BARF in this instance stands for Bones and Raw Food. The BARF diet is favored by many dog owners because of the lack of chemical additives in food. Rather than feeding dogs kibble that is soaked in vitamins and chemical additives that keep kibble “fresh,” believers in the BARF diet prefer to feed foods that their dog would be able to scavenge or otherwise obtain in the wild. Barf Diet followers strongly believe that their dogs are better off eating foods they would be able to find in nature because it is filled with the nutrients that they need, it uses their bodies the way they were meant to be used in nature and does not force them to consume man made chemicals. The one thing to know about raw feeding or BARF diets is that they are most certainly not for the squimish.

If you are thinking about following a raw diet you will need to invest a lot of time in to researching the concept as well as the workings of making up a raw diet. Since manufactured dog kibble is sprayed with adequate vitamins you are not faced with balancing your dogs diet as you would be with a raw diet. Raw diets must be made up of numerous foods which balance each other out to provide your dog with adequate nutrition. A great website to begin studying up on the BARF diet can be found here. In your transition to feeding a BARF diet you may be tempted to feed kibble as well as raw food, this is a very possible option and many people feed kibble for breakfast and raw food for dinner; however, many dogs prefer to go completely raw as soon as they get the taste for a raw diet and will look at their kibble with their nose turned up. Also keep in mind that you should not feed raw and kibble in the same meal as they are digested differently and having kibble in the stomach that takes longer to digest than raw food increases the chances your dog can become sick from raw meat.

BARF feeding can be overwhelming when you first begin, learning which supplements you have to add to your dog’s raw food, what ratio of meat/bone/organ you can feed your dog per day, how to prep food…it can all be extremely overwhelming but it does get easier as you go. You can find various websites offering support and active communities to share your journey in to BARF feeding, just take a look around Google and you are sure to find one or two, perhaps even breed specific web communities that can offer you the support that you need! BARF feeding not only gets easier but it often times turns out to be a cheaper option than kibble, especially if you feed a better quality kibble. Many people find that finding a local butcher or even warehouse club helps them to cut down the cost of purchasing meat and again there are various websites online that can help you track down butchers and meat producers that specifically deal with BARF clients. Ordering meat wholesale online is also an option, just make sure you find reputable companies that can guarantee their product and are located within the United States.

Figuring out how much to feed is a major concern for many new to the BARF diet; however, using the formula below you can find out how much your dog should be eating daily in their BARF diet:

Multiply your dogs weight by 16 to get his weight in ounces.
Multiply that by .02, which is 2% of his body weight.
Multiply that by .6 to give you the weight of raw meaty bones (RMB) you should feed.*
Remember that 2% of his body weight number? Multiply that by .4 to get the weight (ounces) of vegetable mix  you should feed.

*RMB’s are meats with bones still inside such as ribs, chicken necks/backs etc

This formula will give you the base amount of food you should feed on a raw food diet; however, you may find that you need to adjust these numbers depending on your dog, you do not want to obviously starve nor overfeed your pup.

RMB’s (raw meaty bones) make up a large portion of what your dog will be eating on a raw diet, do not confuse these with larger bones that you use for recreational chewing and teeth cleaning purposes. RMB’s have more substance to them including a good portion of meat for nutrition, the bones within them are soft enough to be chewed and digested (NEVER EVER feed cooked bones.) Recreational bones, like the marrow bones I have discussed previously, may also have raw meat attached to them as well as marrow inside; however, they are larger bones which cannot be chewed up and do not provide the adequate nutrition that RMB’s provide.

Bacteria is often a major concern for people who are new to BARF feeding, the thing to remember is that dogs were initially meant to eat raw meats and bones and whatever they found in nature, bacteria is often not even an issue when it comes to your dog accepting a raw diet. If, however, you are concerned about bacteria nonetheless or if you have a sick or elderly dog you will find that adding a probiotic supplement to your dog’s raw food will help to ease your mind. Probiotics help your dog’s digestive system to handle the raw food by providing more “good bacteria” to help fight the “bad bacteria” it may encounter in raw meats. Another way to provide probiotics is to regularly include natural yogurt in your dog’s BARF diet, most dogs LOVE yogurt and it provides the probiotic protection that you are looking for. If you are concerned about salmonella be advised that the FDA has ruled that dogs are not affected by salmonella and if you don’t buy in to that then just bear in mind that salmonella is all over the world that our dog’s live in and they are exposed to it frequently.

The in’s and out’s of BARF feeding really could take pages and pages to discuss; however, I prefer giving a nutshell explanation and pointing you towards Pat Lazarus’ book “Keep Your Dog Healthy the Natural Way.” This book will help explain to you various other detailed questions you may have in regards to feeding a BARF diet, including what to feed at which meals, what to avoid in your BARF diet, which supplements to use for what, what meats to avoid.

Raw feeding definitely takes some getting used to and can make you feel flustered as you begin; however, the more you read the more the benefits of feeding a raw diet will show themselves and the less things will seem to panic you and leave you feeling overwhelmed. If you really just feel you cannot handle management of your dog’s raw diet you can also look at purchasing prepackaged raw foods, these are sold by various raw dog food manufacturers and can be found via specialty pet stores, online retailers and at health food stores such as Whole Foods – just remember you are going to end up paying a lot more for prepackaged food because someone else has done all the work for you.