I have been researching into starting toodles on raw food, but before i do wanted to look into it more and as i have i came across the raw prey model diet, as i was looking at the BARF diet.

I hadn't heard of this one before and wanted to get peoples opinions on the raw prey model vs the BARF diet and see if anyone on here feeds it and what their thoughts are.

Comments/advice welcome

Although it's not as simple as I'm about to explain, do you believe dogs are carnivores or omnivores. Carnivore = prey model, Omnivore = BARF. It's not that simple as even prey model gives table scraps which includes vegetation but that is one of the main fundamental differences. I feed prey model as I believe they can get all the nutrients they need from flesh/bone and organs. I do not believe they get nutrients from plant matter unless it's processed/blended/pureed whatever. If you need to process it, it is not natural.

Raw Meaty Bones may be an interesting link as it shows some of the politics behind things.

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sorry to jump in like this...
this sound very interesting as I would like to change my boys diet
I did not know… is there differents between the prey model and the barf?

Like most things it is not as simply as two camps and I can only speak from a prey model side of things. 2-3% of desired body weight as a guideline with a ratio of 80% meat, 10% bone, 5% liver and 5% of other organs. These are only rough guidelines as each dog is different. Once a dog as become used to different meat proteins (a process which is taken slowly) the food should include fish and as much variety as possible. In comparison I've seen figures of up to 25% pureed vegetables for BARF. A lot of people also go somewhere in between.

If you are interested in raw feeding I would recommend going through the Raw Feeding: everything you need to know! sticky thread as it contains a lot of useful information.

There are a lot of people on these forums who feed raw, some BARF, some Prey Model, some ready mixed minces others simply things they get from butchers or order online.

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The difference in short:

BARF comes from butchers shops and other meat sellers. (EG Chicken in a vac-wrap-bag)

Prey mode is dead animals complete. (EG Dead rabbit complete with fur and guts.)


I'm surprised people that have read up on BARF might not have read about prey mode.

We feed modified-BARF which includes human left-over type foods, IMO this is closer to how dogs as human companions would have eaten for the 15,000 years that we have lived within a symbiotic relationship.

Not on these forums. The only people who generally use that Prey Model definition are those who do feed complete dead animals. Your definition of BARF (here generally Prey Model) they call Frankenprey. Biologically Appropriate Raw Food (BARF) was created by Dr Billinghurst's as an offshoot from Dr Tom Lonsdale's work. Although people have been feeding raw for years Tom Lonsdale is known as the founder of the resurgance of it. The link previously provided Why not BARF explains the split between the two.

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I feed prey model as much as i can and i never include fruit and veggies in their diet at all.

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Harvey - staffy
Chance - american bulldog (rescue)

19 snakes, 5 geckos, phibs, T's, inverts, fluffies and hedgehog.

Not quite, nor always

I feed BARF style raw - I include good quantity of fruits and vegetables in their diet (both whole and blended) - but the vast majority of their meat is 'whole' - they have entire rabbits, pigs and sheeps heads, ribcages, spines, whole fish, carcasses, whole small birds - I don't use any pre-made or pre-packaged raw foods or minces at all.

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''Dogs are like chocolates, you can never have just one!''

This is quite interesting, i would probably be feeding large meaty bones with the relevant amounts of offal, mostly liver from what i have read, but start of with chicken and go from there.

Was interested to see what people think about the veg side of things as im not sure i would be adding the veg in, which sounds more like i would be following the prey model, though not to the extent of full carcasses, just as much as i could over time.

Its a scary leap to take and think im just gonna have to go for it, as i can read and read and read and everyone has different opinions i suppose, will just have to see how toodles takes it.

How to Get Started | Prey Model Raw is an excellent starting point on how to transition and what I and a few others have used.

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