A few notes on natural feeding and the BARF
diet:
1.
Grow Your Pups SLOWLY -
We started feeding the BARF diet a little
over two years ago, shortly before we got Colten.
I sometimes wish I had known about it when Jake was a puppy.
At the age of ten months, he was diagnosed with grade 4 Hip Dysplasia and
required two Femoral Head Ostectomies. Luckily,
the surgeries worked beautifully for Jake, and at the age of ten he is still
bouncing around like a teenager. However,
looking back, I am convinced that he was loaded with too much protein and grew
too fast at a young age. We believe
this greatly contributed to his issues with his hips.
We remember bringing him to
class when he was about 8 months of age and almost 80 pounds and bragging about
how big he was. Little did we know
that the rapid growth spurts he was having were wreaking havoc on his body. He was getting so much protein in his “high quality” dog
food that his body was producing loads of calcium.
Puppies should be grown SLOWLY. That
is, at about sixty percent of their growth potential.
I often see huge puppies in classes and sometimes recommend their owners
get them off puppy food, which has higher contents of fat and protein, and
switch them to regular dog food, with lower amounts.
2. IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE
HARD
Find good sources of supplies......The two
things you will need the most of for the diet are raw, meaty bones and
vegetables. When we first started
out, we purchased veggies at the store and brought them home to grind them.
Hours later we had enough ground veggies to make only a few pounds of
food. It was so much work we almost
considered giving up. Search around
and see if you can’t find a good source of bulk vegetable pulp. We were lucky enough to find a health food store that had a
very popular juice bar. At the end
of each day they are left with about a hundred pounds of vegetable pulp,
including carrots, beets, oat grass, parsley, fruits and other veggies.
We simply call ahead and carry it away for them before they toss it in a
dumpster. Making friends with one
of these stores will be a great time saver for you.
THE BARF
DIET FOR PUPPIES
(from
“Grow Your Pups With Bones – Dr. Ian Billinghurst, D.V.M)
-
The diet
consists of two basic parts. Firstly,
the raw meaty bones, and secondly, the vegetable and mince patties.
FOR
VARIETY YOU CAN THROW IN THE OCCASIONAL PORRIDGE MEAL,
or milk meal or meat meal. So long
as the program of patties and raw meaty bones I outline makes up at least 80
percent of the total diet of the pup, then little additions of people food or
whatever should not make too much difference.
When
making the patties it is essential that the raw crushed veggie material should
form at least half of the mix. The
only time you want the patties to contain more mince would be when you have a
pup that is reluctant to eat vegetables. However,
do realize that the extra mince is
only there for that reason. To
persuade the pup to eat the patties. It
must be reduced as soon as possible. The
need to reduce the mince to less than half becomes most critical, particularly
with the larger breeds of dogs where we need to limit protein and total energy
intake.
The
raw crushed vegetables will contain such things as silver beet, spinach, celery,
members of the cabbage family, root vegetables such as carrots and sugar beet.
Whatever is seasonally and locally available.
Many pups just love the taste of sugar beet.
Use whatever fruit is in season or whatever you can get a hold of,
including such things as tomatoes, apples, oranges, mangos, grapes, bananas,
whatever. The other half of the
patty mix consists of raw, lean meat, finely minced.
That mince meat can be virtually any lean mince, chicken, beef, lamb,
rabbit, turkey, buffalo, pork, crocodile, kangaroo, moose, bison, venison,
whatever. It must be raw.
Use whatever is readily and cheaply available.
Remember the mince should only form at most half or preferably less than
half of the mix. It may be minced
chicken or turkey or duck wings, or necks, in which case it will be more fatty
and contain bone. This must be kept
in mind when you are trying to limit the calories in your patty mixture.
The
following amounts of additives are added to a total mix of two kg of vegetables
and mince.
Yogurt – low fat and plain say half a small tub
Eggs – raw and preferably free range –about
three
Flax seed oil – two or three dessert spoons
Raw liver – a ¼ of a lambs liver
Garlic – one or two cloves
Kelp powder – 2-3 tsp
B Vitamins and Vitamin c – a mega dose of each.
Plus
other healthy food scraps. These
might be small amts. Of cooked veggies, rice, cottage cheese, other leftovers
such as scrambled eggs, etc… These
are rather more likely to be available for individual dogs in families rather
than pups in a breeding or boarding kennel.
Blend
the raw crushed veggies, the lean raw mince and additives into a smooth
homogonous mix.
You
can make as much or little as you like.
Let
me emphasize that the recipe can be scaled up or down.
It all depends on how much freezer space you have for storing it.
How much you want to make and freeze ahead of time and what sort of
equipment you have to produce it.
IMPORTANT
– it is essential that the pup eats everything you put in the mix so make sure
the whole lot is mixed into a homogonous mass that your pups cannot separate and
therefore pick and choose the bits they do and don’t want.
Any
surplus not fed on the day should be formed into patties frozen, then thawed and
used as required.
Add
vitamin e just before you feed the patties. E.g., for an 11 lb pup, give 100i.u.
or 100mg daily.
These
patties can be fed alternately with the raw meaty bones.
If your pup shows a preference to either then feed whichever of these the
pup likes the least when it is the most hungry. Feed your pup cod liver oil every day – e.g. for an 11 lb
pup give 1-2 ml daily.
You
must also ensure that there are available large bones – the dinosaur bones,
the dog bones from the limbs of cattle or sheep, etc.. The femurs and tibias of
the hind legs and humerus, radius and ulnae of the front legs.
These are for the pups to spend their days chewing on.
The pups will only be able to chew the ends of these, however these bones
provide valuable eating exercise, particularly for the jaw.
The help cut teethe, they clean teeth and the pups eat the valuable
cartilage from the ends of these bones. The
cartilage play and enormous role in producing healthy, disease free joints in
the pups.
HOW
MUCH?
As you know by now, to grow pups with healthy bones, it is essential that
they be grown slowly, particularly larger breeds of dogs, and most particularly,
giant breeds. Numerous trials have
shown that pups of any breed grown in this manner, - slowly – will not develop
any of the juvenile bone disease. To
achieve the desired rate of growth you must only feed enough food to support a
moderate rate of growth. Sufficient
food and no more to have that pup growing at about 60-75 percent of its maximum
growth rate.
A
SUMMARY OF PUPPY FEEDING PRINCIPLES:
Pups
need to be fed a diet based on raw meaty bones – about 60 percent
Pups
need a diet based on raw-crushed vegetables – about 30 percent.
Pups
need some offal in their diet – about 5-10 percent
Pups
should be kept lean and slightly hungry, no matter what the breed
Pups
should not be allowed to become fat
Pups
should be grown slowly
Pups
should never be grown at their maximum growth rate
Pups
do not need extra calcium if they eat plenty of raw meaty bones
Pups
do not need processed food
Pups
do not need cooked grain meals – a little bit occasionally is ok
Pups
do not need a feeding routine
Pups
do not need each meal to be complete and balanced
Pups
DO need their whole feeding regiment to be complete and balanced
A
pup should eat mainly raw food
Fresh
frozen food (thawed) is fine for pups.
Healthy
soil or clay may be part of a dog’s diet
An
occasionally short fast will not be harmful and may be of benefit
Pups
should be exposed in a controlled manner to bacteria
If
you can use the above as a checklist and say yes – that is how my pups are
raised – there is very little chance your dogs will develop skeletal problems.
Whatever you do, be aware of the basic errors that cause problems.
Too much food, an extra fast rate of growth, extra protein, extra fat and
extra artificial calcium are well potential bone wreckers.
GOOD
LUCK!!!!!
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diet
