Jet is completely BARF fed and has been since he was a tiny pup (he's 5 now) One thing to remember when feeding the ready prepared BARF meals is that you will not get the dental benefit that you get when feeding actual, whole bones. Yes the calcium content is in the diet, but the gnawing/chewing aspect is not there so that benefit is lost.
As far as ease of use is concerned if you have a decent food processor preparing a bARF diet for 1 dog takes about 30 mins in the kitchen twice a month with the prepared meat/veg frozen into meal sized pots.
I am convinced of the benefits of BARF. Jet has only ever been to the vets for his boosters, his pet passport and once for a cut pad. I can honestly say Jet has never been ill in his life
I switched Olly to raw at 5 months old, he has a delicate constitution and I couldn't get him firm on kibble, not even things like AG sensitive. He also had terrible breath, wind and dandruff (yummy). So as he started me on BARF by pinching a chicken leg and wolfing it down, off we went!
I can honestly say, despite the visceral elements of feeding raw, it's so worth it in Olly's case. I don't feed any veg bar the odd table scrap. He mainly eats chicken, turkey, lamb and beef + offal + whole meaty bones. I'm lucky in that a local farm shop butchers its own meat and they make bones and scraps available for dogs - I keep a stock of that in the freezer - beef rib bones, lamb shanks and ribs, chicken carcasses. I also give him small turkey drumsticks, whole chicken legs and wings. He loves sardines and fish too.
I often stock up on special offers at the supermarket - they also sell kidneys and hearts etc so good for emergencies!
I estimate I spend £1-£1.50 a day on his raw diet.
All his problems cleared up immediately and he only does tiny poops 2-3 times a day instead of 7-8 foul mounds a day! Much better for the poop scooper. His teeth are startlingly white from eating bones and he has no doggy smell at all - so if he's happy, I'm happy!!
Cath it's lovely to hear your getting on great with raw. Can I ask how much you feed per day and what would max need roughly for his age and weight. He's nearly five months and is around 15kg. He loves his raw chicken wings that I give him. Infact because he looks around for more when he eats one I am going to up him to two.
My Springer Spaniel Obi is raw fed. This dog means so much to me, especially since I lost Honey Bear, so I wanted to be as sure as could that he was getting the healthiest diet he could have.
He never used to tolerate dry food well and had to eat huge amounts of it, even the top quality ones. What came out the other end was not pleasant either!
Since feeding him a raw diet he is looking amazing, he is full of energy, his coat gleams and his poos are finally normal!
I have been feeding him this way for about 6 months, it costs about £1 a day. He is smaller but probably eats more than a lot of labs as he is a real working type dog and has bags of energy.
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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've just had a walk round morrisons to check out there mince ect. They sell pigs trotters in there. Get two for two pounds and they sell tripe although I think it's bleached as it was pure White!!! Also was quite expensive for what didn't seem a lot,I know my local pet shop sells frozen tripe so will see how much that is. I was so very tempted to load my basket up with mince and veg and get started but I'm being a bit of a chicken!!! Oh they also sell massive turkey drumstick(think one would be a full days amount) but they were four pounds for two. I'm going to have a look round tesco tomorrow and see what I can find there. If I do bite the bullet and stock up on some bits how do I work out the ratio to make up. Say if I bought two packs of mince(800g) and some kidney/liver. How much of that do I add to the mince also how much veg would I know to add?? Oh it's confusing!!
Don't worry, to begin with I was really panicking but now I don't weigh or anything. The ratio to aim for is 80% meat, 10% bone, 10% offal. I'm not an expert at all - it's only been 5 months now, but it's not crucial to get it right for each and every meal - it's trying to get the balance right over time. I have to give Olly more than 10% bone as a rule as otherwise he's quite loose - delicate tum as I said earlier!!
Happy for you to PM me rather than writing a really long post here if I can be of help! Also do a search through the Diet & Nutrition section as there has been lots of fab advice posted on here by the people who really know their stuff!
This is a bit gross so I apologise but max had his morning poop and there was a piece of bone sticking out of it. It was rather sharp and pointy and around two cm long. I never thought of sharp pieces coming out I seemed to think the dogs stomach juices would maybe brake it down. Is everyone's like this who feed raw?? Don't want it to hurt his insides on the way out!!!
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