BARF Diet, anyone tried it? (for fur-kids)

[meganjane]

I've been reading about the BARF diet for dogs and cats and it sounds wonderful. There is a commercial product that Dr Billinghurst has developed, but there's also a book that shows you how to do it.
I've just ordered the BARF Diet book, so I'm looking forward to trying out the recipes. I hate feeding Rambo tinned food. I make biscuits for him, but he still has kibbles, and expensive ones at that!

[versaceyoyo]

Yes I've heard of it and tried it with our extremely fussy greyhound when we first got him and nope, he wouldn't eat it.  But he is odd.  Are the recipes raw (I can't remember)?  My dog won't eat raw meat!

[CreamPuff63]

I was very intrigued by the subject topic  - thought it may be for kids with a coated tongue or particularly hairy bodies.
our dog hates tinned food too, much prefers human food - but there is never enough scraps 

[meganjane]

I was very intrigued by the subject topic  - thought it may be for kids with a coated tongue or particularly hairy bodies.
our dog hates tinned food too, much prefers human food - but there is never enough scraps 

While waiting for the book, I thought I'd try Rambo on some raw food tonight. I mixed cheap mince with a puree of veges that I had in the fridge, carrot, pumpkin, zucchini, and added cooked brown rice and a bit of wheatgerm and flax seed. He scoffed it!

[lucjar]

I have a deaf Kelpie x Border Collie who we are in the process of hand signal training.  One of the trainers suggested the following meal plan for him, which sounds similar to what you are talking about.

Breakfast:
High quality biscuits mixed with a combination of the following:
Choice of weet-bix, muesli or porridge,
Bread and Vegemite,
Boiled egg, scrambled egg or raw yolk (apprently raw whites depleted Biotin with is a vitamin B component from the dog's system),
1 desertspoon of Vegetable oil...olive oil
1 desertsppon honey (a natural sugar)
Cottage cheese/yoghurt

Evening Meal:
Bones.  All bones must be raw, including chicken bones, carcasses and wings,
Raw Meat (tongue, Cheek, Lamb etc - anything on special)
Rice or Macaroni
Vegetables, raw or cooked
Liver - once or twice a week,
Sardines (tinned...no bones)
Stews (if you have some leftover)
Garlic

and 1 Vitamin B tablet each day

DO NOT FEED: CHOCOLATE, ONION, AVOCADO, RAISINS OR GRAPES

They also talk about a Raw vegetable diet which basically comprises of a 2 kg mix of all vegetables (except onion and no uncooked pumpkin skin) being processed in a food processor in batches with:
Large 5000gm natural yoghurt with acidophilis
1 cup of oil
12 egg yolks
5-6 dessertspoons of honey
small piece of liver, heart or kidney
1-2 cups of water added in small amounts to keep the processor working easily.

Put the mixture in a large bowl and mix in 1-2 cups of oats to desired thickness....store and freeze.

They recommend that the mixture is introduced slowly by adding it to normal food and then increasing to desired daily amount...still add the Vit B.

This is not my recommendation - I do roughly follow this but I can't add things like yoghurt or cottage cheese or eggs to anything due to my sons allergies.  In the Bimby, I imagine that there will be a few batches. (I use an old processor not my bimby so there is not risk of cross-contamination for my son)

I hope this gives people some more ideas

[meganjane]

lucjar, the BARF diet doesn't recommend cereals. The reason being that all digestion takes place in a dog's stomach, as distinct from the intestines in humans. Their stomachs are far more acidic than ours and cannot digest cereals well.

The ratio of bones, meat and vegies is:

60 - 90% raw meat, raw bones, raw fat, offal and fish to 10 - 40% vegetables, fruit, herbs and fish oil. The vegies must be pureed to mimic what they would find in the stomach of an animal they killed in the wild. The theory is that dogs are very closely related to wolves and their physiology is the same.

I've started both my cat and Rambo on this diet, which is a bit tedious to set up initially, but once you get a big batch made, you can freeze it. The cat only has 10% vegetables, while Rambo has about 30%.

[Catherine]

Meganjane I've been feeding barf for years - and it really suits my westie who are very prone to the itchies and problem skin.  They are really healthy and even the 11 year old jumps around like a puppy!  (Although he is snoring on the lounge at the moment. )

I recently posted a recipe for home made barf dog food based on Dr Billinghurst's recipe in the Receipe Request thread but will repeat it here.  My guys absolutely love this and they are thriving on it.  Although I don't feed this recipe exclusively - they also get RMBs, 'fish casserole' (frozen mixed veggies and canned fish) when I've forgotten to get something out of the freezer, and commercial barf patties although I think they are pretty expensive for big dog appetites.

