BARF Diets

[(MrB)]

Hi,

Thursday we pick up our puppy Rottweiler. The breeder has mentioned raw feeding as his preferred choice but looking into it there seems to be some confusion and concerns over how safe and nutritious it is.

Anyone have experience with raw diets for their dogs ?

[Jasandjules]

Yes.

You have a top breeder there who clearly wants the best for their puppies.

There are many facebook groups set up for raw feeding, with links to sellers and advice. It may be worth you reading up (or asking the breeder what their advice is, I trust they will be giving you some raw meat/chicken wings to bring home with you?) then setting out what questions you might have.

[Sexual Chocolate]

have both the dogs on BARF, the puppy right from the start (8 weeks). Just introduce new food stuff gradually. There is a great thread on the petforum which has all the info you could possibly want like suggested meal plans, nutritional value of this and that and also what veg to give and their nutritional value. Either google it or find the "Great dog food rip off" thread on here. Sure I linked it off that.

If you need ideas here's a typical meal for ours.

Breakfast: Chicken wings, lamb necks, minced beef or lamb, cheap ass stewing steak and a dollop of Bio Yoghurt.
Dinner: Oxtails, liver, kidney, some kind of meat (beef, lamb, venison depending on what we can get cheap ) plus a veg medley.

Alt Dinner/Breakfast: Mackerel or sardines in tomato sauce, tuna, cheap ass salmon cuts, Pollock, any oily fish really.

Cost wise it works out about £15 - £20 per week per dog. Not as cheap as some of the dry foods on offer but then again cheap dry foods aren't that good IMHO and the expensive ones aren't brilliant either. However we reckon that we could get this cost down with some wheeler dealer type arrangement with our local butcher.

We go through around 8KG of meat, bones and offal per week.

[Roy E6]

Yep definitely worth while, we use http://www.naturalinstinct.com good price and they can deliver.

[otolith]

Do your own research, including discussing your intended feeding plan with your vet. Our vet had concerns about feeding home-made diets to large breed puppies. He isn't against BARF, he has previously recommended trying our cats with it and said he'd be much less concerned about us doing it once the dog has stopped growing, but he did ask some difficult questions that we weren't able to answer. In the end, we decided against it, but it's one of those things that you have to make your own mind up about.

[TOPTON]

I use these guys

http://www.daf-petfood.co.uk/4-daf-frozen-dog-food...

Delivery is cheap enough and on the days shown for your area if covered. I haven't ventured onto the pigs head yet though

[(MrB)]

We were all set on the idea but my wife who works for a vets was overheard talking about raw diets to one of the nurses the next thing all the vets were telling her not to do it, it's dangerous and difficult to get the correct nutrition, choking hazards, intestine and bowl problems/blockages, bacteria etc.

It really put her off the idea, I've been trying to convince her ever since.

[SrMoreno]

We've been giving raw food to our terrier for the last few months from Honey's. It's similar to the Dutch supplier mentioned above. It's less "hardcore" than some of the raw food diets I've seen on forums and more expensive, but the dog has more of an appetite than when we gave her dry food and the "sausages" are very easy to store and handle.

[anyideas]

We've used raw food from the 1st day of bringing our dog home, we buy ours from natures menu. The puppy food comes in bags of nugget size chunks which are easy to handle and our dog loves them. He also loves chicken wings which we give him a couple of times a week, as I'm under the understanding that this helps keep the teeth in good condition.

[otolith]

Some general advice on the principles of formulating diets for large breed puppies which may be useful for putting together homemade diets:

http://www.ivcjournal.com/articles/feeding-large-b...

[Sexual Chocolate]

Why do some of you use prepacked BARF food and not just chuck the actual raw meat and bones in? Ours just get it as it comes, for example, qtr a chicken and chuck in bowl along with some chunks of liver or kidney and some red meat. It can take them a bit of time to get through their food but the bones clean their teeth and it gives them different textures in their mouths so they find their food way more intersting.

Our pup has grown slower than her brother and sister who are in the village but she is now the same size, lean looking and bang on her ideal weight for her age, you can easily feel her ribs and see them when she turns but she is not painfully thin. Even the fat bd lab is begining to look good and healthy these days (had to lose 3kg due to hip problems), his eyes look clearer, softer fur and his teeth (for a 6 yr old dog) are lovely and clean.