Raw Food Diet Info Please!

[Dame Aussie]

We have a 12 week old Aussie pup and I’m considering having her on a raw food diet.

We’ve only had her for less than 2 weeks and have been feeding her a commercial dry food. She enjoys the food and we haven’t had any health problems but I know the kind of ingredients used in the commercial foods and I don’t like the idea!

With other dogs in the past we have cooked up a mixture of meat chicken, rice/macaroni and vegetables and they’ve loved it, but I’ve read that a raw diet is best as cooking depletes nutrients etc.

Does anyone have experience with a puppy on this kind of diet and can you give me any info on risks/benefits please??!

Cheers

[PandaGirl]

my puppy is on BARF, and she's never been healthier. Shiny coat, no bad breath, loads of energy. Best thing I ever did.

[Dogsfevr]

You can simply feed your dry & just add raw meat,You dont have to go extreme with Barf just do a happy in between.

All mine get the dry raw mutton,chicken necks,barf patties but im not convinced complete raw is any better & not all dogs do well on it or are able to maintain there weight.

I have a theory if it aint broken dont fix it

[LoremIpsum]

But where's the starting point with BARF? There's so much info, some conflicting. I am a bit thick, so I need clear instructions! I've looked at a few websites, but they all seem to be selling their own raw food.

[Dame Aussie]

That's my problem, I would prefer to prepare/cook food for my pup so I know exactly what is in there but it's difficult to find a good recipe which covers all the requirements, especially for a growing puppy. I don't want to compromise her development but hate the thought of what's in that dry food!!

[Jey]

'The BARF Diet' is a great read. My local library had a copy, maybe yours does too?

[LoremIpsum]

Okay, I'll check that title. Reminds me I've got books to take back to the library!

Aussie3, while you (and I) are working out how to BARF-feed a dog, perhaps you should just get a better quality kibble. I am one of the many Orijen fans on this board. I currently feed Martha Orijen Large Puppy (she's 13 weeks) dry food for breakfast and lunch. Three or four nights a week she gets it for dinner too. Two or three nights a week she gets chicken frames, wings or necks. Once a week she gets a tin of sardines. She certainly does well on it — her coat is so shiny it hurts my eyes!

Once I get my head around my BARF options I'll probably start giving raw food for dinner every night, but I want to keep serving Orijen for breakfast because it's such a great food and I'm confident it's providing her with stuff I'd never be able to source by myself.

So maybe a good quality kibble will set your mind at rest while you work out a longer-term menu.

[Guest Tess32]

Raw is not just BARF and BARF isn't just raw. BARF is a specific diet.

It's pretty simple really - they need offal once or twice a week and raw meaty bones. Some add pulped vegetables.

I'd be happy to paste the diet my collies are on but I am no expert at all.

[Bully]

'The BARF Diet' is a great read. My local library had a copy, maybe yours does too?

"Grow Your Pups with Bones" also by Dr Ian Billinghurst is great also :D

[Just Midol]

Yeah, same as Tess. Sept mine get offal even less than hers and sometimes they get a fish :D

[renee08]

Interesting! Well we have a 11 week old German Shorthaired Pointer puppy, who we have been feeding Advance Puppy biscuits, as well as some fresh mince once a day which had been recommended. We just got home from the vets and she said to cut out the mince immediatly as it can cause osteoporosis. According to her, a little spoonful every now and again is more that sufficient. And that we should be feeding the Advance Puppy, as well as some cooked rice, pasta and vegies rather than the mince. Can anyone recommend specific websites that will give me some more information on the raw diet? I did google BARF but seemed to get directed to websites selling raw products rather than the principles and ratios behind it all! Thanks in advance :D

[Jey]

You're best off searching the threads on here.

Do a topic heading/thread search, rather than a post search in the advance options. If you know how.

