BARF Diet - Help Please!!

[CHARLIE-BROWN]

I have finally decided to start feeding my two a BARF diet - it makes sense to us as I work in the accounts department of a Meat Wholesaler so can get all the meat and bones I want for free.

The thing is I have read the posts on here and a few websites on the subject but am still at a loss as to where to start!

Can anyone suggest a good book or website (or can anyone on here advise) for me to read - I know all the theory behind it but what I really want is some info in laymans terms of.....

1. Exactly what to feed them
2. How to feed it them (like do you just lump it in the bowl or should it be prepared a certain way etc)
3. Exactly how much should they get for their weights (one is 16kg one is 9kg)
4. Should I add anything to it (vitamins etc)


Thanks in advance!

[Joules]

If you do a search on here for BARF you will find everything you need to know.  There are lots of threads about what to feed and how and which books to read.  Good luck!! 

[CHARLIE-BROWN]

Yeah....... I have done a search for BARF on here and read a few of them but I got 12 pages of results with around 30 threads on each page! So thats over 350 threads to read through and most of them dont seem to have the basic info I am looking for on!

Maybe Ill just have to have a major trawl through when I have more time!


Thanks

[suzysu]

..must admit Rachel ..I would love to try Barf with my two as well, but have always found it too complicated to follow  and knowing  exactly what to give them ....frightened I make a mess of it so havent tried 

[CHARLIE-BROWN]

I know its a minefield isnt it!

I'm sure its very simple once you get started but its just knowing where to start isnt it.

[silkstocking]

Mince tripe, lamb, chicken, rabbit, etc etc etc Raw chicken wings, pork ribs etc.  Raw eggs, liquidised veggys, sardines, pilchards, tuna.

Some people weigh it some people don't. I'm a feed them and see kind of girl!! So if they are looking skinny I had more, if they are looking "plumper" then I feed less. The secret with BARF is not to get consumed by it go with the flow, well that's what I do and I know I'm not alone

I just stick it in a bowl to defrost or defrost it in the microwave. The bones I never defrost in the microwave as apparently that can make them brittle.

PAH stock a good range off raw mince, but I also buy stuff in the supermarket.

I also give cottage cheese and bio yoguhrt, mixed herbsetc


I PROMISE its really not hard once you get going. Have being doing if for 3 years and I never worry about it, I think sometimes when you read too much it makes it more complicated than it actually is

[Penel]

Heres the thing I wrote ages ago... bit out of date now, cos since I wrote it we discovered Lola can only eat tripe or pork but hey ho that shouldn't affect your dogs !

Breakfast for 25kg dog
approx 250grams of free flow mince - I use the AMP / Prizechoice in the following flavours... tripe, chicken and tripe, chicken, rabbit dinner (which is rabbit + chicken) and lamb dinner (again chicken + lamb). You can get chunks of meat - ox cheek, tripe chunks - but mine tend to want to bury these so we avoid that at breakast time !

Once a month or so I make up a fruit/veggie mix - usually spinach leaves, watercress, broccoli, carrots, apples, - its very flexible really - whatever is around (seasonal is usually cheaper) - but no onions or leeks. I put a mixture of all this into the food processor and whizz it up, with some cold water - which helps the processor not overheat. When it looks like babyfood I spoon it into ice cube trays - I do about 4 trays in one go, and freeze them. Each night when I take out their breakfast to defrost, I put one or two cubes of frozen veg into the meat.

I'd say 5 out of 7 days this is what she will have for breakfast - 250g roughly of raw meat mince, and some veg. Now if you have left over veg from the night before's dinner for humans, then of course use that. If you have pasta or rice leftovers and you think he is ok with those cereals, then give him that with the meat too. If you happen to have some live natural yoghurt knocking about, then a dollop of that won't go amiss either.
About once a week, mine will also have a raw egg on top of their breakfast - with the shell - I sort of smash it up a bit.

The other two days, I usually feed a tin of pilchards - the larger size 425g - the spaniels would get either a small tin of pilchards, or a tin of sardines. I feed the ones in tomato sauce - but you can get them in olive oil (I would drain off most of the oil). Sometimes I feed them cottage cheese - with a veg cube. If you forget to defrost, then sardines and pilchards are a godsend.

If you are adding any supplements like Evening Primrose Oil and Vit E, kelp powder maybe then add them to breakfast as its not so easy to mix supplements with raw meaty bones !!!

