BARF is probably the most natural way of feeding in summer, as at any other time of year. Even if the idea of raw meat on warm days may not sound like a good combination at first, BARF only feeds fresh ingredients that dogs can digest particularly easily in the hot season. Nevertheless, we have a few tips to make BARF in summer even more pleasant for your four-legged friend.
Cooling down your dog in the heat – with the right food
One of the challenges of summer is undoubtedly keeping your dog cool. Breeds with thick or long fur in particular struggle with the high temperatures in the sunny months. Owners should therefore provide a solution – by choosing the right food.
First of all, you need to adjust the daily amount of food to the dog's actual needs in sunny weather. Many animals eat less in hot weather or only eat small portions at a time. Because the high temperatures can also lead to general exhaustion, tiredness and less desire to move, you generally don't need to worry about your four-legged friend's nutritional needs: these are usually covered despite smaller meals. We recommend first of all dividing the usual daily ration into several small meals a day. Instead of using up valuable energy for digestive processes, this allows the dog's organism to cool down.
When BARFing in summer, the dog food itself still consists mainly of fresh meat, which is usually easy to digest. When BARFing, the meat is preferably lean muscle meat, such as beef, poultry or fish, as well as offal for dogs . There are also plant-based components from fruit or vegetables , which are pureed or fed to dogs in the form of vegetable flakes and are therefore also easy to digest.
An insider tip for BARFing in summer is the dog ice cream from our BARF shop . It consists mainly of beef tripe juice and beef blood and promises ice-cold refreshment. In very hot weather, the dog ice cream can be fed as a small snack or as a dog treat .
Cooling down your dog in hot weather: our tips
In addition to diet, there are other ways to cool down your dog in the summer heat. Postpone longer walks until the morning or evening when it is comparatively cool. For this purpose, trips to the forest are also a good option, where it is shady anyway and therefore pleasant temperatures prevail. During the midday heat, your four-legged friends can relax or dare to take a dip in the cool water. Your dog is not a water rat? In this case, special cooling mats or simply the cold tiles in the bathroom or kitchen provide a welcome cooling down.
BARF in summer thanks to light and fresh food
You can see that BARFing can make a big contribution to the general well-being of your four-legged friend in summer. This is due to the high moisture content in BARF dog food . The increased need for fluids in hot weather can therefore often be partially covered by the food and the dog does not need to drink as much as if it were fed dry food, for example.
