Barf Help

[APBT]

ive been reseaching raw feeding for about 3 months before i got a dog and have kept doing so, so about half a year all up.

ive always fed raw meet and bones and offal but never been sure if im doing it correctly,

ive run out of my bag of inova evo, so now is a good excuse to start raw feeding, the only reason ive kept on with kibble meals is to make sure she is getting the right nutrients as she is growing.

today i purchased a bag of chicken carcass, and beef/lamb heart and kidney, i gave her a chicken carcass and half a kidney for dinner but a bit unsure weather thats what i should be doing, i can do all the reading i want but its diffrent actually doing it.

if there is any experianced raw feeders or jsut any raw feeders who could give me a head start on meals ect i would appreciate it.

[laffi]

I find the easiest to just imagine I am trying to feed them a whole animal (like a whole lamb or a whole chicken). That's how I decide how much meat/bone/offal to feed because it's the most natural balance. In reality I can't feed them whole lamb but I try to still maintain similar ratios.

If you follow BARF you also want to add some pulped fruits and veggies.

To address your specific diet: chicken carcasses are great for bones but you still need to add more meat. Hearts are great muscle meat. Kidneys and liver (offal) are excellent but not more than ~10% of the whole diet.

[APBT]

I find the easiest to just imagine I am trying to feed them a whole animal (like a whole lamb or a whole chicken). That's how I decide how much meat/bone/offal to feed because it's the most natural balance. In reality I can't feed them whole lamb but I try to still maintain similar ratios.

If you follow BARF you also want to add some pulped fruits and veggies.

To address your specific diet: chicken carcasses are great for bones but you still need to add more meat. Hearts are great muscle meat. Kidneys and liver (offal) are excellent but not more than ~10% of the whole diet.

thanks, thinking of it as feeding a whole animal makes things alot easier, never thought of it like that

[Tru Borders]

Ive only recently started feeding a Barf diet so I wont give you any advice as I am not nearly as educated as I'd like to be!

But have a look at these sites. They have been a great help for me

http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm#started

http://www.barfworld.com/html/barf_diet/ba..._specific.shtml

[Red Fox]

What I did was to contact a few good breeders who raw feed, explained my situation and ask them what and how they fed their dogs.

I also found as many raw diet plans as I could through both DOL threads and google. Once I had all my info together I started comparing the diet plans and picked out the things I liked/could get hold of easily/worked wel for my dog etc, and disregarded the bits that were irrelevent/unavailble/didn't appeal to me. In the meantime I read up as much as I could on BARF/raw feeding/natural diets etc, and slowly I came up with a diet plan that works well for us.

If you're not sure how much to feed take a bit of a guess at what seems about right. If your dog is losing weight feed more and if its gaining weight feed less

The Ian Billinghurst books are a great place to start too and also give info on what you can feed and how much.

[LoveisGolden]

The prey model diet recommends 10% bone, 80% meat and 10% offal (of which about 5% should be liver). Liver can give loose stools so start with small pieces every other day after a couple of weeks and build this up slowly. 10% of bone is not a lot so you don't need to give bone in every meal. If their faeces are chalky and whitish it means they are getting too much bone and need more meat.

Feed 2-3% of your dog's ideal adult body weight. This is just the starting point and you adjust up or down as necessary to maintain a good weight.

It's usually recommended to start with one type of meat such as chicken for the first couple of weeks, and introduce new meats and offal slowly after that. You shouldn't feed marrow or knuckle bones as these are too hard and dense and can damage their teeth.

Good luck with your raw feeding. It's fun to watch them eating this way too