Raw Meaty Bone Diet for Dogs

The philosophy behind feeding Raw Meaty Bones to dogs was developed in the 1980s by Australian veterinarian Dr. Ian Billinghurst, based upon the belief that the diet a dog evolved over millions of years is still appropriate today.

  1. Evolutionary Diet

    • The concept of an evolutionary diet is one which consists of raw whole foods that are similar to that eaten by dogs' wild ancestors. This includes bones, muscle meat and internal organs, plus vegetables and other food materials that the wild ancestors would have consumed. One reason given by Dr. Billinghurst for this diet is that the basic physiology of the dog has changed very little with domestication, despite changes in appearance and behaviour.

    In Practice

    • A typical complete food for dogs is a mix of meat meal and cereals with added vitamins, precooked and formed into a kibble. The Raw Meaty Bone diet is different, based as it is upon raw bones, muscle meat, offal (liver, kidneys, heart and green tripe) together with leafy vegetables. Grains are not used, and the preference is for fruit and vegetables to be used as a source of carbohydrate.

      The Raw Meaty Bone diet must contain foods that are easily obtainable -- domesticated dogs do not spend their time hunting. Today there are several suppliers of suitable foods, ready prepared for owners to present to their dogs.

    Recipes

    • A typical Biologically Appropriate Raw Foods (BARF) diet for a normal healthy dog would comprise of 60 percent meaty bones (mainly chicken but also including lamb, rabbit, beef, pork and venison) and 40 percent other ingredients (mainly green leafy vegetables, mixed with offal and the occasional raw egg).

    Supplementation

    • To ensure optimum nutrition, the diet can be supplemented with naturally based commercial preparations. These tend to be based upon dried and ground grasses, vegetables, fruits and herbs, together with probiotics and natural enzymes.

    Considerations

    • There is debate in the veterinary profession over the relative merits of feeding a Raw Meaty Bone diet to dogs. The British Veterinary Association (BVA) issued cautionary advice in 2006, stating that the feeding of raw meat and bones can put dogs at some risk because of splintered bones causing intestinal perforation. The BVA also pointed to a risk of bacterial infection with uncooked meats, including Salmonalla and Campylobacter. For these reasons they advise against feeding raw bones or meat to dogs.