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We are amassed how much packaging we were getting from our Dog food. Of course we were recycling the cans and paper packets but wondered about providing balanced meals for our two collies cooked at home.
We researched this on the internet and found lots of information about their dietary requirements, but there was also a lot of contradictory information as well so it was a bit of a worry.
We are lucky that we farm our own beef and chicken. We basically now cook more of what we eat and adjust the protein, carbohydrate and veg levels of the dogs share to suit their needs. We never buy processed foods, only eat additive free and do not cook with salt etc so we know there is nothing harmful for them. After all, our ancestors had dogs and they had no access to off the shelf foods. Sometimes it is a bit of a chore especially as we now have two puppies that require several meals a day.

And it is great knowing that they are not eating abattoir animal waste products.

I've been thinking about cooking my own dog food as well. I do occasionally, when I have some leftover bits. Mostly, though, the store bought stuff is so cheap and convenient that it hardly seems worth the effort.

I am starting to raise rabbits for meat, so the dog will be getting more fresh food in the future.

http://ukbarfclub.co.uk/

BARF is a great way to feed pets. I have two Bullies, and they are BARF fed. We get from the butcher the chicken carcasses that he no longer uses, plus beef bones and scraps. We pad it out with veg, eggs, the odd bit of steak and cheap as chips offal, usually bought when it's in the reduced section - heart, liver, etc etc. Both my dogs are very healthy and they love the raw food. Think about it......dogs are MADE to digest raw food and bones. They never used to have people to cook it for them :)

Plus, if you can get your butcher to give you scraps of meat for the dogs, it will save you money, and save waste. Everyones a winner

For dogs you need a third meat, a third carbs and a third vegetable. We breed rabbits primarily for the dogs and mix them with either pasta, potatoes or bran (could do rice, but one of our dogs won't touch it) and blitzed raw veg (whatever we have a lot).

This works out cheaper than buying processed dog meat and I know what has gone into it. It's preservative-free and the dogs enjoy it more too.

contadina wrote:For dogs you need a third meat, a third carbs and a third vegetable. We breed rabbits primarily for the dogs and mix them with either pasta, potatoes or bran (could do rice, but one of our dogs won't touch it) and blitzed raw veg (whatever we have a lot).

This works out cheaper than buying processed dog meat and I know what has gone into it. It's preservative-free and the dogs enjoy it more too.

Been thinking about rabbits for the very same reason - please tell me more! How many dogs do you feed and how many does do you have, how often do you slaughter etc etc etc We have 5 medium dogs and can´t help thinking that I´ll be killing bunnies from noon til night in order to feed them!

I have two English Bull terriers, so they aren't the biggest of dogs. I reckon I could get through four rabbits a day, easily, bones and all. So by my reckoning you'd be looking at ten rabbits, minimum, and that's if you feed raw. You'd need more if you feed cooked because you can't give the bones cooked.

We've been raw/BARF feeding our dogs for over 10 years now, and their health is amazing (we also don't vaccinate beyond their puppy jabs). Our oldest dog is now nearly 14 (she's a Lhasa Apso/Poodle X, from the SPCA - we've had her since she was around 5 months old) and has had zero health problems her whole life. We started the BARF feeding when our then oldest dog had Cushings Disease, and was initially given about 2 - 6 months to live. With our good holistic vet, we got 2.5 more years with her, and she was quite comfortable. We also fed her a special diet that was easier on her kidneys.

So the young puppy at the time grew up with the BARF diet, and she still acts like a puppy at 13. You should see her jump for her meat at mealtimes! She bounces up and down like a rubber ball! We mostly feed raw food, but also stew bones and carcases to get off as much meat as possible. They also get rice or barley, cooked, and steamed or raw vege, which is how they'd get it if they eating a wild-caught prey species.

We raise all out own meat, so the dogs (and cats) get a good variety of 7 different kinds, but it's predominantly beef, as we can't raise enough for the dogs, so buy in raw beef from a local raw pet food place (most farmers raw feed their dogs, so it's easy to get raw pet meat, which in our case is mostly old dairy cattle).

Cheers
Andrea
NZ

I have wanted to do this for a long time but was under the impression that it was not safe to do so if your dogs/children come into contact due to cross contamination from raw meat!! Is this just another urban myth or is there some grounding to it?

