Switching my pet to B.A.R.F
Switching my pet to B.A.R.F

MOSTLY THIS IS A SIMPLE AND TROUBLE FREE EXERCISE!

There are probably as many ways to switch your pet to the BARF diet as there are people and their pets.  The following general guidelines and specific ideas should get you thinking in the right direction and help you make a decision as to how you will go about this vital diet switch with your pet[s].

You must also decide if you are ready for this change. Many people would love to make the change but are afraid of the whole idea of BARF and making the switch.

The first obstacle that may confront you is the possible reluctance of your pet to make the change and the second is the possibility of digestive upset following the change. Also realize that by taking control of your pet's diet, there will be a little more work and planning involved.

The switch can be [and mostly is] rapid, straightforward and trouble free. Occasionally, it can be a difficult exercise with problems. Cats can be difficult so far as acceptance of new food goes; and both dogs and cats, but more particularly dogs, can exhibit a variety of gastrointestinal upsets as their body adjusts to the new food.

An important factor to consider is the diet you are switching your pet from. Where a pet has some experience of eating a variety of home-produced foods, both cooked and raw, there is usually more acceptance and less likelihood of gastrointestinal upset on the part of the pet. With kibble fed pets, the change is much more dramatic for the pet's system.

There are two general methods of making the switch to BARF, "Rapid” and "Slow."  Many  people  think  the  slow  switch  would  be  the  preferred  method, however, under most circumstances, the rapid method of switching your dog [if not your cat] to BARF, is usually the better one to employ.

THE RAPID SWITCH TO BARF
This is the simplest way to make the switch. You simply go ahead and do it! Yesterday you fed your pet kibble and/or canned pet food or home cooked food or whatever, today you begin to feed the BARF diet.

Before using the rapid switch, you need to consider whether your pet is suited to a quick transfer of diet. You also need to decide which foods you will choose for maximum acceptability and minimal tendency for gastrointestinal upset.

The general experience and consensus is - the rapid switch is the preferred, simplest, most trouble free and most successful method for dogs, particularly young and healthy dogs with a relatively normal gastrointestinal system. On the other hand, the rapid switch only works for a limited number of cats.

This is mostly because the vast majority of adult cats require much persuasion before they will accept any change in diet, including a change to BARF.

However, every pet and owner is different. You know your pet[s] and your situation best, so in the end the choice of how you make the switch is yours.

Sometimes Dr B discourages the rapid switch with pets that are older or have digestive problems or impaired immune systems. However, these are not rules, only guidelines. Your pet may teach you differently. This can be very much a road we make as we walk it. Many older pets that have been kibble fed all their lives [and some younger ones for that matter] cannot tolerate both raw food and kibble together in their digestive tract. That combination can result in diarrhea, vomiting or both. In this case we have no choice, it has to be the rapid switch.

RAPID SWITCH USING BARF PATTIES
For pet owners prepared to make this rapid switch, but afraid or unwilling to feed whole bones for whatever reason, the first phase of the switch can be made with patties composed purely of raw meaty bones. Patties made from chicken wings or necks will usually do nicely, but any finely ground raw meaty bone will suffice, so long as your pet does not have an allergy to that particular protein source. Once again, it is important not to over feed. Allow the pet to eat these patties for several days to ensure no digestive upsets and nice firm stools. Once these patties are accepted with no digestive upsets, we can go straight into the next phase of the switch where we begin to introduce other RAW food items.

THE SLOW SWITCH TO BARF
This method of switching your pet can take from one to four weeks, or up to six months, depending on the circumstances. Unfortunately, some pets never make the switch completely. Their owners, for a variety of reasons,   leave them suspended between two paradigms. Sometimes the reason is fear of nutritional imbalance, sometimes it is laziness. Whatever the reason, do realize that such half-hearted efforts can only bring half-hearted results.

THERE ARE FOUR BASIC WAYS TO APPROACH THE SLOW SWITCH
1   The first slow switch method is to offer one meal of BARF followed by one meal of the old food, and gradually feed fewer meals of the old type.
If your pet accepts this method with no problems it is a fair indication that it has a very robust digestive system and would have handled the rapid switch extremely well.

2  The second slow switch method is to offer both types of food at the same time and gradually offer less and less of the old food and more of the new food. E.g. some kibble and a chicken wing in the same bowl. This is one of the recommended methods when changing between different brands of kibble. Twenty five percent of the new food for a few days, fifty percent for a few days, seventy five percent for a few days then one hundred percent.

Unfortunately, in the BARF context, this will often lead to the pet rejecting the new food. In that case, it would be best to use the third method outlined below. On the other hand, if the food is accepted, some pets will develop gastrointestinal upset, as they cannot tolerate these two vastly different types of food in their digestive system at the same time.

3  The third slow switch method is to physically break the old and new food down and combine the two foods into a homogeneous mass. This way you can start out with small amounts of the new and gradually decrease the old over time. This works well with a pet that is reluctant to try the new fare. Many cats will fit into this category. However, this too may result in gastrointestinal upset for the reasons I have just mentioned.

4  This method involves introducing the new food in a cooked state, and gradually feeding it in a more raw state. This method works well with very fussy pets and can be particularly useful with cats, when all else fails.  Those pet owners who have always fed a home-made but cooked diet may decide to use this fourth slow switch method.

Owners with a pet suffering from some immune deficient state use a variation of this method. They simply cook those parts of the BARF diet most likely to contain potentially pathogenic bacteria. This usually means the raw meaty bones, which have of course been totally ground prior to cooking.

Many pet owners will employ tactics, which could be best described as a hybrid of two or more of the above approaches. For example, they may combine the cooking method [4] with the crush and combine method [3]. This works very well with finicky cooked food addict dogs and with quite a few cats.

For more information, particularly as it relates to difficulties you may encounter during the switch, you can read the chapter on “Trouble Shooting” [Chapter Twelve] in GIVE YOUR DOG A BONE where Dr B talk about issues such as refusal to eat, vomiting and diarrhea etc.

FASTING PRIOR TO SWITCHING
It can be helpful to allow your pet a one or even a two-day fast, prior to making the transfer. This allows for a small amount of detoxification and also brings to your assistance a mighty ally, hunger. Hunger can be an invaluable aid in re-training the taste buds of fussy pets.

Warning: dogs can tolerate long fasts, whereas our cats, especially our fat cats, should not be fasted longer than 24 hours, or at the very most, 48 hours. This is because cats, most particularly fat cats, can develop a fatal disease [“Hepatic Lipidosis”] if fasted for long periods.

CONCLUSIONS ON SWITCHING
For the vast majority of dogs, switching to BARF `cold turkey' is the best option. Switching slowly usually proves to be difficult and ultimately a waste of time and effort, often causing more digestive upsets than not. On the other hand, for most cats you will have very little choice. Cats will insist on the slow switch.

Go to it!
Making the switch to BARF is easier than you imagine, and well worth the effort!
BIOLOGICALLY APPROPRIATE RAW FOOD Diet