BARF about 3 months onBARF Days 3-6 .
I shall be looking at feeding 350-400g/day until Fern puts on a little weight. If she gets too fat I shall reduce it. Veggies are extra.
Well that worked! I took her to the vets to weigh her today (sorry Penel I held back as long as I could
) Errrrrrm today she weighs 14.45Kg
. I have been trying to feed by eye and stopped weighing things some time ago but think my eyesight may be a little defective. I thought I had reduced her intake, but obviously not. I am going to weigh two chicken wings and make up the rest with mince to about 300g daily for a while and see how she is in a month or so. I can still feel her ribs(just) and she is pretty fit and lively but I really don't want a fat spaniel. She is only 14" at the shoulder and has just a wee hint of the 'barrel look' about her in certain light. I think I know what started it. The only AMP rabbit mince is available as 400g blocks which you can't divide easily, so she has been having the lot at one sitting. I had to buy 400g tripe blocks too as they had run out of freeflow. I haven't been reducing the size of subsequent meals
She continues to thrive on BARF. I have stuck to frozen AMP freeflow mince (chicken, tripe, lamb and beef) -all have a bit of ground up bone in them. She also has AMP heart chunks every week or so. The liver gave her the runs last time so have not tried her on that again. I have cut out the turkey necks as the size of the pieces are just small enough for me to be concerned that she will try to swallow them whole without crunching them (It would
probably only give her the runs but I just dont feel right about them somehow
). The AMP beef chunks have to be cut up smaller for her as she wont chew them as they are
. Occasionally she has tinned sardines and egg. Meals are always served with a small dollop of whizzed mixed veg (root and leaf) with garlic and she has two small chicken wings(bought from supermarket and frozen)afterwards -which are now demolished within a couple of minutes. Her coat is lovely and soft, her eyes are bright and rarely runny now, she smells gorgeous and her teeth are pearly white. The bit of tartar that remained on her canines is almost gone. More of the roaning/ticking is showing through these days it seems. Whether this is as a result of BARF or her winter coat changing I am not sure. I can't say that I have noticed in other years though. Others have commented on it. Her concentration has definately improved since BARF. Again that may not be due to BARF but could be due to her age. There is no way of proving it one way or the other, unless I see what happens if I return to her old diet. I'm not going to though. She loves it!
