B.A.R.F. - Bones And Raw Foods

 
For a long time I’ve been a convinced advocator for compound feedingstuffs. Influenced by advertising and partly also by vets it drives the opinion into someone, that this is the one and only and healthiest form of feeding. After many years of keeping and breeding dogs I had the possibility to gain experience with both, compound feedingstuffs as well as raw foods. After more than 10 years of feeding commercial dog food I came to a decision:

For my dogs and also the puppies I changed the feeding solely to raw foods.

My rethinking began with the realization, that our dogs these days more and more suffer from illnesses, that are not to be found in the great outdoors with wolfs for example, and also appear increasingly with our dogs over the last years. More and more problems with the skin, the digestion, the joints, the organs. After reading some very interesting books about this issue, my opinion and decision to change the feeding was strengthened.

So I made inquiries, expanded my knowledge and talked to a lot of breeders and dog owners who feed their dogs with raw foods since many years now.

Particularly alarming for me was the fact, that our commercial dog food consists only to a minor part of meat. When reading special books about this issue you will find out, that meat-and-bone meal as well as waste products and even sludge can be found in dog food. In order that our dogs like the taste, different flavorings have to be added and in order that the appearance is nice some colors are added. The bottom line is, that there is not a lot of exploitable in dog food and symptoms appear, which they try to get under control by adding some “medical” add-ons. Given that for average consumers it is nearly impossible to find out, what there is really used and which add-ons are really contained, raw foods was the only opportunity for me to get certainty in this points. Because in my dogs bowls they only find what I want them to eat.

Especially impressive for me was the comparison at the upbringing of puppies. There I could see astonishing differences in the puppies agility and energy. Even the upgrowth was slowly and more constant, they did not grow extremely fast what had a positive side effect on their bone structure.

I don’t want to write to much about B.A.R.F. here, because this issue is very extensive and complex. Every dog owner has to decide on his own how he wants to feed his dog. Those, who are really interested and want to expand their knowledge about feeding, should buy some good books.

Under closer consideration you don’t need a book which tells you, that raw foods is healthy for a dog. Because that is, what it would eat if it would be in the great outdoors. And all concern about aggression and illnesses that could be caused by raw foods is completely unnecessary if you know how to handle it. Think about it: how often did your dog bury a bone or something else just to get it out and eat it again a long time after it? And nothing happened!

I changed my dogs feeding day-to-day from commercial dog food to raw foods. Against all fears the change proceeded completely trouble-free and smoothly. No diarrhea or any other signs of intolerance. Of course diarrhea can occur, because the body has to get used to the new form of feeding. But this is only a temporarily aspect.