Here is a copy of a post from the Dogzone tribe:


"This came up in a couple of other threads, so I thought I would create a new one specifically about raw food or the BARF diet. BARF stands for Biologically Appropriate Raw Foods or Bones And Raw Food.

I am in the process of investigating it for my own dog, and I suspect that it is the way I'll eventually go, but I haven't changed over yet. I currently feed Bil-Jac food, which I really like (I'd be happy to tell you why it's great if you want to ask me).

So here are some links to info about this diet, for those of you who might be interested. I suggest doing your homework before making significant changes to your dog's diet.

This is a link to a pretty good FAQ and overall info page: www.home.earthlink.net/~pawsref...tion.html

The books that seem to be the major ones in this area are:
"Switching to Raw" by Susan K. Johnson (available at www.switchingtoraw.com ), and "The BARF Diet" by Ian Billinghurst, a vet in Australia who has written several books on the subject, and "Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats" by Kymythy R. Schultze.

This site is a BARF webring: www.geocities.com/heartland/f...webring.html


This is a list of Yahoo discussion groups on BARF:
dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/Sci...d_(BARF)

Miscellaneous other sites:
www.willowglen.com/barf.htm
www.bluegrace.com/barf.htm
www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm

Please note that I'm not endorsing any of these particular sites/books, just sharing info. I tried to pick sites that weren't closely associated with selling anything. Enjoy!"


The easiest way to convert is the same way you switch any formula of dog food....slowly and gradually. While you're slowly adding whole, real food to their diets, read as much as you can from every available resource so you can learn how to feed a balanced diet. Once you start seeing the effects of a raw diet, you'll wonder why you ever fed kibble.