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The Pitcairn Diet

The first American veterinarian to write a best-selling book that endorsed home-prepared pet food was Richard Pitcairn, DVM, PhD, whose Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats6 was published in 1982 and revised in 1995. Dr. Pitcairn recommends a diet based on raw or cooked meat, raw bones, raw or pasteurized dairy products and cooked grains, with small amounts of nuts, seeds, vegetables, herbs, fruits, natural flavorings, brewer's yeast, bone meal, powdered kelp, vegetable oil, cod liver oil and vitamin D capsules.

Cat groomer Anitra Frazier adopted the Pitcairn diet, encouraged her clients to do the same and described the results in 1981 in The Natural Cat. Her book, which was revised in 1990 as The New Natural Cat,7 recommends that food be removed between meals because cats in the wild don't lounge beside automatic food dispensers (that tip alone has improved many cats' coats), and meat should be served raw. Frazier's "Superfinicky Owner's I'll-Do-Anything-for-My-Cat Diet" consists of protein (raw ground beef, organic chicken, organic egg yolk, etc.), finely grated vegetables, and soaked oat bran or cooked barley, millet, oat flakes, brown rice or other grain. Supplements include a vitamin-mineral mix, optional digestive enzymes and once-a-week feedings of vitamins E, A, and D from capsules.

Other writers spread the word about home-prepared diets in books and magazines, using plans much like those of de Bairacli Levy, Pitcairn and Frazier. Reigning Cats and Dogs by Pat McKay,8 Cat Care, Naturally by Celeste Yarnall,9 The Holistic Guide for a Healthy Dog by Wendy Volhard and Kerry Brown, DVM,10 and my own Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care11 and Natural Remedies for Dogs and Cats12 are a few examples.

Introducing the BARF Diet

Early in his practice, Australian veterinarian Ian Billinghurst read American and English veterinary journals with wonder, for they routinely featured articles about illnesses and conditions he had never seen. In his book Give Your Dog a Bone,13 Dr. Billinghurst describes what happened when his nation adopted commercial pet foods in the 1960s. Until then, Australians fed their pets raw meaty bones and table scraps. "Everybody knew how to do it," he says. "It was common sense. As a consequence, most Australian dogs were very healthy."

Billinghurst fed his own dogs commercial food for two years and watched them develop skin problems, runny eyes, scruffy coats, itching skin, hot spots, ear infections, anal sac problems, smelly fur and feces, bad breath, tooth and gum problems, repeated worm infestations, bone and growth disorders and reproductive problems. Previously, his dogs had dined on fresh hare, raw bones and table scraps. They were never wormed or vaccinated, had large litters of robust puppies and stayed healthy with a minimum of effort.

As soon as he switched his dogs back to their previous diet their health improved. So did the health of dogs belonging to clients who adopted his BARF feeding plan—Bones And Raw Food or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food. Thanks to his books, speaking tours, enthusiastic converts and the success of his philosophy, so has the health of dogs around the world.

Even when they appreciate the benefits of raw bones, some owners are reluctant to provide them for personal reasons (bones can be messy and inconvenient) or because they have been frightened by veterinarians and other authority figures. Unfortunately, not feeding raw bones may create nutritional imbalances that cause serious harm. In his second book, Feed Your Pups with Bones,14 Dr. Billinghurst warned against the use of substitutes such as heat-sterilized bone meal and calcium supplements, for they can disrupt the natural balance of minerals in growing bodies and can cause—instead of preventing—hip and elbow dysplasia and other structural problems.

"Don't forget that we have all been brainwashed to believe that dogs should eat processed dog food and that raw bones are bad," says Christine Swingle,4 who raises West Highland white terriers in Connecticut. "I have been feeding a raw-food diet for four years, and two years ago I gathered up the courage to feed raw chicken necks and wings. The Westies love them. It's amazing—they digest raw meaty bones despite what I was led to believe!"

Holistic veterinarians warn that pets who are not used to eating bones or who are in poor health should start with small quantities. Too much at first may cause either constipation or diarrhea, or the animal may have trouble digesting bones when they are first introduced.

