BARF is merely an acronym for bones and raw feeding, or biologically appropriate raw feeding it does not state QUANTITIES of food!

The originator of this Acronym was Ian Billingshurt but using the acronym does not mean you agree with his views......................

My biggest tip is not to get too hung up about ratios and percentages when it comes to total quantity to feed and the meat/bone/offal thing and a balance does not have to be achieved over a day or a week, it can be achieved over a much longer period.

Use common sense to figure out if your dog is getting too little or too much of something because if there is an imbalance it will show in their bowel movements, their weight, coat and skin condition etc.

I weigh nothing out and I never get my calculator out, I do it all by averages and my own judgement.

I am a bung it person myself, bung in fridge, bung in bowl........

In that case, you are indeed very lucky, and have nothing to lose at all by feeding raw.

There are still (too) many vets who are against the idea and that can lead to immense difficulties: some are happy to blame any little discrepancy on the raw diet; while with others it's best to keep one's mouth firmly shut and tell them you feed Pedigree Chum!

Why feed Raw? – When I first heard about raw in passing, and didn't know much about it, I thought it was a load of mumbo jumbo (a bit like Pedigrees Better by Nature with pasta and peas! ). "Feed your dog like wolf!"....I dunno, it judy sounded like a gimic to me. However Moon, coming from Vietnam and raised on a diet of rice and occassional scraps, was struggling to conform to a western kibble diet. He didn't enjoy eating it, whatever I mixed it he would lick off of every bit! After a year he still wasn't eating a full meal and day and wasn't putting weight on. So I decided to read up about raw, after being better informed, we gave it a go. We never looked back Suddenly Moon was excited about mealtimes and actually finishing his meals! He stayed on raw until he died.

When we got Cain he had a senstive digestive tract. I our him on a specialist GSD kibble by Royal Canin and Chappie, as advised by many GSD owners but his rear end was still dire! Finally someone suggested that feeding raw might make Cain calmer so in hope, I switched him. I didn't put him on raw initially because I was worried he couldn't handle the variety. However he's done well, it wasn't instant and took hid tummy time to settle (although no worse than on the kibble) however now his tummy is perfect and his stools are nearly always perfect. His behaviour outside of the house has no effect, however he used to go made after dinner, hurling toys around the house for half an hour, now he settles down on his bed contented. I suspect that until the kibble expanded, he was still hungry and showing frustration, now hrs happy and satisfied after every meal. And I love that way that it tajes him 45 mins to eat a whole rabbit then flake out happily after

What to buy? – I feed Cain minced chicken, lamb and tripe, beef, Eco mince etc. He gets offal like liver and kidneys, plus muscle meat heart. He gets White fish fillets and whole raw oily fish like mackerel and the odd tin of fish. He gets chicken wings/necks/carcasses, pigs trotters, ribs etc for his bone content. He gets half a whole rabbit a week for a good munch, plus the odd large bone for chewing (non weight bearing). Plus to odd egg, occassional fruit and veg plus a daily carrot.

I feed prey model as I feel any higher bone content would constipate them. 10% is pleanty to keep them solid. Btw here's a common tip - feed bones and liber on the same day to counteract the stool loosening effect of the liver!

Where to buy from? – I buy from a specialist pet raw good supplier online - the dog food company, and he's great. I was paying £40 a month for special kibble plus £10 for tins of Chappie. I now pay around £20 a month for food from the raw supplier plus a few reduced bits from the supermarket etc. I feel I feed a diet more suited to Cain bit it's literally half the price!

How much to feed and how often? – I wanted Cain to drop a couple of kg so I fed him at 2% of what I considered his ideal weight, having not managed to weigh him since, I am unsure if he's dropped it or not but he's looking a good weigh so I'll keep him slightly under 2%, it works for him. I feed him twice a day, partly due to bloat risks, but also I get grumpy if I don't have three meals a day, I'd hate to have one! So I think Cain is happier and more settled with a full tummy and would get too hungry on judy one meal a day.

How to introduce your dog to raw – we also went "cold turkey"

What age to start feeding a puppy – I have no experience of this but I know people wean puppies straight on to raw. You need to feed them more, like 2-3% of their expected adult weight, I think?

Raw has worked out well for us. Cain loves the variety, it's settled his stomach (which was proving to be an on going back and forth to the vet thing which I thought might be for life!), he's more satisfied with his meals and it works out loads cheaper!

You are lucky you have your vets support though. When Moon got kidney failure the vet immediately blamed to first symptoms (vomiting and dihorrea) on the raw, although it had nothing to do with it. Every vets I've met ao far has at the minimum frowned when I say he's on raw, and others have given me a lecture. I have learned to say "it's my dog and I shall feed him what I like", so you may need a thick skin. Wish they put this much effort into people who feed their dogs Bakers and Wagg!!

I got shouted at by the PDSA vet because she said my dog had good teeth and I said that was the chicken wings. She went ballistic and said I was killing my dog.
I just don`t tell them now.

I started looking into feeding raw not long after I got Lana so started feeding it a couple of months after I got her. I switched her straight onto it and she loved it. I swear she used to almost skip into the kitchen in the morning for her breakfast.

I think raw is so much healthier for dogs, also the small volume of poo she passed on raw compared to the dry food I gave her at first. I'm ashamed to say it was Bakers I didn't know any better at the time, it was before I joined the forum here.

I do it the easy way. I buy minced chicken, beef, turkey,lamb,rabbit and stuff like that which has bone in it from a raw food distributor and sometimes give her chicken wings. I don't feed her bones as we don't have a garden for her to lie in so she has to eat them in the house but she doesn't like them fresh, she leaves them for about 4-5 days first and they start to stink and in the summer the flies come in to them.

I give her tinned pilchards and also liver and heart that I buy at the supermarket.

She eats the heart raw but I slightly cook the liver for her as otherwise she won't eat it.

I buy from someone up here in Fife so can't recommend anyone to you but if you search on google for raw food for dogs you should hopefully find one in your area. If not you can buy meat from the butchers or supermarket.

You feed the dog 2-3% of their bodyweight. Here's a link to a calculator http://www.raw4dogs.com/calculate.htm

2% of Lanas weight is 320 grams but she gets 600 grams a day and stays at a stable weight, not fat at all. I might try and cut her down a little in the summer although she was fed that amount last summer as well. She did put a little weight on to start with but she needed to and her weight is now stable.

Last year when she was in season she kept refusing her meals so I started giving her tinned food. This continued for a couple of months because of the snow here and the problem with deliveries. Got her onto raw food again about 3 weeks ago.

On the tinned food her coat had gone dull and very course and had a white haze over her back. She was as energetic as usual when out at the park but I thought she was maturing as she just lay around the house sleeping the rest of the time. Since she's been back on raw her coat is softer and glossy again, she gets her walks and goes to the park twice a day now as it's lighter for longer but she's much more energetic in the house again coming to me looking to play.

From what I've read on the britbarf yahoo group people start feeding their puppies raw as soon as they can eat.

By giving them 'whole' rabbit does it make them more likely to go and eat that rotten one lying dead in the field for days? We have worked very hard to stop this, wouldn't want to revert back if we were to consider this type of diet.

Mine get whole (fur and all) rabbit at least once or twice a month but still have a good "leave" for rotting animals in the fields we walk over. Mine will still do a good "leave" for their own bones on the floor too though, so might be worth training in that situation so when you come across rotting animals you already have the start of a leave in place?

Feeding a whole rabbit in the "nude" will not encourage this behaviour but it might if you fed it with its jacket on.