BARF calculator for dogs and cats

Adult dogs are usually fed 2 to 3% of their ideal body weight per day: less for inactive or overweight dogs (about 1.5 to 2%), more for very active ones. A 20 kg (44 lb) dog therefore eats roughly 400 to 600 g of raw food a day. This is a convention used by raw feeders, not a veterinary standard, so adjust the portion to your dog's weight and condition.

The most common BARF split for an adult dog is about 70% muscle meat, 10% edible bone, 5% liver, 5% other secreting organs (such as kidney) and about 10% vegetables, fruit and seeds. The prey model (80/10/5/5) leaves out the plants. For puppies the share of bone and organs goes up.

The 10% refers to pure bone, not the whole raw meaty bone. A chicken neck is about 36% bone, so to supply 50 g of bone you need about 140 g of necks. The calculator does this conversion for you. Always feed bones raw: cooked bones turn brittle and can splinter into sharp shards.

Liver is kept to about 5% of the diet because it is very rich in vitamin A. Beef liver has around 17,000 IU per 100 g, and too much vitamin A over time harms bones and the liver. The rest of the organ share comes from other secreting organs, such as kidney or spleen.

Raw meat can carry bacteria such as Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli, which are also a risk for the people in your home. Veterinary organizations (WSAVA, AVMA) do not recommend raw feeding, and studies show many home-made recipes are unbalanced. If you choose BARF, plan the diet with a veterinarian or a veterinary nutritionist and follow strict hygiene.

Cats are obligate carnivores, so feline raw diets usually skip vegetables (the 80/10/5/5 model). Cats need taurine, preformed vitamin A and arachidonic acid, which come from animal tissue. A taurine deficiency leads to heart and eye disease, among other problems, so a cat's diet has to be carefully balanced.