Discussion site for natural diets for pets
Please feel free to use it!
Vav Simon.
RMD for two GSD.
Mali, a girl, 7, had been on a mixed diet since she was born: biscuits, pellets, bolognese, raw or cooked, TINS!!
Murphy, now 2, came to us with some tailchaising issues, which he could not be distracted from.I feared this manic behaviour would affect his spine, so we took him to Vav hoping in a miracle. She found nothing wrong with his spine, but she drew our attention to the dogs’ diet and we opted for a trial RMD. A few days later we noticed that Murphy was more relaxed and domestic, affectionate indeed.
As for Mali, old habits die hard but you can sure teach an old dog new tricks. At first she refused to touch raw food: now she can’t be kept away from it and sulks when we go back to the tin (hand up, still guilty of that) if we have run out of her supply.
As for Murphy, I can’t say that his tailchaising has stopped, but the moment we open the container to dispense his RMD he forgets all about his backside and rushes to his dinner.
What can we add? When in doubt, give it a try. It may take a while to find the correct balance for your dog, but do not give up. Also, no blaming the diet if you are still feeding the dog some artificial diet. You jump to RMD, the dog jumps with you, all land on happier paws.
We have much happier -and discerning! – dogs, and we now know that the borders of the universe go through Vav Simon’s farm and her wisdom.
As a dog owner of many years I was, I have to say, rather sceptical when I first spoke with Vav about the benefits of feeding my dogs RMB! as opposed to **** in a bag as it was described.
Having seen my dogs condition and well-being improve over such a short period – seven days – I am truly amazed. Both my German Shorthaired Pointer and my Doberman were always good eaters, but now the sight of flesh and bone has them leaping and jumping with joy 
Having consumed their food they both relax and sleep whilst the digestion process takes place.
I tend to put the food outside on the grass and I can see they really enjoy holding the meat or bone with their feet and eating it as wild dogs or Wolves would.
To see them tearing the meat from bone and then crunching bone seems so natural now, rather than a bowl of **** or, as it is better known, kibble! (hahahaha) which was consumed in seconds.
Thank-you Vav for all your help and advice…. Mark and Julia Newton.
I have 3 beagles, one of which I rescued aged 9 months. Dexter came with a lot of anxieties and unpredictable behaviour problems. Over time I have worked very hard with Dex and together with the help of Vav he has calmed down greatly. The only problem I couldn’t break was his incessant barking. It certainly was a case of it’s me or the dog as far as my husband was concerned!!
To be honest I couldn’t see a relation between food and barking and that a change of diet would sort this problem out.
I am converted!! Dex is now in week 4 of his new diet and he is transformed. In fact he’s so laid back I was worried there was something wrong with him! He used to get stressed when I left the house now he stays in his basket asleep. As for the barking, the poor postman still gets barked at but everything else is great. Peace has resumed in the Barlow household!!
Thanks Vav and I hope more more people change over to RMB. Its so easy to use as its all pre-portioned all three beagles are on it, their coats are gorgeous, their poo is solid (& white, don’t see that as much as you used to) no blocked anal glands and their behaviour, impecible.
The biggest recommendation I can give is that all three won’t touch any other food other than RMB!!!
Tess Barlow
Hi Vav,
just to update you on changing ‘Mellors’ the Bloodhound’s diet…I have my old dog back!!!! As you suggested at the Canine Association’s homeopathic talk I changed his diet as you recommended.
You will be pleased to hear, I no longer have a junk food addict who really was driving us mad. It was like living with a kid with ADHD and feeding him on smarties! But now, we have our old dog back. He has stopped eating shoes, boxes, and the post etc etc, and is a lot more chilled. To suddenly become like that at 7 years old was certainly very strange to us, but obviously not strange to you.
Like you said, after just 48 hours on his new meat and bone diet we have a much happier dog with a normal activity level instead of being ‘off the wall’! I have changed Brough’s diet too, but being less affected by the junk food diet he was on, the change has been less noticeable.
So, many thanks for that, we’ll certainly stick with it. Many thanks, Janine and Mellors.
PS and I will be round for meat/bones when I have a freezer, and good to know you have some smaller quantities for when I run out.
Many thanks Janine…and of course Mellors, who is sleeping at my feet, calm and chilled and surrounded by all the things he no longer wants to eat like the post and slippers cushions, and fire wood……………… Bon noel!
Our eight old black Labrador, Hamish has always been a sensitive kind of dog and being loving owners we have always tried to do the best for him, giving what we considered to be a good diet, well the vet said it was, so it must be right?
However, over the last year we noticed that our fun loving, bouncy, shiny coated, alert best friend did not seem to be at his best.
He seemed to become very old for his age. By this I mean stiff in his movements and just not very happy at all. I would go as far as saying depressed.
I had heard Vav’s name mentioned on our dog walks and feeling that if I went to the vet they would just give Hamish pills to pop to ‘cure’ him decided to give it a go as I wanted a ‘whole dog approach’.
