If you are thinking of giving your pet BARF diet foods , you may have many questions. To give? How to provide it? What benefits does it have?… For this reason, from Naturcanin, we want to answer all your questions in this section of Frequently Asked Questions.
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The BARF diet, that is, raw natural food, has a long list of benefits for the health of dogs and cats, achieving optimal nutrition and development. Let’s see what benefits it has:
Greater hydration: since it is raw food, the animal will receive more liquids from the food, making the kidneys and liver work less to process the food, facing less toxins than with dry food denatured.
Improves digestion: With dry food, the body has to rehydrate the food in order to process it, which makes digestions longer and heavier. Whereas with BARF foods, digestions are easier and shorter, and nutrients are more easily obtained.
Improves oral health: Natural feeding helps the animal have less plaque bacteria and prevents bad breath problems. By including meaty bones in the animal’s diet, you will help remove much of the tartar from its teeth.
Strengthens the immune system: Since this type of diet covers all the needs of the animal in terms of vitamins, minerals and fatty acids, the immune system is normalized and strengthened. This also helps reduce the appearance of inflammatory diseases and improve the response to infections, as well as prevent arthritis.
Reduces obesity: Natural food does not contain refined carbohydrates, so it can help to lose weight and prevent animal obesity, minimizing the appearance of diseases such as diabetes or irritable bowel syndrome.
More energy: With an improvement in metabolism such as this diet, your pets will have more energy and vitality, essentially coming from animal protein.
Get ready to run after your dog, with this feed, you won’t be able to catch up!
If you want to go from giving your dog food to giving it the BARF diet, we bring you the steps to follow. However, before you start, there is something you should keep in mind:
Each dog is different, and the feeding needs will vary from one animal to another, you know your dog better than anyone, its tastes, demands and special requirements. Don’t go crazy and listen to your animal.
That said, we tell you the 4 steps for change:
This step is optional, since it will only be recommended for adult dogs without health problems. That is, we should not fast in puppies, sick or elderly dogs.
This 24-hour fast will serve to cleanse the dog’s stomach of ultra-processed food, eliminating certain toxins from the animal’s body. In addition, keeping the animal without eating for a day will make it hungry and face its new food with more appetite and desire.
To start this second stage, we are going to start little by little, giving him easily digestible proteins, such as chicken or turkey, combined with soft diet foods, such as cooked carrots or pumpkin. The proportion in which we are going to give these foods is going to be 80% animal protein and 20% cooked vegetables of a soft diet.
Likewise, we are going to give these foods in smaller doses and distributed over time, so that the animal’s body gets used to this type of food in the smoothest and most progressive way possible. So it would be advisable to do 3 or 4 smaller daily doses than what we would usually give.
Once the dog has gotten used to this diet, we can gradually introduce more elaborate menus, with other proteins and combined with other vegetables. You can include some with an extra supply of offal and accessories. We recommend our Classic Veal + Chicken Menu.
When he has gotten used to this diet, try to change the menu, after 2 or 3 weeks, so that he does not get tired and to provide him with other amino acids and vitamins. For example, our Salmon Menu.
When feeding our pets with the BARF diet we must adapt the amounts we give them to a series of characteristics of the animal: age, weight, activity and additional physical conditions (neutered or pregnant ). So at Naturcanin we have created the table of recommended amounts to help you that you find above.
As for the daily intakes, it will depend on how many times your dog is used to eating per day. That is, if your pet usually eats 3 times a day, divide the total daily amount from the previous table into 3 servings.
The BARF diet is perfectly suitable for senior dogs. The only thing we should pay attention to is the transition to this type of diet, which should be progressive, and using easily digestible protein such as chicken or turkey.
We would start the process by introducing raw BARF feed as a treat and alternating the days. In this way, little by little we can replace a shot of your current food with a BARF shot. The last thing that we will incorporate into their diet are the offal, since they can be too fatty and could destabilize your pet’s digestive system. However, once the animal has become accustomed to this diet and the complete transition has been made, its menus must contain a percentage of offal so that it is a balanced and nutritious diet.
In the case of elderly dogs that have always fed processed feed, we recommend adding probiotics during the transition period to reinforce the animal’s intestinal flora, so that its body is strong to accept the change in diet.
BARF foods do not have to be cooked, they are eaten raw. In fact, that is the basis of this diet, thanks to which the greatest number of benefits can be extracted.
Raw foods, since they have not been exposed to high temperatures, preserve vitamins, proteins, essential amino acids and antioxidants, making them easier for the animal’s body to acquire.
