My Barf Diet

[melbell]

Thanks Packsapunch. I do remember that part in the book now you mention it...ummm...hard choice. I dont get the pet mince as like you said its full of preservatives and I you cant really be sure whats in it. I just wonder what is the difference from say chicken necks from BI LO and chicken necks at the place which sells them as pet food only.

I would love to be able to afford to buy organic chicken and scotch fillet for him...OH would go crazy! I do buy organic eggs though...so much nicer.

[PAX]

If you have a local chicken shop you should go and talk to them. That is what i do, i just ring and order it and they put my name on the boxes and have it all ready to pick up. The other thing i have noticed, when i buy chicken like breast fillets or something for the family from woolies, if you dont use it straight away it stinks the next day. My dog chicken i can have in the fridge for a cople of days and it never gets that awful smell. I think that woolies chicken must be really old by the time its in the deli section........who knows.

We also grow quite a lot of fruit and vegies in our vegie garden, my son loves it because he is the gardener and i love it because i just go and get it.

I buy free range eggs always, i will not support battery hens.........poor chookies

Edited July 18, 2005 by packsapunch

[Miranda]

I just wonder what is the difference from say chicken necks from BI LO and chicken necks at the place which sells them as pet food only.

I might be wrong, but I think that meat bought at pet food stores is uninspected. I don't buy meat from pet stores ever, but if I did I wouldn't be at all happy keeping it in the same fridge as my food.

[White Shepherd mom]

My vet told me to stop feeding my dog commercial food when he started having seizures. About 3 months after I changed to raw/cooked, I gave him one kibble to taste (as my other dog is helping deplete our kibble stores!) and he turned his nose at it - and this at a time of day when he was hungry!

I cook a small pot of organ meat to which I add some grated carrot, peas, bok choy (or other leafy greens), maybe some pumpkin or mashed potato (potato is temporary while I try fix his dodgy tummy). I add some of this mix to raw mutton/roo or chicken mince and chicken RMB. A couple of times a week they get a bone to gnaw on. I used to give a can of fish cat food once a week but since taking him off commercial pet food, I now give them a can of tuna or sardines.

When I can find it I give them Missing Link with Glucosamine as an all-in-one supplement. Every now and again I will read the ingredient list on a bag of kibble and walk away very quickly. It's great to see so many feeding their furkids good, fresh food (made with love!)

[Jenwisp]

We are extremely luck here in the UK. The sale/preparation of ALL raw pet food is strictly controlled by DEFRA (Department of the Environment for something or other) (used to be MAFF - Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food). There are regular inspections of all plant where raw food is prepared, food has to be of human grade, labelled and sealed and frozen before sale. Special equipment has had to be installed to enable tests etc. for quality/bacteria etc. to be done on quality etc. of the meat being processed. One food preparation plant has had to move premises to enable the new equipment to be brought in. They have had to purchase new mincers etc. If they don't come up to scratch, they don't get a licence - or can have their licence revoked.

Where my meat comes from - it is delivered in temperature controlled vans (very useful when the temperatures are over 30 as has been lately here). In fact it arrives still frozen - and the vans are actually loaded the night before delivery.

[Guest LittlePixie]

Lil Pix...keep an eye out for turkey wings and legs as well...my boys love em! and it takes longer then a second or two for them to be munched crunched and swallowed

ETA - we get them for around $2-$3 per kg up here...

I bought a chest freezer today... and some beef brisket, turkey wings and turkey necks. They've had chicken wings and necks for dinner tonight... and I have a whole heap of vegies in the fridge for tomorrow.

We have our own chooks here so they can have home-grown eggs later on too

Okay... someone do something to ease my deathly fear of offal.

Which form is safest? Which are best for them? What can I do to it to minimise risks of disease etc?

[cavNrott]

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Edited May 7, 2009 by cavNrott

[caslero]

Not sure about turkey legs.

Yeah I agree - I don't even feed my Dobes chicken legs - I'm sure they would be fine with them but I worry about the size of some of those drumstick bones

LP - re organ meat. I've found that my local Woolies are stocking airtight sealed packs of diced beef heart, kidneys, liver etc (seems they're catching on to all the raw feeders on the hunt for good stuff for their dogs). These packs are quite handy and you can just cut open an edge of the packet and squeeze/scoop out a portion to sprinkle over the top of their regular meal...... no need to get your hands dirty with those slimy lil suckers! And.... the dogs luv 'em

Re disease in offal - I feel that the stuff you'd get thru Woolies and the like would have to be human grade - wouldn't it?? so would think you'd be pretty safe using that.

