Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 11:04 am Post subject: barf do u add suppliments if so what
my butcher is great n prepares my food for me its minced with bone in they also have whole bones n heart liver kidney chicken wings ect they also have fresh garlic n eat sardines once a week oh and a raw egg i give them veg once a week sometimes 2 but i still worry they dont get everything they need but have never used suppliments so wouldnt know where to start can anyone advise me
Honey Bear has Synoquin and Aktivait everyday (joint supplement and anti brain aging supplement) as she is getting on a bit, and they all have a multivitamin supplement from Healthspan, Keepers mix from Dorwest Herbs and the occasional fish oil capsule.
They probably don't really need the vitamins and things, but like you, I prefer to cover all the bases and make sure nothing's missing!
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Georgia XX
"If tears could build a stairway, and memories a lane.
I would walk right up to heaven,and bring you back again"
My advice is if you are going to feed Barf..then read about it first so you know what youre doing. Ian Billinghurst has written some good books'The Barf Diet' 'Grow your pups with Bones' etc also Raw Meaty Bones by Tom Lonsdale and 'Natural Nutrition for dogs and Cats' by Kymythie Schultz. If you are going to supplement its essential to know why you are doing it...it isnt ok to just chuck a handful of this of that in and hoping for the best.
If you are going to supplement its essential to know why you are doing it...it isnt ok to just chuck a handful of this of that in and hoping for the best.
Ok...for example....if I want to soften the coats on my Malamutes I would add certain oils to the food. Malamutes are naturally lacking in Zinc so I add a certain amount of Zinc Picolinate to the food to help redress the balance. If I had a dog with stiff joints I would be adding some fish oils, glucosamine, green lipped muscle etc to the foods....if I want to treat fleas etc I would add extra garlic etc If I have a perfectly healthy labrador I would not add anything except fresh fruit and veg and seeds to the meat or fish to provide a balanced diet. A supplement to me is to add something that is lacking or redress a balance...... so what one person adds to their dogs diet may not be the right thing for yours
Last edited by Snowpines on Fri Apr 04, 2008 1:34 pm; edited 1 time in total
I feed BARF and I don't supplement at all. Reading about your diet I would suggets you have a look at the bone content. If you are feeding it as minced bones your dogs won't get the dental benefits of raw meaty bones.
I prepare Jets food myself and he gets veggies everyday. They are raw and put through the food proccessor, so perhaps you could have a lok at the vitamin and mineral content of your diet too.
Basically, for an adult dog, one meal a day should be RMB and the other meal should be meat, poultry or fish with some vegies mixed into that meal. From time to time an occassional raw egg as a bit of a treat.
A BARF diet balances out over a period of days so not each and every meal is "complete" as a manufactured diet would be.
I don`t give any supplements to CJ as he`s healthy, Cindy doesn`t have them in her food, she has Glucosamine and Chondrointin for her joints but in tablet form.
Remember if they were in the wild they wouldn`t be nipping to Holland and Barrett for supplements
The problem with answering this kind of question is the same as the problem with any other aspect of raw feeding, no one ever agrees on the best way to do it!
Before I started feeding mine raw, I read every book and internet site I could find, the problem I found was that none of them agreed with each other!
Ian Billinghurst recommends Vitamins, Brewers yeast and kelp among other things, and suggests you feed loads of veg and carbs. Kymythy Schultze recommends other supplements, the Yahoo raw food site says no veg, carbs or supplements at all! They also disagree wildly on the amount of bone that should be fed.
My point is that it's not just a case of doing the research then following it, I found it awfully confusing at first and nearly gave up before I started
I agree that supplementing indiscriminately is a bad idea, but I can't see what harm a vitamin supplement is going to do, I take a vitamin supplement myself and feel better for it.
Obviously animals in the wild don't take extra vitamins but even though we try to feed our animals as close to a wild diet as possible, it's still not really the same is it unless they are eating whole wild animals.
Monya, if you were interested in adding something to your dog's diet, Keepers Mix is a good one to look at, it's just made of herbs etc so it's all natural- http://www.dorwest.com/prodinfo.asp?number=KM
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Georgia XX
"If tears could build a stairway, and memories a lane.
I would walk right up to heaven,and bring you back again"
I absolutely agree honeydlc......after reading everything and finding that not everyone agrees with everyone else (rather like dog behaviourists lol) you need to make an informed decision but then at least you have an overview. I believe that fresh foods can give us and dogs everything we need for a healthy diet and adding things to cover eventualities may cause imbalances. Probably a bad example but I wouldnt take an aspirin just in case I developed a headache. At the end of the day we all do what we believe to be right for our dogs.....and if I get asked, I just say what I believe.......there may not be a right and wrong but its what we each believe that matters. Just as aside I add seaweed powder or Kelp to my dogs food over the winter to try and stop their noses going pink.....sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt...so what do I know?
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They also disagree wildly on the amount of bone that should be fed.
