What do you think of the BARF diet?

Question

What do you think of the BARF diet for dogs? Insane? Wonderful? Expensive? Dangerous? Risky? Post your answers here!

BARF stands for Bones And Raw Food

Answer 1

I looked into it, since a friend recommended it for my overweight beagle. Pardon the bluntness, but I think it's kind of crap. Sure, it's just as healthy as prepared dog food, but that's it, just as good, and a lot more expensive and time consuming.

The important thing about prepared dog food is to look at the ingredients list. If corn or wheat is listed first, put it back on the shelf. The first ingredient should be a meat. Beef, chicken, lamb, salmon, etc. There should be some vegetables in it, like carrots or peas, and just a little grain near the end of the list.

If you've been feeding store-brand cardboard dog food, BARF would be an improvement, but if you get the good stuff (Iam's, Blue Buffalo, etc.) Bagged is great.

Answer 2

BARF is a bit more than what you stated. It also includes pureed vegetables, organ meats and no kibble. Generally you inhance the diet with some herbs, fatty acids and a few select vitamins. Billinghurst favors more of a balance thats achieved not in every meal, but over the course of several meals.I really don't have a problem with the diet and have used it. I was just selective in the bones I used. Raw chicken necks/wings I preferred over some of the other bones suggested. I gave my GSD a turkey wing and found it to be too sharp looking.My dog loved it, but I only let her have so much of it. This diet also includes a fasting day. One thing that I have always stated about feeding this way is to research tremendously before you ever put anything in your dogs bowl. There are a tone of web resources as well as a ton of books out there. Two books that come to mind are put out by Kymathy Schultze and Tom Lonsdale. Volhard has a decent book, too.Theres Pitcairn, too, but he favors more grains than most which some don't care for. There are various ways to feed raw, too. Some prefer a modified raw diet that doesn't include raw bones but raw meat, pureed veggies and kibble. I see a lot of mixtures on the market now where all you need to do is add the raw meat. This diet isn't super cheap, but managable. I always gave organic organ meats whenever possible and bought good quality supplements. I suppose I weighed cost against vet bills. Generally dogs (and cats) on this diet remain very healthy with good teeth and coat. Rarely will you see any skin allergies or tartered out teeth. Hope this was helpful!

Answer 3

Most people think feeding fresh costs more, but it doesn't. We are able to feed our 50lb dog a half pound of fresh for sometimes 50 cents per meal 2 times a day. Buy everything when on sale. We give our dog a little bit of veggie slop - about a teaspoon to a tablespoon - to compliment her meals; um, the animal belly theory vs. pure carnivore meat and bones. You can find more information in Ian Billingworth's books, and plenty of other authors if you google and follow links.

We think that fresh is healthier. We think kibble and processed treats lump into the junk food category. We eat fresh. We avoid junk food. We know it isn't healthy to survive on chips and TV dinners our whole lives.

Read the books. Some of them were put online, which is good, because one of them costs $20 in Amazon.

Our nine year old dog jumps and leaps for her ball like she was two. She bounds up and down hills, has clear, merry eyes; luscious fur, cleaner teeth, fresh breath, and rediscovered her nose. We recently converted her, and it took a long time. Have patience. Go slowly. Our dog was old. Not anymore, apparently.

Answer 4

Or it can stand for Biologically Appropriate Raw Food :-)

My Saint Bernard is on an entirely raw diet, as are my two cats.

He won't eat canned or dry food, and there is no way that I would ever allow him to.

Since you are interested in a real food diet, I assume you know all the nasty things that go into commercial food, like euthanized dogs and cats (complete with flea collars and I.D tags) plastic wrappers from supermarkets, among other things like chicken feathers and cattle tumors. YUM!

Its much cheaper than any commercial food, for me at least, and the best diet I've come across. Instead of spending $8 a day on commercial food, I spend $10 a week on over 20 pounds of chicken neck, chicken back, beef heart, and beef liver. Its super easy to feed, I just spend an hour once a week and bag the food into meal-sized freezer bags. When I want to feed him, I just pull a bag out of the fridge and empty it in his bowl. Its actually faster than measuring out dry food or emptying out a can of wet food. I don't have to do any poop-scooping as his poops are so concentrated that they disentegrate within two days. Its most defiantely worth it!

If you (or anyone else) decides to stick with a commercial diet, go with one that HUMAN GRADE ingredients, not grain based foods like Iams, Science Diet, or anything recommened by your average vet, as they get paid to promote dog food like Iams and Purina, and usually the only nutrition classes they get in college are sponsored and produced by these companies as well.

Answer 5

I think like with any raw meat there is a potential of bacteria even when it's a dog eating it. I use a dog food that is the closest thing to a raw diet without being raw. It's called Innova and it's got great ingrediants. You can look it up online at www.naturapet.com. I've had my dogs on it for over a year now and they are healthier, coats are shinier and they have a lot more energy. They have a wide range from a senior type, a regular type and even a type for breeds like eskimo type dogs (it's got fish in it: Evo).

Answer 6

Insane? No.
Wonderful? WHY?
Expensive? Definitely.
Risky? Depends...
It is an ideal diet for carnivores, but I think that over the last 100 years we've forgotten what a dog is. That, and who can afford to buy fresh beef for a dog every week? I know that into the late 18th c, dogs were fed only table scraps from the day's roast beast, and they were probably quite healthy!
My doggie loves a raw egg every now and then, and I'm sure he'd enjoy "steak tartar" for breakfast every day, but I just can't afford it...
I'd never feed my dog raw chicken b/c it's been overprocessed and probably loaded with bacteria. I think that we have probably bred out any resistance to those bacteria that they digested with ease only a few centries ago- look at feral dogs, who can eat the 5-day-old remnants of another animal's kill! Can you imagine Fluffy, your cute little Pomerainian doing that???

Answer 7

BARF.................. Not bones and raw food it is Biologically appropriate raw food....................
I feed the barf diet to mine and they love it. Some will say it is unsafe and some will say it is the best, and it is........ Least you know what you are feeding your dog. Before anyone feeds the raw diet they need to do the research.

Answer 8

Too expensive and too much work for us. We barely have enough time in the day now to do everything we need to do, without adding preparing the dogs raw food diet.

Answer 9

Who has the time to craete a raw food balanced meal twice a dog for their dog? A quality dry food such as Science Diet is easier and healthier.

Answer 10

OK cause it might have bad stuff for dogs and your dogs lover them!