BARF

[Fozzbear]

Does anyone else feed their dog the BARF diet? (For those who don't know - Biologically Appropriate Raw Food).
I have always given my dogs the most natural, hypoallergenic prepared food available, but am now going the whole hog and am 'cooking' (i.e. mixing up meat with some carbs and veggies) myself. I have bought a massive freezer for my shed and, after googling meat suppliers have managed to chat up my local butcher for minced allsorts and chicken carcasses etc. In the end, the new - healthier and better I think - diet is costing me half the price of a commercial one.

Anyway, my point is that Fozzchops has only been on the new food properly for a couple of weeks and she is bouncing around all over the place! She is full of the joys of spring (even though it is winter) -playing with toys (which normally she isn't that bothered with), running at high speed and even tormenting Humphrey a bit (it is usually the other way round). She has been speyed recently and likes the snow, so maybe that has more to do with it?

I have friends who swear that a BARF diet solved their doggies skin problems; I'll have to wait and see if it works on that front.

[Rory's Dad]

Can't say for sure on your whole approach. Rory has been on a modified diet since day one at the recommendation of the breeder. Boiled, boneless chicken breast or hamburge for dinner and cottage cheese for breakfast, supplemented with Nutro dry food. Never had a skin issue and his fur looks great. Lots of energy when he so desires, but he's only 16 months. Like to think we are doing the good thing. Cost isnt bad as we shop sales. Chicken breast (store brand), can be as low as $1.99/lb here and we always shred to weed out the stray bone (only found 1 in the last year or so). Burgers are tougher as we get the frozen and just cook them on the stove top. Every so often they go buy one get one, so if we get that, it amounts to about $1.60 per meal.

[Merlin]

There are many people in my chow circle who feed a Raw Regime ( the word BARF is very passé), for many years now.
Chows are perfect candidates for Raw ando exceedingly well with the entire concept ( well, like all dogs do on Raw)

[Thomas]

Both dogs have been fed raw since we got them. They're happy and healthy with great coats and strong bodies. There are a couple of issues with raw that you need to keep in mind:

1. hygiene - we wash the food prep area and our hands before we make their food and then wash the bowls and prep area immediately after. It sound like common sense but you'd be surprised how many people make their dogs sick by not doing this every time.

2. bones - if you're going to feed them whole chicken or beef bones or sheep heads you need to make sure they don't take them away from the eating area. They have to finish the meal in the bowl. If you don't pay attention to this you'll wind up with bones around your house and in the yard. There are those who argue that you should never give a bone to a dog but if you think about it dogs were dealing with bones fine before they were domesticated. The problem comes from giving them COOKED BONES. Those become brittle and can splinter, which is what is dangerous for the dog. An uncooked bone gets munched down very quickly.

We chose not to deal with the bone issue so we feed our kids ground beef and ground turkey but we give them supplements as well (marcro pro biotic and fish oil).

We chose to go with an additive we mix into the meat before we give it to them. We bought a sample on line and took it down to our vet (who believes in a raw diet) and he checked it out and said it was OK for what we wanted to do.

There are those who would argue we're not doing it right but we've found there are multiple schools of thought on this issue. We even had one person try to convince us that Chows have been bred to be vegetarian (we thought that was pretty funny). Like I said, they're happy and healthy and full of energy.

[Fozzbear]

Vegetarian!?! I'd laugh at that too.
I give my two bones - I keep a close eye on them while they eat them and would never feed them cooked. I think I'll draw the line at sheeps heads though!
My freezer is stocked with minced venison, chicken, piggy bits, duck, oily fish (no bones), tripe, heart and who knows what. It is a bit like Chainsaw Massace around here but I'm getting the hang of it and wont be looking back.
My dogs get such a mix of protein sources and different veggies that I'm not sure that they should need a supplement but I'm looking in to it.

[Merlin]

We chose not to deal with the bone issue so we feed our kids

- the only drawback that you might want to consider is that you are removing Mother Nature's toothbrush. The mastication of bones are what is good for removing tartar, plaque and conditioning the gums, it isn't only about calcium instake.