BARF Be A Real Friend to your Dog?

It all started in 1993 with a book by Australian veterinarian Ian Billinghurst, ‘Give your dog a bone’, followed by his publications ‘Grow your pups with bones’ and ‘The BARF diet’. BARF initially stood for Bones And Raw Food, but now the acronym is more commonly understood as Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, by professionals affiliated with this way of feeding dogs.

Safety

There is a certain market for commercially prepared frozen raw pet foods for those consumers who wish to feed raw meat diets as part of their feeding regime. These raw pet foods are, like all pet foods, subject to strict legislation regarding microbiological safety. This means that controls are required on pathogens (salmonella, Enterobacteriaceae) to ensure safety when fed to pets – and indeed safety for the pet owner and his family when handling these products. As for fresh meat for human consumption, special care is, therefore, necessary to maintain the cold chain from production to final user.

The bones often included in BARF diets can cause fractured teeth and gastrointestinal diseases, including obstructed or perforated intestines. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned pet owners against feeding bones to their canine companions, listing ten serious dangers from broken teeth to peritonitis when giving bones to your dog.

Nutritional balance

Few pet owners know the ins and outs of essential nutritional needs of their pet. Feeding BARF or a homemade diet, in the vast majority of cases, would require a specific formulation by a vet or animal nutritionist, as well as the disciplined dedication of the owner to supplement the raw diet with the required nutrients in the right amounts. This is not a viable option for most pet owners.

A study of the University of California analysed 200 different recipes for home-prepared dog foods. Recipes were selected from websites, veterinary textbooks, and pet care books. The findings highlighted that 95% of the recipes were deficient in at least one essential nutrient and 84% were lacking in multiple required nutrients. A paper from 2010 entitled ‘Frequency and extent of nutritional imbalances in bone and raw food diet (BARF) rations’ by German Professor E. Kienzle showed that 76% of raw diets resulted in at least one nutritional imbalance.

Life expectancy

Dogs are not wolves, their evolutionary paths diverged some 100,000-135,000 years ago. Dogs have developed smaller and less robust skulls and dentition, and numerous features of their skeleton, gastrointestinal tracts, and other anatomical structures are significantly different from those of wolves.

But another argument is more compelling: the average life expectancy of wolves in the wild is considerably lower than that of captive wolves, and diseases, parasitism, and malnutrition are important factors in the mortality rates of wild populations. Captive wolves live longer and are healthier when fed commercial dog food! The same argument applies to dogs and cats. It is widely recognised by vets that pets are living longer, healthier lives and that improved nutrition from commercially produced pet food has played an important role in this. Certainly, Neanderthals or cavemen lived on natural, raw diets, but I personally prefer our increased life expectancy!

Word of advice

Feeding BARF or other homemade diets to your pet is an option for occasional use, but should not be done without managing the risks of safety and nutritional balance. Prepared commercial pet food is the better option.

Thomas Meyer