Best Dog Food Ever

[sevendogs]

This is an abstract written by Sabine van Wel, Germany. It is based on information from recent independent research in Germany. As you probably know, dog food industry is using its own hited researchers producing deisrable for them results. Think idnependently.

The Diet of the Aboriginal Dog

By Sabine van Wel

The dog is a carnivorous animal.

Like its forefather, the wolf, the dog prefers a similar diet. Except for prey animals, the wolf eats fruits, herbs, berries, grass, roots, insects and also the excrement of herbivores. Predominantly the wolf eats small mammals and big game; the prey animal eats up everything including the bigger bones, a large part of skin and fur and a part of the stomach bowel contents.

By the consumption of the whole animal the wolf gets all nutrients vital for him: protein, fat, minerals, vitamins, enzymes and roughage.

The dog has the set of teeth of carnivores, with strong eyeteeth to take the prey and molars with sharp edges to be able to bite through meat and bone.

In contrast to herbivores the dog has no digestive enzymes in the saliva and produces comparatively very little saliva. Dog saliva is a very viscous liquid and serves as a lubricant for the food, which consists, as with carnivores, mostly of bigger lumps.

The stomach of the dog is very big by comparison with that of herbivores: eight times larger than a horse’s stomach in relation to the body weight. The gastric acid of the dog contains proportionately 10 times more hydrochloric acid than those of a human and with food in the stomach has a pH value of under 1 (humans: pH 4 to 5). The production of the digestive juices occurs with the dog through the trigger of meat.

The bowel of the dog is very short in comparison to the bowel of the herbivore. With the dog the entire digestion of meat and bone takes a maximum of 24 hours; herbivores need four to five days for digestion.

A diet basing on grain is basically wrong for these species. The dog food available manufactured today consists of 60-90% grain.

The high grain content of ready feed causes some problems with the dog. The gastric juices are not formed enough because the trigger of meat is missing, consequently bacteria are not killed, and it comes to false fermentations, failure, stomach rotations and parasite infestation. The pancreas is overloaded with the production of enzymes for digesting the grain because enzymes hardly exist in the ready food, which has been pre-heated to a high temperature.

Boiling animal proteins changes many of the amino acid chains and makes them mostly useless for the dog. Besides, many minerals get lost. The dog has a different need for amino acids than herbivores and these amino acids are contained almost all in raw meat. Without these amino acids the dog cannot build up a healthy body and a healthy immune system.

The fat in ready food is made imperishable by preservatives like Ethoxiquin, BHA and BHT. These preservatives can hinder the formation of white blood cells, weaken the immune system and block the intake of glucose and may not be used in foodstuffs for human consumption because of cancer fears. Omega 3 fatty acids are almost entirely missing in ready food because they cannot be made to last long.

At least boiled food is absolutely dead. Vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids are destroyed or are brought in a useless state. These ingredients are supplied in part to ready food afterwards, but often these cheap, chemically made preparations can be overused.

In the most favorable case the dog survives apparently healthy. However, often enough it gets to illnesses. The immune system is weakened by the lack of enzymes, amino acids, antioxidants and essential fatty acids; the overtaxed pancreas no longer functions properly. Mouth odor and chronic inflammations derive from the missing dental hygiene in the mouth, which again weakens the immune system.

In the meantime food industries have produced various diet foods to treat the diseases, which generally result only from feeding ready food.

Logical conclusion

Many canine experts feed their own dogs according to the principles of a natural diet and report astounding improvements in the dogs’ state of health. Skin problems disappear, the dogs have more energy, the bitches have with pregnancy and puppy care less problems, and the puppies grow up more slowly and healthier.

A natural diet attempts to copy the food of canids living in the wild. As it is probably hardly possible to feed whole wild animals, dog-owners must debate the food needs of the dog.

Does raw meat make dogs wild?

Of course dogs defend their food against other dogs - however, this has no consequences for the relationship between people and dogs, but is a question of education (if dogs defend their food against the master).

As has already been explained above, the dog possesses the digestive system of carnivores; that means the complete digestion of the dog is based on raw meat and bone. Salmonella and other bacteria as well as parasites are omnipresent - a healthy organism deals with this easily. The gastric acid of the dog is very strong and can digest bone, cartilage and meat easily. As the trigger of enough meat produces gastric juices, injurious bacteria are destroyed by raw food, and parasite infestation occurs extremely rarely.

