Help planning a BARF menu

[GSD-Jay]

Morning people, me again

I received my Landywood order yesterday and would like some advice putting it all together to make a good balanced diet.

My ingredients are:

Minced Mean and Green Tripe (with bone)
Minced Tripe and Lamb (with bone)
Minced Chicken and Green Tripe (with bone)
Minced Turkey

Minced Chunked Chicken

Chicken Carcass, Necks and Backs
Turkey Wings (Turkey necks where missing from the order)
Lamb Ribs

Chunked Liver
Chunked Kidneys

So my chest freezer is now stocked full and should last for about 2-3 months. The freezer is right at the bottom of my garden in the garden house and I don't want to be going down there everyday to get food out for the following day. I have allocated a spare drawer in the house freezer to keep topping up as and when.

Now the meat packs are easy enough to sort out and defrost, like I have been doing before but the offal and chicken/turkey portions are frozen in 5lb blocks. Obviously these are easy to break by dropping them or using a hammer/mallet but I'd like some help putting together a routine of what to feed and any tips are sorting various bits into zipbags to make the daily routine easier. Still following? Good.

Jenson currently weighs 44kg. If 2-4% of the body weight is the correct guideline to follow then he needs to be eating between 1.94lb (0.88kg) and 3.88lb (1.76kg) per day. So let's take an average of 2.91lb (1.32kg) per day. I don't want to get too anal about this as I won't we weighing individual things out as the offal comes chunked and the meats are in pound bags.

So, I have 4 types of the finer minces, the majority of which contain Tripe. The minced turkey was supposed to come chunked but it didn't.

I'm thinking a good start to the diet is a pack of minced meat per day. There are 4 variations so having 4 different meals and then repeating seems like the best solution.

I want be be careful I don't give him too much bone per day to digest but want the amounts to be what is common practise. (45% meaty bones?)

Below is a list of what I would think would utilise the foods I have. I would appreciate your thoughts or recommendations.

Day 1

Morning
Minced Meat and Green Tripe (0.5lb)
Chunk of Liver

Evening
Minced Meat and Green Tripe (0.5lb)
Chicken Carcass/Back


Day 2

Morning
Minced Tripe and Lamb (0.5lb)
4 Chicken Necks

Evening
Minced Tripe and Lamb (0.5lb)
1 Raw Egg
1 Turkey Wing (These are very large)


Day 3

Morning
Minced Chicken and Green Tripe (0.5lb)
Chunk of Kidney

Evening
Minced Chicken and Green Tripe (0.5lb)
2 chunked Chicken Pieces and Carcass/Back


Day 4

Morning
Minced Turkey (0.5lb)
2 chunked Chicken Pieces

Evening
Minced Turkey (0.5lb)
1 Raw Egg
Rack of Lamb Ribs

So what's the verdict? Is my offal amounts enough or should he have a chunk a day? Bone content sufficient?

Any help would be appreciated and thanks again if you got this far without falling to sleep.

Jay

[maxandskye]

I use to base the weight on a pound per meal.

[GSD-Jay]

I have had a play around slightly and added more offal and increased the amount of Turkey he gets on Day 4 as I have twice as much of this.

I purchased 60 zip seal bags today so I can hopefully create 4 different bags that contain everything but the minces to defrost the night before.


Day 1

Morning
Minced Meat and Green Tripe (0.5lb)
Chunk of Liver

Evening
Minced Meat and Green Tripe (0.5lb)
Chicken Carcass/Back

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 2

Morning
Minced Tripe and Lamb (0.5lb)
5 Chicken Necks
1 Raw Egg

Evening
Minced Tripe and Lamb (0.5lb)
1 Turkey Wing (These are very large)
Chunk of Kidney
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 3

Morning
Minced Chicken and Green Tripe (0.5lb)
2 chunked Chicken Pieces

Evening
Minced Chicken and Green Tripe (0.5lb)
Chunk of Liver
Chicken Carcass/Back
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 4

Morning
Minced Turkey (1lb)
2 chunked Chicken Pieces
Chunk of Kidney

Evening
Minced Turkey (1lb)
1 Raw Egg
Rack of Lamb Ribs

[maxandskye]

Jay, that seems fine. You will probably find that as you go along you will adjust & tweak it to suit Jensons needs.

I wish you the best of luck mate.

[GSD-Jay]

Thanks. I'm sure it will be fine but just wanted some advice before I spent hours bagging everything into ziplocks.

[jesterjenn]

Your menu sounds great.

The only thing I would say, is that depending on his exercise and activity level for the day, add more or take more away accordingly.

Also, if he is a little loose, then add a bit more bone, and if he is a bit too solid, add a little offal.

Remember also with raw egg, you can feed the shell as well (Jess won't eat egg shell though, but Harley will, so it will all depend on whether you dog likes or not as to whether he will eat it )

ETA - just re-reading your second "menu" I would probably alternate between the dark meats and white meats, so just swap 2 and 3. Not essential (or even needed), but just what I would do

I also see that as o.k., just be aware of two things,.. tripe is very high in fat,..and you may find that there is soon a weight gain that you may or may not want.

..and liver/offal can give the dog the runs.

But variety is always good,..even if you find you have a dog that doesnt like a certain meat, they will often eat it if mixed with something else

The only thing extra I would do if I was you would be to get some bone to chew on,..the bone in the mince is good but by feeding bone like that and no other way, you loose the teeth cleaning tool,.. not everydaY,.. just as an extra

Although,..reading back, on the last line you have ribs,..so great

[pangolin]

Originally Posted by Stuart

The only thing extra I would do if I was you would be to get some bone to chew on,..the bone in the mince is good but by feeding bone like that and no other way, you loose the teeth cleaning tool,.. not everydaY,.. just as an extra

Although,..reading back, on the last line you have ribs,..so great

OP is including bone quite often though, chicken necks, carcass, turkey wings, etc. - I know they're not big marrow bones but my two don't get too many meaty bones as lamb makes them stinky and the ribs, meaty bones etc from my supplier are mostly lamb, the butcher near my work saves me marrow bones if I remember to pop in on their delivery day but otherwise it's mostly chicken wings, legs, necks and carcasses. Their teeth have never been cleaner

Actually, saying that, I'd be wary that between the chicken pieces and the bone in the minces, you may be feeding too much bone which can cause constipation. Do you know what percentage of mince is bone? I have one mince that includes bone but the other 4 or 5 don't so I alternate between those with bones seperately and the chicken one that includes bone without any extra bones.

I would crush the shell in a pestle and mortar
IMO Too much tripe Jay
I would also add some fruit and veg and a little extra virgin olive oil to the diet too, you could also feed heart chunks and sweetbreads now and again.
I add their veg to the minces they have and their fruit to goats yoghurt which I blend to make a tasty shake
Once a week they get spirulina added to their goats milk (its a blue / green algae that is packed full of nutrients)

Linda

BARF seems (to me) more involved than Raw, which I feed. There's a lot of tripe in your sample diet I'd stick in some more meaty bones.

I don't feed my dog any fruit or veg (he just won't eat it).

Bear in mind yoghurt's not suited to some dog's digestive systems due to the lactose. Just because we eat priobiotics doesn't mean it's suitable for dogs, even though their GI tract is more omnivorous than cats for example who are complete carnivores.