BARF

Accordingly, BARF mainly consists of muscle meat and feed products of animal origin such as bones or fleshy bones and offal.
The following types of meat are very popular with most cats and are therefore often used for BARF: chicken, turkey, duck, goose, beef, lamb, sheep, but also rabbit, game such as deer and roe deer, horse, goat and exotic types of meat such as ostrich, Kangaroo, reindeer, moose or alpaca.
A special feature applies to pork and wild boar: These types can contain the Aujeszky pathogen and should therefore only be fed cooked to be on the safe side.
Fish can also be used, because it offers a lot of high-quality protein, as fish contains little connective tissue, but many minerals and trace elements and, above all, valuable unsaturated fatty acids. Well-suited types of fish include pollock, cod or cod, plaice, salmon, trout, mackerel and tuna. Some types of fish contain the enzyme thiaminase, which destroys thiamine, i.e. vitamin B1. If you are unsure whether the fish you are feeding contains thiaminase, you should either cook the fish or supplement with an extra dose of B vitamins. The varieties mentioned above are thiaminase-free and can be fed without hesitation.

If the meat is very lean, animal fat such as lard or tallow is added to ensure sufficient energy supply and to provide the cat with the necessary fatty acids. Fish oil (salmon oil) can and should also be added to supplement other important fatty acids in the feed and to balance the fatty acid ratio.

In order to replace the contents of the stomach and intestines as well as the fur or plumage of the prey, a small proportion of vegetable feed material is usually added. In this way, fibers are supplied and a well-functioning intestinal flora is guaranteed.
Grated raw carrots are often used in BARF. Tomatoes or zucchini are also often used, as are pumpkin or boiled, mashed potatoes. Long-boiled rice or pasta can also be used, as well as soaked psyllium husks, vegetable flakes or cereal flakes. Onions and garlic should be avoided, as should avocados or types of cabbage such as cauliflower, broccoli or other flatulent types such as legumes.

Since the meat that we get in stores is usually bled and it can also be difficult to get all of the innards, the meat, together with the innards and bones, usually does not yet contain all the nutrients that the cat needs. These are added to the feed in the form of supplements, which are usually called “supplements” in BARF.

Prey

The most natural BARF variant is probably the Prey model. "Prey" is English and means "prey". With this BARF variant, the cat is actually fed whole, complete prey. Day-old chicks, mice and rats of various sizes and stages of development are the most common. In appropriate shops for reptiles or zoo supplies you can also get other feed animals such as guinea pigs, gerbils, chickens, ducks, pigeons, pheasants, etc.
Because these animals are bred for animal feeding, and therefore do not feed in the wild, their amino acid and fatty acid profile does not match that of cats' natural, wild prey. Food animals tend to be more fatty and contain more omega-6 and less omega-3 fatty acids than wild prey. Due to the higher fat content, they also contain less protein and amino acids than wild prey. Since relatively young animals are usually sold as feed animals, the bones are often not mineralized to the same extent and therefore contain fewer minerals than wild, adult prey.
Nonetheless, prey is a very natural approach to leadership, especially when you feed a variety of foods and use many different feeders.

Frankenprey

The variant that Prey most closely emulates is Frankenprey's method, in which the prey is to be recreated from individual animal ingredients as in Frankenstein's laboratory.
Frankenprey consists of muscle meat, bones and a relatively high proportion of innards, because this approach aims to avoid nutrient supplements as far as possible.
If you can really feed all parts of the animal and also all of the innards, plus high-quality muscle meat and bones, supplemented with fish and blood, then cats can be fed high-quality and naturally with a diet based on the Frankenprey principle. However, it may be difficult to obtain all of the animal's parts and innards. Examples of readily available offal are heart, stomach, and liver. Lungs and kidneys are also relatively easy to obtain. Various providers also have spleen in their program. Other innards, such as the brain, diaphragm, gonads, etc., as would be necessary to imitate a complete prey animal, are very difficult or impossible to obtain.
The vitamin E question has not yet been finally clarified. Vitamin E occurs in appreciable amounts mainly in the plant world. So far there is no animal feed component that contains enough vitamin E to meet the cat's needs. Therefore, vitamin E should always be supplemented with Frankenprey. Taurine supplementation is also appropriate, as there have not yet been sufficient nutritional value analyzes to ensure that the innards actually contain enough taurine in the feed. Taurine is found primarily in the brain, eyes and germ cells - all of which are offal that are not normally commercially available and consequently not fed.

Classic barf with supplements

In the case of classic BARF with supplements, the food consists of meat, a naturally small amount of innards – mostly hearts and stomachs – possibly some bones and some vegetables. The missing nutrients are supplemented with appropriate natural supplements or supplements.
The disadvantage of BARF with supplements is that you add "powder" to the cat food and it may not be as natural as Prey or Frankenprey.
The advantage, however, is that all the nutrients can be added according to the individual needs of the cat and the food ultimately contains all the nutrients in a sufficient dose without risking overdoses.
Due to the low proportion of offal required (compared to the Frankenprey), the food can be very varied and it is very possible to cater to the cat's taste preferences (e.g. if the cat does not like heart or prefers only to eat poultry).

There are different approaches to supplementing BARF. You can use ready-made supplement mixtures, make natural supplements according to a blanket recipe or create an individually calculated recipe with individual supplements.

supplement blends

The advantages of using ready-made supplement mixtures are that you usually do not need a calculated prescription, the dosage is uncomplicated and, above all, you do not have to have the individual preparations in stock.
The disadvantages are that you should feed them a lot of variety, otherwise there will inevitably be over- and undersupply of nutrients.
There are different mixtures for cat BARF on the market. Some contain all the nutrients the cat needs, others are not fully balanced, requiring the addition of other supplements.
Supplement mixtures are, for example, Felini Complete, TCPremix or the basic mixtures from "Barfberatung Fiedler".

general recipes

In the case of general recipes, individual supplements are always added to the meat in the same dosage and not individually calculated.
The advantage of this variant of supplementation lies in the low computational effort and the fact that - in contrast to some ready-made mixtures - you can decide for yourself which ingredients end up in the cat's bowl.
The disadvantage is the great variety required – as with the ready-made supplement mixtures – because even with general supplementation, slight over- and underdosing of the nutrients can inevitably occur over the long term.

Individually calculated recipes

With this method, the recipes are calculated individually according to the nutritional needs of each cat (according to weight and activity). The daily amount eaten and the nutrient content of the types of meat used are also taken into account.
The advantages are that with correctly calculated recipes, nutrient oversupply and undersupply are almost impossible. In addition, the large deviation in this method is not quite as significant as in the previous two variants. With calculated recipes, you can also respond precisely to illnesses and individual nutritional needs of the respective cat.
The disadvantage is an increased calculating effort.

Example: A balanced diet for cats can consist of these ingredients.