My friend has BARF fed for many years, and has never had a problem. You do have to be thorough with handwashing etc, but dogs have different systems to us, and so don't suffer with food poisoning etc the way we would.
It's fine to feed raw bones, but never feed cooked ones. They splinter differently, and can damage the dog. My girl has Been BARF fed since she was 8 weeks old....never had a problem.
They also have less problems with teeth, as they don't get so much plaque building up.
Dogs can't digest carbohydrates. We have Amylase to start breaking down starches in the mouth - dogs don't have this so it 'clags' up the teeth, if you know what I mean. Having a hard time getting what's in my head onto the board
I would imagine there IS some basis in truth re the cross contamination....however, I've never known it be a problem, and if you really think about it, dogs will lick their privates and then lick your face. Gross huh?
Lets be honest, we're at risk of cross contamination from keeping dogs anyway.....they walk in mud, then track it through your house, they lick and eat stuff then lick your face or your hands. They ain't the cleanest of animals.
I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you really think about what a dog does and where it goes you probably would never keep a dog again

Oh, and don't feed raw pork because of the parasite issue. I think it's tapeworm.
If you can't get the bits from butchers, then some pet stores stock BARF feeding products now in freezers. At ours you can get turkey necks, beef, rabbit, tripe (great for building bulk) chicken, lamb, beef bits.....oh there's allsorts.
I prefer to feed bones because it gives them something to chew on......they enjoy it so much more when they can have a good old chomp on it

You are so right. I am a really pansy when it comes to raw meat, I have been a veggie since I was 5 and every time I have tried to discuss meat with my mum (A home economics teacher) I get a big speal about keeping your kitchen clean and salmonela etc!!!!!!
Not a great grounding ti be honest! I would just love for my dogs to benifit from this kind of nutrition just don't know where to start.. I have never been into butchers so don't even know where to start with that!! I really should just bite the bullet!

Just ask them if you can have any meat scraps they dispose of, or chicken carcasses. It actually costs them to get rid of it, so quite a few will give you it for nowt. Some will try to charge, so shop around a bit. Then for the other meats (mainly the red meats) look for the BARF stuff in pet shops. It's really quite reasonable. Veg I buy frozen veg, thaw it out and mash it down as it goes soft when it's defrosted.
Just be as careful as you would when handling meat anyway, and you should have no problems. Probably best to introduce it one meal a day, if you feed more than once, and go from there, but I bet it's not long before your dogs refuse to eat the processed stuff LOL.
Mine refuses to even LOOK at kibble these days, on the rare occasions I've tried to give her it

A friend who breeds dogs gave me this as a guide of how much to feed dogs everyday. I don’t measure everything out but it does give you an idea how much they need. When you first start making your own dog food it’s probably an idea to measure your mix of meat, carbs and veg so that you get an eye for what each dog needs each day.

6 oz/day for 10 lb dog
12 oz/day for 20 lb dog
18 oz/day for 30 lb dog
24 oz/day for 40 lb dog
30-36 oz/day for 50-150 lb dog

Each doe produces three litters a year with, on average, 8 rabbits a time (sometimes more, sometimes less). We wait until the rabbits are about three months old before killing them. I don’t know what breed we have but they are huge and even at that age each one produces about 4 and six kilos of meat.

Our dogs weigh (in kilos) 15, 10 and 2 (a puppy, getting bigger everyday, so need to keep weighing her food) and I cook up half a rabbit with pasta, which provides ample food for them all for three days. As the rabbit is quite tender it falls off the bone. You’ll need to remove these as cooked rabbit bones can splinter. The husband either has the other half or it gets frozen for the next time.

Obviously, with such large litters you need to be able to freeze excess (hanging them is not such a good idea in a hot country).

You can feed your dogs a raw rabbit diet, bones and all. I don’t, so you’d have to check out how long you’d need to freeze the meat first as rabbits can carry tapeworm.

Even with just the two breeding rabbits we have ample for the dogs, the husband and even a few to spare for the neighbours. Everyone loves a rabbit breeder over here and I suspect it will be the same in Spain.

If you have any more questions don’t hesitate to ask.

Bingo that´s just what I what I was after! I´ll have to write that all down before it disappears into the depths of the forum

Just to be clear, those weights you gave are they for the meat only (therefore you add the same again in veggies and pasta) or for the whole lot?