BARF - WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?
BARF is about feeding dogs properly. The aim of BARF is to maximize the health, longevity and reproductive capacity of dogs and by so doing, minimize the need for veterinary intervention. How do you feed a dog properly? You feed it the diet that it evolved to eat. Its evolutionary diet. A Biologically Appropriate Raw Food diet. A BARF diet.
Such a diet, a biologically appropriate diet is simple in philosophy and construction. The very essence of common sense. It looks at the diet of a wild or feral animal and duplicates or mimics that type of feeding regime using available whole raw foodstuffs. These diets may be enhanced with various supplements. Once the principles are understood, anybody can do this. No special credentials are required.
In the case of the cat, which is an obligate carnivore and a hunter, the biologically appropriate diet is based largely upon animal derived foodstuffs like flesh, bones and organs. Basically, whatever nutrition can be derived from a whole fresh raw carcass - in its entirety - constitutes a biologically appropriate diet.
In the case of the dog which is an omnivore, a hunter and a scavenger, the diet can be based on a wider range of whole raw foods of both animal and plant origin, with the further proviso that the foods may be either fresh or auto-decaying via endogenous enzymes.
The BARF movement appears to have started in response to the dietary guidelines outlined in the book "Give Your Dog a Bone" written by Dr Ian Billinghurst, published in 1993.
The acronym BARF started out as meaning "Born Again Raw Feeders". Initially, this was a sling off at dog owners who fed raw food to their dogs. When the originator of that term tried a raw food diet on her own dogs, she was so impressed that she began an Internet list advocating the use of raw foods for dogs. Along the way she changed the meaning of the term BARF to the "Bones And Raw Food diet." BARF could also stand for the Billinghurst Australian Real Food diet. In fact anything you like that works!