B.A.R.F diet for dogs

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rvlifer

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For anyone interested in providing the highest quality food for your dog, this is the recipe we used to make our own dog food for our Shelties. They call it a BARF diet, which stands for bones and raw food. It is very difficult to find ground bones so we went with ground meat and varied it depending on what we could find. Beef and chicken were easiest but we also occasionally found other types. It is already a lot of work so we didn't grind our own meat.

I'm skeptical that the Nupro and other vitamins were needed but my wife disagreed so guess who won :). It would be a lot cheaper without those, especially the Nupro.

We made large batches and stored them in plastic containers in the freezer, such as these - Glad Food Storage Containers - Entre Container - 25 Ounce - 5 Containers - Walmart.com

One of our shelties passed before we sold the house and went full time in the RV but we still did this diet for the 2nd while living in the rv. Far easier to do in a house.

We did see benefits from feeding this but nothing like the raw food proponents or commercial food advertising would make you think you should get from switching to their food. Vets are funded by the food companies so if you want to research this they tend to be against a barf diet and you will need to do some digging to get past the subjective info from both sides.

Recipe

In a blender mix the following:

1/3 canned mackerel in water (sardine sized can), or 1 can sardines in water, or 1 or 2 eggs (organic recommended)
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 or 2 handfuls of kale or mustard greens
2 or 3 stalks of celery
2 carrots (ends cut off)
1 banana
1 apple cored and peeled
2 or 3 tbsp honey

Then add any fruits or veggies to make a full 5 cups. Frozen or raw works. Avoid white potatoes, grapes, eggplant, and peppers.

This mixture could be frozen and added to other food to improve the nutritional value.

To make the full recipe, take the above and add:

10lbs of ground beef, chicken, lamb, etc (including ground bones if you can get them)
2lbs plain yogurt
2lbs cottage cheese
10 scoops Nupro vitamins
15 vitamin C tablets, ground
15 vitamin E softgels (add only the liquid and discard the exterior casing)
15 tsp flaxseed oil
8 vitamin B complex tablets, ground
3 eggs
3 teaspoons garlic

Should make a total of 33 cups. We fed our guys about a cup a day so it lasted a month (1/2 a month for us since we had 2).

Pretty stinky stuff with the mackerel and sardines but our guys loved it. One of the downsides was that on the very few occasions we weren't able to feed them this recipe they weren't happy with any other food. Since most commercial dog food brands are made in the same factories by a small number of manufacturers, I do think this is healthier than any of those. Quite a bit of work. When we started it the cost was about the same as premium dog food at the time. Things may be different today. Owned a good number of dogs over the years and the shelties were the only ones we did this for. But it wasn't long after the time when a lot of the commercial foods were contaminated and some pets were killed. So it seemed to make sense at the time.
 
Dog food commercials are amusing, "plenty of healthy vegetables your dogs will love". Put a carrot and stalk of celery in your dogs bowl and see what happens.
.Carnivores eat herbivores. That's why TRex ain't around.
 
Our Britanny loved vegetables and fruit. Baby carrots were one of is favorites, along with bananas, apples and pears (especially Bosc).
We would always put some the the veggies we ate a dinner on his food.
Got to point where he would sit and stare at his food until the vegetables were added.
BTW, we always used frozen since no salt is added.
 
I've fed my dogs a straight cooked meat diet mixed with a high quality dry dog food for years. All small dogs now so not much dry food at all and we toggle between beef, chicken and pork. I don't put all that other junk in there. Dogs love it, never any stomach issues and they live very long lives.
 
I was thinking the same.

We had a great Cocker Spaniel years ago, Prissey. When I would cook a pot of beef stew she would get the leftovers. I would put it in her bowl and 30 minutes later go back to find a bowl of potatoes and carrots. They were licked clean but you couldn't fool her into eating a vegetable. She told me they munked up her stomach.
 
