Barfing not Horking

Sailor here.

Mom has changed my diet. She used to feed me kibble. Before that, I used to get chicken wings but that was before I came to live with Mom. She gave me and Zoe chicken wings when I first came to my new home, but not for long. She thought it was too hard to do.

But now I get BARF. This actually stands for either Bones And Raw Food or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food. Take you pick, it means Raw Food. I love it!

Mom decided to start me cold turkey neck one night and that was what I got to eat. I usually also get chicken leg quarters and hacked up chickens and turkeys. When she hacks, I like the backs the best; they have all sorts of gut thingies hanging off them and make a mess on the floor. And for breakfast I get meat and veggie glop. Mom gives me other meaty bones, too, but says that chicken looms large in my diet.

Zoe doesn’t barf yet, so when she stays with me, Mom feeds her kibble in the dining room so she won’t be jealous. Not only is she not jealous but she is oblivious and is thrilled to lick the floor when I am done with my bones.

Here's the BARF web ring site to cut and paste:

http://nav.webring.yahoo.com/hub?ring=barf&list

And here's a FAQ page written by Jane Johnson:

http://www.rawlearning.com/rawfaq.html

Mom started off reading Dr. Ian Billinghurst's book, Give Your Dog A Bone. There's always a lively discussion at the park about feeding this way; people argue about this sometimes and this makes me drool....Mom says she sometimes does controversial things just to be controversial but she says this is not one of them. She believes in this diet and so should I. I do! I do!

Mom’s son, Chris, calls it the RALF diet and that makes everyone laugh. What is RALF? Raw And Lively Food? Whatever it’s called, it makes me happy and energetic and my coat is shiny and silky and my teeth sparkle aned I don't itch any more. Mom says we have to work on my breath, though. What’s wrong with my breath?

Here is a sample of my BARF diet:

Breakfast: Veggie glop.

Here's the recipe: 50% ground meat of the week (5 lb.), 40-45% ground veggies (both above and below the ground variety, lots of leafy greens, about 4 cups), chicken livers, hearts, gizzards, organs ground up (2 lbs.). She mixes this together then adds: 1/2 cup salmon oil, 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, 1-2 cloves garlic, 1 Tbsp. ground kelp, 1/2 cup yogurt, 3 eggs with shells, a handful of parsley (for my breath). Sometimes she adds fruit, but no grapes. Grapes are not good for dogs.

Then Mom freezes it in small plastic tubs. When she feeds me, she also gives me 400 IU Vitamin E in my breakfast on some days. If she doesn't have salmon oil for the glop, she gives me fish oil capsules. Yum, these are like candy. Mom says that the fish oil is for Omega 3 fatty acids and are VERY important. I don't know what the Vitamin E is for, but I like to pop the capsule between my back teeth.

Supper: Raw Meaty Bones

I get chicken leg quarters; turkey necks or wings, lamb breast for the most part. I also get rabbit, ox tails, pork necks, veal breast, duck legs and carcasses, whole mackerel or sardines, and goat. And for dessert, I get chicken or duck feet!

To figure out how much to feed me, Mom had to do some math. My weight, 65 lbs. X 16 = 1040 is how much I weigh in ounces. Mom feeds me 2% of my body weight per day, 20.8 ounces of food per day. Mom's guidelines say to feed 2-3%; puppies need a lot more. 60-80% of the daily ounces should be RMBs (raw meaty bones, my favorite) and 40-20% of the daily ounces should be veggie glop. Sometimes, Mom leaves out the veggies and gives me a mixture of ground meat and organ mix with salmon oil. Rounded off, I get about a pound of RMBs a day and 4 oz. of veggie or meat glop.

Mom feeds me as wide a variety of everything as she can to balance my diet over time. All told, I eat beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, goat, fish, duck, venison when Mom can find it, and rabbit. She doesn't feed me chicken and rabbit together because she doesn't want them to fight in my tummy. Like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybVb3t560oY

For training treats, Mm gives me cut up pieces of cheese and hot dogs, bits of freeze-dried liver, freeze-dried chicken and duck breast, bison and venison bits, cut up cooked chicken and steak and lamb, fruit bits, hard boiled egg bits, and just bits and bits of whatever she eats. Except salad. I don't like leaves unless they're mixed up in my veggie glop.

I have to fast one day every week or so, and I hate this. Actually, I only fast half a day because I throw up if my tummy gets too empty. Mom's always feeling my ribs to see if I am getting fat. Tee hee, tickle tickle, I am NOT fat! So why do I have to fast????

Mom thought it was going to be a lot of work, but no. She has fun with this. She splatters the walls and sometimes does scary things with cleavers and further splatters the walls. For the veggie glop, she throws everything into her mixing machine, turns it on, makes a great deal of noise, and then scoops the stuff into plastic containers to store. If I'm really really good and not too underpaw, she'll give me a taste right then and there. Next month she's promised me some organic emu necks. How lucky can I be?

Mom is determined to get Katy's cat, Josie, to BARF, too, but Josie the FatCat took one sniff at her chicken wing and gagged. Have you ever seen a cat gag? It's rather comical. Mom says this may become a battle of immense proportions fought over a time period so long that Katy's kitty will not know what hit her. Mom can be very devious while she's using long words.

I hope Josie the FatCat switches to BARF soon, though. It's better for her since she is a cat and needs meat, not grains in her diet. Mom says she will give Josie chicken wings and ground meat, salmon oil, and offal with hearts for taurine. All cats need taurine. Whatever that is.

And Zoe is next.