A growing number of dog and cat owners now know that the best, most nutritious foods they can give their friends is home-made raw foods, as in the “BARF” diet. (Biologically Appropriate Raw Foods.) Very few of these people are willing to invest the time, energy and money to actually feed this, the best, way. In this blog I will pose some of the reasons that I have heard. I invite you to add any of the reasons that I missed, or to confirm the reasons that apply to you …
1. I don’t have the time.
Busy people hesitate to use any of their valuable time doing any more than pouring a pile of kibble into the pet’s bowl. (Hopefully these people will at least learn about the very few actually superior kibbles, like the Dynamite Super Premium Diet for Dogs http://dynamitenutrition.com.) They usually ultimately spend much more time later, transporting their pets to the vet and hanging out in the waiting room, but that extra 10 minutes a day just seems like too much to ask …
2. Give them raw meat? Ewwwww! Yuuuk!
I must admit that this one even gets me when I feed raw chicken to my animals. How is it that I forget just how disgusting chicken is between taking it out of the package raw and taking it off of the grill? I don’t mind it at all when feeding raw beef, and I only give a small amount of consideration to trichinosis from raw pork, but I need to look the other way when they gobble down those fowl leg quarters!
3. They cant’ be getting value from raw veggies, ’cause it’s still whole in their stool.
This objection has a lot of merit if you are feeding whole or even chopped vegetables. In nature, carnivores/omnivores get most of their vegetables from eating the stomach of their kill, and the pre-chewed, partially digested contents thereof. To compensate for this in our environment, we run the vegetables through our Vita-Mix first, then mix it with their other food. If you have lots of time and patience, you can do a fair job of this in a regular high-speed, high powered blender or food processor. If you don’t, get yourself a Vita-Mix. It will soon become your absolute favorite kitchen appliance! You can get the best prices and free shipping on a brand-new Vita-Mix directly from the Vita-Mix company by going through the “coupon” at
http://www.ph-n.com/tools/vitamix.htm to order it.
4. I have heard that table-foods are bad for dogs.
This is true for SOME of the foods that humans eat. It is a simple matter to get educated about what is good for them and what is not. There are many great books on the subject. Many of them are listed in a special section of Amazon.com at
http://astore.amazon.com/aliwel?_encoding=UTF8&node=4. Anything by Dr. Ian Billinghurst is a sure-fire winner.
5. Their eating area gets so gross when we feed them raw, live foods, and it attracts flies and yellow-jackets!
This is the best evidence that you are feeding them well. Doesn’t it make you wonder when the insects won’t go near the processed foods that you have been feeding? If a bug won’t even eat it, it can’t be very good for your animals.
You can compensate for this by feeding them in an area that is easy to hose off afterward, or on a small rug that you can pick up every few days and run through your washing machine. Of course, have more than one feeding bowl and wash it after each meal, just like you do your own dishes.
… to be continued … (Please help me add to this one. Thanks!)
Tags: animal nutrition, b a r f, barf, barf diet, best food for cats, best food for dogs, cat, cat food, cats, dog, dog food, dogs, pet food, pets, raw
April 30, 2008 at 9:26 pm |
“Doesn’t it make you wonder when the insects won’t go near the processed foods that you have been feeding? If a bug won’t even eat it, it can’t be very good for your animals.”
Good point. Most commercial dog foods are like junk foods. Or probably even worse. For us pet owners to make sure that our pets are eating
nutritional dog food, we should make them ourselves. And for those who don’t have time, then you better not get a pet.