Benefits of Raw Feeding
- A soft shiny coat
- Clean teeth
- Fresh breath
- Less body odour
- Smaller, less frequent stools
- Chewing on meaty bones increases mental stimulation and satisfaction thus creates a happier and calmer animal
Starter Guides
For feeding ratios I recommend downloading an app called ‘Raw Pet’ where you can enter your dog’s weight and age to find out how much you should be feeding per meal – per day.
The BARF Starter Guide for dogs that are aged 5 months and over:
(It’s advised to not start on completes with offal – this can be too rich and cause soft stools)
Day 1-7: green tripe only
Day 8-14: 3/4 green tripe and 1/4 chicken mince with bone
Day 15-21: 3/4 boneless beef and 1/4 chicken mince with bone
Day 22-28: 1/4 duck mince with bone and boneless beef
You can then start adding in offal – build up slowly to a max of 5% liver and 5% other offal.
Introduce a new protein every 7 days and at this point you can also introduce whole bones if you wish. Or, if you prefer, you can switch to 80:10:10 complete meals.
Senior dogs may need less than 10% bone, so be guided by their poo.
Puppy Starter Guide:
Day 1-3 : green tripe only
Day 4-6: 3/4 green tripe and 1/4 chicken mince with bone
Day 7-9: 3/4 boneless beef and 1/4 chicken mince with bone
Day 10-12: 1/4 duck mince with bone and boneless beef
You can then start adding in offal – build up slowly to a max of 5% liver and 5% other offal. Next add in raw eggs – this includes the shell (2-3 a week),
After that introduce fresh oily fish. Starting with sprats or sardines. Give just one to start, chopped up and mixed into the food. If all ok then you can feed whole from then on (Stick to oily fish). Do not give tuna as it contains high levels of mercury. Don’t substitute with tinned fish as this is cooked.
Continue to introduce a new protein every 3 days, you can also introduce whole bones if you wish OR switch to completes.
If the above transition guide is not for you then you can try a simpler guide by Paleo Ridge below:
The Easy Switch 4 Week Plan:
Week 1: Classic Turkey or Classic Lamb Tripe and Turkey
Week 2: Classic Beef Tripe and Chicken or Classic Beef Tripe and Duck
Week 3: Classic Beef and Duck or Classic Beef, Rabbit and Duck
Week 4: Paleo Plus Lamb & Mint complete or Paleo Plus Tukey & Fish complete
Week 5: Try some more flavours from Classic 80-10-10 or Paleo Plus ranges of complete feeds.
We currently stock The Dogs Butcher, Paleo Ridge & Durham Animal Feeds. Please let us know what other brands you would like to see us stock as we will be adding more over time.