[Bonduca]

Google Dr Tom Lonsdale. He was my vet when I was in Sydney and has witten a number of books on this subject. I used his diet and I am still using it. :D

Cheers

[Just Midol]

Interesting! Well we have a 11 week old German Shorthaired Pointer puppy, who we have been feeding Advance Puppy biscuits, as well as some fresh mince once a day which had been recommended. We just got home from the vets and she said to cut out the mince immediatly as it can cause osteoporosis. According to her, a little spoonful every now and again is more that sufficient. And that we should be feeding the Advance Puppy, as well as some cooked rice, pasta and vegies rather than the mince. Can anyone recommend specific websites that will give me some more information on the raw diet? I did google BARF but seemed to get directed to websites selling raw products rather than the principles and ratios behind it all! Thanks in advance

Pasta and Rice are crap.

They are fillers, no nutritional benefit.

You're vet is an idiot, find a new one.

[puggy_puggy]

With a growing puppy your main concern is to get the right ratio of bone to meat. If you have to much meat and not enough bone then the pups bone growth can have major problems.

I recently fostered two pug pups from the age of 7 weeks to 5 months using this BARF/RAW diet.

- approximately 10% of their body weight divided up into 3 meals a day. As they get older this should be cut back with them getting fed 2% to 3% of their body weight in either two or one meal a day when they are adults. If you see that they are getting to fat then cut the percentage back.

- Breakfast & Dinner consist of Puppy mince/minced chicken carcasses, Barf veggie slops & full fat yoghurt. I will prepare a bowl of it in the morning mixing together the mix 3 to 4 tablespoons of veggie slops and 3 tablespoons of yoghurt.

Twice a week I have been adding sardines to their food & once a week offal. You could add other things like kangaroo & beef from time to time but it is important that the bone to meat ratio remains ok.

Lennard’s sells the Puppy mince/ chicken mince which they have been fed on. It is made up of minced chicken carcasses. If you have to source the mince from somewhere else make sure it contains meat as well as the minced bones. It is important that dogs when dogs are fed meat that they also have the right ratio of bone with it to balance out nutritional needs. If dogs are fed meat without bones then serious health problems can occur.

-Lunch consists of a meaty lambs bone

If your puppy is able to eat chicken necks without any problem you could substitute them for the chicken carcuss mince every few days.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BARF SLOPS INGREDIENTS & METHOD

Things I always include:

- container of alfala spouts

- bunch of spinach (roots cut off)

- 1 to 2 green capsicums (stalk cut off & seeds out)

- 1 to 2 red caspsicums (stalk cut off & seeds removed)

- bag of carrots

- bunch of celary

- 4 zuccinis

- 3 to 4 oranges (peeled)

- 1 pumpkin (seeds removed)

- 2 to 4 apples (pips taken out)

- 2 to 4 bannanas (peeled)

- 8 to 10 eggs (whole including shell)

- flaxseed oil (approx 250mL)

- kelp (approx 100g)

What else you can put in:

- bunch of silverbeet

- turnip

- squash

- sweet potato

- 2 to 4 pears

- half to 1 pinapple

- brussel sprouts

- brocoli

- cauliflower

- bag of beans

- Apple Cider Vinegar

- Vitamin C

Chop up then process up in blender/food processor so that things turn to slops. Put each blender batch into a big bucket. Usually leave the eggs & flaxseed oil for things that don't blend very well like the pumpkin and carrots. Ingredients should fill up a bucket. Mix bucket with big ladel till all mixed through then put into take away containers & freeze untill needed.

[corvus]

Kivi Tarro has been on raw since the day he got here, really. He's 5 months old, now, and the picture of health. I don't really try as hard as a lot or raw feeders do. I figure, it's not rocket science. Dogs have been raising themselves on pretty much garbage for a lot longer than there has been dog food available. KT gets chicken wings or drumsticks once a day, some other form of bone, usually red meat such as roo shanks or lamb breast, and a meal of mince mixed with mushed vegies and organs with a touch of dairy. Since he went onto 2 meals, he gets a big hunk of bone for breakfast, usually lamb breast or a couple of smaller ones with chicken wings, and then for dinner he gets chicken mince or beef mince, sometimes some vegies, and usually an offal meal once a week. I also feed him fish sometimes.

