a scrap, in fact it kept her occupied for over half an hour.. she wasn't for rushing it!  Both dogs are fed raw meaty bones and the sound of crunching is a delight.

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">My smallest dog weighs 2 kgs (fully adult)

Oh my goodness! 2Kg!!!! I thought my girl was small! Eeek!

Im glad others have tried the BARF with toys though, it gives me hope! Im just doing the weekly Ocado shop so going to stick some lamb ribs and chicken wings in and see how we go. I'm not sure if the best way  to approach this is to do it really slowly and see how we get on, I dont actually know if she would chow down on bones everyday?! She is really fussy and some of the looks she gives when you put something in front of her are priceless!

What do you do about ensuring all vitamins and minerals are catered for with your dogs that are fed 100% raw? Meat to me is just a source of protein, I know theres evidence to suggest dogs do not require carbohydrates.

Thanks for your help.

Switched ours to raw over a year ago and have not looked back.  Even weaned a litter recently on raw.  Ours range from 3kg to 5.5kg and one of the best benefits has been incredibly clean teeth!  We do cheat a bit and use Natural Instincts range which is pre packed and balanced.  There is another thread on their foods.

My toy xbreed  around 3kg has been fed raw meaty bones since she was 6months old now 3and half. Loves it and watching her eat up a drumstick is wonderful. It just takes her longer than the big boy (gsd)
ps absoloutly no difference between toy breed feeding and larger dogs in my experience just the amounts. I only feed fish and meat all types including bones and carcasses offal infact anything. veg an things I only add if I have some over for treats and am very happy with what I read in research and the outcome for my dogs.

Well I went out, bought various bits including chicken wings, lamb ribs and lamb mince.. the only thing she was eat was the mince and even that was a sniff and go back to 10 mins later jobby! She turned her nose up at the lamb ribs completely and only chewed the tiniest bit off the chicken wing. I've tried to persevere but I gave in on Wednesday, I can see every rib and feel her spine coming through.. I'm running out of ideas here! We have tried nearly every dry food on the market!

Have you tried Natural Instinct which is a complete raw diet? They do varieties with tripe in so might be a bit tastier for her?

Hi helenmd, yes we tried Natural Instinct a little while back as my aunties dog and cousin's dog is on it. Funny you should mention it though as was just round my aunties house and we were talking about food. She offered some of their pure chicken to mine but she wasn't interested, licked it a couple of times and just walked off! She is such a madam :( I have no one to blame but myself for her fussyness, as soon as she stopped eating a certain food I'd be straight out buying another. Its become such a problem now though that she does not maintain her weight as she just goes off food. I have done the tough love thing the last few times but she is SO stubborn its unreal.

Echo trying natural instinct excellent for small brreeds.  Don't offer her anything else at all for a few days, just the NI.  You will hopefully find she developes a taste for it.

Hi Em, my puppy Chica is a 3lb 9month old Yorkie/Chihuahua mix.  She was very sick and malnourished when we first got her and she wouldn't eat any dry kibble she weighed 640g.  We fed her can for a while and then she wouldn't eat that either.  She has a very sensitive stomach and her stool wasn't always consistent.(sometimes diarrhoea, sometimes very hard, sometimes mucousy) We thought that she was fussy because she seemed fine otherwise but she really wouldn't eat because she was not well. Our vet suggested a five-day treatment of Metronidazol which she had specially made for our puppy because of her size.  This is a common bowel issues medicine which usually regulates them.  At that time we also tried raw but she wouldn't eat it at all and she got hypoglycemic because small dogs have a much higher metabolism and can not stay for long periods of time without food.(apparently you can buy some puppy supplement or just give corn syrup or honey to keep their sugar level up if you aren't feeding them anything until they eat what you've given them)  Later we found out that she was getting acid in her tummy so, the vet prescribed Pepcid AC!  We have to cut it in 1/8th.  Once her stomach settled down, she was no longer fussy.  I continued to try to find a good kibble for her but she kept getting upset tummy until we switched her to raw.  She enjoys minced beef and bison and I am looking into giving her bone but I am hesitant and I don't know how to teach her to chew.  I hope this helps, I live in Canada so, the products/meds may not be the same but I just wanted to share because it was just several months ago that it all came clear to us.  How are her stools?  Is her tummy noisy?  If only they could speak and let us know ... good luck!

Dont worry about teaching her to chew try offering her a chiken wing or sinikar yu could giveit a bit of bash with a hammer first so it is broken up a bit and maybe hold on to it to entice her ( you may not to do any of this ) leave her do it I bet she will get the hang of this very quickly.
I have a now 4 year old pom x chi who has been raw fed since 6months she eats exactly the same as my adult gsd but smaller quantities and will happily chew her way through any bone she is offered.