Experiences with B.A.R.F.

 Here I provide a short insight into my experiences with raw foods

Expense:

Belief it or not, but raw foods is not more expensive – maybe even cheaper – than commercial dog food. For my 3 dogs the costs are between € 90,00 and € 110,00 a month, that means approximately € 30,00 a month for one dog. Now you can calculate on your own, if this is expensive. There are included all things my dogs need and get to be fed in a healthy way. Of course you need to inform yourself to find ideal sources where you can get the several ingredients from. Here you can find significant differences in pricing. And prices for vegetables and other things also vary seasonally.

Expenditure of time:

I have to admit, that the expenditure of time is higher than with commercial dog food. The meat partially has to be unfreezed and mixed with all other ingredients like vegetables, cereals and oil. If you are used to it, you are getting quicker. I needed approximately 20 minutes a day for my 3 dogs. Nowadays I buy all ingredients for 1 month (also fresh meat from the slaughterhouse), mix it all together and freeze it in ready portions. It takes me about 5 hours all together. Then I just have to unfreeze the food for every day, add some ingredients (like oil) and feed my dogs.
 

Coat:

The first think I recognized, was the changing of the coat. The dogs got a completely other smell – in fact they do not smell at all. Thus my dogs only live outside, they always had a typical smell of dogs. After touching them I could smell them on my hands. That disappeared completely. Their coat is shiny and the colors got darker.
 

Teeth: 

Because of the portion of bones in raw foods the teeth are getting cleaned and the chops are trained. Also the “bad breath” turned into standard.
 

Digestion:

As already mentioned, my dogs had no problems with the change of feeding. No diarrhea or any other problem. The only thing I recognized was, that the volume of excrement was less then before and that it was harder. And the excrement does not smell. It does not stink at all.

Weight: 

A thing was very obvious: it seems that it can take some time until the dogs react on the new kind of food. Dana had no problems at all. For Ace and Okia it was more difficult. Their demand for energy was higher because of their age and their activity, and so they extremely slimed down. I increased their amount of food and after a time I found the perfect amount. But also with raw foods you have to take care, that the dog rather is a little bit to slim than a little bit to fat.

Amount of food:

The amount, your dog needs, can only be defined after some time of watching your dog. There are some guidelines, but everyone has to watch his own dog. Some of them need more, other less.