Spend ten minutes in a raw feeding forum and somebody will pick a fight over steamed zucchini. One camp swears dogs are wolves in collars that shouldn't touch a blueberry; the other blends kale like a morning smoothie bar. I've prepped freezer tubs under both systems for years — and honestly, neither side tells beginners the whole story about trace minerals.
What Is the Real Difference Between BARF and 80/10/10 Prey Model Raw?
Prey Model Raw (PMR) uses an animal-only 80/10/5/5 split: 80% muscle meat, 10% raw edible bone, 5% liver, and 5% other secreting organs with zero plants. BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, popularized by Dr. Ian Billinghurst in 1993) drops muscle meat to 70% and adds 10% pureed low-glycemic greens, berries, and seeds.
On paper, that 10% swap looks tiny. In a real 500 g dinner bowl for a 20 kg dog, though, swapping 50 g of fatty beef trim for 50 g of blitzed spinach, broccoli sprouts, and blackberries cuts daily calories by roughly 85 kcal while adding fermentable prebiotic fiber.
Got a neutered Labrador or Pug who gains weight just sniffing a treat bag? That 10% vegetable volume keeps their stomach stretched and satisfied without blowing past their Resting Energy Requirement. On the flip side, I've watched high-drive Belgian Malinois and picky Poodles nose around green puree and leave half their breakfast warm on the mat.
| Bowl Component | BARF (70/10/10/5/5) | Prey Model (80/10/5/5) |
|---|---|---|
| Boneless Muscle Meat | 350 g (70%) | 400 g (80%) |
| Pure Edible Bone | 50 g (10%) | 50 g (10%) |
| Beef or Poultry Liver | 25 g (5%) | 25 g (5%) |
| Kidney / Spleen (Secreting) | 25 g (5%) | 25 g (5%) |
| Pureed Greens, Berries & Seeds | 50 g (10%) | 0 g (0%) |
Is 80/10/10 Complete According to FEDIAF and NRC Standards?
No — strict ratio diets using supermarket meats alone often fall short of NRC (2006) and FEDIAF (2024–2025) minimums for vitamin E, manganese, iodine, zinc, and marine omega-3s (EPA and DHA). Closing those five micronutrient gaps requires oily cold-water fish, kelp powder weighed in milligrams, green-lipped mussels, and natural vitamin E.
Ratio math is a brilliant skeleton. Just don't mistake a skeleton for the whole dog.
Feedlot chicken thighs and grocery beef chuck don't carry the fatty-acid profile or thyroid/fur minerals of wild whole prey. When I audit DIY bowls that left a dog's coat dull after six months, the culprit is almost always the same: chicken + beef + liver, zero sardines, zero kelp, zero vitamin E. Two canned sardines in water three times a week (or measured wild salmon oil) plus a tiny pinch of ascophyllum nodosum kelp fixes 80% of that drift overnight.
Which Framework Should Beginners Start With in 2026?
Start easy-keeping family dogs, seniors, and constipated dogs on classic 70/10/10/5/5 BARF because pureed leafy greens feed gut butyrate bacteria and soften bone-heavy stool. Choose 80/10/5/5 Prey Model Raw for itchy dogs on strict single-protein elimination trials or athletic working dogs needing dense animal fat.
One quick kitchen rule if you go BARF: dogs lack salivary amylase and can't break raw cellulose cell walls on their own. Whole baby carrots come out the back end looking exactly like whole baby carrots. Steam or food-process greens into a fine soup before freezing your tubs — takes four minutes and makes the polyphenols bioavailable.