Canine Dog BARF Diet - Understanding Biologically Appropriate Raw Food

"BARF" is an acronym for several different names for several similar diets. It is called the Biologically Appropriate Raw Food diet, the Bones And Raw Food diet, and the Born Again Raw Food diet. Other terms for the same diet include the evolutionary food diet and the natural diet. Whatever the name, this diet breaks down to the same thing: raw meat and bones provide the majority of the dog's nutritional value.

The argument for using this kind of diet for your dog is that the ancestors of our domestic dogs ate raw food. Proponents of this diet state that cooking food negates its nutritional value, breaks down valuable proteins, and even causes certain items, like bones, to become dangerous to the dog to which it is fed. This perspective has a great deal of value, because it is well known that certain vitamins are destroyed--or at least degraded--by the heat associated with cooking and that cooked bones splinter if chewed.

Legitimate arguments do exist for feeding cooked food to dogs. Three of the major arguments in favor of doing so are that:

1. a cooked diet is safer to feed in terms of bacterial content. The temperatures involved in processing food destroy most bacteria that might live in the meat.

2. dogs have been eating cooked foods throughout their long association with human beings

3. and that a cooked diet can be less expensive to feed than a raw one.

These arguments against feeding this diet are also valid, at least to a certain extent. The decision to feed a raw diet, then, is based on the owner's willingness to determine what foods are biologically appropriate to the dog, willingness to handle the food appropriately, and willingness to incur the expense.

It is true that a cooked diet or a commercial prepared diet is less expensive to feed. Commercial raw diets may, in fact, be safer to handle if they have been irradiated to kill bacteria. These diets differ from BARF diets, however, in that they largely consist of ground meat and bone fragments or bone meal. In addition, they may also contain vegetable matter. BARF diets typically consist of whole meats and bones, although some patties that conform to BARF specifics are also available commercially.

Because the term "BARF" is so liberally applied to a wide variety of products and ideals, it is up to the dog owners to determine which of these various items are suited to them, their dogs, and their lifestyles.

Next article: Preparing and Feeding BARF Food Cautions