It is not at all necessary to give all vital nutrients with every meal. The balance takes place in a period of several weeks as also happens in nature. With a raw, natural diet it is not bad if a dog eats for a certain time a little bit one-sided, provided the owner feeds a mixture as a rule.

Aboriginal dog-owners always shared their food with their dogs or in summer they were let run loose to hunt for their food. So these aboriginal dogs returned to the "wolf-diet" in summertime.

Ingredients of a natural diet for aboriginal dogs

Meat / bone - bovine animal: muscle meat, heart, spleen, kidney, rumen, omasum, liver, throat, head meat, all bones, in particular the softer ones. [i don’t know what rumen and omasum are?]

Lamb: whole animal

Chicken: whole chickens, necks, backs, liver, heart - only raw!!

Fish: whole fish, only raw

Eggs: with shell, raw

Innards: only once to twice per week

Liver approx. 200 to 300 gm (with a dog of 30 kg)

Rumens / omasum once to twice per week

Pork: avoid or well boiled ( Aujekzy Virus ! )

Vegetables - lettuce,carrots, zucchini, broccoli, dandelion

Avoid raw potatoes, avocados and onions.

Fruits - apples, bananas, oranges, kiwis etc. if the dogs like that

Herbs - sea alga flour, alfalfa, nettle, dill, dandelion, borage, parsley

Oils - Fish oil, olive oil, linseed oil, etc.

Cod-liver oil (vitamin A and D) - 1 teaspoon once to twice per week.

Feed a mixture of 80 % raw meat and 20 % fruits and vegetables

2-3% - per dog’s weight of that mixture

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Thielen, C. (Dr. Vet. Med.) and B. Dobenecker (Dr. Vet. Med.) 1997. Richtige Hundernahrung. Falken Verlag.

Bartenschlager, E. M. (Dr. Vet. Med.) 1988. Richtige Hundernahrung. Falken Verlag.

Meyer, H. and Zentek, J. 2005. Hunde rishtig futten. Ulmer Verlag.

Niemand, H. G. and SUter, P. F. 1994. Der Hundeklinik. Blackwell Wissenshcafts-Verlag.

Billinghurst, I. 1993. Give your dog a bone. Selfpublished Edition.

[blacklabrador]

You will find lots of BARF feeders here

[peibe]

That was a good read, thankyou for putting it up

I try and feed what is written, but my dogs get no bovine what so ever but more fish than what she says

I will be adding alfalpha and nettle though as I hae never used those.

What is borage?

[jshaytana]

Borage is a herb that is easily grown in your garden. You can actually make tea out of it!

eta. image from google

Edited January 1, 2006 by jshaytana

[Jodi]

Great article,many thanks!

[InspectorRex]

I have a question if I may that some knowledgeable folk may answer,

I was feeding my girl raw beef(human grade), raw vegies etc and then she contracted Campylobacter bug from this and was quite ill for a while. 2 course of doxycycline to clear it up.

I have been loathe ever since to put her back onto raw food and have been steaming the vegies and boiling the meat.

Will her body be able to take raw bones etc( brisket and the like)? I do not want her to get that sick again

Thanks in advance

[Allerzeit]

I don’t know what rumen and omasum are?

Two of the sections of a ruminants stomach. The whole ruminant stomach system consists of the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum, and the abomasum.

And if that piece of trivia doesn't make you want to be one, they also get to vomit up their food into their mouths so they can chew it multiple times!

Edited to add a bit more...

Edited January 2, 2006 by Allerzeit

[Dog_Horse_Girl]

IR I would be careful about where I purchase my meat products if your dog got sick from your last source. I've fed my dogs on raw meaty bones for years, but have been a total raw feeder for the past three years...so perhaps you were just unlucky? I've had one questionable chicken purchase in that whole time (and it was labelled "pet food only") but no problems whatsoever with any human grade foods that I've fed the dogs.

I'm sorry that you had a bad experience. But if this were me, I'd try another supplier, and be sure you handle and store raw meat appropriately.

[sevendogs]

That was a good read, thankyou for putting it up

I try and feed what is written, but my dogs get no bovine what so ever but more fish than what she says

I will be adding alfalpha and nettle though as I hae never used those.

What is borage?

"Borage"? I guess this is a forage variety of beet. Do now worry about this. Besides meats of all kinds, dogs eat cooked pumpkins of all kinds, zoukini, cabbage and sweet potatoe and they like vegetable broths. This is only a supplement, of course; fish is a superb food! I would like to use it, but we do not have it cheap in our area. Most dogs used for hunting and sledding in Russian Far East are fed mainly fish, espeically during salmon run. Those are vigorous dogs.

