Border Terrier, Barf

bakken

BARF (an acronym for either Bones And Raw Foods or Biologically Appropriate Raw Foods)

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All through the year 2002 Kyra suffered from a red, itchy, oily skin and an greasy coat. She pooped a lot and stayed very skinny while I fed her more and more kibble. I tried several medicinal shampoos and different kibble, to improve her condition, nothing worked. My neighbour also had skin problems with her Wheaten Terriers. The condition of her dogs improved greatly on a ready-made frozen raw meat diet (chicken, vegetables and popped rice). I was desperate and decided to start Kyra on the same ready-made raw diet. Her condition improved. Over the first weeks Kyra's skin and coat problems disappeared, she pooped a lot less , she was happier and developed a very good muscle tone and could finally keep her weight!

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Penny July 2003: Penny is born. Her breeder also feeds her dogs a ready-made raw meat diet. The puppy's first solid food was raw meat! Penny was and is doing great on the raw meat. In the meantime my cramping Border Terrier Spike and the cats stayed on kibble.

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Carnibest November 2003: I have discovered another brand of ready-made frozen raw meat. They sell several different ready-made frozen raw meat diets, also a raw meat diet for cats and a duck/rice raw meat variety I wanted to try for Spike. I was told it is often difficult to wean the cats from the kibble and to get them to accept raw meat. Luckily Smokey and Bandit loved their raw meat at once!! Spike is doing very well on the duck/rice. So at last I am feeding all my animals raw meat. They all love it. Their coats are great and their muscle tone is excellent! In January 2004 I decided I didn't want to feed my animals kibble anymore!

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tanden April 2004: I have started to prepare the food for the dogs myself. They still get the ready-made-frozen-raw-meat diet for breakfast (for Spike the lamb variety), for dinner they get home-made-Barf. I vary between rabbit, duck, hare, deer and raw fish.

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vleesmolen In September 2004 I have started to prepare all meals for the cats and dogs myself. No more ready-made. For this purpose I have bought an electric meat grinder.
The grinding of meat and bones has become a piece of cake ;-))).

When I feed the dogs meat without bones, they get a raw bone AFTER they have eaten their meat or I add ground chicken or hare carcasses to their meat for calcium.

I prefer to feed whole prey animals like hare, goose, duck and rabbit varied with goat, lamb, foal and deer.

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Sample Feeding Week:
	AM	PM	Supplements
mon	goat veggie glop	goat rmb veggie glop	fish oil caps **spirulina
tue	ground rabbit veggie glop	ground rabbit	**vit E spirulina
wed	lamb ground carcasses veggie glop	lamb ground carcasses	fish oil caps spirulina
thu	ground hare veggie glop	ground hare	spirulina
fri	venison deer bone veggie glop	venison veggie glop	vit E spirulina
sat	ground duck veggie glop	ground duck	spirulina
sun	raw mackerel veggie glop	ground pheasant	spirulina
contents only of 1 fish oil capsule 1500mg contents only of 1 100IU capsule of Vitamin E **1/4 teaspoon of Spirulina powder

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The veggie glop has all sorts of vegetables, like celery, chicory, cucumber, lettuce, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, courgettes, green and runner beans, peppers and spinach in it. I make a large quantity in the blender and pour the glop into ice cube trays. I store it in the freezer. Two ice cubes for one Border Terrier.

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1)	2)
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The cats are eating home-made meals too. They are very picky, they only like chicken, turkey, pigeon, quail and fish. They get raw fish once a week. As supplement they get vit E and fish oil caps.

My recipe for the cat food:
2 kg's ground chicken legs
600 grammes ground chicken harts
400 grammes ground chicken livers.
I use the same recipe for turkey, using ground chicken carcasses as calcium source.
Once a week I mix a raw egg through their food. They love my recipe ;-)))

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Preparing catfood:
	The meat inspector
	The ingredients: turkey breast, chicken, chickencarcasses, chicken harts, chickenlivers
	A little helper ;-)))
	The meat grinder
	Getting started
	More help has arrived ;-)))))
	All meat has been ground
	Weighing and packing
	17 containers filled
	The dishwasher ;-))))
	The kitchen is clean again ;-))))