Our Berners eat a natural, raw food diet that is appropriate to the canine species. We have been feeding this way for over 10 years now and have achieved four generations of raw fed Berners.

This approach to feeding dogs has gained widespread acceptance over the last decade or so and there are now many thousands of people, both breeders and companion owners, doing it with great success.

Sometimes referred to as an evolutionary diet, the approach is based on a few simple ideas.

  dogs did not evolve to eat cooked, grain-based diets (kibble)
  they evolved as scavenging carnivores & should be fed as such
  feeding a natural, raw diet is neither difficult nor expensive

For the canine, a carnivore and an opportunistic scavenger, this means a diet that consists of a variety of whole raw foods based primarily on animal content such as raw meat, bones, organ meat (offal), blood, glands, etc.  Many raw feeders include some crushed vegetables and fruit, healthy oils, eggs, cottage cheese, kefir, and some vitamin and mineral supplements such as kelp and alfalfa. The animal content can come from chicken, beef, pork, bison, deer, goat, lamb, kangaroo, rabbit, fish, turkey, etc.

Specifically, our Berners eat a variety of foods, including rabbit carcasses, chicken carcasses, pork riblets, meaty lamb bones, beef muscle meat, beef organ mix, ground turkey, beef tripe, lamb tripe, ground whole goat, ground whole bison, ground whole duck, raw eggs, cottage cheese and crushed greens veggie mixes. Occasionally we might give canned fish. We supplement somewhat with fish oils, seal oil, cod liver oil, kelp, alfalfa, and various 'greens' mixes (which may include probiotics, enzymes, minerals, etc.).

Commercially prepared dog food 'substitutes' - usually called 'kibble' - which are cooked and processed grain-based products that use poor quality ingredients - are NOT appropriate to the canine species.  Yes, some dogs are able to do fairly well on kibble, but it is FAR from correct or optimal nutrition just as so many commercially produced, 'processed' foods are not healthy for humans. The cooking process also destroys enzymes and many other required nutrients.  These nutrients, such as amino acids, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, etc. are found in abundance in a well-constructed raw diet.

For anyone interested in learning the truth about the methods and ingredients used in the 'production' of commercial kibbles please click here or here. These links make for very interesting reading.

In our own experience - over the last 10 years - we have seen excellent health with:

beautiful, lustrous coats
better muscle tone
far smaller stools with much less odour
greatly reduced tartar on teeth and no bad breath
far fewer trips to the vet
strong, healthy puppies

It can actually be less expensive than kibble and is not difficult to do once some basic research has been done. You can assemble the various components of the diet yourself or there are now several companies providing pre-packaged, frozen, raw diets that can help add variety and lessen kitchen time.

Among the best sources of information are email discussion lists where large groups of individuals take part in ongoing discussions, ask questions and answer a variety of concerns about raw diets and related issues. One of our favourites is RawDogCanada which has over 1700 members currently. There is also an excellent list specifically for Bernese Mountain Dogs called Natural Berners. (900+ members)

There is now a great deal of information on the Internet and several excellent books on the topic. Go to www.google.com and search for 'BARF diet' and you'll get many useful web sites that addresses many common myths and concerns about natural, raw feeding - such as bacteria, bone feeding, grains, difficulty and more.

Here is a very informative site that addresses many of the common myths about raw feeding - www.rawfed.com/myths

Another excellent resource is the Carnivora Learning Center.

More useful articles about natural feeding:
  — Lew Olson - Fresh Food Diets for Dogs
  — Dr. Pam Craig - Diet Is Essential to Health

As for books, there are many but we recommend:

Raw Dog Food: Make It Easy for You and Your Dog
   by Carina Beth MacDonald - www.amazon.ca

The BARF Diet
   by Dr. Ian Billinghurst

Grow Your Pups With Bones
   by Dr. Ian Billinghurst

Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats
   by Kymythy Schultze - www.amazon.com