Vertebrates are animals that have a spine. These are divided into five different vertebrate classes: fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds. Humans, dogs, cats and ferrets are also vertebrates. To make it easier to classify vertebrates, several things they have in common have been grouped together in addition to the spine. These include the brain, the vascular system, kidneys and the inner ear as the seat of the sense of balance. The eye is also considered a highly developed sensory organ and is a characteristic of vertebrates.
Vertebrates are spreading more or less unrestrictedly around the world. The various classes of vertebrates appear at the North and South Poles, live on mountains and in the deep sea and in the air. Fish make up the largest proportion at around 55 percent, while we mammals only make up around eight percent of all vertebrates. The main reason for this is the high proportion of water on Earth, as around 71 percent of our planet is covered by water.
It is difficult to classify vertebrates based on their diet. The animal world includes vegetarians, pescetarians and carnivores . The different species can often even be fed in a certain way, even though they are used to a different diet in the wild. For example, many pets are fed a vegetarian diet, while potential deficiencies are counteracted with supplements . With BARF, the aim is in a sense the opposite. The aim here is to find a diet for our four-legged friends that would occur in nature in one way or another. Accordingly, dogs are given a mixture of muscle meat, tripe and omasum, offal, vegetables, fruit and more. You can find out what the ideal food composition for our native vertebrates looks like using our BARF calculator .