Just be careful with commercially available pet mince because it often has a preservative in it that can be harmful to the animals after a while. I get mine from Cliff at justfood4dogs.com.au. Advertised as preservative free.

Oh, and mine also get porridge with an egg sometimes. They like porridge.

Billinghurst says in his book "Give Your Dog A Bone" that if you try to get the meat to bone (calcium to phosphorous) ratio perfect, you will probably fail. He says you're better off relying on nature to get it right for you and feed meaty bones a dog can eat, such as chicken and lamb. He admits in his book to having raised puppies successfully almost entirely on chicken wings, although he doesn't recommend it.

[gareth]

Interesting! Well we have a 11 week old German Shorthaired Pointer puppy, who we have been feeding Advance Puppy biscuits, as well as some fresh mince once a day which had been recommended. We just got home from the vets and she said to cut out the mince immediatly as it can cause osteoporosis. According to her, a little spoonful every now and again is more that sufficient. And that we should be feeding the Advance Puppy, as well as some cooked rice, pasta and vegies rather than the mince. Can anyone recommend specific websites that will give me some more information on the raw diet? I did google BARF but seemed to get directed to websites selling raw products rather than the principles and ratios behind it all! Thanks in advance

Pasta and Rice are crap.

They are fillers, no nutritional benefit.

You're vet is an idiot, find a new one.

The vet is not an idiot at all and is spot on about stopping the mince. Meat needs to be fed on the bone to enable calcium absorption.

A little rice and pasta is fine, although not necessary.

[stormie]

Interesting! Well we have a 11 week old German Shorthaired Pointer puppy, who we have been feeding Advance Puppy biscuits, as well as some fresh mince once a day which had been recommended. We just got home from the vets and she said to cut out the mince immediatly as it can cause osteoporosis. According to her, a little spoonful every now and again is more that sufficient. And that we should be feeding the Advance Puppy, as well as some cooked rice, pasta and vegies rather than the mince. Can anyone recommend specific websites that will give me some more information on the raw diet? I did google BARF but seemed to get directed to websites selling raw products rather than the principles and ratios behind it all! Thanks in advance

Pasta and Rice are crap.

They are fillers, no nutritional benefit.

You're vet is an idiot, find a new one.

Bit harsh, Midol. I can see what the vet is saying re adding the meat. The Advance already has a correct calcium/phosphorus ratio, so adding just meat adds more phosphorus and upsets the ratio. You're better off adding some RMBs to the diet rather than just meat.

[Dackel]

Hi.

You may want to read up on the original "Barf" owner and may be surprised. Google please.

No more dry food for my dogs.

Dogs since ancient history have not lived on dry food. Why now? Convenient yes. Healthy? I don't know what's really in dry food and therfore I don't feed it.

I am not confident that any dog food company does what they say.

Petra and Felix

[moggy]

Well after lots of reading on DOL and changing my Chihuahua's diet a few times and worrying whether she is getting the best blah....blah....blah I have come to the conclusion I will feed her a bit of everything.

I cook up mince with a little garlic, add some rice, grated carrot, beef cubes and water and cook up a lovely doggy stew. I let this cool and add beaten egg and raw chicken carcass mince. Mix it all well. Freeze it in serving size quantities. When I serve it up to her I heat in microwave, just to warm it, and add some good quality dry food. She also gets some meaty bones a couple of days a week.

She loves her food and is very healthy and happy.

I often think of a Chihuahua we had years ago who just about lived on Goodos (horror of horrors) and he lived till 15 1/2 and apart from his puppy needles, never visited a vet. He was always happy and healthy.