Feeding dogs natural food

Some advantages to feeding natural food; When fed raw the stool will be - of what it is if the dog is fed kibble. It's very well formed and easy to clean up. It also smells much less. I believe the dogs have a reduced risk of bloat when raw fed. Feeding raw is cheaper than good quality kibble and just as easy/convenient and more readily available. Many diseases are avoided because the dog is not consuming carbohydrates (grains) which are present in large quantities as filler in commercial dog foods.

I believe that the dog should be the food processor as much as possible. The dogs satisfy a lot of innate necessities working on their food. I believe dogs should work during feeding as this is what they were designed to do in the first place. Work to get the food and work to consume the food. This makes them healthy psychologically and physically. Since I feed raw I completely avoid the problem of puppies in training chewing stuff around the house. However for most people it's not feasible to toss a cow carcass in their back yard so some butchering is normal. More so for older dogs.

When I researched information on raw feeding I remember that the consensus was that the dogs will not assimilate whole vegetables properly. Vegetables must be broken down and the easiest way to do it for me is with a blender. I do not however feed vegetables. I throw in kelp powder for a few feedings if I notice the dogs are starting to eat grass. A nice substitute that I'd love to feed to my dogs is green tripe but I can't find it around here.

Other than grass I've noticed that my dogs consistently like to eat these little berries that fall from the palm trees. The berries are mostly a hard seed with a thin sweet outer coating. The seeds come through in the stool unchanged.

One other thing that I feed is saltwater fish. My dogs will consume whole fish completely, scales, fins, head and teeth depending on how hungry they are. Mackerel seems to be a favorite as nothing is ever left over. I've even had them eat mole crabs.

Remember a happy dog is a skinny dog.

That's strange, it's usually the other way around. Maybe his system needs to purge itself to accept the switch. I would still make a serious attempt at it. I'd start with a fast. Then some probiotics like yougurt. Then very small quantities of ground beef, maybe an egg, go real slow. I believe it's impossible that the dog will not accept the change over time. They were designed to eat meat.

BARF is a term I don't like to use. It's an acronym coined by an Australian vet promoting his specific brand of raw diet. This makes it sound like he invented the concept. A natural diet consists of raw meats. All of the cow parts you mentioned can be used but in the right proportions. There has to be a balance between organ meat, muscle meat and bones.

Quote from Rolo

I thought BARF was just an acronym for Bone and Raw Food. Did not know someone actually coined it.

BARF is an acronym for Bones And Raw Food but it is also a trademark http://www.petfoodindustry.com/ViewArticle.aspx?id=13532

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BARF Australia was formed in the late 1990s and had a slow beginning. The company initially concentrated on developing the raw petfood market in the US and Canada, rather than in Australia. In 2000, BARF Australia accepted the offer to join with three other companies focused on North America, to form BARFWorld.

It takes a veterinarian and a book to convince people that dogs should eat meat :rolleyes1: But sometimes it just takes a persistent fellow spearfisherman

First I'm surprised your dog weighs 25lb. The other Aussies I've seen are around the 45lb range when in good condition. Dude I don't know how much to give weight wise. I do it by eye. I fill the bowl to where it looks about right and feed the dog. Over a week I see if it's keeping weight, dropping or adding. Then I change the amount for the next few days to bring it back to good weight which in the case of a puppy should be skinny.

In your case one thing for sure is I'd start with a fast and then very small portions interspersed throughout the day. I do that for a while until it looks like the dog is stabilized. Then my goal would be to gradually increase the portions and decrease the number of feedings per day. Until I get to the normal 1 time a day. Then I'd go by the above paragraph. I think it's a little harder to judge with a long haired dog.

PS see I didn't call your dog fat.

PPS do people take it as a personal insult if you call their dog fat (and it is)?

There's a very rough way of measuring which is %1 to %2 of the dog's total good weight. This means that if a dog is in good shape (almost skinny) and weighs 100lb you'd give it 1lb to 2lb of food per day. However I don't like rules like that because it also depends on how active your dog is. If your dog is having a few days of long hiking for example you'd need to up the amount.

The bottom line is you need to have a mental picture of what your dog looks like in good shape and vary the food according to his condition to always bring him to that good weight. The biggest hurdle for many people is that they don't have this right mental image. After many years of looking at overweight dogs there is a perception that it's the dog's normal condition. When these people see a healthy dog they think it's being starved. This is very prevalent with rottweilers. People think they need to look like a barrel on four sticks. A rott in good condition looks very much like a normal dog especially when it has a tail. I've been stopped on the street by some ignoramus who told my I should feed my dog (rott) more.

The way to do it is start with a smaller quantity than what would be sufficient. Then the dog will lose weight. When it gets to the point where you think it's too skinny you start to increase the quantity.

Cuba was an interesting place for me as far as seeing how people feed their dogs. It's the only place I've seen dogs expected to live a vegetarian life, yuca, boniato etc. These dogs were too skinny. But there were also many people who in one way or another fed their dogs adequately. A dog should really be like a garbage disposal unit. As long as it eats a little bit of everything it should be fine. I can honestly say I've never seen a fat dog in Cuba.

I wasn't baiting you.

BTW You said you feed your dogs carp and by me that's a very good thing. Just try ration it out and not the whole thing in one feeding :poke:

I understand your point to be that your yellow lab works better in certain conditions and you attribute this to her being fatter? I'm no hunting dog expert but I always thought that the dog's desire to work in those situations depends on its drive level. Maybe your black has lower drive for that kind of work. It does make sense to me to have an insulating layer of fat and fur on the dog when its working in very cold conditions. When I was talking about dogs that should be skinny I was talking about dogs that don't work and are fat year round. Either way a natural diet would be most beneficial.