B.A.R.F. 101

[pitbullgirlbc]

OK can someone give me some examples of making your own RAW food diet without having to ground it up?

I think he is having a problem with the texture as well as I think it is a vegetable that they use as well that he does not like. Any example would be great I cannot keep going with the current stuff he hates it he detests it but it is funny he will eat chunks of meat that I used to get from the pet store a long time ago.

Thanks

amber

[FBODGRL]

What are you feeding....BARF or Prey model?

[pitbullgirlbc]

Hoping to do prey model

[kaytenmags]

i feed prey model, and my dog's chewing on a deer leg right now
Amber - do you have a yard? or i suppose you could feed in a crate. if you want to try some deer, let me know. i can give you a couple chunks of deer ribs to test out.
deer has a stronger/gamier smell than beef, so if you're sensitive and not used to it, it can be nicer to feed outside (i'm used to it, so i don't smell much of a difference anymore). but the dogs seem to love it!

[FBODGRL]

Khan has had some poop issues on and off. Today I just started feeding 1 meal a day instead of 2 to try and eliminate diarrhea and soft serve accidents.

Starting out I was feeding bone in every meal to have consistent hard/normal poop, but as time went on that was too much bone and we were having issues with too hard poop. Everything I have read(and I have read a lot) has starting with bone in every meal. As I said we did turkey instead of chicken. At this point we are up to multiple proteins and less bone.

In the beginning....this is when I was doing 2 meals Khan is 55ish lb so he gets lb a day
Breakfast Turkey neck
Dinner Turkey wing

repeat

Then I added pork
breakfast turkey wing or neck
dinner pork ribs or neck

next day would be all turkey so
turkey neck
turkey wing or turkey wing for both

turkey necks have quite a bit of bone so months later now I rarely feed them.

As you add a new protein you want to try and do it slowly as to not create too much tummy upset, so don't feed 2 or 3 days in a row of the new protein right off the bat.

Now we have been working on getting consistent good poop. Originally I was doing 1 bone meal and 1 boneless, but that was creating hard poop, then soft serve. So I am hoping now that I am doing 1 meal that will stop. I have also currently totally stopped organs for the last few weeks and will start them again once we get things worked out. I would wait to add organ for a while and depending on how things adjust you can start adding them, but add slow or you can expect cannon butt! Make sure your organ is 5% liver.

The current diet is much the same, but more meat...so for example today he had
Turkey wing and boneless turkey chunks=1lb
tomorrow he will have the same
then I will be doing pork neck with boneless turkey=1lb

I hope that helps. I know I have found myself frustrated over time because it seems no one is willing to kind of spell out what they are feeding and it really does depend on the dog and how their system is and poop is. Also I am no expert...I have been doing raw since the end of October and have had some obstacles, but I keep trying to stick at it and get it right The difference it has made in Khan's coat and his allergies is absolutely amazing!

[kaytenmags]

that was a good description

I hope that helps. I know I have found myself frustrated over time because it seems no one is willing to kind of spell out what they are feeding and it really does depend on the dog and how their system is and poop is.

it really does depend on the dog.
i find that chickens feet are a great way to add just a little bit of bone to those boneless meals, to avoid tapass. nobody likes tapass

as far as "menu's" go...
today i fed: chickens foot, blob of lambs kidney, small chunk of frozen liver, and a spoonful of tuna to mix her recovery SA powder in (that was all breakfast, and ammounted to just a couple mouthfuls). dinner was a deer leg. if i had my camera handy i'd shoot a photo of the hairy leg and hoof that's sitting on my floor right now

yesterday: about the same for breakfast, dinner was boneless buffalo trim and a couple chickens feet.

sunday: breakfast again (that's pretty standard and routine here), dinner was deer ribs

saturday: breakfast status quo, dinner was deer trim and two chickens feet

umm.. that's as far back as i remember. i pulled out some lamb for tomorrow's dinner tho.

[FBODGRL]

hmmm...I'll have to look into getting chicken feet (once I make sure he can do chicken)

We have been having a hell of a time...well more me since I am pretty confident that he doesn't care if he has diarrhea all over my carpet

[kaytenmags]

you can get duck feet too, if he can eat duck. my dog just seems to prefer the chicken feet, they're crunchier.

hope you've got a good carpet cleaner! best thing i've ever bought was one of those little bissell green machine things. i knew my white carpet was on borrowed time from day one. on the meet n greet, the girl from the rescue group brought the dog by for a home check, and well... mags walked right past the tile foyer and had completely liquid tapass all over the carpet. we spent the meet n greet cleaning carpet. and yet, for some reason, i decided to keep her....

[pitbullgirlbc]

Where do you pick up boneless trim? I mean this dog will eat raw chicken breast, and raw stew beef, and loves his raw bones....especially parading in front of the cats with them. In all honesty i think it is the texture of the ground up stuff that he hates and the smell of the veggies.

