FEEDING

FEEDING

In these days we can talk about two types of dog food are most popular – kibble and BARF (raw food). In the end, it is only up to the owner which method they choose according to their lifestyle and preferences. In any case, if the chosen diet option is chosen with high quality, the owner cannot make a mistake.

In our kennel all the members of the pack are predominantly on BARF, although I also resort to kibble in the event that we have a longer journey ahead of us. That's why I also decided to raise the puppies in a way that they leave us for their new homes used to both.

In case you are not sure which of the variants is the ideal one for you, here are the tables of pros and cons for each of them:

BARF

KIBBLE

BARF

Within BARF, all owners/breeders work more or less with the same materials. The most common feed meats are chicken, beef and fish, which are readily available and low in fat. It is also possible to feed pork, but pay attention to the dosage and fatness of the meat, as it is often marbled with fat and the dog could start to get overweight even with the right daily dose.

Chicken can also be fed with bones, which are often part of both mince and cuts (packaged pieces of meat), in case of beef the bones are often included in mince but they are given separately as a recreational snack, not as part of the feed ration. The same goes for pork, although again pork bones are fatty and consumption needs to be calculated.

COMPOSITION OF A DOSE:

In general, the ideal feed dose should be 2-3% of the dog's total weight, divided into 70/30 or 80/20 of meat component and sides.

The meat component is a combination of muscle, bones and organs, bones should make up 20-30% of the total content of the meat component.

MEAT COMPONENT:

Refreeze all meat intended for dog consumption first. This will kill a lot of possible parasites that could harm the dog. However, if it is fresh meat, a healthy adult dog should not have serious problems with it. You can feed your dog practically anything, but I recommend not messing around with boar meat - it can contain the virus that causes Aujeszky's disease, which is fatal for dogs. Therefore, choose boar meat very carefully, ideally frozen and vet checked.

Always feed bones raw. Baked, boiled or otherwise heat-treated bones can seriously harm a dog. Leftovers from lunch such as roast ribs, chicken skeleton or pork knee can cost you a lot of money in veterinary examinations and possible surgeries.

In general, while the bones clog (if the dog has had a large portion of bones during the day, it may have trouble defecating, the waste may be dry, crumbly, even sandy), while organs cause loose stool (a dog that eats a large amount of liver in a day will then have diarrhoea).

By feeding bones and pieces of meat, we generally achieve that the dog cleans its teeth at every meal and thus reduces the need for our intervention. But it is also possible to feed with mince, which often contains a combination of all 3 meat components. That's why it's a good idea to treat dogs that prefer mince (or they have to get it due to better mixability with sides), various meat toys to nibble on – beef/pork ears, pork feet (watch out for fat, it's easy to gain weight on them), large bones, etc. to get their teeth cleaned.

SIDES:

Sides can be diverse and often depend on the individual preferences of the dog. They are most often used are:

• Veggies (salad, tomato, cucumber, broccoli, spinach, rucola, carrot, parsley, radishes, zucchini etc.)

• Fruits (apple, pear, plum, apricot, peach, banana, in low portions also citruses like kiwi or orange/tangerine). With fruits, pay extra attention to the presence of seeds, do not feed those to your dog.

• Rice (more below)

• Dog pasta

• Oat flakes (they are not necessarily needed, but if the dog is not allergic, it will not harm him; more below)

• Legumes

Fruits, vegetables and legumes are best digested by the dog when mixed or cut into the smallest possible pieces, otherwise, to a greater or lesser extent, it just passes through it without any significant effect.

SUPPLEMENTS:

Nutritional supplements are an inherent part of the BARF diet. Their list of uses may vary according to the period of the dog's life, so I will list only the most essential ones for me:

• Kelp – crushed seaweed, ideal as a dog teeth cleaning aid. It is recommended to be dosed in shock short periods, as it is rich in iodine.

• Collagen – there are many forms of collagen, from standard pork jelly (you can also boil it at home from pig's feet), in fine flakes, or hydrolysed (powdered). Collagen helps maintain healthy joint cartilage, ears and firm skin.

• Brewer's yeast – they contain vitamin B and a lot of protein; they are beneficial for the coat and digestion. Give your dog only brewer's yeast in its food, fresh yeast can cause bloat.

• Oils – the range of oils is wide, the most commonly used are for example salmon and linseed. The oil helps to maintain a quality and shiny coat, but in larger quantities it can cause diarrhoea. Salmon oil can also be used to flavour food for a non-voracious dog.

• Roboran – a complex mixture of vitamins and minerals supplementing raw food.

• Egg yolks (raw) - they help maintain a healthy and shiny coat. Personally, I think a whole egg once in a while doesn't hurt, but the white shouldn't be given as often as the yolk, which doesn't do any harm.

• Yoghurt / cottage cheese – sour, unsweetened yogurts and cottage cheese are some of the few dairy ingredients that usually do no harm to dogs. Cultures in yogurt are beneficial for intestinal microflora. Cottage cheese ideally low-fat. However, be careful when feeding cottage cheese to a puppy - cottage cheese decalcifies and, especially during the period of growth and teething, the puppy already has a high calcium loss - so do not give cottage cheese in frequent and large doses.

