I have 2 dogs.

1. Female, 6 month old Dobermin, approx. 50 pounds
2. Female, 3 year old Min Pin, 4.5 pounds

I have tried to do a lot of research with homemade meals and the BARF dog diet.

I am just concerned that my pets will lack vitamin-nutritional value.

I have 5 different recipes for a homemade diet, so there is variety in their consumption. I also know how much food to give per day based on their weight.

Questions:
1. Should I add a pet-multi-vitamin to their food?
2. Should I do a regular, cooked homemade meal or the"raw" BARF diet? Or switch to add more variety.
3. Cost – I know that fresh meat and veggies will cost more than a 20# bag of "pedigree" or "kibbles n bits", but is the fresh diet better in the long run?

My husband and I are really feeling the pinch with the current economy and I want to change my entire lifestyle to be 100% (or as close to it) as natural. We have changed our own diets, eliminating all sugars, processed foods, etc…I am using salt and vinegar mixed with water and oils for cleaning products as well.

I would like to continue this with my pets. Any advise you can give would be very appreciated.

Thank you.

I’m seriously considering doing the raw diet for my dogs. I’ve read many a web page on the topic and I think I get the basic idea of how to go about it, but unfortunately, most of the sites were raw food retailers who sell in bulk and were pushing me to use their product and only gave me guidelines for the use of their product- nothing about how to do it on my own. I have a wonderful Italian market in my locale that sells every part of the animal you can think of, and at low prices. I think the average cost of a whole lamb liver is .50, and about the same price for gizzards and other body parts such as pigs feet and snouts. They also sell their meats at a great price (chicken is usually around per pound). So the tools are there, I just need to implement them. Can anyone reccommend a good online resource for a homemade raw diet? Or perhaps you prepare homemade raw foods for your pets and have valuable recipes/advice? I also have questions about feeding veggies- which ones are acceptable and do they have to be steamed before consumption (some sites say yes because steaming them brings out all the nutrients, but other sites say no because technically it’s no longer raw)? And is mixing in rice a good idea, and if so, which type of rice is best to use? And I’m kind of worried about feeding bones because while all the raw sites say it’s good to do that, many of my friends who have worked in a vet clinic before say that most of the dogs on a raw diet came in with torn intestines from the bones peices. Logic tells me they should be OK, but I’ve been scared by one to many people to just let this go without asking someone who has had succes with the raw diet. As always, any help is much appreciated and links are wonderful!

i was looking at raw foodism on wikipedia and i came across this line "the increases in human brain-size occurred well before the advent of cooking, due to a shift away from the consumption of nuts and berries to the consumption of meat." so does this mean meat was essential to human development but not necessary now?ive met many fundamentalist vegans who say it was never "natural" to eat meat .which one is it? im a vegetarian btw.
humans cant digest meat the same way animals do. we suck at it. our teeth are made for hard plants as well. can you tear off flesh like a bear? no didnt think so

I would like to start a detox diet to get all the yuckies out of my body, but I don’t want to do anything really drastic all at once. I currently eat about 50 percent organic. I would like to do two phases of my detox.

Phase I – increased water intake, increased consumption of antioxidants and 100 percent organic food, if possible.
Phase II – the above plus detox baths.

I am by no means a health expert. If anyone out there knows about this, does my plan sound good? If not, how should I change it? If it does sound good, how long should I do each phase? Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

I am quite familiar with healthy eating, raw foodism, and nutrition (working on a B.S. in nutritional science) though my question needs to be answered by someone with far more insight than myself. I understand what enzymes are, how they work, and am a believer in both digestive therapeutic applications. I am also a fan of the raw food diet for the clean, simple, and ‘living’ factor, but cringe when I read about raw foodists ‘selling’ the notion that eating raw foods will increase enzyme activity in the body. As far as I know, our body starts producing enzymes in the form of amylase as soon as we begin to salivate for food. The harsh environment of the stomach denatures most proteins, which includes enzymes. How can we say that the enzymes are still in tact in the stomach on top of saying that they are ready and willing to help break down the foods that they let sit so nicely in front of us before they were consumed?
Thanks you guys, but just so you know, this is less of a personal question, and more of a scientific one. Also, I am not speaking about the consumption of raw meat, but about that of vegetables and/or dairy products