Still learning the ropes of feeding raw food.
Right now I am simply just adding a bit of raw chicken or beef to my dog’s kibble. I also gave him a raw egg with his breakfast on the weekend.
So here’s my questions:
1) What is the difference between a prey-model diet and BARF? Is there a difference?
2) If there is indeed a difference, which do you use and why? (looking for pros and cons)
3) Do you feed raw egg at any time? If you do, do you feed it to the dog in the shell? (I heard some people did that)
Justme - Your logic makes no sense. Just because a dog eats eggs does not mean it is going to go out and find "wild eggs" or birds.
Also, FYI - raw chicken is perfectly fine for a dog, including the bones.
Related posts:
5 responses so far ↓
1 Rayven ~ Life's a B // Jan 19, 2010
1.Veggie/fruit slop is the main difference as well as grinding nearly everything up including the bones
2.I plan to use prey model. I started learning about BARF first but honestly couldn’t wrap my hand around grinding and feeding veggies. Grinding takes away the benefits of tearing meat and crushing bone. Its good for weaning pups from milk to solid or older dogs who really cannot handle solid bones even cut up ones, but that is it. And after having dog sat a raw fed dog on prey model I can’t honestly see doing barf
3. I will probably do eggs and in the shell, since the shell is just as good as what’s in the egge. bruno the dog I sat for gets eggs in shell, usually out in his yard - no clean up needed, about once or twice a week.
2 daa // Jan 19, 2010
1) As I understand it, BARF includes vegetables and fruits, while prey model is mostly meat/bones/organs.
2) Prey model seems to more closely mirror what wild dogs and wolves would eat, and it seems to me to be easier to implement. I’m not all the way there yet either, but my dog usually gets a chicken quarter once or twice a week instead of kibble.
3) My dog gets a raw egg, in the shell, about once a week. She gently carries it around the yard until she finds just the right spot, then she licks the shell for a bit, and then she finally breaks it open and eats it.
3 Animal Artwork The Brat // Jan 19, 2010
1) Prey model is feeding a whole animal or pieces of an animal until they make up a whole animal. BARF includes grinding and feeding vegetables and adding raw meat, calcium and meaty bones - difficult to balance. I use a "Frankenprey" model - feeding parts of a variety of animals as if to create a frankenstein prey animal.
2) I don’t like grinding vegies and don’t feel dogs need them. I feed green tripe (emptied stomachs). Other than remembering to take meat out of the freezer and keeping track of balancing the diet over time I see no cons.
3) I feed raw eggs on the weekends (usually Saturday) - in the shell on the patio.
Edit- Weaning pups from milk to solids — ground raw meat/organ at 3-4 weeks. The pups continue to nurse and get the required calcium. At 4 weeks most pups can start gnawing on chicken wings/necks. By 5 weeks they are consuming them.
I do feed a meal a day of puppymush (high quality kibble soaked in water and mashed) at 3 weeks. By 5 weeks my pups (Bernese) have hard kibble available most of the time. I’ve chosen to feed pups this way because most pet homes simply will NOT raw feed.
4 Justme // Jan 19, 2010
Raw meat is good for your dog. I give my Golden Retriever a large cured ham hock in the morning,
ground beef or cooked chicken at night. I cook the chicken because a dog can’t digest raw or cooked poultry bones & it’s much easier to get the meat off of the bone when the chickens cooked.
Anything like a pork chop, with a sharp edged bone is dangerous, so cut it out. Large bones are good for their teeth. Eggs aren’t really the best thing for dogs because once they get a taste for eggs they’ll find eggs outside (bird eggs) & eat spoiled ones…..
5 Lioness // Jan 19, 2010
1 - I would not add raw meat to a dog’s kibble. The digestion rates for each is completely different and the kibble will actually slow down the passing of the meat through the system which you really don’t want.
Your questions
Prey model is just what it says, you are using prey as a model for your diet. You are taking bits of various different animals to attempt to create an equivalent of natural prey. This means you need to get all the things your dog would eat if he were hunting himself: bones, organs, and muscle meat. You could also feed whole prey - like rabbits, if you wanted to.
BARF diets include veggies and lots of ground meats - these are not things that a dog would consume as a normal part of hunting for his own food.
Because of this, I choose to feed a prey model diet.
Yes, I feed raw egg. Any time I have eggs that are at their expiration and I don’t want to cook with them, I toss them in the freezer to use for my dogs diet prep. Those I feed whole. Any time I make a recipe that requires either only egg whites or only yolks, I freeze what’s left and use that too. Sometimes I use fresh eggs if I feel like it when I put together meals. I use both with and without shells.
Add: Get used to Justme’s crap, you’re going to hear it all the time. On of the big hunting guys at work about a month ago was in the office so I asked him if he quarters his own dear and if I could have what I wanted of the carcass when he was done with it. He proceeded to explain to me that feeding dogs venison is why dogs chase deer. And people end up shooting dogs for chasing deer every year was his proof. *rolling eyes*
You must log in to post a comment.