Barf Diet

[my2boys]

A prey model supporter here. A large Yahoo group is a another resource for questions.

my2boys, some pointers as to where you live as regards difficulty in sourcing variety?

cheers

Rose

Thanks everyone for your replies. I have ordered "Give your dog a bone" to read. Rose I live in Tassie on a farm so getting the variety can be a little difficult and because of Tassie's laws with regard to feeding offal I can't do that. We have a pet shop which sells chicken mince and wallaby mince along with wallaby tails and bones. We also have an abundance of beef mince as we kill our own beef. I also buy chicken neck and frames from our local supermarket.

Is there anything else you can suggest to try?

my2boys

[Just Midol]

I've changed from a BARF diet to a Prey-Model diet and the dogs are looking great and farting less . I also only feed fish oil and eggs as extras that's it.

I've just spent last night learning about how wolves are connected to domestic dogs and what the wolf actually eats. From what a lot of people have been saying that they eat the stomach contents, wolves don't eat the stomach contents, they will eat the stomach but leave the digested food near the kill, that is for large prey. They eat the whole kill say for a rabbit, stomach and all and it's too small to remove. Which that would normally just include grasses.

I'm starting a model prey diet for Ivy. She's my black wolf, even looks like one!

Yeha, they only eat the stomach contents because they have to.

The feeding veges imo is a load of crap, and I don't do it. No one has provided any evidence that it's even a little bit beneficial.

----

Who gives a toss about the laws, take the offal out of the animals you kill and feed it to the dogs.

[rose of tralee]

my2dogs, maybe it was in this thread that it was mentioned that Billinghurst has tossed the grains in more recent publications. In which case, good.

Ah, Tasmania.......a quick Google says provisional eradication of hydatids achieved, that right? Does inspected offal turn up in butcher shops? I'm a world away from Tas, in Qld.

[poodlefan]

The feeding veges imo is a load of crap, and I don't do it. No one has provided any evidence that it's even a little bit beneficial.

Ah Midol.. as ever the voice of moderation and acceptance of different points of view.

Feeding fibre in the form of fruit/veggies stops my oldest dog from becoming constipated. He can't handle a diet of straight RMBs. Feeding a fair bit of pumpkin in the veggie pulp helps prevent my girl from having impacted anal glands. It also gives me a base to which I can add offal and other supplements like eggs, oil etc.

That's beneficial enough for me to continue it.

A purist version of a prey model diet would be feeding animal fur, feathers etc. Without them, the diet does not have enough fibre IMO. You might also like to consider that as opportunistic carnivores, other canids, particularly smaller species, do eat fruit, berries, insects and vegetation in addition to other prey.

Edited November 13, 2008 by poodlefan

[tira_mia]

Whole frames a whole different animal from the ground variety. You can add a meat to frames to approximate the %age of bone that might be found naturally. Generally, 10-15% of the diet all the organs that are required (liver should be part of this proportion; heart is treated as a meat, albeit a rich one)

Silly question but I've been meaning to ask this since we started on a raw diet - what exactly are 'frames' and caracasses? They're not the entire chickens tied up for roasting that I see in coles/woolies are they?

tia

[koolietas]

Tiramia - frames/carcasses are whole chickens with all the meat removed. They are very boney - and not something I would feed as a meal on it's own...but would feed with an offal meal or with additional meat...or at least would feed a whole meat meal next.

I feed whole chickens - much better proportion of meat/bone than the frames.

It is true that wolves will eat fur of their prey - but only sometimes...it is often discarded like the stomach contents. I don't feed fur/feathers - and I've had no problems at all with my boy's poops.

Wolves/dogs are carnivores - they have no need to eat vegetation. That is not to say that dogs won't eat vegetation - after all, they are opportunists. My dog has eaten many strange things before (foil, glad wrap, sandwich bags, balloons etc.) - there is no nutritional requirement for him to eat any of that! (he's just a pig!)

[poodlefan]

Koolietas:

It is true that wolves will eat fur of their prey - but only sometimes...it is often discarded like the stomach contents. I don't feed fur/feathers - and I've had no problems at all with my boy's poops.

I remember reading the book and watching the movie Never Cry Wolf.. the author went up to the tundra to solve the mystery of what wolves ate when the caribou weren't there. It was rodents mainly - whole.

[koolietas]

Koolietas:

It is true that wolves will eat fur of their prey - but only sometimes...it is often discarded like the stomach contents. I don't feed fur/feathers - and I've had no problems at all with my boy's poops.

I remember reading the book and watching the movie Never Cry Wolf.. the author went up to the tundra to solve the mystery of what wolves ate when the caribou weren't there. It was rodents mainly - whole.

From reading some of David Mech's books...wolves when they eat small prey do eat the stomach contents. The stomach contents would be very minimal in such a small animal!

But they certainly don't eat the stomach contents of large prey - this is discarded. They don't even bother to eat the stomach lining in most instances.

[poodlefan]

But they certainly don't eat the stomach contents of large prey - this is discarded. They don't even bother to eat the stomach lining in most instances.

Can't say I blame them really.

[moggy]

Well, after months of agonising over what to feed Sophie, I have decided to make up my own recipe.

Raw mince beef, chicken necks, some cubed doggy sausage and eggs. I mix it all together and freeze it in small containers and she just loves it. I then know she is getting raw red meat, chicken bones which help clean her teeth and eggs which are good for her coat and doggy sausage for variety.

She is very happy and healthy.

[RexAppeal]

I use VAN about twice a week. Soaked for at least 24 hours before feeding.

I probably wouldnt use it that often with a younger dog, but I find that my old boy gets too constipated with the amont of bones and meat he was able to eat when he was younger.

I need to add some roughage in his diet, and it can be vegies or VAN.

BARF isnt difficult, just takes a bit of practice at first and watching our dogs poo to see if its too loose or to hard.

It definitelly will be harder than on dried food.

MonElite

I see you're a fellow dobe lover - I've had trouble with food allergies with one of my dobes, putting her onto a

'sensitive skin & stomach' purina food. I want to feed her raw food instead, I don't think dogs should be eating

food out of a packet - but I've tried the BARF & she just vomited & $hat everywhere for weeks. Have

you had any probs with certain allergies & what meats do you feed?

Thanks a bunch!