We've had dogs that loved veggies. Our last one needed to lose some weight, and we found that she loved cut green beans as treats. Another dog we had years ago, used to pick snap peas right off the vines in the garden. She got the bottom ones, while we got the top.
 
We've had dogs that loved veggies. Our last one needed to lose some weight, and we found that she loved cut green beans as treats. Another dog we had years ago, used to pick snap peas right off the vines in the garden. She got the bottom ones, while we got the top.

My daughters Golden used to pull the bell pepper plants out of our garden and eat the peppers. She was tall enough to reach over the fence.
She never touched the hot ones!
 
Here is more info about the diet. They call it biologically appropriate raw food diet.

Was surprised how many links were tied to dog food companies.


The pet food companies used to fight the natural food trend by claiming there were huge risks with feeding raw and theirs was better. Now that they lost that battle they have transitioned to claiming their foods follow the philosophy even when it doesnt.

i am seeing a lot of commercials from blue where the owners who usw different foods read off a few of the ingredients from each and the dog runs over to grab the blue dog food. The ingredients in blue are probably a step up from traditional kibble but none of it sounds all that natural or healthy to me.

There is a theory that any dry food isnt great cause dogs and cats get a substantial amount of their water intake from their food. Cats more than dogs. When they eat dry food they are actually getting dehydrated and can cause kidney issues over time.

When we got our current cats they were constantly drinking from their water bowls so we switched them to 1/2 canned food and 1/2 dry. Dry is very convenient esp if we have to leave them alone overnight and cheaper so we did a compromise.
 
Years ago we hade a purebred poodle. Descended from both sire and dam champions. Only think the dog would eat was dry kibble. Blue Buffalo stuff. Now Huckleberry (poodle/bichon mix) the wonder pooch will eat whatever you put in from of him. He was a rescue and whenever he sees a meal he eats it!!

huck6.jpg
 
I understand some dogs seem to love some veggies. Carrots, etc...

My dog loves chocolate. It's not good for him. Trust me...what a mess, and it's scared me a few times when he ate dangerous doses of dark stuff...with his racing heartbeat, etc. Chocolate aint good for him but he loves it.

My bet is, for those dogs that like to eat veggies, they ain't good for them either.

In my experience dogs eat grass when they don't feel well. Probably to help getting out, whatever it is that's making them feel that way
 
I understand some dogs seem to love some veggies. Carrots, etc...

My dog loves chocolate. It's not good for him. Trust me...what a mess, and it's scared me a few times when he ate dangerous doses of dark stuff...with his racing heartbeat, etc. Chocolate aint good for him but he loves it.

My bet is, for those dogs that like to eat veggies, they ain't good for them either.

In my experience dogs eat grass when they don't feel well. Probably to help getting out, whatever it is that's making them feel that way
Veggies arent necessary but they do provide nutrition. Some are good and some arent so if you are going to use them you have to know which are good and which are bad.


Some dogs will eat anything. My friend owned a siberian husky that ate the sponges from their kitchen sink. Sponges dont digest. He always had fun a day or two after the sponges disappeared
 
True story... My wife used to tell a story that when she was a child her mom (#103 in Feb) used to be a big baker. One day she had put some bread out to rise before baking. A few hours later she walked back into the warm kitchen to check on it and one of the loaves was gone. No where to be found. When Doc (my FIL was a surgeon) got home he noticed their dog Gilly (short for McGillicuddy) was lying around groaning and his stomach was distended tighter than a snare drum. Yep, dog had eaten a whole of loaf rising bread and was now suffering the consequences. Apparently that can be a dangerous thing so my Doctor FIL took some surgical tubing he had and they held the dog down while he intubated the poor thing. Sure enough, the slow hissing of dog-gut-rising-bread-dough-gas made its way out of poor ol' Gilly and after a while he was fine. Never heard about the ensuing mess but I bet it wasn't pleasant.

This story is told periodically at family events and is usually a real crowd pleaser!! (y)
 
Left to his own devices precious, the canine connoisseur, will also lap up his own vomit and eat his own excrement.
 
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