Site launched January 10, 1999
"Hey, you gonna eat that?!"
Welcome to the BARF Pictorial!
| You are Diner # Site launched January 10, 1999
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"Hey, you gonna eat that?!" |
| Thanks to the power of the World Wide Web, BARF
has been making the rounds and sweeping the pet world. Usually it's discussed in
reference to dogs, but cats eat BARF too! Lots of pet owners and breeders have been
BARFing since before BARF was cool. Animal Nutritionists, such as myself, love
BARF. Chances are, if you're reading this, you already know what BARF is all about. But just in case, let me explain. BARF is an acronym for Bones And Raw Foods. This acronym was coined by a creative lady by the name of Debbie Trip. Dr. Ian Billinghurst, an Australian veterinarian, has written two books about BARF. (Give Your Dog a Bone, and Grow Your Pups With Bones). In fact, Dr. B loved the word BARF so much that now even he is using it, on his book tours, and in his new book. Some people say BARF stands for Biologically Appropriate Real (or Raw) Foods. Maybe you kinda know what BARF is, but kinda aren't exactly sure. Maybe you feed BARF to your pets and want to see how someone else does it. Maybe you never heard of it, or just found out about it, and you're curious to know more. Maybe you think it's crazy. Hopefully you will learn a lot on this page, and have fun in the process. We're on the BARF web ring too, so if you want a fast link to other similar sites, check the link at the bottom of the page. Please be patient while the pictures finish loading. I'm going to give you some text to read while you wait. And now, we present: A typical night of BARF at our house. Ready, set BARF!
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Veggie Slop* with Honey and Apple Cider Vinegar Dressing |
Supplements Flax Seeds (ground in coffee grinder) Flax Seed Oil (in capsules, pierced and squeezed out) Vitamin C (powder) Vitamin E (in capsules, pierced and squeezed out) Alfalfa/Kelp Mix (powder) Dessert Carrots (raw, unpeeled, whole) Snack Special Fruity Oatmeal |
| *Veggie Slop is best described in pictures; please follow along down the page to see. |
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We start off with some nice chicken
necks, hope you're not too squeamish! These go into a bowl of hot water, so
they won't be so cold when they are consumed (raw, of course). Sometimes I use other
meats too, like lamb necks or ground beef. While those are thawing/warming, we'll prepare the Veggie Slop. |
| Tonight's Veggie Slop contains all these nice veggies (pretty much from left to right): apples (ok one fruit slipped in there); garlic, carrots, brussels sprouts, turnips, green beans, broccoli, kale, cabbage. You can use whatever you have on hand. Whack up these veggies, toss into our friendly food processor, and away we go! |
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Voila! Behold, the Veggie Slop! It's got the consistency of applesauce, and really smells pretty good..... if you have a cracker handy, go ahead and dip in for a taste test. :) |
| Veggie Slop goes great with a special tangy dressing made out of Honey and ACV (Apple Cider Vinegar). Be sure to use unpasteurized, unprocessed, unfiltered ingredients. I mix these half and half in a squirt bottle for easy serving. I put about a tablespoon into each feeding bowl. |
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Now for some supplements. These are flax
seeds, (top pic) a terrific source of omega EFAs (essential fatty acids). They have
to be ground up to release their oils and make them digestible. So we toss them into
the coffee grinder and whir it a few times. Presto! Flax Seed Meal (bottom
pic). This gets sprinkled on top of the food. The other supplements are not pictured, but basically they are capsules or tablets or powders, sprinkled over the food. Capsules are pierced and squeezed out to ensure their contents will get to the right place, and not, er "come out whole." |
| Ok, it's time to start assembling the meal.
Here are the dinner bowls, with the nuked sweet potato cooling off, and the warmed
chicken necks portioned out. A note: many people have emailed me asking why I nuke the sweet potatoes. I don't always do this, just sometimes for variety! Usually they go raw into the veggie slop. |
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And here's the piece de resistance! Adorned with Veggie Slop, dressing, flax seed meal, and other supplements. Time to call the dogs for din-din....wonder where they could be..... (If you have dobermans, you *know* where they are--right smack underfoot, velcroed to my legs.) |
| Anticipation.... Anticipaaaaaation is making us
wait..... Come on, Mom, take the picture already! If you look closely, you will see the double drool strands on Tynee (left). KC is ready to dive in too. Notice their fancy elevated bowl stands, from Frank's Nursery (they're really plant stands but don't tell the girls). |
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At last, dinner is served! The girls dive in with gusto. Tynee's almost done already. KC is checking out her sweet potato. |
| Now for my little Rascal.
