feeding barf, advice wanted

[CarraghsGem 92]

ok, id like to go down the route of feeding barf, what should i give my dogs to provide them with a balanced diet? should i feed mixer?

 

this is the meat/fish i have at my disposal at moment (cheap or free)

 

*whole chicken carcasses (cull roosters ,some free, 1euro each the rest)

*cows tongue (butcher,2euro each)

*cow/lambs heart (butcher ,free)

*green tripe- whole (via butcher but straight from slaughterhouse not cleaned at my request,1euro each)

*fresh fish heads (fishmonger,free)

*whole rabbit (wild caught)

*lambs liver (4euro for 3-4 whole livers)

*kidneys (1euro for 4-5, butcher)

*raw beef bones (free, butcher)

*raw pigs trotters (free, butcher)

*raw eggs (aldi- 1.82 for 10, also some spare free range, duck, quail, hen)

*carrots (aldi/lidl, 99c per bag i think)

*cabbage etc

Edited August 23, 2010 by CarraghsGem

[DottyDoo 500]

a good variety in all the above an grate a bit a veg in with it a few times a week

 

wouldnt use mixer, they digest at diffent rates

[cúagusgiorraí 57]

Dont feed too much cabbage. You are better off with cooked veg; brussells sprouts, turnip, carrots, garden peas.

 

Dont buy lambs's liver, its a rip off, just ask for a Beef liver and you will get a massive bag of liver for free

Dont feed too much liver, a small tablespoon of liver every other day is plenty.

 

Lamb bones are the best. Beef bones can be very hard and splinter.

 

No harm in giving some porridge or rice to give them an extra carb boost for the winter or during a week of hard work. They store carbs as glycogen in their muscles

 

I usually avoid pork, but feed it if I have nothing else. Avoid pork skin. I find it gives the dogs diarrhea!

 

Get a bag of fatty scraps for free, pack it up into small bags and freeze it all. Take a frozen bag out every few days and let them gnaw on the lump of frozen fat for their meal. It is not just meat they need but also Fat. When my dogs are working full time in the winter. I find they need a good portion of fat, extra protein, and carbs, to keep them in shape.

 

Whole rabbit is the best thing for them really, that includes the pelt and paunch (make sure to keep your dogs wormed!). Some people dont like to feed the pelt, but if you dog is careful enough then he will eat the pelt slowly and bit by bit. Its all good fibre

Edited August 24, 2010 by cúagusgiorraí

[gnipper 6,627]

If you've got all that at your disposal then i'd feed the equivalent of a whole carcase like mainly muscle and bone with a bit of heart and a good chunk of green tripe, if the tripes unwashed then there's your veg stuck all over the inside of it. Give em fish now and again for a change but I wouldn't bother with eggs personally. I wouldn't cook any of it either.

 

There's loads of stuff on the net

http://www.ukrmb.co.uk/showcontent.toy?contentnid=175913

[TOMO 27,449]

a good easy way to ad vedge , is frozen mixed vedge from supermarket, i get the ones with peas carrots brocoli in ,, avoid sweetcorn , comes out exactly as it went in.

 

agree with the irishman who's name i cant spell, rice is good for them but like the vedge you dont need loads.

 

personly though i like the beef bones , i get the masive leg bones for free, and leave them on the garden the dogs will lay and chew them for an hour or so, i leave them for a week or more, and the dogs chew them most days.

 

plenty beef , lamb, horse, meat pluss rabbits game ect

[DottyDoo 500]

how often dae you guys feed rice??? an dae ye boil it as ye wid for yerself??

[Guest jt750]

mine are fed boiled rice ..i use rotation between veg+ rice/pasta

[CarraghsGem 92]

can buy rice by the sack in halal shops, saves a few pound buying it that way

[DottyDoo 500]

i was under the impression that barf was all raw????

 

so boiling rice or pasta or veg aint actually barf is it???

[Guest jt750]

well rice is a dried seed so likely needs boiling or soaking to bring the goodness out and pasta is made from wheat flour and eggand dried also so on a point you are correct . but could a dog process the carbs if fed straight out of a packet ..possibly not

[DottyDoo 500]

but surely then that raw meat an cooked pasta an rice will got throo the dogs digestive system at diffrent rates

an in that case the dog aint getting all the goodness it should out of 1 or the other....

[Guest jt750]

rice and pasta are very simple foods and easy to digest and i would think by feeding mainly raw the digestive is not repressed in anyway so they can handle the simplicity of cooked rice/pasta along with the more complex meat/bone/organ/offal meat we feed

[DottyDoo 500]

how would a wild dog bulk up on extra carbs???

 

rice an pasta just seem like a bulker to me.....

[shepp 2,285]

but surely then that raw meat an cooked pasta an rice will got throo the dogs digestive system at diffrent rates

an in that case the dog aint getting all the goodness it should out of 1 or the other....

 

Here we go again!

[gnipper 6,627]

I've never found veg or pasta to make any difference, just give them meat offal and bones. Doesn't BARF stand for biologically appropriate raw food? If so what could be more so for a carnivorous animal than meat?