Thread: raw food diet and vitamins?

Well as I was reading a list of foods on the prey model raw food diet (i really dont know if its the same as barf, yet) it listed what foods give what vitamins. But don't you need to give supplements? If i was feeding human kids the best organic veggies and meats and fruits, i'd still make them take a vitamin. also you can't give all that food every day so some days they wouldn't get certain nutrients, how do you decide? or do you supplement also? thanks.
the reason i wasnt considering the pre packaged is it would be more expensive but it would be easier..

I know that with a raw diet, they don't get balanced meals every day. Instead, you balance the entire diet over a span of time (1 week?) . I use prepackaged raw, so I'm not exactly positive.

I use the pre-packaged, too. It's sooooo much easier, and I just don't have time for a complicated feeding schedule. I know some others that will add ingredients to their dogs' diet once a week- like sardines, tripe, yogurt, etc.

Good luck to you! I admire someone who has the time to do it from scratch!

Pre packaged raw usually is a balanced diet with supplements included. Any well balanced diet should not need additional supplements. This is why when feeding raw that bones,offal and some vegetables be included.

The diet needs to be balanced over time.. (usually a couple of weeks).

I feed a modified prey-model diet and don't give any supplements (other than occassionally adding fish oil). I rotate what I feed... really, after you've been doing it a while it becomes second nature and you can get pretty inventive about feeding. (I have a bucket of salmon roe, heads and spines in the freezer from a commercial fisherman who said "My garbage guy LOVES you raw feeders"- it will be a meal this weekend)

Prey model and B.A.R.F. are two different diets. The prey model advocates almost all if not entirely animal matter for carnivores. The BARF diet includes raw vegetables and some fruits in the diet and more bone. The BARF diet urges some supplementation and allows ground bone and meat where as the prey model prefers whole meats for pets to gnaw on.

Dogs don't need to get every nutrient they could possibly need in one day. If you can balance the diet so they get what they need over the course of a week, you're doing very well. Supplementation is not necessary, but it can make it easier to balance the diet. Over supplementation of minerals is a bigger problem than that of vitamins.

If your dog is healthy the only ones that you might really find yourself using alot are 1. calcium (as bone, calcium carbonate, calcium citrate, or ground eggshells), which is crucial to balance phosphorous levels (1.2 :1 Ca:P levels), 2. vitamin C, which will help your dog process the calcium, and 3. vitamin E which is not very abundant in nature and easily damaged.

Other supplementation can be done if your dog has specific needs like joint care or kidney problems, but be careful about just adding a whole bunch of supplements because you are scared and uncertain of your own abilities to feed your pets. It's great that you're taking the time to look into options and it really isn't as hard as some pet food manufacturers make it out to be.

I do home feed my pets as well. My dogs get calcium as eggshells and bone, vitamin c, salmon oil (w/vitamin E), and one gets glucosamine and chondroitin for his bad hip.