My recent posts have provided some information about feeding BARF (biologically appropriate raw food) diets for dogs. Now I think it might be time to circle back and talk about the general benefits of BARF diets. To that end, I want to talk from personal experience rather that simply repeating general benefits.
Barb and I got our original, first-hand experience with raw meat diets with our Basset Hound Mollie. When I first came into Mollie’s life, she was about four years old. She was good-natured and a bit goofy. Just like you would imagine a Basset Hound to be.
- goopy eyes
- yeasty ears
- full anal glands
- dry skin
- bad breath and yellow teeth.
We just assumed that’s what you dealt with when you had a Basset Hound. Especially since we fed her some of the best kibble available at the time.
When We Found Out About Raw
It was about that time that Barb’s sister, Julie, opened the first Healthy Pets Northwest at 39th and Hawthorne here in Portland. That led Julie to learn more about the health benefits of feeding raw diets to dogs. And she shared that information with Barb and me.
Finding premade raw food diets for dogs was nearly impossible at the time where we lived in Salt Lake City, Utah. When we found a meat grinder at a garage sale, we decided to give raw food a try with Mollie. We started buying chicken and turkey meat along with chicken livers, gizzards, hearts and necks.
Preparing Raw Meals at Home
Everything we bought would go into the grinder on the weekend. Then we threw in some steamed vegetables and there was Mollie’s supplemental feeding for the week. I say supplemental because we split her diet between raw and kibble.
Mollie must have thought she hit the jackpot because she loved her new diet. She licked her bowl clean, which is not unusual for a Basset Hound. What was unusual is that when she only got kibble for dinner, Mollie didn’t always finish it.
Mollie Starts to Feel Better
It didn’t take too long before we began to notice some changes in Mollie’s health. Her eyes were less goopy and her ears didn’t need to be cleaned as often and didn’t smell as bad. We didn’t know it at the time, but Mollie’s diet was above the 20% BARF threshold described in my last post.
By time we got to Portland to open a new Healthy Pets Northwest store with Julie, raw diets where much easier to get. We ditched the meat grinder and moved Mollie over to Columbia River Naturals raw meat with a base-mix of vegetables and fruits from either SOJO’s or The Honest Kitchen.
We also started giving her whole raw chicken and turkey necks for snacks. Finally, we stopped giving her kibble because the raw so easy to prepare.
Real Health Benefits Show Up
As her diet became more focused on raw, her health became better. We didn’t have to clean her ears. Her vet stopped telling us we needed to put her under anesthesia and get her teeth cleaned. And her anal glands began to express themselves (what a relief).
Her stool output was another benefit for us. On a raw diet, Mollie produced about half as much solid waste. That meant on walks we had less to pick up and carry home.
Mollie lived to be just over 12 years old. A good long life for a Basset Hound. In the end, we had to let Mollie go because the pain she suffered from intervertebral disc disease, another common Basset Hound ailment, was no longer manageable.
We know that the second half of Mollie’s life was much better and healthier because she ate a BARF diet. It was also much better for Barb and I because we spent much less time dealing with eyes, ears, teeth and other issues and more time enjoying our time with Mollie.
In the end, we really came to understand that a BARF diet can change a dog’s life. It certainly changed Mollie’s and ours.