To give the Naturcanin menus to your dog, you just have to let it thaw, leaving it in the fridge for a day. Take it out of the fridge half an hour before consumption so that it is at room temperature, and that’s it! Your pet will leave the plate clean.
Naturcanin’s raw products are always frozen, in a clean, quality container, with no risk of freezer burn. In addition, you will be able to have two comfortable different formats of the BARF menus: 500gr or 1000gr.
Regarding the conservation of Naturcanin products, you should put them in the freezer until the day before consumption. And, once you have defrosted it, keep it in the fridge for a maximum of approximately 2 days (depending on the temperature of the fridge). The treatment will be the same as any minced meat product: keep it covered in the fridge so that it does not dry out and does not absorb odors from other products.
NO. You should never mix the two types of food (feed and BARF) in the same intake, since the digestion of each type of food is very different and can cause digestive problems for your pet.
What can be done is alternate feed intakes and BARF intakes throughout the day. In fact, this is especially recommended when transitioning from a feed-based diet to the BARF diet. Simply, you will have to calculate the doses of each food well, and it will be very simple: if your dog has to eat 2% of its body weight of BARF products daily, you will have to give it 1% in one dose in the morning, for example , and with the feed, if they recommend 200g daily, you will have to give it 100g at night.
We must think that the dog and the wolf share 99.8% of their genetics and, since their biology is practically identical, so is their digestive system, save for some differences, such as the ability to direct starches. So, with this in mind, we must offer our pet an evolutionary appropriate diet, remembering that our animals have been eating raw food for centuries.
With processed foods such as feed, we move away from the needs dictated by nature for our dog, providing an excess of carbohydrates, low-quality proteins, a lack of essential oils and, above all, a lack of moisture. This has very negative repercussions on the health of our animal: premature aging of the organs due to overexertion, obesity, bone loss, dehydration, kidney problems and various diseases.
That’s why we provide raw food such as BARF dog food, with balanced proteins, minerals and vitamins for optimal digestion and health. Meat contains a series of properties such as vitamins, enzymes and antioxidants, which are destroyed when exposed to high temperatures, that is, when cooked. When these digestive enzymes in meat are destroyed, our pet’s organs must use more resources and energy to digest the food.
To answer this question we must remember that the digestive system of dogs and humans is not the same. Therefore, the fact that we can get poisoned by eating raw meat does not mean that our dog can too.
Dogs are carnivorous animals, and for hundreds of years they have dedicated themselves to hunting their prey and eating it raw, so their body and digestive system are perfectly prepared to deal with the raw meat and bones of other animals.
In addition, you must bear in mind that Naturcanin products, and all the ingredients that make them up, pass rigorous quality controls. And these ingredients have the same origin as what you can use for your diet.
Perfectly. The BARF diet is a healthy diet for dogs and cats, regardless of whether they are sterilized or not, as it provides all the nutrients and vitamins their bodies need for proper functioning.
The only thing you should take into account if your pet is sterilized is the amounts of BARF food that you give at each feeding, since, generally, sterilized dogs and cats tend to have less physical activity. So, if this is the case of your dog, and it has a low level of activity, you should calculate the amounts based on the age, weight and activity level of the animal. You can consult the table to know the optimal amounts.
Totally yes. Also, this is usually the healthiest way to do it. When we put feed aside and switch to this natural diet, we are reducing a considerable part of carbohydrates, which are the main cause of overweight in dogs and cats.
To achieve a healthy weight loss, you must calculate the doses with the ideal weight of your animal (not with the one it currently has). Therefore, let’s say that, for example, if your dog is a Maltese, his ideal weight will be between 3 and 4kg, but he currently weighs 6kg, so the calculation should be done with 3 or 4kg. This way you will be giving him the amount his body needs, neither more nor less.
In addition, we should start with low-fat meats, such as turkey or rabbit, until the dog reaches its perfect weight. Later, you can vary and introduce all kinds of meats and BARF products, since the animal will maintain its weight, achieving better levels of activity and more energy and vitality.
If you follow the directions and give your pet a varied BARF diet , switching between different types of menus that contain a variety of vegetables, proteins, organ meats, and meaty bones, Like the Naturcanin menus, you will cover all the needs of your pet, without nutritional deficiencies of any kind.
However, you can give it supplements if you want to further enrich its diet, or in case your pet has a specific problem. For example, in the event that your dog has had the need to take antibiotics for a while, he will need a little help to regenerate the intestinal flora and, in this case, it would be advisable to add a probiotic. In any case, check with your trusted vet, they will tell you how to proceed.
At Naturcanin we recommend two supplements that will achieve iron health for your pet:
