Fasting ???

[wolfsoul]

I read an article on the BARF diet that explained that a dog on the diet is required to be fasted once a week. I've heard that when people fast, it is to rid their body of toxins. Is it the same for dogs? What are the health benefits?

[dragondawg]

The only health benefit to a dog fasting would be that an overweight dog would lose weight. Outside of that...

[joycenalex]

alex the wonder dog has been on a barf diet since 12/2000. i don't fast him. the only times i've limited his food has been when he's had a tummy troubles. hope this helps

[Shelteez2]

Originally posted by wolfsoul
I read an article on the BARF diet that explained that a dog on the diet is required to be fasted once a week. I've heard that when people fast, it is to rid their body of toxins. Is it the same for dogs? What are the health benefits?

The reasons for fasting a dog are the same, to rid the body of toxins, and to give the dog's digestion system a rest.
Another idea behind fasting is that in nature a wild canine does not always eat every single day, so fasting for a day is making the diet more natural.

Although I feed a partial raw diet I don't fast my dogs. Not for any particular reason, I just don't.

Also people that do fast their dogs one day a week usually provide a good raw bone to chew on (like a knuckle bone) and lots of water.

[Shelteez2]

Originally posted by dragondawg
The only health benefit to a dog fasting would be that an overweight dog would lose weight. Outside of that...

A dog fasting for one day would not lose weight. It would take several days of no food for a dog to lose weight and that's not fasting, that's starvation.

[binka_nugget]

When I fed BARF, I didn't fast Kai (with the exception of the couple times that we ran out of food). But even when we were out of raw food, I still gave an egg since we have a constant supply.

[wolfsoul]

Thanks for the info.

When you fast, you can still give liquid foods, right?

[binka_nugget]

Hmmm..not sure. I guess you can. When I did the 30 hour famine last year, they made us eat crackers before eating a full meal so we wouldn't upset our stomachs. I guess the same would apply to a dog ?