[FBODGRL]

Where do you pick up boneless trim? I mean this dog will eat raw chicken breast, and raw stew beef, and loves his raw bones....especially parading in front of the cats with them. In all honesty i think it is the texture of the ground up stuff that he hates and the smell of the veggies.

For the turkey much of what I have right now is from trimming down wings to 1/2 lb weight from when I was feeding 2 meals. This weekend I am buying a 40lb box through a supplier on a raw group. I also have a bunch of boneless venison. For pork I have used pork shoulder roast, tenderloin cuts and chops(boneless). I can say that I haven't always been the most economically smart. I try and get stuff on sale, etc and stock up....but with the issues we have had there have been times I have had to pay more for stuff. We are definitely not at the point that I can just feed whatever falls out of the freezer as they say!

[kaytenmags]

Where do you pick up boneless trim? I mean this dog will eat raw chicken breast, and raw stew beef, and loves his raw bones....especially parading in front of the cats with them. In all honesty i think it is the texture of the ground up stuff that he hates and the smell of the veggies.

i don't feed veggies. prey model = no veggies.
most of the boneless trim i have is wild game, and that i got from hunters last season (it was a GOOD season).
i do get a fair bit of boneless pork on occasion, when the pork picnic roasts come on sale. last time they were cheap ($0.77/lb!!!) i got a chunk that was about 27lbs. seriously, it was HUGE. i cut it down into smaller chunks and packed it in the freezer. it was fun to purchase tho. everyone looks at you funny when you buy such large chunks of meat. i mean, what does a 'normal' person do with a chunk that big?! it certainly wouldn't fit in any roaster i've ever seen...

the only ground i feed (which isn't much), i stuff into kongs and freeze.

[kellienurse]

whoa....started reading over this thread...I"m overwhelmed and confused. I'm debating wheather to home cook my dogs meals or try the B.A.R.F. but I wouldn't have a clue where to find a ox tail or kelp or this green tripe or whatever y'all were talking about. After reading up on commercial dog food though I know I don't want to feed that anymore. I've just always heard don't feed dogs chicken bones they will splinter and also I have read where someone said beef rib bones can splinter...I have 2 small yorkie mix dogs, one who is not a good chewer at all, as a matter of fact he acts like it hurts to chew on hard dog food so I usually have to buy the small mini bites so don't know how he will do with bones but my other 2 absolutely love bones. Occasionally I would get smoked bones and feed them but from what I hear I shouldn't even give them smoked...they should only be raw. So where to start?? Can I just go buy raw and start feeding them or do I need to slowly incorporate this into their diets?

[FBODGRL]

I feed prey model which is Meat, bones and organ 80/10/10

I don't feed any tripe, etc.

You can switch cold turkey, but do a lot of research before you start so you know what you are doing. There are several other posts in this section in addition to this thread. Just search RAW. I know I have a couple semi-recent ones since we switched in the fall.

[buckaroo]

whoa....started reading over this thread...I"m overwhelmed and confused. I'm debating wheather to home cook my dogs meals or try the B.A.R.F. but I wouldn't have a clue where to find a ox tail or kelp or this green tripe or whatever y'all were talking about. After reading up on commercial dog food though I know I don't want to feed that anymore. I've just always heard don't feed dogs chicken bones they will splinter and also I have read where someone said beef rib bones can splinter...I have 2 small yorkie mix dogs, one who is not a good chewer at all, as a matter of fact he acts like it hurts to chew on hard dog food so I usually have to buy the small mini bites so don't know how he will do with bones but my other 2 absolutely love bones. Occasionally I would get smoked bones and feed them but from what I hear I shouldn't even give them smoked...they should only be raw. So where to start?? Can I just go buy raw and start feeding them or do I need to slowly incorporate this into their diets?

It probably does hurt your Yorkie to chew. They have notoriously bad teeth. Has he had them looked at lately? I fostered one recently who at 3 years old needed to have all his teeth removed in 4 different dental procedures.

[kellienurse]

Yep he goes to vet at least every 6 months and I voiced my concerns to him and they said his teeth looked fine. He has always been like that though, even as a puppy. I am a nurse, and thinking of how humans have evolved over the years... our ancestors who just went and killed a cow and dug their potatoes and ate them were far less healthy than we are. Now our diets have added vitamins and minerals to our foods. Many diseases of years ago are no longer present due to our more complete nutritional intake. Our life expectancy has increased as our knowledge about nutrition has expanded, not to mention advances in medical care. I think I will feed more than raw bones/meat but it is surely a vast improvement over any processed kibble. I've got to do some serious research though. Just found the article about border collie in MD who was raised on a vegan diet, 27yrs old....interesting. I won't be turning my dogs vegan though