Does anyone feed their dog on the barf diet?

Question

Been thinking about it but it sounds a bit yuk...and messy.

Been reading about it lots...don't think I'll be going for it until I've researched it a bit more though. Any advice would be appreciated :)

Answer 1

It is a bit messy and somewhat time consuming, but the effort really pays off for your animal. I make alot ahead of time, and buy chicken backs by the case- and separate into portions then freeze this lasts about two weeks or longer depending on what else I am feeding. Messy can be cleaned up rather cheaply, but reduced shedding, less waste(poop) and cleaner smelling animals is your big pay off. Not to mention fewer vet bills for illness caused by junk dog food in a bag. Do research first though please. It is not just something you jump into- read about it first.

Answer 2

I feed my dogs (8 of them) a raw diet. I feed primarily beef. During hunting season I feed deer. They will sometimes catch themselves a rabbit and eat it. If you decide to go with feeding a raw diet, be cautious with chicken. It is not the best meat to feed a dog. My dog had horrible hip pains while I was feeding him dog food. These pains were so bad he would shake/shiver from the pain. When I put him on raw the pain went away. I ran out of meat and put him back on dog food, back came the pain. This happened two times. I am convinced that raw is the only way to feed. Dogs were not meant to eat all the corn, rice, wheat and other grains that make up dog food. Anyone ever wonder why dogs have so many health issues?? Can be yukky and messy but you get used to it. I even butcher the cows for the dogs.

Answer 3

It is actualy called the raw diet now. And Yes I feed it. Research it well.

You can also find a pre made raw.

BARF STEP BY STEP
http://touchmoon.com/dotters/raw/index.shtml

BARF FOR BEGINNERS FAQ
http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm

SELECTING A PET FOOD
http://www.api4animals.org/articles?p=361&more=1

Dog Feeding Info (top 10 foods according to the WDJ and specific health diets)
http://www.dogaware.com/

Answer 4

I have a champion Boxer and he has been on BARF most of his life. He is doing great! He is 11 years old now.

Answer 5

I supplement mine with raw although their mainstay is kibble. At least once a week they get some raw food.

There are raw feeders that use the Billinghurst method that requires preparation of veggies and meat which has apologist leanings toward urbanized 'nutrition'. I personally subscribe to the simple method that Lonsdale has which is outlined here in these simple recipes.
http://www.rawfeddogs.net/

If you'd like to study more on nutrition, you might take a look at some charts which illustrate how much HUMAN food is destroyed by processing (packaging, canning, etc)
http://cobankopegi.com/mccully.html

Human cardiologists and pathologists have made many studies and observations that do not get into standard news media. One often has to go to sources such as pubmed.com and do research for abstracts & papers. Study those and source their references. Find out about conflict of interest and such things. This is what I do as a researcher.

For example, you can see here that so called balanced diets for dogs have actually been implicated in inflammation processes that lead to the death of many dogs.
J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2003 Oct
Taurine deficiency in Newfoundlands fed commercially available complete and balanced diets.
Backus RC, Cohen G, Pion PD, Good KL, Rogers QR, Fascetti AJ.
Department of Molecular Biosciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA 95616-8741, USA.
CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Results indicate a high prevalence of taurine deficiency among an environmentally and genetically related cohort of Newfoundlands fed apparently complete and balanced diets. Blood taurine concentrations indicative of taurine deficiency in Newfoundlands may be substantially less than concentrations indicative of a deficiency in cats. (source at bottom)

For more study about how processed food has cause nutritional deficiency, one only needs to study Syndrome X in humans. But even earlier studies can be be found in studies such as this one, where people who lived on processed packaged foods are compared to the ones who lived on natural food sources.
Don't read the whole article, but first look at the photos and the captions.
http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0203cat/020305ppnf/PPNFpartII.html

Good luck on your studies. No one has all the answers. Many of the people that get upset and angry about some choices that are made, have their own health issues and they consider these to be normal processes of aging. This is not true. According the World Health Organization, the United States in Y2K was forty levels worst than the healthiest countries in the world.

The standard level of nutrition in freshly grown produce is now lower than it was several generations ago. There is a world of difference in natural sources of vitamins and minerals compared to chemicals forms of supplements added to processed food to replace the stuff that was removed by processing. Many of these chemicals have a structure that is not in the most available form. When you get into biochem, you learn about cis and trans structures and which are normally provided in nature and which are chemically created. Remember that transfats have finally become 'noticed' as a potential contributor to myocardial infarction (the type of heart attack that has become a common disease).

You'll learn that cholesterol is an anti-inflammatory and the reason it elevates in older people and those getting heart disease is because its purpose is to build hormones and beat inflammatory response. Instead, medical approaches blame the messenger and try to reduce cholesterol. When this happens, other forms of malnutrition happen. The patient goes from having high blood pressure, to developing diabetes, to developing circulatory disorders, and gradually developing congestive heart failure.

Reversal of some of these symptoms occurs when the person begins to address correct nutrition.

Anyway, so those who have doubts about raw feeding and the health of dogs, or that buy whatever the media feeds them. That's their choice. I do enjoy speaking with those who are critical thinkers and who can show they have sourced their material and have studied their biochem, their physiology, endocrinology and other effects.

Not all dogs do well on raw. The reason for this is that some have compromised systems such as allergies and other abnormal effects, some of which come from epigenetics. In some bloodlines, it is shown in genome studies of human and canine, that some of the haploid types and tandem repeats may lose protective genetic material that keeps a deleterious factor from expressing and turning on - this happens via various environmental influences.

It's all very fascinating for us geekoid types. I encourage you to continue your studies. Many different fields end up touching up on the simple concept of what to feed our dogs. :)

Answer 6

My dog 'ates a barf and smells 'orrible!

Answer 7

Eeew...This probably isn't what it sounds like, but yuck...

Answer 8

never heard of it before, sorry.

Answer 9

sounds sick to me

Answer 10

no