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Murphy II
On Saturday morning when I fired up Facebook, I had message from Jeff Alexander, one of my new Facebook friends. That message contained the following questions from Jeff about the best diet to feed his four month old Shih-Tzu/ Maltese mix – Murphy.
With Jeff’s permission, I wrote this blog post around his questions, and hopefully I’ve answered them.
Hello and thank you for adding me as a friend on FB. I am brand new to this Raw Feeding idea and am still learning about it, but I find it to be a bit confusing. Some articles I have read say to add vegetables and fruit to my dog’s diet and others say it’s not necessary. Some say to add Yogurt, Cottage Cheese, Flax Seed Oil and so many other ingredients. I just want to feed my pup the best possible diet. Can you help me to know what exactly that would consist of? I would very much appreciate it.
Also, is buying pre-made BARF a bad idea?
- Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for you questions.
You’re definitely not alone with your confusion about how to go about feeding Murphy a raw diet. Big pet food, veterinarians and even some raw feeders have made the feeding of our pet carnivores out to be something so complicated that we can’t possibly do it ourselves. We can feed our children with no problem, but according to pet food companies and most in the veterinary community, we’re not smart enough to feed our own pets.
For the tens of thousands of years preceding the advent of commercial junk pet food, domesticated dogs ate whatever they hunted and killed, and probably some human food scraps. I would think that the former occurred more often as food was not always as abundant for humans until relatively recently.
In order to understand what dogs should eat, we have to look at what their closest relative the Gray Wolf eats. So what does a wolf eat? Well, it will vary by region and season, but generally speaking the wolf’s favourite prey are elk, deer and other large herbivorous ruminants.
FACT: Descendants of wolves, dogs are carnivores designed to eat raw meat, raw bone and the raw internal organs of their prey.
Wolves will consume all but the stomach contents (but will eat the stomach lining aka tripe) and weight bearing bones of their ruminant prey. When times are tough, and the wolf’s favourite prey are not available they will turn to smaller prey animals (consumed whole), fish, bird’s eggs, insects and fermenting fruits if they can find them. This is a short term survival strategy during periods where they’re preferred prey is unavailable.
“Yeah, but dogs aren’t wolves“, is one of the popular arguments against feeding dogs raw meaty bones. When comparing the outside appearances, brain size and behaviour of wolves and dogs, I completely agree. However, from teeth to anus, digestively speaking – dogs are wolves!
Tools of the Trade
Adult wolves and adult dogs all have 42 teeth with each jaw outfitted with 6 incisors, 2 canines and 8 premolars. Additionally, the lower jaw has 6 molars and the upper jaw has 4 molars.
The dog’s canine teeth are made for grabbing, holding on to and killing their prey. Their incisors are used for pulling, ripping, and tearing flesh off bone, and their serrated molars are used for cutting flesh and connective tissue (scissor like), and crunching bone. I think it’s quite clear that a dog’s teeth are not made for eating pureed bok choy or romaine lettuce.
Dogs like their wild cousins have highly corrosive stomach acids and a relatively short (compared to omnivores and herbivores) digestive tract designed for the quick transit of meat and bone through it.
Omnivores and herbivores both consume carbohydrates as food, and thus require a longer digestive tract and additional enzymes (not present in a canine’s digestive system), in order to process and assimilate the harder to digest carbohydrates and cellulose.
Most of us are not able to feed our dogs an elk carcass in our backyard, so feeding raw meaty bones in large pieces as well as offal, gets us as close as possible to the diet that a canine not only prefers, but requires for optimal health. And that’s a hell of a lot closer to a canine’s natural diet than a bag of cooked, enzyme devoid, dehydrated, periodontal disease causing kibble!
What Does Feeding RMBs Look Like in Practice?
As laid out in his book Work Wonders: Feed Raw Meaty Bones, Dr. Lonsdale lists 3 key principals for feeding raw meaty bones;
1. Feed meaty bones raw.
2. Feed meaty bones in large pieces to ensure maximum cleaning of teeth and gums. <—- this is a HUGE part of why dogs need meaty bones. Upwards of 85% of all domestic pets older than 2 years old have periodontal disease. As much as they (pet food companies) try to spin it, kibble does not clean teeth!
3. Feed meaty bones from a variety of animals — for instance chicken, lamb and rabbit — thus ensuring good balance of nutrients.
Murphy’s Menu
So for small dogs like Murphy, the menu could include, whole chicken or chicken parts, rabbit, fish, Cornish game hen, even rats & mice if you’re not squeamish and can find a source.
Offal in the form of beef liver, heart, kidney, spleen; pork liver, heart, kidney, spleen; green tripe, lung, stomachs, pancreas can be fed. Liver can be fed once every couple of weeks as one large meal. Table scraps like cooked vegetables and bits of grisly steak (sans seasoning) can be offered up periodically as well. Vegetables are not a required part of a dog’s healthy diet however, a small amount of cooked, pureed or minced veggies will do no harm.
How Much and How Often Should You Feed Murphy?
As a rule of thumb, the average adult dog will require 2 – 3% of its body weight per day from raw meaty bones. Growing puppies may require more depending on breed and activity level.
For the next two months Jeff, you can split Murhpy’s daily food requirement into two meals. At 6 months or so you can probably reduce that to once per day.
Don’t get caught up in feeding exactly 2 – 3% every day, as long as over the course of the week he receives his calculated requirement. “Complete and balanced” is achieved over time, not at every meal.
My own dogs usually eat once per day with a couple of snacks (chicken feet or whatever) throughout the day – most days. I rarely feed them the same food two days running, nor do they always eat at the same time each day. I also fast them one day per week. These feeding methods simulate how wild canine’s eat.
Note: Puppies, sick dogs and old dogs should not be fasted without the supervision of a veterinarian.
Cottage Cheese?
This is an easy one. Dogs eating a diet of raw meaty bones and offal receive all the protein and calcium they require – and anyway, dairy has no place in a canine diet.
Flax Seed Oil?
I actually wrote about fish oil vs flax seed oil in this recent post, that I summed up like this, “in a nutshell, dogs can immediately utilize ingested omega-3s from fish sources, but are probably unable to convert flaxseed oil to a bioavailable form. So at best flaxseed oil is just an expensive source of fat.”
B.A.R.F?
B.A.R.F stands for either “bones and raw food” or “biologically appropriate raw food” depending on who you talk to. The acronym seems to have become synonymous with packaged raw dog foods. If the pre-packaged food is ground, it would not contain whole bone, essential for cleaning teeth and gums, nor would it be biologically appropriate since the “appropriate” part of B.A.R.F would need to include whole bone wrapped in generous amounts of meat.
So unless you also feed large pieces of raw meaty bones in addition to pre-packaged raw dog foods or, you are only occassionally feeding one of these ground products for variety, I would say yes, buying them would be a bad idea.
I also recommend that you pick up a copy of each of Tom Lonsdale’s books, Raw Meaty Bones Promote Health and Work Wonders: Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones. As well, check out the Raw Meaty Bones Yahoo group for more information on how to feed Murphy a diet of raw meaty bones.
Jeff, I commend you for seeking out information about how to feed Murphy the best possible diet, thank you for your question and I hope I’ve made things less confusing for you. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask in the comments below, email me, or message me on Facebook.
Good luck! 
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I'm a dog guardian to Sweety, my 15 year old Border Collie & Zeus a stray American Pit Bull Terrier that I rescued in October of 2009. I write about canine health and nutrition focusing mainly on topics relating to feeding a raw meaty bones diet.