Bones that an animal bites through are safer than those that are cut with a saw. Bones that are too large to swallow whole are safer than those that can be swallowed, although the size a dog might swallow whole decreases as she learns how to take her time and chew. Bones from young animals are less brittle than those from older animals. Poultry neck bones are the least likely to cause problems, and wings are another favorite "safe" bone. Serving other foods before serving bones provides a cushion that helps protect the stomach lining, while small amounts of fiber or roughage help remove undigested bone fragments from the digestive tract. In the wild, as Juliette de Bairacli Levy notes, dogs and cats swallow the entire prey animal, and its indigestible fur or feathers act as a cushion that sweeps residues along. Her Natural Rearing diet includes a pinch of soaked wheat bran for that reason.

Products containing digestive enzymes may help an older pet digest raw bones. Keeping bones out of the reach of dogs that are literally starved for them prevents accidental overindulgences. After adjusting to an improved diet of fresh, raw foods, most dogs and cats are able to digest raw bones without difficulty.

In addition to their nutritional benefits, the cartilage, ligaments, and tendons attached to raw bones act as a natural dental floss, and crunching through raw bones is good for the teeth and gums. As New York veterinarian Beverly Cappel, DVM,4 says, "You can always tell a bone-chewing dog; they have the whitest, strongest, cleanest teeth." Dogs and cats that eat raw, meaty bones save their owners the expense of tooth cleaning and other dental work. They rarely develop gum disease, and their breath is usually sweeter than that of their commercially fed relatives.

Traditional Food Preparation Techniques

Now that the Weston A. Price Foundation is educating the public about traditional food preparation techniques, some dog owners and canine nutritionists are discovering the difference these methods make in the health of dogs fed a home-prepared diet.

Of the various experts whose menu plans are widely used, only Juliette de Bairacli Levy emphasizes the overnight soaking of grain and the natural fermentation of meat. In her Complete Herbal Handbook for the Dog and Cat,3 she describes in detail how to hang or bury meat (preferably a sheep's head) so that it "ripens." As an alternative, meat-tenderizing enzymes such as papain, pancreatin, hydrochloric acid (betain HCl), pepsin, and bile are ingredients in digestive supplements which can be powdered, mixed with water, and applied to meat several hours before serving to predigest it.

Lactic Acid Fermentation

Vegetables are important to canine health, and although advocates of home-prepared diets debate the quantity of vegetable matter dogs should consume, all agree that vegetables contain essential nutrients that are not provided by other foods. Cats do not require vegetables for optimum health, as Dr. Pottenger proved, but many breeders report good results from adding small amounts of raw vegetables to their food.

One way to help dogs and cats digest vegetables is to puree them. Blenders and food processors make this task easy, and pureed root vegetables like carrots and parsnips, leafy herbs such as parsley, and grasses like wheat grass or barley grass can be added to every meal with good results.

Another way to improve the digestibility of vegetables is with lactic-acid fermentation, and a growing body of research indicates that this method both prevents and helps cure cancer and other serious illnesses. According to William J. Fischer in How to Fight Cancer and Win,15 lactic acid fermentation produces vitamin C, B vitamins, enzymes that support metabolic activity, choline which balances and nourishes the blood, and acetylcholine which tones the nerves, calms the mind and improves sleep patterns. Lactic acid is also a chemical repressor that fights cancer cells without harming healthy cells. Lactic-acid fermentation imitates the digestion of plant foods in the stomachs of small animals that dogs and cats in the wild would eat.

As with any new food, introduce fermented vegetables gently and in small quantities. For dogs and cats that are slow to accept new foods, this can be as little as a fraction of a teaspoon mixed with the animal's regular food, increasing the amount a little each day. Whatever vegetables a canine or feline menu plan recommends can be replaced with a slightly smaller quantity, such as 10 to 15 percent less by volume, of lacto-fermented fare. Fermentation and pressing condense the vegetables and concentrate their nutrients. The resulting liquid, which looks like water but is really the vegetables' juice, is a rich source of lactic acid and other nutrients. It can be added in small amounts, such as 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time, to a pet's food and drinking water.

For more detailed instructions, see The Cultured Cabbage: Rediscovering the Art of Making Sauerkraut by Klaus Kaufmann and Annelies Schoeneck21 or Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.23 Lacto-fermented vegetables are sold in some health food stores.22