Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Im looking into getting serious about feeding my dogs right. Maddi is my sisters 19 month old border collie x boxer. Cody is a 16 month old border collie x cattle dog. Apart from spending all day playing with each other, Cody and I do obedience, agility, and herding. So, Id like to improve his diet to cope with all the energy he needs (yeh coz he really needs to be more energetic!)

At the moment I feed them a real mixture of things. Rice and pasta; dog mince; egg; vegie scraps; and a little bit of kibble (about a cup a day). I also give them chicken wings/necks (probably 1 a day on average) and a kangaroo tail (about 20 cm raw meaty bone) once a week.

What i would like to do is move them to a strict BARF diet that I can have basically planned in advance. Someone suggested working on a weekly timetable (eg. chicken carcasses on Monday, vegie puree on tuesday, offal wednesday, etc) I dont really have the time to be preparing the food each night; so I would like to be able to make their meals and freeze them in daily portions. That way I can get their dinner out in the morning to defrost during the day.

I have a petbarn near me which has a pet deli inside. There is also a butcher near me that sells dog meat very cheap. I usually pick up 2kg of bones for $1 and 5kg of pet mince for $2.

Does anyone know of some good feeding guides on the internet? Is anyone prepared to share their feeding guide? Do any of you supplement their diet at all? Anybody soak the bones in ACV?

How much would I need to feed them? Cody is 25kg and Maddi is 30kg. I found a calculator that said Cody would need about 500g a day, which seems like hardly anything.

Is there anyone who would like to share their experiences with me? Im only just starting to research this diet so Id like to hear others opinions rather than just the experts.

Ooh good! BARF is so wonderful, I can never say enough good about it!
Here's what I feed my 8 1/2 year-old boxer mix and my 1 1/2 year-old beagle. It's been great for them!
I make a "mush", which is easy to freeze and defrost and I can mix the vegetables in without the rotten girls having a fit. Here's my most recent mix (It's different every time- variety is good!):
5 lbs. ground beef
5 lbs. ground turkey
about 3 pounds chicken livers, gizzards, and hearts, put through the blender
4 ounces each of the following, pureed:
asparagus
collard greens
red apple
bananas
nectarine
eggplant
yellow squash
zucchini
carrots
sweet potatoes
1 small handful of parsley, also blended
1 big container low fat plain yogurt (though with such high-energy dogs you'd probably want to use the full-fat kind. My dogs are lazy pigs)
1 big container lowfat cottage cheese (again, you'd probably want the full-fat kind)
about 1 cup organic milk
1 large can tomato paste (look for brands that have tomatoes as the only ingredient)
6 eggs with shells (I use Eggland's best free-range eggs- they have more health benefits than regular eggs)
about 3/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
Several cloves of minced garlic (after you cut it up, let it sit out in the open air for 20 minutes- my dog's holistic vet said it's better that way)

Mix it all up; it doesn't matter too much how well it's mixed. Balance over time... plus it's hard to stir. I feed that in the morning, 2 parts mush to 1 part Innova Evo. At night I feed bones- chicken anything bones, pig neck bones and ribs, turkey legs or wings (be careful with turkey necks, I've read they're the bone that's most likely to splinter)... anything you can find. I once fed my dogs a whole goose. I also supplement with organic flax oil, wild salmon oil, a multivitamin, extra garlic (keeps the fleas off- neither of my dogs use chemical parasite control products and neither of them have had a single flea while in my care), glucosamine for my older dog (which might be a good preventive thing for an athletic dog) and alfalfa powder. I'm paranoid, probably just flax oil (get organic- it's not genetically engineered) would be fine. I make my mix once every couple of weeks and I freeze most of it, then defrost it when I need to. I measure out individual servings of bones and wrap them in plastic wrap, then I freeze those too. I warm them in warm water for a few minutes when it's time to eat. Aside from the initial stirring and mixing and measuring and blending and all that, which I only have to do maybe every two weeks, and it's very little trouble to actually feed. My dogs also skip one or two meals each week (they eat twice a day). It's good for them to have some time for their systems to rest and clean themselves out. Also read The Barf Diet by Ian Billinghurst. That's what made raw feeding seem doable for me. It's nothing strict. As long as you feed lots of meaty bones, you're fine. Good luck, I hope this helps!
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Kadee Sedtal
home of old lady Lucy (boxer/lab/garbage disposal), pretty girl Fancy (beagle), and our new rat pack- Gershwin, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, and Joshua

Almost forgot- if a feeding guide says to feed your dog an amount that seems like not enough, it's probably not taking into account your dog's high energy level. Feed more if you need to. Most feeding guides go by dogs that are not obedience, agility, and herding dogs!
Another thing- avoid grains! I forgot where I read it, maybe in The Barf Diet, maybe not, but anyway... Dogs have a short digestive system that is made to digest meat and bones and stomach contents of their prey (which is why fruits and vegetables must always be ground). Grains take longer to digest, which leaves the meat sitting in the digestive system too long. When meat stays in the stomach too long it releases toxins into the body. On the other hand, we humans have the long digestive tract to digest grains and such (which, of course, for the meat-eating population would leave meat in the digestive system too long, releasing toxins. Vegetarians do have a lower risk of cancer.) One exception to this would be maybe right before you go out to compete in the agility ring, with no other food being fed several hours before. Carbohydrates are a quick source of energy for dogs. People hunting with beagles used to give the dogs starchy foods before a hunt. I'd talk to a good holistic vet before actually doing that, though. Anyway, I read your message again and these things came to mind. Sorry so long, I'm long-winded.
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Kadee Sedtal
home of old lady Lucy (boxer/lab/garbage disposal), pretty girl Fancy (beagle), and our new rat pack- Gershwin, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, and Joshua

There is a formula that may help in deciding portion sizes.
For every 10lbs of your dog, feed 100grams of raw. Of course, you may have to give or take from that amount depending on your dog's activity level and so on.

I'd suggest a feeding guideline something like this:
- if you're making your own food... the diet should consist of about 75% meat, 10% veggies/carbs and 5% organs.
- fast your dog for a day with nothing but water. Then feed him tripe to line their stomache with 'good' bacteria.
- feed a simple white protein source raw diet (eg. chicken) to get the dog accustomed, then simple red protein source (eg. beef).
- so in a span of 14 days, you should feed a balanced diet, which means feeding a balanced meal of red meat and white meat.
- every week or so you should feed him tripe and fish.
- also, supplement the food!