On visiting Vav I was instantly struck by the fact that she was able to identify all the things and I mean ALL the things that were worrying me, even the little things that I may have felt silly mentioning to the vet, and this before I even opened my mouth!
Vav worked her ‘magic’ and even before we left his coat appeared shiny again, if I had not seen it with my own eyes I would not have believed it.
Whilst there we discussed what we had been feeding Hamish and I decided to give RMB a two week try. Within four days we saw a marked improvement, our best friend seemed to be returning, his coat was shiny again and he seemed more his old self, happier, playful and very very happy about what he was finding in his food bowl.
I wanted to find out more and so brought Tom Lonsdale book. Given the results that we are seeing in Hamish’s physical health and in his well being we are planning to keep him on RMB, it has had such an impact on him. We are delighted and so is he.
So if you are thinking about giving it a go, I’d say go for it. Your dog will love you even more!
Our sincere thanks to Vav for restoring our beloved Hamish.
Helen & Nick Stuart
In his website, Mike Considine says:
“I believe the number one cause of health issues with dogs is commercial dog food. That is why I have been on a mission to spread the word about the best dog food, and I am a big believer in homemade dog food.”
He talks about
Lizzie has investigated a statement made by a pet food company caught my eye the other day: “FDA Approved”. She discovered that
Born Free the animal charity says:
Pet food provides a convenient way for slaughterhouse offal, grains considered “unfit for human consumption,” and similar waste products to be turned into profit. This waste includes intestines, udders, heads, hooves, and possibly diseased and cancerous animal parts.
In “Do They Really Use Dead Dogs and Cats to Make Pet Food?” they show a video that clearly states that there is no law against using euthanased pets in petfood.
The drug used to euthanase pets is called pentobarbital and the official explanation of residues of pentobarbital in dog food is:
BUT:
See the research in the book Food Pets Die For… see the Amazon Books box on the right.
The “BARF” diet, an acronym for Biologically Appropriate Raw Food or Bones And Raw Food was created by vet Ian Billinghurst. A typical BARF diet is made up of 60-80% of raw meaty bones(RMB), that is bones with about 50% meat, (e.g. chicken neck, back and wings) and 20-40% of fruits and vegetables, offal, meat, eggs, or dairy foods.
read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_feeding
Having kept dogs for over 50 years, I felt rather smug about my accumulated knowledge of canine care. I’ve owned Dobermanns, a Weimeraner, two Collie crosses, Leonbergers, Newfoundlands, and latterly an Italian Spinone puppy.
All, (until about six months ago), were subjected to what I believed to be the best diet available… ok I was taken in by the convincing advertising being simultaneously fed to me by so-called complete dried nugget manufacturers. And yes, it was very easy to dispense a scoop of these into each bowl twice a day. I thought that our dog’s indifference to mealtimes meant he was just not particularly greedy – I now realise he was thoroughly bored!
Otto & Ralph
I heard about the Raw Meaty Bones diet from the breeder of our new pup, who fed all her extremely healthy and active dogs this way. She was enthusiastic about the health benefits, and suggested that I read Tom Lonsdale’s book on the subject. I duly bought this, and began to see the logic in providing the type of food for which dogs are, after all, designed. I admit to a degree of nervousness at the prospect of providing such “forbidden” items as chicken carcasses, lamb bones, etc., Ah – but I was thinking cooked bones, and old lessons die hard; raw bones are a very different proposition.
It seemed complicated. I dipped my toe in the water and started to search around for suitable items to feed our four year-old Newfoundland, Ralph. Being Australian, Tom Lonsdale helpfully suggests such items as kangaroo tails…. Thanks Tom, but Sainsburys couldn’t oblige! Still, I cobbled together what I thought would be appropriate, together with a few daily fresh vegetables whizzed round in the food processor (no more wheat-based mixers for Ralph!). Surprisingly easy, and suddenly mealtimes were met with huge enthusiasm.
We were doing ok, but it was such a relief when I learned that the guesswork had been lifted from me with the discovery Vav and Dave Simon’s daily packs of precisely measured and customised raw meaty bones.
With a genuine passion behind the venture, Vav and Dave have been absolutely fantastic in “tweaking” the packs to suit the individual, rather quirky tastes of Ralph. We’ve worked together and have now found the ideal bespoke mix. His enthusiasm for mealtimes is a joy, he has a gorgeous deep shine to his coat, and a much-needed revival in his energy levels, enabling him to keep up with young Otto, who will be joining his “big brother” on the diet as soon as we finish the food provided by his breeder.
I am so grateful to Vav and Dave for helping me to see sense…. patiently listening to my concerns, adapting, consulting and transforming my dog.
Sarah Starsmore 30/8/11
This is a group on the facebook network for UK dog owners wanting to discuss Raw Meaty Bones issues.
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