You will hear this often, but, you need to buy one of the books on raw food, either Kymythy Schultze's book or the Give your Dog a Bone one. Leerburg has all of these. You need to read these to fully understand the thought behind it, and also so you know what NOT to feed. I feed chicken bones, turkey bones, beef bones, and pork bones. All of these have meat on them, not the type where all the meat is stripped. MUST BE RAW! In addition I feed ground hamburger with different veggies. Veggies must be rotated and varried so as to not creat an imbalance. I also add supplements such as salmon oil, kelp powder, alfalfa powder. Quantities will vary with each dog and its activity level. My dog, who I think is too thin, weights 67 pounds, is 25" at the shoulders. I am trying to get him to gain some weight so I feed him more than what the book requires. Hope that helps.....

I will purchase the books recommended. I purchased a dog in February who had apparetnly been on the BARF diet before i had gotten her but she was placed 2 times before and no one kept up on it and she is so thin, i give her veges, raw chicken and hamburger and flax and vita sups, but she seems not to be gaining. I have recently supplemented her on Puppy food, with her diet, and am starting to notice a little difference, but should she really need this extra, or is there something she needs more. We have 8 german shepherds, 2 neopolitan mastiffs, 4 pekingese and a labrador and a boston terrier. All spoiled, but thats alot of Raw food, I currently feed Diamond Dog food, but really would like to switch all my big dogs, someone said to give yogurt and cottage cheese, is this good or bad?? sorry for all the questions Thanks

A list of foods I feed:
Meat all raw except canned fish: any fresh raw fish filets or whole fish, canned sardines, canned mackrel, canned salmon, ground beef chicken or turkey, chicken necks backs or wings, turkey necks, pork necks, lamb necks, venisen, whole rabbits, beef/veal hearts liver kidney, pork butt, pork liver, chicken hearts gizzards livers. The bulk of their meat is chicken necks with fish being given once per week and organ meats given 3 times per week.

Veggies: anything goes except onions, hot peppers. Rotate your veggies so you do not overdo any. Watch quantity of spinach given. All veggies must be pured and raw. I make batches up every 2 months consisting of 10-12 different veggies. Will freeze them in containers. Dogs love canned plain pumpkin, sweet potatoes and squash. 10% of my veggie mix is fruit such as apples, pears, grapes, mangos, berries, melons and so on. My dogs love avacados and bananas.

Misc foods: eggs, tofu (in small amounts) yogurt, cottage cheese, white cheeses. Any leftovers.

Oils: Veg. oil, olive oil, flax seed oil, wheat germ oil, cod liver oil, Borage oil, salmon oil are all rotated.

Suppliments: kelp, alfalfa, C, E, B-complex, grand flex, grape seed extract, unfiltered apple cider vinager, blackstrap molassas, honey, missing link

My dogs get very little grain only in the form of leftovers. I am sure I am missing something in this list, but there is very little I do not give. Keep away from sugars, processed bleached flours and all that human junk food.

There is a web e-mail group on yahoo email groups called k9nutrition that is very good with raw food information.

Nancy

I have been feeding a raw natural diet for over 7 yrs. to my dogs and I would never consider feeding anything else. I have raised several litters on it as well and event the vets commented on how strong and healthy they were.

I think the true benefits of feeding this way will be seen in the many generations to come (along with few vaccines).

Ed, there is apparently a new book out on this diet called, Switching to Raw, that is supposed to be very good (I have the book you recommeded as well...actually, I think I have every book ever written on the topic <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

The new book is on it's way to me and I can hardly wait to see if it is as good as people have told me.

It is nice to be on a BB that supports this type of diet and information on vaccines!!!

For all those who are raising litters on a raw diet, how often do you convince new owners of the diet. It's hard to have such a great start on life to then have the pup be put on something like Iams. Do you cringe knowing that? I know I would

Hi Barf feeders,
Just a point for you all. I had a dobe pup I was barf feeding as i do all our dogs. I was carving lumps of meat of a dead cows leg one day and tossing them to him. He was eating them OK when he suddenly started chocking. He rolled over and was gasping for air. I stuck my finger down his throat but didnt do any good. I finally got him by the back legs and wacked him against the ground really hard and it dislodged the lump of meat.

Moral is, dogs in the wild tear meat off a carcase , no one cuts it up for them, they get smallish pieces they can swallow, if you cut it up make sure it is small enough they cant choke on it, better yet just throw them a big lump and let them gnaw away on it.

I feed best in show it is at bestinshowpowerfood.com
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Hi, I just started the natural diet additions in the last year. I do see a great difference in all over health and condition. What I do is put the puppy/dog on a high quality, natural kibble with as few ingredients as possible and then I start the natural foods. I begin with a raw egg (whole) once a week, the second week add a chicken breast raw, no bones, the third week add a large raw marrow leg bone (beef), the 4 th week add the vegetables, the 5th week add the pasta and so on, then it becomes that each week, the dogs are getting something different each day almost. They still eat their kibble because I am totally unsure if my natural foods are enough and balanced right. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Vomperele, Im not sure if its is a good idea to change a dogs diet so regulalry as daily. My understanding is that dogs digestive system is put out of wack by varying the diet too much.I may be wrong in this, maybe someone else would care to comment. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

We have a 6 1/2 month German Shepherd Mix. I have written before, she is on the diet that Schultze recommends, and has been on it for about month and a half. We treated her for Demodectic Mange and she quit chewing her hind quarters. Now she is losing her hair on her sides, rear legs, and back. It is coming out by the HANDFULS. She is not chewing (biting)anymore. I know that from reading that this can be detox. But is losing by the handfuls normal? She has been shedding about 2 weeks now but the handfuls has just been about 3 or 4 days. She has short fine hair still in so she isn't bald anywhere, but all the long hair is coming out.

Please help.

Jo Ann