Originally, BARF stood for “Born Again Raw Feeders”, a term coined by Canadian Debbie Tripp.
Later, the meaning changed to “Bones and Raw Food”. Today, in German-speaking countries, BARF stands for “Biologically Appropriate Raw Feeding”.
The Australian veterinarian Dr. Ian Billinghurst is considered the founder of the modern BARF movement. In 1993, he published his book “Give Your Dog a Bone” after observing health improvements in his own dogs through raw feeding.
Since then, BARF has become an established term in dog nutrition, although veterinarians and nutrition experts continue to have different views on the method.
The prey model principle describes the basic idea behind all BARF variations: The diet is designed to replicate what a wolf would eat after killing prey.
A typical prey animal consists of approximately
- 30 percent muscle tissue,
- 20 percent skin and fur,
- 19 percent bones,
- 16 percent of the gastrointestinal tract,
- 3 percent internal organs,
- 3 percent blood, and
- 9 percent other parts such as teeth, eyes or claws.
Since components such as fur, gastrointestinal contents and blood are rarely fed in practice, following the prey model principle can often result in nutritional gaps. These need to be specifically balanced to ensure a complete and balanced diet.
Prey Model Raw, or PMR for short, is based as closely as possible on feeding the whole prey animal.
Ideally, whole prey animals or at least their typical components such as meat, bones, organs, skin and fur are fed, without any vegetables, fruit or grains.
The concept does not include plant-based ingredients, as these play only a minor role in the natural diet of wolves and wild canids.
Frankenprey is a variation of the Prey Model Raw and gets its name from Frankenstein, because a “prey animal” is artificially assembled from different individual parts.
Instead of feeding a whole animal, different types of meat, bones and organs from various animals are combined to replicate the nutrient composition of a natural prey animal as closely as possible.
Here, too, the diet usually consists entirely of animal-based ingredients, without vegetables or grains.
The BARF concept developed by Ian Billinghurst involves a much more varied diet composition.
Over a two-week period, for example, Billinghurst recommends
- 16 meals of raw meaty bones or fish,
- four meals of vegetables, eggs, cottage cheese, yogurt or fruit,
- four meals of offal and two meals of plain meat, as well as
- two fasting days.
To this day, this model forms the basis for most BARF diets.
The daily BARF amount primarily depends on the dog’s body weight, age and activity level.
- For an adult, healthy dog, the general guideline is around 2 to 3 percent of body weight per day.
- Puppies require 4 to 10 percent of their body weight during the growth phase.
BARF does not work without supplements. Meat, bones, vegetables and fruit alone cannot meet a dog’s nutritional needs. The best way to determine the right combination is to work with a veterinarian or pet nutritionist.
There are now also many ready-made BARF supplement mixes available on the market.
In any case, a high-quality oil such as salmon oil is important as a source of omega-3 fatty acids. You should also ensure an adequate supply of iron, calcium, vitamins A, D and E, iodine, zinc, copper and manganese, as these nutrients are often lacking in unbalanced BARF diets.