So that was breakfast. Remember this is not set in stone, it will not matter if they have no veg for a few weeks, the same as it will not matter if they have no fish for a few weeks, or no cottage cheese. The key is balance over time….. At breakfast time, remember to take out dinner to defrost.

Dinner - again, very flexible - some days more than others depending on what the butcher gives me. Today for example a very kind butcher gave me a huge bag of chicken carcasses, with wings attached !!! So tonight Lola had about 3/4 of a chicken carcass, with its wings. Hattie had two wings (and a ducks neck), and Tilly had about 1/3 of a chicken carcass. I cut these up with a cleaver on a wooden chopping board, kept especially for the dogs' food.
I also feed Lamb ribs – Barley would have about 7 inches all joined together – the spaniels would have about half that. If I can get rabbit then Lola would have two back legs, the spaniels would have half each of what is left – the cats might have some too though cos they love rabbit ! I also feed practically any bones that the butcher gives me – venison, pork, turkey necks at Xmas time. I do tend to avoid beef bones as these are very hard and I personally feel that they wear down dog’s teeth.
Sometimes they don’t have bones for dinner at all, sometimes they have breast of lamb – I guess Lola would have a piece the size of my hand with the fingers spread out. Tilly and Hattie would have a piece a bit bigger than the palm of my hand – very technical as you can see ! Sometimes they have mince again – but generally 6 days out of 7 they have raw meaty bones – don’t give them bones with hardly any meat on for a meal – the key word there is meaty – chicken wings are good as they have a good meat / bone ratio – meaty carcasses are good – but some butchers strip them of all the meat. Recreational bones are different, these are just for chewing on - as opposed to a "meal".
If I have leftovers from our meal, the dogs get these, as long as they are healthy left overs – no takeaways !

[Rhona W]

Well I'll try to answer your questions, but I'm not an expert. We've only been feeding BARF for 7 months.

1. I feed mine twice a day, which means they have 14 meals a week. They have 8 bone meals, which consist of either chicken wings, lamb ribs or pork ribs. The other 6 meals are 4 mince and veg, 1 offal and 1 tripe. They used to have sardines and pilchards in tomato sauce with an egg mixed in, but they went off that. 

2. I just lump it in a bowl.  The veg is put through the food processor first to mush it up a bit and then a 'dollop' is mixed into the mince or offal. It has been advised to freeze all meat first and then defrost it before giving it to your dogs as this will kill off any bacteria in it. (I think.  ) I buy in bulk and bag it up in meal size portions and freeze it all anyway.   

3. I think it is beteen 2 and 3% of their body weight, depending on their age. Puppies have more. My dogs are around 15kg and get about 500grams a day. This is approximately 250gms of bone and 250gms of mince and veg. Some people do not weigh their food and just judge by eye how much their dog needs. If they are getting fat, cut down. If they lose weight, increase the amount. But I found it useful to begin with as I wanted to be sure they were getting the right amounts.

4. Sorry. I can't help you on this one as I don't add anything to mine, but I know other people do.

The best book I read was The BARF Diet by Dr Ian Billinghurst. I hope that helps a bit. I know other people feed different things, but this is what works for us.       

[clairep4]

Mine get fed twice a day - they have fairly different metabolisms so the quantity varies:

Bella (2 and a bit, weighs 10kg) gets 150-170g per day (including veg)
Zorro (8 months, weighs 10ish kg but will probably about 12kg when he's fully grown) gets about 300g per day

This is their weekly menu. The "evening mince" is the Pets at Home mince, and I mix up what they get, so a variety of rabbit, beef, chicken and lamb (no religious order to it, I just vary it over the month).

Mon breakfast: chicken (chicken backs for Bella - free from the butcher, 2 x chick wings for Zorro)
Mon dinner: evening mince plus an ice cube's worth of pulped veg incl garlic - 40g for Bella, 150g for Zorro

Tues breakfast: breast of lamb, alot of the fat stripped off - 80-100g portion for Bella, 120-150g for Zorro
Tues dinner: evening mince as above plus a raw egg

Wed breakfast: tripe and liver - the tripe is the PAH blocks and just a small bit of liver - 100ish g for each dog
Wed dinner: evening mince as above

Thurs breakfast: chicken as per Monday
Thurs dinner: evening mince plus an egg

Fri breakfast: breast of lamb as per Tues
Fri dinner: evening mince as above

Sat breakfast: tripe and liver
Sat dinner: evening mince as above

Sun breakfast: either raw mackeral fillets or a good sized raw whole sardine (head, tail and everything inbetween)
Sun dinner: evening mince

For supplements they get salmon oil with each meal (a recent thing as they've both had a bit of dry skin over the winter), Dorwest's Keeper's Mix every couple of days, and Vetzyme (b-vit complex - also for the dry skin).

