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Joined: May 2004
Posts: 7,930
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heres a good link which might answer some of your questions
http://ukbarfclub.co.uk/nm/anmviewer.asp?a=19&z=16
The Rules:
1. Dogs should be fed on a variety of raw meat and bones. Just sticking to one meat source is no good – you don’t get all your nutrients. Do not feed pork. If your dog has a skin or bowel problem, do not feed beef initially until you know that this will not cause hypersensitivity.
2. Quantities – for every 10kg weight, a dog should eat about 100-150g meat and twice this volume in fruit and veg. This is only a guideline to start. If your dog is gaining weight, reduce quantities, if they are loosing, increase.
3. For every handful of meat, feed 2 handfuls of liquidised raw veg*. A bit like the old ‘meat and two veg’ adage! If you do not think you can feed the variety, contact the practice and we can supply a very good supplement called Pet Plus for Dogs (contact the practice to be sent some). Nuts, herbs and cooked beans should be added to the ‘veg’ portion.
4. Feed raw bones once or twice weekly. (RAW bones are easily chewed and digested. It is very unlikely, but not impossible that bones will get stuck in the gut. If you do NOT give bones to clean teeth, however, a general anaesthetic for dental work is very likely).
5. Feed offal (either kidney, heart, lung or liver) once a week instead of meat. Remember, wild animals come with offal alongside the meat. It is a necessary part (however distasteful) of a balanced diet. Vary the organ meat weekly.
6. Do not feed cereals (mixer biscuits or treats).
* Take any veges, especially green leaved ones, fruit and salad items and place in the liquidiser. You can use just one or two ingredients at any one liquidising, but make sure you have variety from week to week. Blend to a rough broth. Add some water to give a liquid texture, if necessary. Pour on the meat in a 1:2 ratio by volume, meat to veg. If your dog is ill or old, you may take a few days to more gradually change the regime to raw.
How to bend the rules:
1. If you cannot bear to feed raw meat, very light cooking in olive oil to ‘seal’ the juices is ok. Meat should be rare when served.
2. Liquidised raw veg will last for 48 hours in the fridge, so you can do the blending only 3x weekly, but remember it looses it’s goodness pretty quickly after liquidising. If you cannot do this daily, consider using rice as an alternative. Pasta is no good as it is made from wheat. If you cannot give a variety of veg and fruit, let me know and I can supply a very good supplement called PET PLUS FOR DOGS.
3. An oven baked mixer biscuit can be used to fill out the diet once or twice weekly: feed 1/3 meat, 1/3 veg and 1/3 biscuit. e.g. Natural Choice Holistic Dog Food 01278 652 184. Do not use any cereals if you are trying to avoid grains.
4. If you cannot bear the thought of raw bones, the AMP minces such as Chicken dinner, Turkey Dinner and Rabbit Dinner contain finely ground bone to give Calcium. Some chews are needed in the diet to clean the teeth though.