Hi, I live in France and feed Kobi (3/4 Berner, 1/4 Appenzeller) BARF food for the most part, but when we travel for more than a day we have found a very good organic dog food called Yarrahs that we give him (chicken chunk flavor). This we get from the local health food store, as I can't find it in the normal hyper markets. But there are many brands of food to choose from here - some only sold in pet shops, others sold at the grocery store, just like in the US and about as varying in quality from what I can gather from the labels. I haven't researched most of them for quality, as I decided to go with BARF before I ever got the puppy.
Switching him back and forth from Yarrah's organic to BARF results in NO issues with is digestion or stool (he is 6 months now and we have done this several times while on weekend trips or overnight hikes) which I think says good things about the quality of Yarrah's. I am am American living here, so not sure if that makes a difference about my attitudes towards dog food. We do explain our ideas/reasons to anyone who asks about what we feed. So far we've managed to explain this in French, German and English to various people who stop us on the street to ask about our dog. We have also learned to tell people he's a Bernese/Appenzeller cross in 4 languages now! (He was quite a popular and handsome pup last summer during high tourist season here, and we could barely walk down the main street without getting stopped at least 2-3 times per walk!) We get chicken wings/necks from the butcher every 10 days-2 weeks, which we order in 5-6 kilo boxes, as well as cartons of kidneys, livers etc.. When we add it up, it's still cheaper than feeding all canned food, but not cheaper than the cheapest kibbles. We do find that the parts of animals that might be cheaper in the USA are not always cheaper here, since many specialty French dishes are made with liver and kidneys, so the price of them is not very cheap! I am also able to find Kelp and Dulse powder, spirulina and various herbs or other nutritional add-ons like Brewer's Yeast mentioned by people on the 'L' - here, not sure how many people in France use this for their dogs, but I definitely do add it in every few days. And he gets yogurt every day. I have this personal theory that big boned dogs that came from dairy farms should get milk products for added calcium if they tolerate/like it and Kobi thrives on his daily organic yogurt. Most people who are dog-owner friends of mine here seem to feed kibble or even pasta or canned food as well as left-over people food but our vet was well aware of what she calls cuisine de maison (home cooking) so I know it is done. When we got our pup from the dairy farm in Switzerland at 8 1/2 weeks old, the family we got Kobi from had him on their version of 'home food' for a puppy as well - which consisted of oatmeal, cheese bits, milk and mashed up leftovers. His first 'mom' was very happy to know that we planned to continue to feed him 'people' food. The vet here in France also thought it was a good thing to feed 'cuisine de maison' but thought it was a tad odd that we fed it all to him raw, but found no particular reason to object to that. She only warned us about giving him raw eggs too young, but otherwise thought it was a good thing to feed him 'people food' as it was better quality. She definitely warned us that when he got older he would eat a lot, and that we should not go back on our decision about this just to save costs because it would not be good for his system to switch. No chance of that! He is in good health with no problems of any kind so far (knock wood), and his coat shines and is now getting super super curly and thicker and longer and he is just full of energy and out-hikes and runs both myself and my husband daily! It's snowing here in Chamonix (skiing opened 2 weeks ago) and the mountains are all white, and of course Kobi is loving every minute of his first winter season. Another BARFer in the French Alps, Genyphyr & Kobi Chamonix For photos of what a Bernese/Appenzeller cross looks like as growing up see http://www.geocities.com/genyphyr1/KobiPhotos.html > ATTACHMENT part 2.6 message/rfc822 > From: "Emma Goodall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: the dog on the mountain in Switzerland > Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 09:56:56 +0100 > > Good to see so much positive energy. On our first > berner and deep in love we > tell eveyone who asks not to get from our 'breeder' > (whom we now know has at > least 12 litters a year, but we didn't know before). > To only buy from > someone on the national assoc list, to check for > health in the past - not > easy when neither of us speak perfect french, but we > can do our bit. > Emma and tatty, France > ATTACHMENT part 2.11 message/rfc822 > From: "Timothy Forman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: French Dog Food > Date: Wed, 04 Dec 2002 15:36:28 +0300 > Here in Europe they have some very high quality dog foods. Certainly there is more variety (or at least it is easier to find variety), bags of dried veggie flakes, dried egg flakes, and a wide assortment of kibbles and canned foods. I'm not sure how wide-spread BARF is in France, but judging by the looks I get when I ask my butcher to get bulk quantities of chicken necks, or natural (unbleached) tripe, I would say it is still fairly uncommon. Nevertheless, there are two beautiful Berners who are walking advertisements for BARF. When people ask me what I feed my dogs they get a lot more information than they expected, especially if they are dog owners themselves Tim (self-appointed BARF Ambassador to France) Christl (long-suffering veggie grinder). and Gandalf , Holly (sleek and shiny examples of solid nutrition) Chateau Bernois Nimes, France __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com