[sevendogs]

Borage is a herb that is easily grown in your garden. You can actually make tea out of it!

eta. image from google

Oh, thank for the explanation. I did not know this. Now, I recall what it actually was. I have never cooked much for my dogs, but they eat what they can find on our own land to supplement their meat diet. My dogs are of SIberian origins, but I am amazed how quickly they found about local wild food supplements. They find and eat bolack berries, winter olive berries and particularly sweet and aromatic paw-paw fruit. It is somewhat similar to banana. They eat wild persimmons in season. I am sure, there is something to find in wild places in Australia.

[Anna H]

Pork: avoid or well boiled ( Aujekzy Virus ! )

What is this virus? I've never heard of it! Is raw pork really that bad? My guys love their raw trotters... sounds like I better not feed them from now on.

[sevendogs]

IR I would be careful about where I purchase my meat products if your dog got sick from your last source. I've fed my dogs on raw meaty bones for years, but have been a total raw feeder for the past three years...so perhaps you were just unlucky? I've had one questionable chicken purchase in that whole time (and it was labelled "pet food only") but no problems whatsoever with any human grade foods that I've fed the dogs.

I'm sorry that you had a bad experience. But if this were me, I'd try another supplier, and be sure you handle and store raw meat appropriately.

It depends on what you can afford and what you can find in your area. I did not hesitate even to pick up fresh road kills sometimes, such as a big biver or deer, still fresh and even warm. My dogs are very tough or may be I am just lucky. They have never contracted any infection from food. My oldest pair is 16 years old and they still move about and eat quite well, but cannot hunt any more. The only disease they once caught was sarcoptic mange. This happened, when they went after one fox hiding in the hole.

[espinay2]

We dont have to worry about Aujeszky disease in pork here in Australia. It has never occurred here.

[Anna H]

Phew! Had me worried for a minute there! They don't get pork often, only when it's really cheap ('bout this time of the year)

[Dog_Horse_Girl]

sevendogs, we have many outbreaks of food poisoning in most parts of the world that impact badly on humans (many ppl die from food poisoning, sadly) and our dogs are less susceptible but it depends on what bacteria we are talking about.

Appropriate storage and handling of raw meat is essential for good health...human or canine. I don't eat meat but I do source my dogs' food from human grade suppliers. I would no sooner give my dogs "fresh road kill" than eat it myself. But each to their own. We don't have many deer in Australia as they're an introduced (and farmed) species. But I still wouldn't offer my dogs a carcass I found by the roadside.

[NorthernStarPits]

Mmmm Roadkill :rofl:

Edited January 3, 2006 by Sirmonsta

[Homer's mummy]

Thank you, excellent read!

I am a big BARF fan although I do use dry food too so that my dog is not totally dependant on eating raw in case I ever get sick or he has to spend a day at a friends as kibble is very easy to feed, store etc although I have concerns about the different digestion rates of raw meat an kibble, kibble being slower. I need to read more till I decide if I really need to go one way or the other.

I agree with everything except feeding raw fish. I have read in a few places that some raw fish can contain deficiency of the vitamin thiamine. Raw eggs are alleged to cause deficiency of the vitamin biotin (can lead to dermatitis hair loss and poor development) and too much raw liver can cause vitamin A toxicity. As a rule, I always boil and shell eggs and also cook liver/giblets etc but meat be it mince of any kind or meaty bones my dog is more than happy to gobble down raw.

Oh... no grapes or raisins either and no onions. They are apprantly very toxic to dogs although i am sure most BARF feeders observe this.

[Crysti_Lei]

that was a good read,

i and a non-confidant BARF feeder. (when she'll ill, i worry i'm not feeding her right)

i'm sure DOLer would know this as a basic fact of Australian DOLing life, but new feed unscreened kangaroo meat,( unless you worn extreemly regularly) HYDATIDS!!!! i have heard of a guy that goes out once a week shoots a roo and have he dogs eat that. Poor puppies, poor him too, coz there's a good chance he'll have an hydatid cyst too.

[persephone]

Our dogs get fresh whatever is around........goat ,rabbit,& whatever we butcher

the raw egg thing is interesting..our dogs will scoff any/all eggs they find in guinea fowl nests.Sometimes 10 or so at a sitting!!

the smell next day is amazing

My hamlet loves banana and rockmelon/canteloupe

[MonElite]

Pork: avoid or well boiled ( Aujekzy Virus ! )

This virus doesnt exist in Australia, so raw pork is fine.