[cavNrott]

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Edited May 7, 2009 by cavNrott

[Mana]

Yup - in the meat section at our Woolies they have a section of sort of "gummy-insides-sort-of-meat" section and have human-grade kidneys, livers, tripe (eeeuuuuggghhh) etc - it's right next to the prepacked turkey necks if Woolies goes by a standard floorplan!

Unfortunately after the liver-treats-fiasco I'm having a little trouble facing the offal section, but we'll work our way back there! Keep in mind though, if you're defrosting all your dog meat into one container, the offal seems to go suss earlier than the wings & necks etc.

And going by the smell of the meat I've bought frozen from PetBarn over the last few weeks, I don't think that stuff is of any sort of quality... the mince I bought there lasted in the fridge for waaaaay too long also.

Congratulations on your new freezer LP! It's a great feeling innit?

Unfortunately the light that is the most important one on my freezer, (according to the instruction book dating from who knows when which says "many women have discovered the joys of freezer living") has just gone out... so I may be in the market for whitegoods again soon!

(oh, and I know everyone's desperate to hear this, but, I had the most innocuous, dry and unsmelly load of poo to pick up tonight from all canine household-members!)

Edited July 19, 2005 by Mana

[Guest LittlePixie]

Congratulations on your new freezer LP! It's a great feeling innit?

Yes indeed! I also bought a wok, but that wasn't for the dogs, that was for me

So which offal is better than which?? Anything I should avoid... anything that's so brilliant it can't be missed...?

[Miranda]

I never feed raw offal (especially liver) to my dogs because of the risk of hydatid tapeworm cysts. If the dog picks up a tapeworm head from a fertile cyst it will become infected and will shed eggs in its faeces. If a human accidently swallows an egg after contact with the dog's faecal matter (can be on hair near the tail or dog's mouth) it will grow into an embryo which will travel via the bloodstream to the liver, lungs or other organs where it will form a cyst in the same way as it will in a sheep, pig, goat etc. Hydatidosis in humans can be fatal. This is why rural dogs should be kept away from dead stock or kangaroos and should never be allowed anywhere near if animals are being slaughtered.

If you are buying human grade meat from the supermarket the risk is minimal, but there is still a risk, therefore all offal should be well cooked as heat destroys the tapeworm. I would definitely not buy liver or other offal from a pet food outlet.

If you want to feed raw offal to your dogs feed chicken livers as chickens are not susceptible to hydatid tapeworm.

[cavNrott]

I cook all offal too. Everything else I feed raw but all offal is cooked.

[Acacia]

I just changed my dogs diet the other day.

I was sick of the way he would eat the dry busuits, he would just swallow them, and you could hear it scrape its way all the way down his throat plus the amount of poo in the yard was ridiculous!!!

I feed pet mince, which is basically ground up chicken frames and bits from the butcher and it doesn't last very long in the fridge, about the same as human grade, so I guess it isn't too bad.

I make a mix which is mosly mince, and the rest is broccoli, spinach, carrot, apples, oranges, alfalfa, capsicum, garlic, that's about it I think.

I cook the broccoli, spinach and carrot.... it this ok?

I mix all of that in with the mince, it smells pretty good too, compared the the pet food in cans or buscuit.

He LOVES it! he usually sits and waits for his food, but when I feed him this, he can't help himself... so it is retraining all over again

I am hoping that he won't be as hypo or fart as much. I am hoping that his coat will improve, Hopefully less poo, less smell (coat and poo). I am also working on puting a bit of weight on him, which is impossible with that dry stuff! He doesn't do too well on the stuff.

I like the white poo so much easier to clean, and it's doesn't really matter if you step in it, because it doesn't stick. You don't see much white poo around these days.

I also add a few other things to his diet, such as:

bones

chicken frames

whole egg a few times a week

raw chicken liver

some of my sardines

anyone like to suggest anything I am doing wrong or anything I am missing etc etc???

Edited July 23, 2005 by klb_543

[Cockerlover]

Thanx for your recipe & sence of humor much appreciated