BARF diet update

After trying the BARF diet with my great danes for a couple of weeks I must share my findings. And, give some feed back as to how effective it was.

First I must say that the dogs loved the BARF diet but I did not. It took a lot of work and while I love my danes I find it difficult to dedicate the time necessary to carry out the BARF diet.

I have started feeding my great danes once a day because that is the only way I can successfully control their trips to the bathroom. For one this is also a weight control issue, for the other it doesn’t really matter how much he eats, he just stays skinny.

Breakfast time at the dane house was wild for awhile. As soon as the beast caught a whiff of whatever was being served up they went ballistic. I usually fed them some sort of raw meat, usually with bones. Sometimes it would be organ meat other times it would be chicken breast or something more traditional.

Eggs and yogurt where a very easy addition and they seemed to not even realize that they had been added. These food stuffs were just inhaled with the rest of the grub.

I added pureed fruit and veggies on occasion but this was less common simply because I feed the great danes before I drink my coffee and I don’t think far enough ahead to prepare in bulk.

My findings were simple. I saw some increase in energy and the coats of the dogs seemed to improve. This could have been my perception based on expectations but I am certain I saw the dane that has a hard time putting on weight add a little bit of muscle.

I also have absolutely no doubt that the danes absolutely loved the BARF diet. Dogs love meat, they are carnivores. My well trained dogs went from being able to sit while drooling for dry dog food to plowing me down in a mad furry to get to a bowl full of chicken liver and eggs.

Giving the dogs bones also seemed to be very effective at cleaning their teeth. I noticed less plaque on their teeth after a couple of long chewing sections. Problems with the bones though are that they are a mess. The dogs dragged them all over the house and my wife went nuts cleaning up bone fragments and blood. I also found that the dogs regurgitate undigestible bone fragments, which can be pretty disgusting.

The BARF diet seemed to interrupt the dogs regular doggie doo cycle and when you are dealing with 130 lbs beast this can be a fairly bad deal. Keeping it regular and keeping it outside is usually a good idea.

Feeding two dogs went from around $60 per month to a couple hundred per month. Great danes don’t eat as much as people originally expect based on their size and they already cost enough in other aspects so I really don’t see the benefit of feeding them like this on a regular basis. The benefits I saw from feeding the great danes the BARF diet were really not worth the expense or the effort, but I will give them raw treats from time to time.