DIET INFO

DIET FOR DALMATIANS

The diet for a Dalmatian is a very important subject, that is why we have developed this page exclusively to discuss this subject.

The Dalmatian is a very unique breed of Dog. Its Uric Acid metabolism is specific to this breed. Dalmatians can develop the disease Uric Acid Calculi (Bladder Stones). This problem can become evident at adulthood and usually effects the Male but sometimes also effects the female as well.

This problem is controlled by Diet mainly but in extreme cases a surgical solution may be necessary.

The main object to remember when feeding a Dalmatian is to keep the Protein level in the food being fed to under 22%. It is mainly the Purines within the Protein that cause the harm. For a list of foods and there amounts of Purines please visit: www.thedca.org. On this site of the Dalmatian Club of America you will find out a great deal of information in relation to the above disease and how to prevent such from happening.

At the top of this page you would of noticed the BARF logo. This represents a feeding regime that we currently have with our dogs and puppies. It is mainly the feeding of Raw food to dogs. For more information on this subject please visit the site of Dr. Ian Billinghurst - www.drianbillinghurst.com. He is the Author of the books - 'Give Your Dog a Bone' and 'Grow Your Pups with Bones'. These two books have become our bibles in regards to feeding regimes of all our dogs. We feed our dogs the BARF diet about 80% of the time with some inclusion of a commercial dry food. None of the meat etc. that we feed our Dogs and Puppies is COOKED. We believe in keeping the diet of our Dalmatians as natural as possible and in keeping with how the dog would live in the wild. We are lucky enough to be living on a large farming property so the inclusion of raw meat, fruit and vegetables is on hand most of the year. This is not an impossibility to the one dog pet owner. There are a lot of Pet Supply's and butchers that sell raw meats and bones for dogs.

The feeding of our Puppies is also a very natural one as well. We start introducing food into their diet at about 3 weeks old with the inclusion of milk and oatmeal. From there they progress onto the raw meat (usually mutton or chicken) at about 4 weeks old. Next we then start to introduce Chicken wings, drumettes and necks as they are easy for the pup to chew and rip the meat from as well, as the inclusion of vegetables and fruit. As they get older the feeding of larger bones such as Pig Trotters, Mutton bones and Chicken carcasses are introduced. We also in this diet include a commercial Puppy Dry food called 'Supercoat'. At no time do we ever feed commercially prepared Puppy tinned food or cereals or cook food such as meat. We have found that this diet is giving us outstanding results and very healthy puppies as well.

We have been rearing our puppies and feeding our adult dogs the above way for about 6- years and have not ever had any problems medically with them. They all maintain weight very well, look extremely healthy and above all have healthy teeth and gums. A selection of our dogs are being shown so a healthy shiny coat is very important and on this diet we have the results we are looking for without having to add any artificial enhancers.

We firmly believe that a dog must be fed as Nature intended. If this was not the case how then do Dingos, foxes etc. survive.