Alternative Feeding To The Raw BARF Diet For Dogs

For anyone that is feeding his or her dog a raw diet I am sure that you have done all the research on this, just as I have. Most veterinarians will tell you not to feed raw to your dogs as they, I believe get a kick back from the dog food companies for promoting the food that they sell. I could be wrong about this but it is something to think about. Dogs are far healthier that are on a raw diet, therefore less trips to the veterinarians equals less money to the veterinarians. With all this said I am sure that there are dogs perhaps that do benefit or need to be on a kibble diet.

I have wanted to write this hub for sometime now, but have put it off due to so many people believing that raw is bad. I am sure that I will get a lot of controversy over this one. So be it. I am not an expert on dog health and I am not an animal care technician. I am only writing this, as I am very passionate on the subject of feeding dogs and cats raw diets. I changed veterinarians because of getting so much ridicule about how I was feeding my dogs. The first trip to my current and new veterinarian went really well. He examined my dogs and after telling me they were very healthy he asked me how often I brushed their teeth. My reply was I don’t brush their teeth I feed them raw. He then asked what I fed them and what supplements I gave them and so on. After our conversation he told me to keep going with what I was doing as it was working well for the dogs.

There are many books you can buy on the subject of feeding raw diets to pets as well as a vast array of positive and negative articles on the Internet. I think I probably spent three months reading and reading before I decided to go with the raw diet. For anyone thinking about changing his or her pets diet over to raw I recommend doing extensive research before you switch. It is expensive but well worth it if you can afford to do so.  

• Bad breath will no longer exist
• Teeth are much healthier, whiter, and there will be less plaque build up
• Dogs are less likely to have allergies
• Dogs are living longer lives on raw diets
• In some cases arthritis pain has been reduced
• Dogs that are fed raw tend to be more energetic

I have two Newfoundland dogs and have included a chart below. This chart is for my female who weights 120 pounds and male that is 130. Obviously it all depends on the weight of the dog as to how much to feed. I used to work for a Newfoundland and Leonberger breeder and she helped me to set up a guideline of meat, vegetables and supplements. She has been feeding raw at her kennel for about 8 years now and has had great results. Gail Bishop also shows her dogs and has produced many champions.

Please note that in the above chart I have stilbestrol listed. That is a prescription drug for my dog.

I have a very large freezer to store all my dogs food in. This is something to consider before starting your dog on a raw diet.

All of these supplements can be found at a health food store.

Daily

Vitamin C with calcium 1/4 tsp.

Vitamin E mixed Natural 400 UI

B Complex 1 cap broken and mixed into food

Salmon Oil 1000 mg. 1 capsule

Alfalfa 1/2 tsp

Kelp 1 TBS