• Folic acid – you can give it to the dog all year round, but it is most ideal for bitches before mating and during pregnancy (before mating to build up some level of immunity in advance)

• Plantago syrup – full of important vitamin C, increases immunity, is also used, for example, to treat colds and kennel cough

• Supplements for movement – there is a large range of these preparations, the most common include Aptus Apto Flex, Alavis Triple Blend, Geloren, ArtiVit. It is important to decide whether we want a product to prevent movement complications or to solve an existing problem and choose the product accordingly. If you want to use the product on a small puppy as a prevention and support during growth, make sure it does not contain MSM - it is beneficial for adult dogs because it reduces pain, but you cannot tell when a puppy is tired and needs to rest, and you can harm it with a possible longer walk.

EXCEPTIONAL SITUATIONS:

Some dogs may sooner or later in their lives start to refuse sides and pieces of vegetables may remain in your bowls. It is therefore best to mix pieces or a liquid mix of fruits/veggies into the mince, and if the dog refuses this option too, there is an alternative:

• Green tripe – full of green digests, very palatable for dogs, although not a pleasant-smelling ingredient for humans, can substitute the green component of the dog’s dose

During a dog's life, a person may also encounter situations such as diarrhoea, vomiting or the need to lose weight.

Boiled rice is used for diarrhoea and vomiting not caused by hunger. For the vast majority of gastrointestinal problems is used a diet of boiled rice and boiled chicken with a side dish of boiled carrot, grated apple or banana.

When losing weight in a dog, it is useful to divide the daily dose into several small portions and avoid fatty meats and bones. If the dog eats sides, part of the meat component can be replaced with them, and if not, the ration can be filled with so-called "fillers" - components that fill the dog, but not enrich it in terms of calories, so that the dog on the diet is not hungry and does not gain weight because of being satiated (for example washed tripe).

There is also the possibility that you will experience heartburn that can appear out of nowhere. Heartburn is primarily caused by an overacidity of the stomach, but the real reasons why it happens can be several - a change in the origin of the meat, a poorly balanced feed ration, a change in the dog's life. Many different methods work for people, from dividing the feed ration from 1 to 2-3 per day, adding white yogurt, soaked oat flakes, or unwashed tripe. In our case, the dogs' stomachs became acidic after moving to South Bohemia, and although the meat did not change in any particular way, green tripe and dividing the feed ration into 2 portions instead of 1 helped with the issue.

On the Internet, you can also come across the opinion that a dog on BARF should be starved once a month and given nothing to eat for 24 hours. I personally don't see the point in this practice - people argue that wolves do it this way, but wolves do it because they don't have a successful hunt, rather than because they don't voluntarily allow themselves food. Although it's rare, it happens that I forget to defrost the meat, or we run out of food earlier than expected on a trip for various reasons, and then the dogs just have to make do that day. But I don't do it on purpose, on the contrary, if I can, I always like to feed the dogs.

You can find more information, advice and examples of menus on the website www.manwe.eu

KIBBLES

As written above, in the end, feeding with kibble is not as complex an alchemy as BARF, because kibble usually contain everything a dog needs to live. Again, there are variants and, above all, things that you need to be careful about.

TYPES OF KIBBLES:

Nowadays, we can get kibbles of two types: cold extruded and hot extruded.

Cold-extruded granules have a slightly larger daily dose, they dissolve in gastric juices, they do not swell, they do not absorb significantly more liquid than usual. Compared to meat, however, they don't add any water into the body either. They digest faster than hot extruded kibble. These kibbles are also suitable, for example, for BARFers who need a quick alternative on the road.

Hot extruded kibbles are pressed into their shape under high temperatures. The contents are therefore dried, the kibbles in the dog's stomach swell and absorb liquids, the dog is therefore forced to drink more often and should always have water available. The digestion time of these kibbles is essentially longer than that of meat or cold extruded kibbles, and therefore it is good to ensure that the dog has at least half an hour of rest after each meal in order not to risk stomach torsion.

WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR:

When choosing kibble for your dog, it is important to rely on common sense and often compromise on low price requirements at the expense of higher food quality. Can, for example, Mountfield, a store specializing in the sale of garden machinery and equipment, really make quality dog kibbles and sell them for almost a penny in huge bags? I don't think so. Do not be tempted by attractive prices for huge quantities - these kibbles are overwhelmingly full of cheap ingredients such as cereals and corn, the meat component is only there for a laugh and consists of animal remains that cannot be used otherwise. Although even in BARF the dog is given sides, it is still a carnivore and the meat component is very important for its proper development and quality of life.

When reading the composition of the kibble, pay attention to the vague descriptions of the ingredients, for example: "animal fat", "cereals", "meat meal" - although it seems clear to us, it is not stated what exactly we put in our dog's bowl, and in such cases, it is better to count on the worse option than the better one; so, look for information such as "chicken meal", "rice", or "beef fat". Also, don't be fooled by the ratio of fresh meat to meat meal - fresh meat contains a lot of water and when dried there is much less of it than we are promised.

Finally, don't be put off by the fact that the pellets state a % ash - no one is putting leftover ash from the stove in there. It is only an indication of how much % of the kibble will remain in a solid state after burning with a strong flame.