Barf Diet

Hi everyone..I'm new to the board =]
Can anyone tell me about the barf diet? I have a 7 month old sheltie (by the name of kai..) and I really want to switch him to the barf diet. I've been giving him raw turkey necks ocassionally and sometimes mixing veggies, fruits and raw meats into his meals but I want to totally eliminate the kibble and just stick to the raw diet. I've heard that the results are great!! I also read that since the dogs system is much shorter than ours, they can handle the raw meats. Is there any chance at all that the dog will get "food poisoning"? When I feed him necks...I tend to take away the bone when I heard the crunching of the bone...He usually just gets the meat. Should I leave the bone out longer? I'm not sure how long because I don't know if the bones will splinter or not. Are there any foods I should absolutley not feed him (aside from chocolate)?

=]
Thx

Your Sheltie is just beautiful! Here's some information on the barf diet!

http://www.workingdogs.com/vcbarf.htm
:) ;)

I have a friend who is a groomer, vet tech and as well does Sheltie rescue. She is a big fan of the barf diet and feeds her Shelities a strictly barf diet. I posted a long thread on this a while ago. I'll try and find it! If you are at all concerned that Kai might not be getting the complete "nutritional compliment" on meat and veggies alone, there is a "modified" version of the BARF diet using Sojouner Farm dry flakes, which is a nutritional supplement that is mixed in WITH raw or cooked meat and veggies/fruit.

The "experts" claim that it is only COOKED bones that can injure your dog. Raw bones do not splinter like cooked ones do. And there's a lot of debate about the bacteria issue re: feeding raw meat. The experts also claim that a dog's gut is not adversely affected by salmonella and other such "toxic" organisms in the way that humans are. Persumably, dogs, since their early days as wild scavengers, have developed an immunity or tolerance to them. But most BARF advocates do encourage you to cook the meat if you feel at all uncertain! And welcome to Pet Talk!!:)

Here's a link to one of the more detailed Pet Talk thread's on the B.A.R.F. diet and a couple of more links to informative websites re: BARF! One is very pro BARF, the other decidely anti, so you can weight the pros and cons for yourself! Hope it helps!


THE BARF DIET


http://www.secondchanceranch.org


http://www.barfdogfood.com

I have started to convert my dog over to this diet.. and I can say ... so far so good!!

thanks alot for the info..it really helped. I think I've almost made up my mind..I just have to go ask the vet some questions about the nutrition and stuff...:D

Let us know what you decide!!:) Your doggies are precious!:)

My friend's dog, Max, is on a raw food diet and I looked after him for about a week. (not sure if barf diet and raw food diet are the same??)

In the morning Max gets a bowlful of mixed raw veggies and fruit along with some raw meat. The meat can either be hamburger, chicken livers, chicken hearts, etc. Veggies consist of cooked potato or sweet potato, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, etc. Fruits were mango, banana, apple, and pear. He gets the occasional beef bone (raw) to nibble on as well. And of course, NO onions!!

Dinner meal was the same. Max's coat is so shiney and his teeth are pearly white and has never had any adverse reaction to this diet. Good luck!

I had both of my dogs on a raw diet and the only problem I ran into was cost. It was extremely expensive, especially since I only bought free range organic meats from the local Whole Foods market. If I had small or smaller dogs it would not be so hard, but since I adopted this big rottie/GSD mix, and I also have a medium to large aussie mix, it was just too much. I also got sick of throwing raw veggies in the food processor every morning.

There is a really good base that I used, and in fact, now that I am giving my dogs a partial raw diet now. It's called Sojourner Farms and it's a wonderful human-grade mix of oats, grains, kelp, almonds...etc. It's fantastic stuff and my dogs LOVE it. You pour a measured amount into their dishes and add the correct amount of water, cover it and let it sit over night. I never even referigerate when I let it sit...I just cover their bowls with one of those bowl covers made my saran wrap.

Anyway, for a fully raw diet, you add meat (chicken wings work great) and ground up veggies (I used a food processor to get the veggies very small, and I used carrots, parsley, and whatever I happened to have in the fridge) to the pre-soaked sojo's mix and whatever supplements, if any, and give it to the dog. My dogs dove right in and loved it. The chicken wings were gross to watch them eat (in my opinion) because they CRUNCHED and it was a bit hard to watch at first, but it got easier. As a snack, I would offer them chicken wings, and they really loved them. Of all the meats, chicken wings were great because they had pleanty of protien, plus they had the bone and nutritious marrow. As long as it's raw, chicken bones are wonderful for dogs. They also really liked them and they were inexpensive, compared to the other meats I would occationally feed them.

Anyway, good luck. If it were not for my finances, my two dogs would still be on a fully raw diet. For now, they eat a high quality kibble, supplements, Sojo's, and I do add some raw ground beef to their food.

The Sojo's site seems to be down now, but here is a link that tells you a bit more about the Sojo's food mix: Sojo's food mix

Leslie, I've heard so many great things about Soujourner Farms, too! I also added a link about it in my previous post. And, as you would only want to feed them the freshest, most wholesome, organic products, I can see where it would get a bit expensive to feed to "larger" dogs this diet!:)

wow great! I can't wait to change kai's diet over. Since he's on the smaller size, it shouldn't bee too much of an issue. I have to wait for my mom to get back from her trip *sigh*. The moment she gets back..I'm going to rush her to get some of the sojo mix. LOL =]

Kai -- I tried the Barf Diet on my new pup and found that his immune system was compromised due to the lack of vitamins and acids in his diet. Please be very, very careful. Make sure you find every book available and research, reasearch, research!