All natural diet

[OhMarley]

Does anyone feed their dogs an all natural diet? We are happy to put in the effort required to do so but I want to make sure that all nutrional requirements are met... any reading suggestions or does anyone else do this? At the moment he's almost 18 weeks he gets puppy biscuits by a company here in perth that uses human grade food, tuckertime (like palony i guess) thats made up of meat,veggies and rice, whole chicken mince, raw bone. I want to go all natural but am not sure where to go for information...
any suggestions?

[Caraline]

Hi Soma,

What do you mean by "all natural"? Are you talking about a commerical product that boast all natural ingredients, are you meaning home cooked, or are you meaning raw + bones? I may be able to make some suggestions once I know exactly what you mean.

[OhMarley]

Well i just worry that a lot of the foods that are sold are so highly processed that they are probably full of garbage. I am quite interested in the raw diet, or even just a home made diet.

[luvzcavs]

The best book I think for info on a natural diet is Ian billinghursts BARF diet. They work off the raw meaty bones guidelines for diet I believe.

You can buy Barf ready made pattys for a few select places in perth and then it is all done for you but I think this would be pricey ? The other option is a human grade kibble (I use eaglepack) this is then very convenient and good for their teeth. You can use this as a base and add other stuff to it fish, meat, eggs, fruit, veg etc.

There is a lady in perth who is a natural vet called Dr Claire Middle if you can track her down she will have all the info on what supplements you need to provide when feeding natural or home cooked diets but I am pretty sure she takes a lot of her information from Dr Ian billinghurst's Barf concept.

Hope this helps ?

[Cathy T]

I am currently feeding both of mine (3 1/2 year old Shelby and 5 year old Jake) Primal. And loving it. They've been on it for about 4 months now and are doing great. Neither has had a problem with runny poops since being on it. Their poops are much smaller, firmer and less smelly. Shelby no longer has any tear staining. I vary the protein sources each week. I supplement with salmon oil and a powder probiotic.

[cy1266]

Miles, our 4 month old Ruby, is also on Primal. He's also had Nature's Variety (lamb formula) and Steve's Real Food (chicken) - all made with "human grade" ingredients. Our breeder insists that we feed him raw, so I've been buying the frozen raw food ever since we got him. I'm actually going to start making my own food this weekend, based on Dr. Ian Billinghurst's BARF diet. It seems pretty complicated, but I've heard that once you get used to doing it it's not that hard.

In addition to eating raw, he receives very few vaccinations since I don't want him ingesting potentially harmful chemicals. It's been a lot of work, but in the end I believe that raising him as "natural" as possible is the best - it's what my breeder does, and she has amazing dogs that are healthy and live long lives. My traditional vet doesn't agree with everything I do, since I tend to take the advice of my homeopathic vet...

[Caraline]

Well i just worry that a lot of the foods that are sold are so highly processed that they are probably full of garbage. I am quite interested in the raw diet, or even just a home made diet.

Yep, that book Luvzcavs has suggested is the bees knees of books on feeding a raw, natural diet. I've done some book reviews on a couple of books:

Give Your Dog a Bone (the best)
The BARF Diet (condensed version of the above)
also
Dr Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats (raw, but excludes bones)

You may also find some useful information in my Blog as my guys made the fairly rapid transtion from primarily being fed kibble, through home cooked, and then finally home prepared raw + bones. Start from the earliest dates (end of document) and work forward to present time.

I haven't tried the commercially prepared BARF. Partly, I image it is probably quite expensive, but more to the point, I actually love preparing my dogs food. I find it very bonding & rewarding and I love the fact that I know exactly what is in it, what the quality is. I guess I am a bit of a control freak in this regard.