Boy is it hard for him to hold that Sit/Wait! But he did it, Good Boy! Rascal is a rescue "mutt" approximately 1-1/2 years old. He's been with me for a year now. So you could say he's being raised on BARF. He has grown 2" taller and about 15 pounds heavier since he's been here. Ah, the power of BARF! |
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Here's a snack I might prepare on any given
day. These are the ingredients: fruit (I happened to have
blueberries this day;bananas work well too), rolled oats (not instant!)
and no, that is not a glass of milk! It's homemade whole milk yogurt,
which I make in 8 oz. glasses. For help learning how you can make your own yogurt, visit
this site http://www.ianr.unl.edu/pubs/Dairy/g449.htm To make this snack, I put about a half cup or so of oats into a bowl, add the 8 oz. of yogurt, and sprinkle in some fruit. Mix well, and let "soak" overnight. Very popular! |
| After dinner, each dog gets a whole, raw carrot for "dessert." These provide a nice crunchy treat that helps clean food out of the teeth after eating dinner. If I should be forgetful or too slow to hand out the carrots, KC always reminds me by knocking on the refrigerator door with her paw. This concludes our BARF Pictorial. I hope you enjoyed your peek into my kitchen and gained some insights into BARF in the process. If you should have any questions or comments, feel free to email me. Thanks for stopping by! Click here to visit my web site: Aunt Jeni's Home Made, home of *PUPP*lements holistic dog treats, and manufacturer of Home Made *4* Life pet food for carnivores (a frozen, pre-made, BARF-style diet). You'll find some good reading, book reviews and recommendations, including a direct link to order the Dr. Billinghurst books, web links, and great photos of other people's pets, too. Comments on this page are welcome, please email me!
Disclaimer: The information presented on this page is for illustrative purposes, to demonstrate how I feed my own dogs on a typical day. It is not meant as instruction on how you should feed your pets. Should you choose to "BARF" your own pets, great! But please arm yourself with as much information and knowledge as you can before plunging in. That way you avoid unnecessary discomfort for your pets as well as accidentally creating a nutrient imbalance, deficiency, or toxicity. If you are interested in obtaining further information or assistance with switching your pets to BARF, the web site above is a good starting place, with links to other sources. You may also want to subscribe to an online email group, such as the K9 Nutrition list. There is a link below, along with a description, if you'd care to check it out--come join us, we don't bite!
Polite Request: Please respect my dogs' Rights of Privacy, by not stealing their photos off this page! All photographs on this web page were taken by me, and are my property. If you like them so much you just have to share, please feel free to pass along the URL to anyone interested. Thanks! Update: This site was launched more or less on a whim, when I decided to use my digital camera one evening to take pictures of what I was fixing for din-din that night. Just a week later, my beloved KC (the one on the right) was diagnosed with advanced cardiomyopathy, a heart disease that commonly affects Dobermans. Two weeks to the day following her diagnosis, KC left me for the Rainbow Bridge. (2/4/99) The photos on this site are some of the very last ones taken of KC. It is comforting to know that her spirit lives on via the 'net, and that she continues to teach others as she taught me throughout her too-short lifetime. Go in peace, my angel girl.
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Aunt Jeni invites YOU to join the K9 Nutrition email list!
K9Nutrition
This list is for people wanting to learn more about nutrition and dogs, and sharing ideas
on feeding for daily use and for special needs, such as illness, recuperating, lactation,
pregnancy and for all life stages. Some examples of discussion on this list include recipe
sharing, use of vitamins and minerals, issues of diet for arthritis and allergies, use of
herbs and herbal tinctures and talking about books on diet (old and new).
"Bone Appetite!"
