Why Barf?

The ingredients of the Pin Oaks BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food) dog food is all human-grade. The individual raw ingredients are sourced, processed and packaged by us under hygienic conditions.

We include neither chemical nor synthetic preservatives, flavor enhancers, vitamins, minerals or colorants. This provides the food with micronutrients with their attendant satellite factors.

Health Benefits of the BARF diet:

 • Increased vitality and energy

• Improved levels of alertness

• Clean and healthy teeth and gums• Proper levels of nutrition, including live enzymes, minerals, and proteins

• Low levels of sugars and starch
• Improvement in arthritic and skin complaints
• High food conversion rate – more nutrition absorbed

Changing the diet

You can change your pet to the new diet gradually if you like, but we recommend against this. Most dogs find the food we make highly palatable. In the wild, a dog might have to go for quite a few days before feeding well. After a week or so, you will probably notice changes for the better – The stools are virtually odorless and firm. The energy levels up and your doggie will smell better. Skin problems due to grain allergies will disappear.

Everything in the anatomy of a dog points to a raw meat-based diet as being what they were designed for, as they have sharp teeth, short intestines and highly concentrated digestive secretions to digest raw meat.
 
We have found that raw bones are also a very important part of the new feeding programme.  It is not just the food content in the meat, bone, and marrow, it is also the exercise your dog gets in chewing and gnawing and the pleasure they get from this. The facial, ear, neck and head muscles all get a good workout. It helps keep their teeth clean and gums healthy. Have you ever tried to take a nice bone away from any dog? We are continually amazed at the number of “educated” pet owners who refuse to ever give their dogs a bone!

Make sure the bones are SAFE bones and never feed COOKED bones. Cooked bones are brittle and are likely to splinter!

Please do not defrost BARF in a microwave oven, as this destroys the live enzymes and many of the other nutrients.

Usually, the amount of food a dog needs is directly related to the weight of the dog and in most cases amounts to between 2.5% and 3% of body mass. Growing puppies, of course, would eat a lot more, maybe up to 8% of body mass.

This is the food that we feed to our own dogs.  This is the food we made initially only for our own dogs. By extension, Michael, who runs the Boarding Kennels, started feeding it to his guests who were not eating their kibbles satisfactorily. Soon he was feeding all of them on Pin Oaks BARF unless an owner specified otherwise. Following are some of the reasons:

• The dogs normally eat it quickly and enjoy it, so the bowls are not left lying around with unfinished food in them.
• The kennels can be kept hygienically clean easily due to the typical nature of the stools.
• We know EXACTLY what is in the food and so there is no fear of poisoning from a  batch of kibbles gone wrong.
• Our own dogs, now on the Pin Oaks BARF exclusively since 2010 are in fabulous health. We want our Kennel guests to stay healthy too!
• Risk of stomach torsion is greatly reduced.

Owners collecting their dogs from the Kennels would often remark on how well their little ones looked and asked if they could buy our food. It is at this stage that we decided to apply for approval from the relevant government department. ACT NO.36 of 1947. PIN OAKS DOG FOOD REGISTRATION NUMBER V24315.