Does your dog need a diet? If you are not sure whether your dog is simply well built or is carrying too much weight, you can find out the truth with a little sensitivity. Feel your dog's chest and stomach - if you can still feel the ribs but can no longer count them, the animal is usually overweight. The question remains: what should I do? With a BARF diet, you can help your dog to get back to its normal weight.
BARF diet for dogs: causes and solutions for obesity
A BARF diet is useful for dogs both if they have already been fed BARF and if they have previously been fed dry and wet food. In most cases, dogs can be easily switched to BARF from one day to the next. The causes of obesity usually lie in the feeding - if the animal is fed too much food or the food is too fatty and high in calories, this can lead to the formation of fat deposits even with the same amount of exercise. If the dog then gets out of breath more quickly when going for a walk, the walks become shorter and the problem is exacerbated.
The right combination of ingredients is important for a balanced BARF diet for dogs. For the animal part of the diet, this means that lean meats should be chosen. You can read about what these are and which types of meat you should avoid in a dog diet in the next section. The plant-based part of the diet - fruit and vegetables - also plays a role, of course: the ratio of vegetables to fruit should be around 3:1. You can also feed seasonal varieties that contain important vitamins. Ingredients that are low in calories and sugar and high in fiber are also preferable. When it comes to oils, you can alternate between linseed oil, hemp oil and salmon oil.
Obesity in dogs: diet requires the right choice of meat
To ensure that the diet is as effective as possible for your dog, you need to be careful when choosing the type of meat. Low-fat meats such as rabbit , horse and certain types of poultry such as chicken and turkey are particularly suitable. A fat content of 10 percent is ideal, so you can "top up" with raw fat if necessary. To provide calcium, the best snacks are those with a roughly equal ratio of bone to meat. The breastbone of beef and veal or chicken necks are popular sources of food. Alternatively, eggshell flour can be added to meals instead of bones and cartilage .
BARF diet for dogs: results
As a rule, the first results should be seen within four weeks of a BARF diet for dogs. If this is not the case, it may be worth reducing the amount of food slightly, for example from a total of two percent of body weight per day to 1.9 percent. Use our BARF calculator to calculate the amount of food! You can also encourage weight loss through a more active lifestyle by getting more exercise, for example by playing or running every day. Also, reward your dog with cuddles instead of treats - after all, food is not the only kind of affection we can show our animals.
