FOOD

Which food to give your Rottweiler, will be the most important choice you will ever make concerning your Rottweiler. Since 1995 we have tried a good number of industrial dog foods (kibble), among which : Royal Canin, Purina Pro-Plan, Eukanuba, Bosch, Techni-Cal, Dog International, Hill's Science Plan, Nutra Nuggets. Some appeared almost satisfactory, others were simply not good. In any case, none was perfect.

A Rottweiler puppy multiplies its birth weight by 100 or 120 by the time it reaches 12 months of age. How could food not be a crucial factor ?

I have more recently come across a number of websites on which people were telling how happy they were about their dogs fed with Dr Ian Billinghurst's BARF Diet (Bones And Raw Food). Some of the websites displayed pictures of those dogs, with shiny coats, strong bones, powerful muscles. I thought to myself "my dogs have all that from kibble". Then I took a look at those dogs' teeth, some were 8 years old and they had those clean, strong, spotless teeth. This triggered my curiosity, because my dogs had always had tartar building up on their teeth, causing bad breath and having me worried about possible future infections. So just for that tartar issue, I started researching this BARF Diet, and discovered that it was the key not only to this problem, but to a dog's overall well-being. I purchased Dr Billinghurst's book "Give your dog a bone", read it 3 times and found it fascinating. It all made sense to me, and actually made me wonder how I had been so stupid as to think industrial food, made from low quality ingredients aggressiveley processed at high temperatures, dehydrated, mixed with preservatives and chemical substances, could ever be proper food for my beloved dogs ?

The principle of the BARF Diet relies on a no-nonsense approach to feeding a dog. It starts with the assertion that a dog is genetically programmed to eat natural food, to eat it raw, and that no industrial dry commercial food can match its genetic needs.

So, to make a long story short, what do I feed my dogs ? Well, here's a list of what I give them :

- Chicken : whole chicken, chicken legs, chicken wings, chicken necks

- Rabbit : whole rabbit with the head, organs, everything but the fur

- Beef : muscle meat in its natural state (which means not ground)

- Turkey : turkey breast, turkey legs, turkey necks

- Organ meat (offal) : beef kidney, beef liver, beef heart, beef tripe, chicken liver, chicken gizzards

- dairy : yoghurt, cottage cheese

- vegetables : green beans, broccoli, carrots, beet, Brussels sprout

- egg yolks

- sardines with oil, brewer's yeast

- fruit : apples, pears, oranges, walnuts

All of this always fed RAW.

What do my dogs get out of the BARF Diet, as compared with their former kibble diet ?

- no tartar on the teeth, whatsoever => reduces the risk of infections and gives clean breath. This comes from crunching bones every day while they eat.

- no more flatulence whereas it was a constant issue with kibble, stool volume divided by at least 2, and no more stool odor at all in the backyard. Stool also disappears after a few days, whereas kibble stool could stay for months (makes you wonder what they put in kibble, huh ?).

- much better muscle mass and muscle tone, they put on muscle much faster than with kibble probably because the nutrients in raw natural food, are more readily available

- strong zygomatics, from crunching the bones and chewing on large chunks of meat

- better digestion, no more regurgitation : probably because they actually eat slower and chew on their food, instead of gulping it down and swallowing loads of air in the process

- higher energy level and improved stamina, again probably because they benefit much more from what they eat.

- less nervousness and restlessness, probably because they are finally eating the right quantity of food and they no longer feel hungry around the clock.

Several dogs from our kennel around the world have switched to this diet and now experience the same benefits. Feeding your dog this 100% natural diet is easy and fun. I love to watch my dogs eat now, and see them enjoy themselves.

For this diet a freezer is highly recommended, this way you can purchase large ammounts of food at once, get very good discounts, etc. Bottom line is that it's not even more expensive than kibble ! And at least you can be 100% sure that what your dog eats, really is high quality food. You control the origin, the ammounts, the quality, and you no longer need to rely on multinational corporate companies who are simply trying to make as much profit from our dogs as they possibly can.

If you are interested, a good place to start is Dr Billinghurst's book Give your dog a bone. It will be a great help in understanding the basics and getting you started.