Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 4:08 pm Post subject: Is feeding BARF the best for dog??
Hello. I know from reading through posts on here that alot of you feed a barf diet, and I must admit it does sound like common sense to feed what a dog would eat naturally in the wild and it does seem rather tempting to switch max onto this diet. I would like to know though are the ready prepared meals any good to use as I'm not sure I could do the whole cutting up and slicing/dicing thing myself and how much would i feed. He is currently 17weeks old and weighed 14 1/2kg when he was weighed last week. I was thinking along the lines of giving him the ready made stuff for two meals and then rmb for one meal per day. Would that be about right? He already has a chicken wing a few times a week. Also so far all I seem to have read are reports on how good dogs do on barf so would it be easy to make the switch without too much upset to max digestion and have any of you tried it but your dogs either don't like it or it wasn't suitable for them? Thanks
Amanda, I haven't yet fed raw to my dogs (well we fed raw meat and biscuit mix to our first ever family dog but that was a long time ago), but I have been thinking about it for years.
I've been put off by being a veggie who is not a fan of handling or really even looking at raw meat and the worry about not getting the balance right. These ready-prepared raw meals are a blessing for me! I am hoping to try mine on one of them (probably Darlings if I can cope with the cost, because they use free-range meat) soon. Just want to get some blood tests out of the way before I change food.
Do you think cost wise it will work out about the same as kibble?? I've not worked out how much I will need to feed yet so not sure? Are the blood tests your getting done related to you changing diet if you don't mind me asking?
That's very interesting, thank you. It was the natural instinct meals I was looking at. How long have you fed raw for?
About 6 weeks. Except for our 'raw-fest' weekend when OH was away, I feed Acana for breakfast, and Natural Instinct for tea.
amanda2203 wrote:
Do you think cost wise it will work out about the same as kibble?
No, more expensive.
For my two, if I fed exclusively Acana, a 13.5kg sack at £62.00 would last a little over a month, but let's say 4 weeks to make the math easy, which works out at around £2.21 per day total for both dogs. If I fed exclusively Natural Instinct, over the course of a week I'll feed a range of meat/bone mixes, which would average out at around £4.29 total for both dogs.
As I feed Acana am and Natural Instinct pm, this works out at around £3.25 per day total for both dogs.
By far the cheapest option for raw is DIY, and this would probably work out much cheaper than even the cheapest kibble.
I tried raw a couple of years ago for about three months. It was not workable for us because of having so many and I underestimated how difficult it would be with so many dogs. However the main drawback for me was it knocked several stomachs for six and I was never quite sure they were getting a balanced diet. So i switched back to complete. I tried Bondy again on it when no complete diets seemed to work for him, and again, it just made him poo through the eye of a needle. We used Chicken wings, carcases, offal and some packets of Nature Diet.
So I must admit it was shortlived, but the one thing never to do is feel under pressure to change to BARF. Its not better or worse than kibble, just different.
I then found wainwrights for my 'sensitive soul' and haven't looked back, myself.
Di
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The boys!
Read: Wylanbriar Dog Blog on the website: Updated! 1st February 12´!
Do you think cost wise it will work out about the same as kibble?? I've not worked out how much I will need to feed yet so not sure? Are the blood tests your getting done related to you changing diet if you don't mind me asking?
I agree with Lizi that raw feeding DIY style would work out the least expensive (but there's no way I'm going to manage starting off feeding raw that way so I'm looking at a ready-prepared diet which will give them what they need without me worrying I'm messing up!). I would agree feeding a prepared raw diet will be more expensive than kibble, but at least you only have one dog!
Our blood tests are not related to changing diet, sorry, didn't mean to confuse things, it has no bearing on anyone else
Vets seem to be either for or against! Our vet is in the anti-BARF camp, they say that it is very hard to get the correct balance and that in the wild the dog wouldn't eat meat everyday etc etc plus they have seen dogs with very nasty camphylobacter infections from raw diet..I've never asked them about it again
I did try my two on Natural Instinct a while back, they were fine with the chicken but after a lamb bone they both had dreadful diarrhoea It obviously really upset Murphy's gut flora as he had bouts on and off for a few weeks after, it really put me off as I had to go to the vet to get his tum sorted...
A shame really as I like the theory but think I will stick with kibble and the odd tray of Naturediet here and there.
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It obviously really upset Murphy's gut flora as he had bouts on and off for a few weeks after, it really put me off as I had to go to the vet to get his tum sorted...
