Ok guys, the following information I have provided for you all will hopefully give you all a brief insight into the world of the BARF/RMB diets......or simply RAW feeding.......all the information is supplied with dogs in mind, but this diet is also suitable for cats.........ok.......here goes......

What is BARF/RMB's?
BARF stands for: Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, or as most people know it, Bones and Raw Food..............
RMB's stands for: Raw Meaty Bones......
These diets are not new, or any type of new feeding trend, in fact they have been aroung for hundreds/thousands of years if you think about evoloution, and they are basically about feeding cats and dogs the necessary diet to help them thrive through life and assist in reaching their genetic potential in terms of health, longevity, physical exercise and reproduction, so when the diet strays away from this evoloutionary way of feeding then the more health problems an individual animal is likely to develop. It is also worth a mention here that the genetic make-up of an animal also plays it's role here too.
In basic terms, convential grain based pet foods, which as we are all aware is a MASSIVE industry in itself, cause MANY health problems, no matter what research is put into them. They simply cannot stand upto RAW diets in terms of health enhancing attributes.

Ingredients for BARF/RMB's
Basically, it is what is readily available that you can get hold of around your location, but as the diet names suggest this diet consists of various parts to get the WHOLE benefits and this should be done over time and not all crammed into 1 or 2 meals.
All the following ingredients are suitable to be fed as part of this diet, unless of course you know your pet has an intolerance towards it, these include - Chicken wings, legs, carcasses, whole chickens, lamb ribs, lamb shanks, beef, pork, venison, fish, duck, pork, turkey, rabbit, veggies(blended or pureed), fruit (but there is on-going debate as to whether the fruit and veg side is necessary/helpful......but that's for another person to get stuck into), eggs, offal etc etc, there really is an abundance of items out there for everyone to be able to get hold of.

Feeding the above items, such as the meat products, it is best to do so as a whole and not to strip it down, for example, meat and bone should be eaten as a whole and together, yes give your dog a bone on it's own once or twice a week or so, but the main part of the diet should be eaten whole, this enables your dog to basically clean as it goes, such as when they eat rabbit, the bones help clean the teeth and gums, whereas the fur, tendons, ligaments etc will floss and basically polish the dogs internal system.......sorry could'nt really think of another way to put it.

Also thought I'd quickly metion Fasting. This is beneficial to your dogs as tend to regulate their own food intake, for example, even if there is a HUGE pile of food for your dog they will not necessarily eat it all, once they are full thry will come away from it. By fasting it allows the dogs digestive system to rest and recouperate and studies from wild dogs/wolves show that there are health benefits from doing do.

Benefits from RAW feeding

Increased energy levels (especially good to see in the older/infirm dogs)
Increased lean body mass (your dog will lose unwanted fat and gain increased muscle mass)
MANY dental problems will disappear (including a nicer breath and tarter removal)
Many skin problems disappear (just see how much healthier and younger your pals look and all your friends will be saying 'Ooohhh isn't your dogs coat nice and shiney......time to chuck away the medicated bath rinses)
Healthy ears (BARF and RMB's strengthens the immune system which contains essentail fatty acids aswell as a host of other ingredients which in turn reduces inflammatory conditions)
Anal Sac problems disappear (this diet will firm up the horrible sloppy smelly stools and you'd be surprised that when toilet time comes there usually is a reduction in the amount that is excreted, gone are the days of taking your dog to the vets to have their anal glands emptied.......YUK)

There are MANY other benefits but the above gives you a good starter too see some of the benefits when feeding this way.

Fears of the RAW diets

Personally, MANY people do not feed this way I beleive from 2 simple assumptions - 1.Fear 2.Ignorance(not meant in any bad way to anyone)

When you speak to people, especially when they ask what you feed you dog, the usual reply is......Oh no your not supposed to feed your dogs bones........or..........are'nt they always sick because things like raw chicken carry bacteria like Salmonella and Compalabacter..........so basically......cats and dogs are hunters and have fed this way for thousands of years.......their systems are designed to take such food and their whole being and make-up produces the necessary things needed to be able to cope with bacteria and digest this type of food to get the whole benefit from it.........how often do you see your cats catching and eating birds etc.......do they suddenly become ill...........or how often does your dog run into the garden to find a half eaten bird left over to quickly gobble the whole lot down........do they then suddenly become ill.........

Another fear people have are bones.......if ANYONE does not want to feed whole bones, there is no reason not to smash or grind them up.....this is particulary good for those GREEDY dogs who do not know what the word 'chew' means.........for all of our 6 labradors we dont grind anything up and feed things as they come

Old wives tales such as.....'my dog will become blood thirsty' or 'my dog will become aggressive' are COMPLETELY untrue.........aggression will only come from a dog that has food aggression from the outset.......anyone should be able to go up to their dogs and take ANY piece of food from them at any time without ANY problem, this is why it is so important as puppies, whatever the food maybe that they are taught you are the TOP-DOG of the household and they should respect this

Just to finish off, common sense must prevail to us humans when handlimg RAW meats and food etc, as we are not designed like dogs so we MUST wash anything we use well including ourselves in order to maintain a healthy immune system.....if you don't then yes, you may well become sick

Thanks for reading this guys, this is a very brief and basic guide to RAW feeding, which I have only scratched the surface as there is SO MUCH more to this including things like supplementation of vitamins and a whole host of other things........this in itself again is a debatable topic of discussion, which I won't enter now.

I hope you have found this a bit useful, like I say it is only brief and basic but below are a list of great reading books that any potential RAW feeders should see

Raw Meaty Bones (Lonsdale)
Work Wonders (Lonsdale)
The Barf Diet (Billinghurst)
Give Your Dog A Bone (Billinghurst)
Grow Your Pups With Bones (Billinghurst)
Food Pets Die For (Ann Martin)
Shock To The System, fact about animal vaccination and pet food ( Catherine O'Driscoll)

Thanks

Phil

Brilliant thread thanks it answered some questions for me

I've been feeding raw for a lot of years now, my current dogs have never had a single drop of commercial food past their lips.

They eat everything from freshly killed wild-caught rabbits (skin, fur and all), hares, pigeons and game birds (feathers included), whole fish, squirrels, rats, piglets and pigs heads - you name it

Never a day in the vets in all that time, and their teeth are pearly white. My oldest dog Zac is going on for 9 and the new vet who checked his teeth last year thought he was 2!

You can download Raw Meaty Bones: Promote Health and Work Wonders: Feed Raw Meaty Bones for free at Dr Tom Lonsdale's website. Tom's a great guy who I've known for some time now, it's certainly worth taking time to read his books.

Just to add about the grinding of bones etc. This for me is a HUGE no-no. Half or more of the benefit of a raw diet is the chewing action, which helps dogs (and cats) avoid periodontal disease.

By the age of 3 years, up to 90% of dogs and cats fed commercial food or soft pappy foods (eg ground raw food, tinned dog food) will have periodontal disease at such a severe state they require surgical intervention. This rises to 100% by age 5. Even the pet food manufacturers' own figures show this, not that they like you to see them!

Dogs that "don't know how to chew" are simply eating meals too small for them. Bigger meals means they HAVE to chew. A RMB should always have enough meat on it so that the bone/s is/are invisible inside and big enough to require vigorous chewing and tearing.

This gingival massage and natural tooth scraping is a huge life-saving benefit for dogs. There's a lot more about the whys and wherefores in Tom's books It never fails to surprise me when people are shocked that dogs and cats should be eating whole carcases and raw meaty bones. Especially when they also happen to keep retiles to which they wouldn't DREAM of feeding mashed up mice/rats/crickets mushed into a can with 80% grain byproducts and artificial colours and preservatives known to be carcinogenic.

"Why would we feed snakes/lizards cack so-called food like that?" they ask? All the while poor Fido is getting just that and worse (a bit like folks who condemn killing animals and hunting (for food) at the same time as eating at McDonald's...)

Great points added Rainmaker, was trying to get some basic stuff down asap for any new people interested......we started out as strict BARFERS......but over time, after reading and chatting etc we are with Lonsdales views in the way we feed our dogs........they love it and look very healthy...........

As for grinding the bones up......yeah, I do agree with you but thought I would add it as there will be people out there that will not try dogs on bones.......and yes, agree the benefits of eating the rmb's not grounded speaks for itself.......maybe I typed it with the hope that people may ground up just to start with (is they were so against it) then become tiresome of it and go onto the whole rmb as a whole......the long way round I know if it gets people onto whole rmbs then I guess its a good thing

Don't tend to get pheasants anymore.....so bloody expensive......

phil

Hi Phil,

Always nice to meet a fellow RMBer As for pheasants... you PAY for them?! Get out and catch your own, it's great fun.

I have a Bull/Whippet/Greyhound lurcher and a couple of terriers, always good for a day out on the rabbits or a night on the lamp. We often end up with a pheasant, if not there's always shooting (roughshooting not shooting for sport). On permission I should add!!...

Hi mate - a chap I know shoots rabbits for me, gets an odd wood pigeon but does not tend to do the pheasants, he may be renewing license soon but so he can also do deer aswell......depends on the price ......he only charges me 1.50 for rabbits, compared to 4.50 from butchers

phil

Bloomin' heck, I have rabbits coming out of my ears most weeks - my freezer is overflowing lol Nice work if you can get it - remind him what "mate" means hehehe

Great read glad to see ya got this up and running I aint been in dogs for all that long well seriously anyways but i now have 2 siberian huskies 1 8 months and the other 8 1/2 weeks, a mallie x husky 14 months and a springer spaniel 8 months old

I found out about the barf diet from a friend of mine who has been in huskies for a few years as i had endless problems with Nanook my 8 month old as a younger pup with tummy upsets couldnt get anything that would suit his sensitivity soooooo i tried the BARF diet and i now swear by it i never have a runny poop unless they have got hold of somat they shouldnt have lol or some eigit has given them rubbish without me noticing till too late lol

when my lil pup came to me she was on beta puppy food ooooooh she is being weaned off that one lol she loves the barf her meaty bones and chicken wings, she aint had a full carcus yet but has bits broken off as im getting her ready for a full one lol and my added bonus is everyone of mine love veggies too just as much as the meat side of the diet lol

have only come across 1 thing that my oldest wont eat unless its minced and thats liver the others wolf it down though

The thing i have found about the BARF so many people are under the illusion that its a diet thats only ment for sled dogs or they are scared they are gonna poison thier dogs it really aint gonna happen !

if you've too many for the freezer i'm only down the road

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