# BARF Diet Newbie Help



## whitebearsox23 (May 28, 2016)

Hi everyone,

Frequent reader of this forum, but this is my first time ever posting something - so bear with me.

My girlfriend and I got out GSD Rory back in September 2015. It is our first dog and we absolutely love her to death. With that being said, we wanted to feed her the best food out there (unfortunately, also the most expensive). We bought Orijen - which I will say is wonderful dog food if you are willing to dish out $85-$95 for a 28.6-lb bag.

For us, that price tag was way too high after months of feeding her. I wanted to get something different for her, but no lose all the benefits of a high-end dog food. After all my research, that just cannot be done with dry food. But I began to read about the BARF diet and fell in love with it. I already liked putting together meals for her, so the transition of the time and effort required for a BARF diet was a piece of cake.

We have been on the BARF diet for roughly a month now. I am currently feeding her once a day. At her servings, I will give her two chicken backs/thighs, a mix of either chicken liver, chicken heart, chicken gizzards, or beef liver (so far). I will also toss in a fruit or vegetable of the day (apple, banana, carrot), as well as one to two eggs. I will also occasionally mix in some peanut butter.

For the first couple of weeks, I could not be happier with her poops. As a proud dog owner now, I am fascinated with what comes out. Instead of large, smelly poops when she was eating kibble, it is now only a couple of hard, balled-up "rabbit poops" that don't smell like a thing.

However, in the past 48 hours, Rory (my GSD) has had a serious case of diarrhea - and now constipation. Being a newcomer to the BARF diet, my immediate reaction is that I totally screwed something up with her diet and that she is sick to her stomach and I'm an awful owner and the snowball keeps going, as many of you probably already know.

Now, this is certainly a loaded question. How does her diet look? I would love some help/suggestions. Am I lacking any particular vitamins, minerals? I read all the time about adding supplements to the mix, but haven't been able to find if I'm lacking any in the first place. Secondly, any idea why she all-of-the-sudden is suffering from a combination of diarrhea and constipation? She is not vomiting and is acting completely normal. It is just a cause for concern because I have not seen this issue since switching to the BARF diet and experiencing wonderful stools.

Hopefully I can get some responses (I'm definitely a fan of constructive criticism) and I also hope that this will help some newbie BARF diet owners as well. Thank you!


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## ipopro (May 4, 2012)

I would like to ask you a couple of questions if you don't mind.

What brand peanut butter?
Has the dog been unsupervised at all prior to this occurance and possibly consumed something other than what you are providing at meal time?


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

How much liver do you give at once?


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## whitebearsox23 (May 28, 2016)

llombardo said:


> How much liver do you give at once?


We have only given her liver roughly twice a week, and it's just shy of half a pound. She is a little over 80 pounds. Hasn't had issues with liver before either.


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## Mesonoxian (Apr 5, 2012)

Did you add a new protein recently? That can cause irregular poops if Rory has any sensitivity and/or if it was introduced too quickly.


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## Mudypoz (Mar 3, 2016)

Some dogs don't tolerate organ meat very well in the beginning. I know all of my dogs would end up with cannon butt if given half a pound of liver at once, and they've been raw fed for many years. I tend to give them a little bit every day for that reason. Ideally liver should make up about 5% of all of the food, another organ 5%, bone should be about 10%, and the rest should be muscle meat. Personally, I don't feed any fruits and veggies at all, but I do give fish oil, Vit E, and a probiotic. Some dogs also do well with a digestive enzyme in the beginning.


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## MineAreWorkingline (May 2, 2015)

If the organ meats consist of chicken hearts that come in packages mixed with gizzards and are anything like what they sell in my area, I don't think your dog is getting enough organ meats.

Why are you feeding your dog peanut butter? 

Water is absorbed into the body mostly through the digestive system. If a dog has a bout of diarrhea, it could get dehydrated. When the diarrhea stops, the resulting dehydration could result in constipation. How long did your dog have diarrhea? Constipation?


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

once a day feeding/gorging the large portion can be hard on the digestive system. 
I would much rather give a proper portion of meat/bone/organ 2 times a day and supplement accordingly with fish oil, Bcomplex, CoQ10 as well as a probiotic digestive enzyme(green tripe is great for that). You are not really feeding a good balanced raw diet, IMO. 
Runny poop is usually from over feeding portion-wise.


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