Good day all, I was wondering what you guys think of the BARF diet? My boy is 6 months old and weighs approx. 40-41 pounds. A lot of people are telling me he is "skinny" His dad was 105 pounds and his mommy was 85 pounds. Also, he has cases of diarrhea (3 times in 4 months). I dont think it is caused by the kibble since he was on it for 1 1/2 month prior to his last case of diarrhea and he was perfectly fine. He currently goes on 5-6 walks per day, which 2 of them are 20 mins long. He is very active with lots of play in the house. Basically, I am just comtempling what is the best for my boy. In terms of health, growth, and most importantly a healthy gut and him getting enough enzymes, minerals, vitamins. He is currently on Orijen Large Puppy, which is a pretty rich food high in proteins and fats. Any comments?
I'm feeding my 6 months old female with BARF and I am very satisfied with the results so far (about 3 weeks). We did not have any problem with the kibble, and Orijen is great food, but I think it is the best chose, if dog reacts well to it.
Hi Johnny , there are articles in the Feeding section re the raw diet which you might find useful . Your lad is still a puppy so lots of growing and weight gain to come yet My own dogs have a mix of kibble and raw, they have raw meat and fish regularly and thrive on it . Have a good read of the article on here .
There is nothing wrong with your boy being slim, slim is good and far too many Labradors we see are overweight. His shape is far more important than the weight on the scales. Dad and mum being large dogs doesn't mean your boy will be. 18kg at 6 months is a pretty good weight and he is still growing. A good body shape is you should be able to see a well defined waist from above, a defined "tuck up" around the tummy and when you run your hands down his sides you should be able to feel his ribs as if through a sheet and without applying pressure. Can't advise on the BARF diet as I use kibble with the odd sardine or to added as a treat.
BARFing for 3 years now. Before I started I had a feeling it's nuclear science, but it's pretty simple actually. I highly recommend the book "Raw and Natural Nutrition for Dogs" by Lew Olson. It helped me tremendously. I am doing blood panels every year and they have come back perfect. My dog was in great shape and no one would have thought he was a senior (then he was hit by a car, suffered a hip luxation and had to have surgery, but that's another story). If you decide to stick with kibble though, change his food. Orijen is very rich and from what you write, it doesn't agree with your pup.
Hey @Berna , fancy meeting you here. I am enthusiastic about BARF because it's what our Vet liked for Oban after he got sick. I liked his coat, no more itchies from allergies, it was actually fun buying foods, preparing a month long menu plan (which I ran by the Vet the first couple of times) and meeting so many other dog owners who also feed it when I went to my distributor. My old cat copied Oban and went raw too and it can very hard to get cats to switch, especially older ones. She also looked great, better than ever before in her coat. But.... Oban got sick again and this time we got a diagnosis of Lymphangiectasia from the Internal Vet Specialist. So BARF is not a guarantee of a healthy gut though Oban's case is probably not the norm. A very low fat diet is thought to be key to controlling Lymphangiectasia and it's hard to control fat levels in a raw diet. Oban is back on a special, very expensive kibble and it's working as well for him coat and allergy wise as the BARF did. If you do want to go raw, BARF, I suggest you get the gut issues under control first. We did that through our Holistic, Integrative Vet with home cooked limited ingredients, TCM and acupuncture. We had to, traditional Vet medicne was not helping Oban at all.
I feed a BARF diet as Harley isn't too good on kibble - she has allergies yo certain ingredients. Personally I buy Natures Menu then add veg/eggs/fish etc on a regular basis. He poo has firned up, her fiat is lovely and shiny and she is very fit. You say you are walking your dog 5-6 times a day and he's 6 months old. How long are each of the walks? Bring careful of their joints is really important at such a young age, plus you may be making a rod for your own back as the fitter he gets the more he will want walks. You could supplement some of the walks for training exercises in the house/garden which will tire him out more.
I feed Snowie raw meat chunks (muscle meat, organ meat, various tissues) and raw meaty bones. He started on BARF but then I saw the benefit in having him chew/gnaw on raw bones (took time and tired him out). About a year or two after moving to raw bones/meat, I tried giving him a BARF meal again (self-doubt about the proportions right for the meat/bones!), but he would not touch it! I was amazed, you'd think a Labrador would eat anything. Anyway, I prefer seeing exactly what I'm feeding my boy rather than relying on someone else mixing up the prepared BARF.
I don't understand this. BARF must mean different things in different places. I understand BARF to mean Bones And Raw Food or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food. Either way, our had bones along with just meat and fruits and vegetables. The latter two I crushed in a blender I bought just for that use. I'm with you on buying food that is not pre-prepared. It's possible here to get many different "menu" combinations of ground meat with fruit and veg. which come frozen and are called raw food for dogs, and cats. A few are handy for busy days but I prefer to see the real stuff first and plan my own menus. Barf does have a meaning in Canada and the U.S. completely unrelated to raw food for animals. It means vomit. Upchuck, regurgitate, rolf. A person might call in to say they aren't going to make it to work, they're sick and they've barfed up all their meal. Probably put a lot of people off the diet for dogs. Though if dogs knew that meaning they'd probably think, Hey, good name, I eat my own and the cat's already.
Too funny!! I've always understood BARF to mean the food is all ground up together, ground bones included -- like a mince pack or, erm, your description! I don't blend fruit and veg for Snowie -- he gets to share my fruit salad (small pieces of various fruit) and I give him whatever veg we've cooked like steamed broccoli (his favourite!), cauliflower, etc, and raw carrots and cucumber. I often use the cut up fruit and veg to do a spot of training (if I'm in the mood), usually the fruit salad to reward lying quietly next to me while I work.
@Snowshoe my understanding is BARF stands for Biologically Appropriate Raw Food. I know there was a lot of debate even back in the 1990's about feeding a BARF diet. Oh and barf can also mean the same here
WAit, I know where that meaning comes from, I think. You can buy pre-packed food that is called BARF, right? I've read about it, on-line and I have Dr. Billinghurst's book, where he pushes it because I guess he has a stake in it. I've never seen it here but we have others the same. My understanding is Prey Model feeders feed only meat and bones. BARF feeders feed meat and bones but add in fruits and vegetables and other things. You should see the disagreements on this on a raw feeding FB site I visit. I think the site itself at one time forbade any discussion of BARF and told people to leave if they even mentionned they fed it. Now it's more open.
I know that site! I read an article -- can't remember where, somewhere on the internet of course! -- about a study of wolf droppings. In summer the droppings contained fruit, in winter no fruit. The conclusion was quite obvious: fruit was only available in summer! Previous studies had been done in winter when droppings were easy to find in the snow, hence how the prey model had come about to insist on only meat and bones.
