BARF for Dogs – The Natural Way of Feeding
Great for Beginners: BARFing with a Feeding Plan
BARFing is the healthiest and most natural way to feed dogs. However, starting with raw feeding can feel complex and overwhelming, which is why it’s helpful to explore the topic and create an individual feeding plan for your dog.
As a guideline: a healthy, adult dog with normal activity levels should receive 2–3% of its body weight as the total food amount per day. Meal composition should be based on the proportional makeup of a natural prey animal. However, it’s not necessary to provide all components every day: to ensure a balanced diet, it’s sufficient to include all essential components within about four weeks.
Feeding Based on the Prey Model
Before you create your feeding plan, decide whether you want to BARF your dog with or without grains. Grain-free feeding generally aligns more closely with the prey model, but feeding with grains is also fine as long as your dog doesn’t have known allergies.
To better understand what it means to BARF a dog following the prey model, it’s helpful to examine the structure of a typical prey animal – for example, a rabbit. In the wild, carnivores typically eat almost all parts of their prey. Proportionally, this includes approximately 50% meat and fat, 20% organs, 20% fur and stomach contents, and 10% bones.
BARFing Grain-Free Following the Prey Model
For grain-free feeding, the prey model suggests 80% animal-based and 20% plant-based components. The plant-based portion should consist of 75% vegetables and 25% fruit, which must always be cooked or finely pureed to make the nutrients accessible for your dog. In the wild, the plant-based portion is consumed as fur and pre-digested stomach contents.
The animal-based portion should include 50% marbled muscle meat with a fat content of 15%–25%, 20% tripe/leaf tripe, 15% mixed organs (e.g., liver, kidney, spleen, lungs, and heart), and 15% raw meaty bones (RMB).
BARFing with the Addition of Grains
If you choose to BARF your dog with grains, the proportions should be adjusted slightly: the share of animal-based components should be reduced to 70%, and the share of plant-based components increased to 30%.
The animal-based portion should consist of 50% marbled muscle meat with a fat content of 15%–25%, 20% raw meaty bones (RMB), 15% tripe/leaf tripe, and 15% mixed organs (e.g., liver, kidney, spleen, lungs, and heart). The plant-based portion should include 40% grains, 40% vegetables, and 20% fruit. Like vegetables and fruits, grains must also be cooked to be digestible for dogs.
Supplements Complete the BARF Meals
No matter which method you choose, adding certain supplements is always beneficial and necessary. You can differentiate between essential and optional or situational supplements. Detailed information about different supplements can be found on the page “Supplements ? – What Does My Dog Need and Why?".
BARFing with Our High-Quality eBarf Products
In our online shop, you’ll find premium single-ingredient BARF and frozen food products from beef, horse, chicken, turkey, and fish for you to mix yourself. If you prefer to save time and effort, you can also opt for our ready-to-serve menus, which include a variety of meat options and can be customized to meet your dog’s needs.
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