Customer Reviews

Raw Dog Food: Make It Easy for You and Your Dog

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have been feeding my dogs Biologically Appropriate Raw Food BARF for one year now. I cannot imagine ever buying a bag of dog food again. My dogs nasty ear infections are gone, their teeth are gleaming white and their poops "magically" disappear in my yard. Their coats are shiny and healthy and they have no joint problems, gas problems or skin problems.

As humans, we do not sit down and calculate every vitamin and mineral in our diets and it is not necessary to do this for our dogs. There is no recipe for feeding your dogs a healthy raw diet, only a guideline. This book is a great beginner book for feeding raw food. It does not go into scientific details because you do not have to be a scientist to feed a dog, or yourself for that matter.

I know that in the old days there was no such thing as kibble and I cannot remember ever hearing of someones dog having things like cancer, skin infections, allergies and diabetes. Nowadays, all I hear is how sick everyones pets are! Dogs are not designed to eat a diet that is 40-60% corn and other grains such as found in kibble. The meat and by products in dog food are just horrible! They are allowed to use roadkill in dog food!

I am a Nurse Practitioner with a Masters degree in science and I know that most disease in the U.S. is caused directly by our terrible diet. If you love your dog then you should strongly consider changing to this raw food diet. Your dogs will be happier and healthier then they ever could be if they are eating kibble. People are healthier when they eat a whole food diet and dogs are healthier too.

In the wild, a dog would eat only raw meat and occassionally some grass. They would get a tiny bit of grain and vegetable from eating the stomach contents of whatever animal they killed, such as a rabbit. They would crunch up the bones and have perfectly white teeth.

Personally, I don't go to the trouble of grinding up vegetables for my dogs. I give them whatever salad or veggies we have leftover from dinner along with their raw meat. It is cheaper and healthier to feed the natural way. Try it! I guarantee you will love the results! Everyone that I know develops a different routine for feeding their dogs the natural way. All you have to do is start somewhere and this book is a great guide to get you started.

I've read just about all the other raw feeding books, but this is the one I NEEDED to read to start out! I've used it as my main guide to feed my three dogs "real food." I've now been feeding this way since October 2003 and my dogs couldn't be doing better. My oldest dog is a Labrador, about 8 years old. She's lost 15lbs and has more energy than ever. My other dogs are two Beagles, 2 yrs and 6 yrs old. They're also doing great and LOVE their new diet!!! And I got a new kitten for Christmas who keeps stealing the dog's food, so I guess she likes it too!

The book is easy and quick to read, but has a ton of really practical tips and very clear instructions. It made me realise this diet doesn't have to be complicated, it just makes sense! I had some additional questions about things that weren't in the book so I contacted the author through her website and she was very prompt and helpful.
I bought some extra copies to give to friends, too. Hopefully I can persuade them to start feeding their dogs a better diet too!

This book provides a good, basic guide to raw food diets. This was the first book I read on the subject, and I found it to be less complicated than others I've read since. It's a good reference for pet owners who don't have a lot of time to devote to preparing complicated raw meals with many different supplements. The book answered many questions and addressed some fears I had regarding raw diets. At the end, it also listed other good sources of information on raw food diets.

I found this a great book to use - I had never fed raw before, and like many people I didn't really know how to begin - or rather, how to go on! It was a pile of fun to read, unpretentious, humorous, and irreverent, and told me all I need to know to get started (and to go on, including some great advice about what books to read next). The book allayed my fears about various health-related issues, and uncovered some interesting and not very confidence-inspiring facts about the dog-food industry! If you want to get started feeding raw to your dog, or are even just interested in the idea, I think you should get this book.

Carina's great, I've made her acquaintance on some internet pet feeding forums. She is a very intelligent, funny and well-spoken person who takes a moderate approach to raw-feeding for dogs (as opposed to being a zealot). I found this book to be very user-friendly in tone; it was kind of like, "Try this! Jump in! It's not so scary, trust me!" I've been raw feeding for two years now but I remember my trepidations at first, especially given all the conflicting advice that's out there. My own trusted vet wouldn't even endorse this diet. Still, my intuition told me it was the right thing to do for my dogs. I did some research, asked lots of questions and learned enough to get started and then to carry on. Same with Carina. She's been educating herself on this topic for quite a while and I trust her advice and judgement. I also like how she gives a thorough bibliography in the back of her book for further reading. I plan to loan my copy of this book to a friend in hopes that she'll stop feeding commercial dog food--ACK!

This book is a great reference and organised in an easy to follow style - it took me about an hour to read (it's short) but I felt I could go back & refer to it often, it's quite information-dense. I liked the casual writing style - some people might find it a bit TOO casual because there's no strict dietary guidelines to adhere to. But it seems that everyone feeds their dogs a little differently anyhow - as long as one stays within the basic parameters there is room for flexibility.
I did appreciate that MacDonald did not completely trash the commercial dog food industry - after all most people who love their dogs feed them commercial food and shouldn't be made to feel guilty! I do think it's important to be fully informed though, whether you are feeding your animals or your family.

I am not sure that vegetables (the author includes these in her diet) are truly necessary for dogs, but there seems to be a lot of dissent on this issue. Some experts recommend them, some don't.

It's not a book to read if you want scientifically referenced information - it is written from a layperson's perspective. There are other books on the market written by vets and people more schooled in canine nutrition. The author includes a bibliography if anyone's interested in further reading. But it's definitely a great primer on a raw food diet for dogs! I would highly recommend it to anyone curious about this concept.

- and even though I've been feeding my two Golden Retrievers a B.A.R.F. diet for almost two years, I still found this book useful, very easy to read, and I liked the relaxed style the author has of presenting the information. This is also the only B.A.R.F. book with photographs - including a photo of - how to say it politely - dog poop.
The author has no learned expertise in canine nutrition (which she makes no "bones" about) so if you want some detailed, authoritative info, buy this book along with Tom Lonsdale's (DVM) "Raw Meaty Bones."
All in all, an excellent primer on feeding raw, without the overly judgmental tone that some of the other authors take. I would recommend this book as THE best one for someone curious about feeding their dog a B.A.R.F. diet.

I have read all of the BARF books and this one is the best for a beginning BARF'er. The author gives you the basic tools on how to BARF your dog and very little of the science. If you need more science please check out the Billinghurst books. This is the book that I will be giving out to my puppy buyers.

I stopped feeding kibble about two years ago, when my then 2 - 2 year old labs kept getting recurring skin and ear infections. The vet finally said the are probably allergic to the corn in their food - that it was common. That prompted me to do some research. He of course recomended Science Diet prescription food. I said no thanks and started feeding Wellness kibble which helped and then found this book. At first I cooked 15 lbs of chicken every week. But after seeing one of my dogs eat a rabbit in the backyard and be completely fine I started feeding raw turkey thighs with bones. I mix that with a veggie premix called Urban WOlf -- its veggies that are dehydrated with calcium and you add water and sunflower oil and then whatever meat you want. This book really helped me get started and I recomend it.

The author is a big fan of plain old chicken wings and backs. Chicken backs seem the form a huge portion of her dogs' diets.

Chicken wings and backs alone are WAY too bony.
She is doing it to be as cheap as possible and in the process is feeding an incomplete diet.
Your dogs' poops should NOT be white and chalky- that is a sign the dog is eating too much bone.

It should also be mentioned somewhere in the book that raw pork can cause trichinosis and that freezing it for a month first will prevent this. She just recommends raw pork. Period.

Yes, there is some good information in this book, but you need to do more research on your own and not feed by her personal dogs' menu, as it is lacking.

This is a nice starter book to get over your fears of raw feeding, but that's about it.