Personally, I don't feed commercial dog food (dry. canned or anything else) as I think the ingredients are terrible - I'm even concerned about the contents of some of the premium foods.  So if we are concerned enough about our health to buy a TMX then I for one want to make sure my dogs benefit too.  Anyway hope it helps...



This is a TMX variation on Dr Billinghurst's raw barf patty recipe and works very well with the TMX.  It is based on a half kilo of raw crushed vegetables and a half kilo of raw minced meat.  All ingredients should be human grade.  This amount makes about 12 half cup servings for a small dog.  Its a marvellous mix for dogs needing to lose weight!

Ingredients:

1/2 kg vegetables (carrots, celery, spinach, cauli, broccoli etc), roughly chopped
1/2kg lean meat or mince (beef, chicken, lamb, pork, kangaroo etc).  ('Roo and pork are good for dogs with allergies).
1/8 lambs fry (or similar amount of other offal), roughly chopped
1/4 small tub plain, low fat yogurt
1-2 free range eggs (I use 2)
2 cloves garlic
1.5 dspns flax seed oil
1/2 tspn of vitamin B powder
Up to 2 tspns kelp powder (I use 2)
Any other healthy food scraps eg small amounts of cooked veggies, rice, pasta cottage cheese etc.

Method:

If mincing your own meat, mince it first for 8-15 seconds on speed 7 and set aside.

Chop veggies, garlic and offal in TMX for 6-8 seconds on speed 4 or until it looks like fine coleslaw.  Veggie mix should be well chopped, fine enough to make into patties, but not mush.

Add mince and all other ingredients and mix on reverse + soft speed for 8 - 10 seconds until well combined.

Shape into patties and freeze or freeze in serving size portions in plastic bags.  Thaw as required.
 

[Carrie]

Thanks for the recipe, Catherine. I've been looking for a BARF recipe for my dog and cat, now we are living where there's no sellers of the BARF mix.

The flax oil, kelp and vitamin B powder, is that available at the HFS?

[Catherine]

Hi Carrie,

Yep I got my kelp powder and flaxseed oil from the health food shop.  Some bigger/better supermarkets also stock them. 

Carrie not sure where you are, but a great website for these sorts of things is www.greyhoundproductsdirect.com.au - they have kelp liquid and a number of vitamin powders listed, including the B.  Their prices are good and Trent who runs the site is excellent.

Hope that helps.

[Carrie]

Thanks very much, Catherine! Will check out that link, but I think I'd be able to find what I need when I go into town.
We're in a small town in the Hunter Valley, NSW, but close enough to some big shops.

[meganjane]

My dog is just not into the BARF diet, so I've had to go back to tinned food . I do buy grain free biscuits for him and make him biscuit treats that he loves.

I have the BARF books for sale if you'd like to buy them from me: Books for Sale

[meganjane]

I've found if I COOK his BARF patties, he loves them!!

[zebraa]

 I spoke to a friend (vet) about Barf and she said that if you don't do it perfectly, don't do it. Apparantly there has been a surge in dogs not getting basic nutrients and getting stuff like rickets from owners who are semi doing it.

[andiesenji]

I had a bad experience with it a few years ago when it became the "thing" to do for my breed (Basenji). 

After about four months my girl began  losing weight so that her ribs showed but her tummy was protruding and she was old and had been spayed.  I took her to the vet and he found she had tapeworm and said he had seen several cases with the BARF diet.

It had been decades since I had any problems with parasites in any of my dogs and I was horrified.  I went back to the super premium dog food I had been using for years and continue with it to date.  My basenji is no longer being shown but he is in show condition.
Many commercial dog foods are total swill but the premium dogs foods that are not corn or wheat based are excellent.  I do supplement with yogurt and/or cottage cheese and a small amount of a canned 100% beef dog food. (Evanger's Organic "Hunk of Beef")

Some people feed raw chicken and chicken wings and backs but dogs can be affected by salmonella which seems to be on the rise in the U.S. and until they begin to irradiate raw poultry, I'm not going near the stuff.  I cook chicken, turkey, duck and goose until it is done, done, done! 

[CarolineW]

I used the BARF diet with my dog for ages, and she thrived on it.  At the moment we aren't, as we like to give it a break sometimes - not entirely sure why, I'm not sure we have a logic to it    I think our practice may have originated because our dog sometimes gets fussy about her vegetable meals, but a balanced diet is important.  But to be perfectly honest the originally reason for our doing this is lost in the mists of time / my memory 

Thermomixer isn't wild about the BARF diet (he's a vet) as there can be complications sometimes.  If I remember correctly it's that some people feed large & hard bones which can splinter and cause internal problems.  And he's had to operate a number of times because of this.

Have I got that correctly, thermomixer?  I don't want to misquote you.

Anyway, our dog is always much healthier when we're feeding her with BARF then when we're feeding her 'normally', but there are some risks attached (eg the tapeworm).