I prepare 2 weeks' worth of dinners at a time (would do more if I had a bigger freezer), bagging them all up in portions (so in the freezer I have Zorro's dinners one side labelled lamb/chicken/offal/evening mince and Bella's on the other side). It's then just a case of defrosting tomorrow's meals tonight.

It does take a while to get into the swing of BARF and you have to just find your own way - opinions vary about whether they should have veg, cereals etc etc. Mine get a veggie mix - pepper, spinach, tomato, apple, garlic, herbs like parsley and thyme, blueberries if I have them - basically whatever is in the fridge, and I add a small handful of oats to the mix when I blend it just for a bit of roughage as Bella has problems with her anal glands otherwise.

Hope this helps - if I were you I'd just read through the various diets people put on this thread and go with whatever feels "right" for you and your dog. Don'd be afraid to ask questions, we've all been there    Raw feeding is a great way to go and both my dogs are thriving on it.

[Moss]

Clairep4 and Penel thanks for the info.  CharlieBrown - I sympathise as I am hoping to BARF with my Sheltie puppy when he arrives this week.
Any extra advice gratefully received please about how to judge weights and measures for an 8 week old pup who will come from a breeder who does not BARF feed.
I have some mince in the freezer from PAH and have a lovely butcher locally who I know will happily supply bones.  Do you agree with the advice on some web sites that pups should not have too many bones because of the risk of breaking their teeth, or just let them have a go?
Thanks

[Penel]

Never heard of a pup breaking teeth from eating bones... although I would stick to the softer bones like chicken wings and breast of lamb bones.
My pups weren't weaned on raw - they were both converted overnight at 8 - 9 wks old.  3 mince meals and one raw meaty bone to start with basically.  Or you can get those bags of frozen Natures Menu which have tripe, heart, and other meat, as well as a bit of veg - that makes life really easy esp ifyou only have one dog.

[lucyjane84]

Also converting my Chalrie onto BARF this week (5 months old) so this is really helpful guys! Where does everyone source their bones? Can you just feed them 'normal' chicken wings from the supermarket?

[Cob-Web]

Also converting my Chalrie onto BARF this week (5 months old) so this is really helpful guys! Where does everyone source their bones? Can you just feed them 'normal' chicken wings from the supermarket?

You can, and many do - but it is worth considering WHY you want to feed a raw diet 

I won't buy intensively farmed meat for Molo due to the additives it contains and the humanitarian issues.....I would prefer to feed a manufactured organic dog food than a factory farmed raw diet, iyswim 

[Elisa]

Never heard of a pup breaking teeth from eating bones... although I would stick to the softer bones like chicken wings and breast of lamb bones.

Our vet was horrified when we told him we gave Bailey raw bones (after complimenting me on how clean Bailey's teeth were).   He said the main reason he didn't recommend them was because they can break the teeth, and had seen quite a few apparently.

Bailey still has them though 

[happydog]

Yeah....... I have done a search for BARF on here and read a few of them but I got 12 pages of results with around 30 threads on each page! So thats over 350 threads to read through and most of them dont seem to have the basic info I am looking for on!

Maybe Ill just have to have a major trawl through when I have more time!


Thanks

..must admit Rachel ..I would love to try Barf with my two as well, but have always found it too complicated to follow  and knowing  exactly what to give them ....frightened I make a mess of it so havent tried 

This one might help 

http://www.cockersonline.co.uk/discuss/index.php?topic=22308.0

Also converting my Chalrie onto BARF this week (5 months old) so this is really helpful guys! Where does everyone source their bones? Can you just feed them 'normal' chicken wings from the supermarket?

Supermarket ones are fine, butchers if you're lucky or my pet shop sells 2Kg AMP Prize Choice bags of chicken wings. I feed lamb ribs (breast of lamb)from the supermarket too. If they are particularly fatty I cut the worst off before dividing them and feeding them singly.