Starting on BARF

[LesleyW]

We get Bracken on Tuesday, at the moment she is fed on (moistened) Spillers dry food - have no idea what this is like, but I'm guessing its not brilliant!

I would like to get her over on to BARF asap, and am buying in foodstuff in preparation....however, as she is 4 years old, how quickly can i make the changeover, bearing in mind it will be a "new house, new mum....new food!" situation??  Shes not a puppy, so I'm thinking her digestive system will be well developed and she looks to be a pretty good weight at the moment - just lacking tone.

I also have no idea who is a supplier of Spillers round here, so was rather hoping to bridge the gap between commercial and BARF with something like JWB or RC (which i can get to easily)?

Any suggestions please???

 

[bluegirl]

All I can say is I brought home an 8 week old pup one evening and just started her on raw as from breakfast the next day and I had no problems what so ever, others have tread this path more carefully and gradually built up to a point were they are on raw but have say taken a month to get there.
If it were me I would fast her for 24-48 hrs (I'm a great believer in fasting and it will help cleanse her system of the old diet), then start off on the raw. If she seems hungry in the mean time just offer honey and water as well as her usual supply of fresh water. My friend had an older cocker who she wanted to switch to raw and she tried this method without problems. However you or other readers may not be so inclined to fast and if that be the case then you have 2 other choices, just go for it and be watchful of how she copes with the new diet or build up to the changeover by slowly reducing the amount of spillers you give and increasing the amount of raw, but make sure you keep the meals meals separate by at least 2 hours to help prevent aggrevating digestion of the differing foods.

[LesleyW]

I've decided to go for the "light" option, rather than fasting - which is good, i dont have a problem with it, and once we get going may well do a fast day per week.

Have whizzed up some broccoli, carrot, celery, watercress, natural yog, and very lightly poached some white fish to mix in for this evening.  It will only be a small amount, and should not be too difficult to digest, will try her on some raw meat with the same veg mix tomorrow.

I havent bought her any Spillers or even biscuits as i had originally planned, because i want her to go straight on to BARF  just hope she approves!

[bluegirl]

Good luck with the change over

[LesleyW]

shes doing well, had her first chicken wing tonight - i cut into 3 just in case she wasnt sure what to do with it, but she happily crunched it up - her little stump wagging madly!!    then tucked into her whizzed veggies with a bit of raw minced beef etc.

Her teeth look awful, i dont think they are bad enough to come out, hopefully the wings will help clean them off a bit 

She had scrambled egg (2) with a dollop of honey and natural yoghurt this morning, which she seemed to really enjoy too, but how much natural yoghurt does she need per day - i dont want to upset her tum?

[emilyjw]

Glad to see she is settling in, ours love their chicken wings.

[happydog]

I switched seven year old Fern over to BARF in one fell swoop. Took a few weeks for her digestion to completely adjust but nothing serious, just takes a while to find out the optimum veggie/muscle meat/bone ratio for her.

[LesleyW]

I hope she is getting enough - for the first two days i noticed that she (ahem) pooped twice a day, tonight she seems to have not bothered with the second one 

I have been reading the very long BARF diary on this forum, and now i really need to get to a butcher - cant wait to get my hand on some decent bones etc, atm I'm having to manage on stuff already in the freezer and some bits i picked up on the day we collected her!

Will get the vet to check her weight tomorrow and will go from there....

[clairep4]

You'll probably find she poo's less on BARF. Bella only goes once a day (morning), Zorro goes twice but he gets big dinners whereas Bella only gets her mini portions to keep her slim. 

Good luck with it!

[LesleyW]

well, i came home this afternoon to a bit of an accident in the kitchen! 

I think she is still getting used to the changeover of diet, and to be honest she did have a rather large breakfast today which included some lightly cooked chicken livers and i noticed on our walk this afternoon, she was rather "liquidy"  , she seems ok in herself tho, her skins a bit itchy - which i think may also be her adapting to the new diet!  Back to the chicken wing and raw lamb mince for tea i think...I may come home home lunchtimes for a while too, just in case (luckily I'm only 10 mins away from work, and home anyway at 3pm).

Had a chat with the vet about it this pm, luckily they are very pro-BARF, and also thought the excessive scratchiness may be change of diet, i will have to keep an eye on her.

She is being very good and patient with me though, whilst i get this right - the vet said she weighed 13kg, which i thought was pretty good as shes quite small?

 

[bluegirl]

Too much liver can cause diarrhoea

[LesleyW]

yes..........didnt think i'd given her that much either 

At least now i know how much is too much 

[Joules]

yes..........didnt think i'd given her that much either 

At least now i know how much is too much 

I am very cautious when I give Coco offal - she only has liver or lamb's heart really - she only has it every few weeks as it does make her very loose!    I find that giving her something boney like lamb ribs for her next meal quickly firms things up again.    It will take a while for you to get the diet right - I still look at Coco's poo to see if I am feeding the right proportion of meat/offal/bone    It can vary from pebbles to puddles depending on what she has had to eat   

[LesleyW]

yes..........didnt think i'd given her that much either 

At least now i know how much is too much 

I am very cautious when I give Coco offal - she only has liver or lamb's heart really - she only has it every few weeks as it does make her very loose!    I find that giving her something boney like lamb ribs for her next meal quickly firms things up again.    It will take a while for you to get the diet right - I still look at Coco's poo to see if I am feeding the right proportion of meat/offal/bone    It can vary from pebbles to puddles depending on what she has had to eat   

thanks!  its a work in progress really isnt it?  I think Bracken is going to eb the same, shes seems fine on the meat and bone but the offal = even a small amount makes her loose!

[happydog]

yes..........didnt think i'd given her that much either 

At least now i know how much is too much 

I am very cautious when I give Coco offal - she only has liver or lamb's heart really - she only has it every few weeks as it does make her very loose!    I find that giving her something boney like lamb ribs for her next meal quickly firms things up again.    It will take a while for you to get the diet right - I still look at Coco's poo to see if I am feeding the right proportion of meat/offal/bone    It can vary from pebbles to puddles depending on what she has had to eat  

thanks!  its a work in progress really isnt it?  I think Bracken is going to eb the same, shes seems fine on the meat and bone but the offal = even a small amount makes her loose!

It's the same here . Now I feed just a few pieces with a raw mince meat meal about once a week. Fern has pig, lamb or ox liver or heart chunks but never as a complete meal. Seems to have done the trick  .

You will find some odd symptoms as she detoxifies. Runny eyes, scurfy coat, that sort of thing. It depends on the dogs metabolism. I think it took about 6 months for all detox symptoms to disappear with Fern but the worst was over in about 4/5 weeks. She had runny/gunky eyes mostly and her coat went a bit greasy for a week or two. All fine now though  .