[Tobias]

Hi All,
I sort of understand the idea and my dogs get many of the foods that you would find in a BARF diet. The thing is I want to go the whole nine yards and start feeding them less processed foods and more natural food stuffs. Can someone please explain how I can get my dogs started on a BARF diet.

Many thanks!

 

[cherylhodgson]

Mine are fed on Dr JohnsSilver and pilchards on a morning and raw mince and chicken wings on an evening.

Honey is 28kg and gets 1/2lb mince and Woody is 40kg and gets 1lb mince. They both get a couple of chicken wings or carcasses after they have finished. I started by trying mine on some mince to see whether they liked it or not and by giving them a couple of chicken wings to see how they fared. I also give them bones from my local butcher and they get vegetables about three times a week as well. Chicken wings, frozen or raw are natures best teeth cleaners in the world, there is no plaque on their teeth at all. I give them both a cod liver oil tablet and a dog vitamin every day as well.

The coats on them are fantastic, really shiny and the biggest plus side for me was not having to pick up elephant sized mounds of poo everyday as they are absorbing the food instead of filtering out what the body doesn't use!! :lol: :lol:

There are loads of sites you can read up on, but I found it all a little too much. If you keep it simple and see how they are doing on raw, that's your best bet. I can tell if Honey is having too much as she gets portly round the middle and we just cut it back for a couple of days. You know your pooches best!

 

[Tarimoor_Art]

Are you going to buy from somewhere that supplies BARF food ready to feed, or prepare it yourself?

I'm happy to email you a copy of a diet sheet based on what mine get if you like? It's about balancing what they get over a period of time, where as a complete food is just that.

 

[Steve_P]

Stick it in front of them, they'll know exactly what to do

What is it you need to know? So long as you can get a good supply of what you need, chop it, grate it, mix it and stick it in a bowl for them. We fin d that the butchers round here are very helpful when it comes to meat that is sort of on its useby date and will either give it away or sell it very cheaply. Also I shoot on a few farms and get quite a lot of veg that's a bit bashed but fine for the dogs.

 

[Chocice]

Well, when I was looking into it I went to the library and got a book by the vet Dr Billinghurst (I think that's his name) and it was heavy reading but explained basically the components and the nutritional side of things - however the quantities of food he suggested were ridiculous so I scaled down. I also think it was Tarimoor gave me a diet sheet?

Finding the right quantities is definitely trial and error, but once you get it sorted the diet becomes really easy to produce and feed.

If you haven't already seen it the BARF club UK site is quite interesting
http://www.ukbarfclub.co.uk/index.php

When I switched Cadbury I made a straight swop as Dr Billinghurst recommended, instead of gradually introducing raw. I did avoid feeding too many combinations at first, but Cadbury never had any problems.

Good luck with it, it really does make a difference to the dogs.

 

[Tarimoor_Art]

Well, when I was looking into it I went to the library and got a book by the vet Dr Billinghurst (I think that's his name) and it was heavy reading but explained basically the components and the nutritional side of things - however the quantities of food he suggested were ridiculous so I scaled down. I also think it was Tarimoor gave me a diet sheet?

Finding the right quantities is definitely trial and error, but once you get it sorted the diet becomes really easy to produce and feed.

If you haven't already seen it the BARF club UK site is quite interesting
http://www.ukbarfclub.co.uk/index.php

When I switched Cadbury I made a straight swop as Dr Billinghurst recommended, instead of gradually introducing raw. I did avoid feeding too many combinations at first, but Cadbury never had any problems.

Good luck with it, it really does make a difference to the dogs.

It was me, I told you to go onto my dog website and download the puppy pack which has a brief bit about the BARF diet on there, as well as the book info about Dr Billinghurst, and I always say to take his advice with a pinch of salt (fistful actually) :wink:

 

[Chocice]

I thought it was you Joanne, but since you've changed your username I get a bit muddled (doesn't take much! :lol: ).

The diet sheet helped me as a starting point which I then adapted to suit Cadbury's needs. :wink: