A popular diet for our furry friends is the B.A.R.F. diet. It stands for “Biologically Appropriate Raw Food” and “Bones and Raw Food”. My dog has been on this type of diet since he was a puppy. Currently, he is 11 years and very active. This diet is meant to imitate the type of food a dog would eat in the wild. In the wild, you probably wouldn’t find a feral dog munching on corn or grains, components of many commercial dog foods.
The raw diet is high in protein, moderate in fat, has minimal amounts of carbohydrates and consists of:
- Muscle meat
- Raw meaty bones
- Organ meat
- Supplements
The main thing to keep in mind is the raw meaty bones. The bones have the marrow and much of the nutrients your pet needs to have a complete diet. Make sure not to cook the bones! It makes the bones brittle and can be a choking hazard.
One of the best ways to get a great mix is buy the 10 lb chicken leg quarters from the store. They are super cheap ~50 cents a pound. You can feed it directly if your dog is big and can munch on the bones. If your dog is unable to digest all the big bones or if your dog/cat is small, I recommend grinding the leg quarters down so your pet can get the nutritional benefits of the bone marrow so their diet will be complete. For an instructional video on how to grind the chicken leg quarters, please see the below video:
As a general rule of thumb. 90% of this leg quarter mix to 10% organs will do sufficiently. Feed ~2-3% of your pet’s body weight daily. For example, my dog is 100lbs. I feed him 2 lbs of the pet food mix and a bit of chicken liver/heart/gizzards. Make sure to clean up all the preparation surfaces and disinfect!
