Food

Our dogs are fed BARF, a little explanation of this strange word which can be frightening, quite wrongly in fact.

What is BARF?

BARF stands for Biologically Appropriate Raw Food". This acronym, established by the Dr Tom Lonsdale and Dr Ian Billinghurstcan be translated into French as : "Biologically appropriate raw food". This diet concerns dogs, cats and ferrets and is based on the administration of natural products, ideally prey, in order to approximate as closely as possible the diet of a wild carnivore, without reproducing the (excessively) long periods of fasting and the fatigue of hunting. Read the article "Why BARF? the "Barf Asso" website

The bowls are made up of meat, meaty bones, offal, oil and vegetables, most of which are raw and pureed (for dogs only, as cats and ferrets are strict carnivores).

A balanced diet is established over several weeks, so there's no need to panic and want every dish to be perfect at all costs. We've all been formatted by the food industry, and we're all afraid of deficiencies or overdoses, but you don't weigh every milligram of fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy products you eat in a week, day after day. The same goes for our animals, but don't go in blind!

BARF, Raw Feeding, Whole Feeding - what's the difference?

In reality, there are practically none, apart from the addition of fruit and vegetables in BARF for dogs, which is not the case for cats and ferrets, who are strict carnivores - for purists, we would say Raw Feeding rather than BARF. Finally, Whole Feeding or Whole Prey Feeding is the closest to the diet of a wild carnivore, as it consists of feeding only whole prey as it would be found in the wild.
But in the end, these terms mean a natural CRUE diet.

Not to be confused with the household ration

This type of diet consists of raw or sometimes cooked meat, cooked vegetables, fruit and vegetables. cooked starches and CMV (Mineral and Vitamin Supplement). The household ration is prepared according to the same principles as industrial foods, i.e. its composition is considered in terms of nutritional intake rather than in terms of ingredients, its content varies little or not at all from one meal to the next, and it absolutely requires the addition of supplements.

Warnings

BARF foods have become all the rage in recent years, so we'd urge you to take a cautious approach. Don't rush! Of course, there's no point in trying to calculate each food item down to the gram, but don't think that a BARF diet means giving your dog only bones, only meat or only offal! Good kibble (Royal Canin type, more about this below) than an unbalanced BARF!

On the other hand, manufacturers are surfing the natural trend, so be wary, especially of cereal-free kibbles, which often contain potato, which is highly intolerant.

Too many supplements

You should also be careful about natural and unnatural food supplements! Don't forget that supplements, even natural ones, can be dangerous. If you're too worried about deficiencies, you forget that excess can have just as serious consequences!

For example, a decrease in the phospho-calcium ratio causes demineralisation, but an increase in this same ratio can lead to osteofribosis. Similarly, a deficiency in vitamin A can slow growth and cause reproductive and nervous system problems, but an excess of this same vitamin A also disrupts growth and causes muscle weakness, bone remodelling, etc. The list goes on, so it's important to remain vigilant in the face of the trend for food supplements that say "BARF" on their labels.

The same applies to people who advise mixing kibble and barf for fear of deficiencies. Apart from the fact that digestion time However, this practice puts a strain on the digestive system. This type of diet cannot be balanced - you risk overdosing on certain nutrients!

What do our dogs eat at Envol pomsky?

We have chosen simplicity and safety for our dogs with a ready-made raw food: Nova Canis from Easy Barf.

However, twice a week we give them meaty bones (turkey legs, whole quails, etc.) for the pleasure of actually eating prey and for the health of their teeth.

And croquettes?

Because we're well aware that the choice we've made won't necessarily be yours (although we're convinced it will be and hope you'll do the same!), we also introduce the puppies to dry food, so that you can come back to it later without any difficulty.

On the other hand, don't be fooled by the different fashions, particularly those that are cereal-free. Having tested a lot of them before switching to BARF, there's no doubt that we're going back to the ones we were already using before we started breeding: dry food. Royal Canin which are by far the best tolerated and the highest quality. Your puppies will therefore be used to both BARF and Royal Canin Puppy kibbles.

Interested in adopting a Pomsky puppy?

Come and see if we have any puppies available at the moment.