Pet food cookbooks

I don’t have any final reviews yet, but I wanted to post that I’m currently working my way through the following books:

So far, the book I’m most pleased with is “Whole Pet Diet”, because it actually contains the recipe for Spot’s Stew that I desperately wanted to find.  I’m also fascinated by “Food Pets Die For”, and wish I’d read it years ago.  The book has been updated since it was originally released more than a decade ago, but it’s still full of information pet owners should know.  At first glance, all the books are more focused on cooked diets than raw, but the books just arrived so I might end up correcting myself in a few days.

In the raw food department, I purchased five pounds of chicken thighs and a pound of chicken livers, because I want to make at least one batch of this recipe.  I still don’t have the powdered supplements, like taurine, so it will be a while before I actually make it.  I’ve got my meat grinder and a brand new kitchen scale all ready, though.  I’ll keep you posted about it when I actually get to the point of making it (and I’ll take some pictures, too).

I’ve noticed lots of blogs and blog comments where pet owners have reacted to the Menu Foods recall in a “canned food is bad” way.  Canned food isn’t any worse than dry food (and I’m of the “dry food isn’t the best diet for cats” school of thought), and we should all remember that it was less than two years ago that dry dog and cat food were being recalled because of aflatoxin contamination.  As I posted on someone else’s blog last night, perhaps the problem isn’t “wet food vs. dry food”, perhaps it’s “human grade vs. everything else”.  Maybe we need to insist that our pets eat food which humans could also eat in a pinch.  Maybe we insist the same (generally) high standards applied to human food quality be applied to pet food quality, too.  After all, most of us think of pets as our children, or at least, as family members, so why should we feed them something that government hasn’t approved for human consumption?  I think this is a great time for pet owners to unite and say that we don’t want to feed our pets “brown crunchy bits in a bag” and “brown mushy goop in a can”.  Let’s feed our pets real, identifiable food.  Let’s be able to open that can of chicken and rice and see real chicken, not formed chicken pieces.  Let’s open a can of seafood medley and see real pieces of fish, not strange grey or red things which have been forced into a “flaked” shape.  There are foods available (like the aforementioned Spot’s Stew), which looks like food for people.  Every ingredient is real, and visible, and it just looks healthy.  Maybe if we insisted that our pet’s food be made of natural, recognizable ingredients, we wouldn’t have so many foods made with beet pulp, wheat gluten, soy casein, etc.  Of course, pet owners have the option to make their own pet food, but many people just don’t have the time, or knowledge.  Lots of people don’t even know how to feed their own children properly!  Let’s make it easy for them by filling the shelves with food which is truly healthy and nutritious and good for our pets, instead of what’s on the shelves now.  If all the pet food companies did it, the price could be kept down.  Let’s just figure out a way to stop feeding the pets their own version of soylent brown, and let’s stop accepting soylent brown pet food.  Let’s stop letting Hills and Iams and Purina, et al, assure us that their product is healthy, even if we can’t identify what’s in it when we look at it (and sometimes, even when we read the label).  There’s no time like the present. 

To end on a cheerful note, the two foster kittens are doing well, although the little boy is much smaller than his big sister.  They both seem healthy, and they’re very quiet (a nice change from Madison and her constant crying).  More photos to come soon!

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 03/29 at 02:06 AM

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  1. Hmm ... Mom is interested in your final reviews of those cook books. Given the impact the loss of a pet has in any circumstance, the loss due to greed by someone else, makes it even worse. If one or two of those books stands out as a good reference, Mom may get it/them and start making our food. Besides, with the right nutritional supplements, we might just have the same dinner every night!

    Posted by Roxie, Sammy & Andy  on  03/29  at  05:11 AM

  2. I know that’s not the point of your post, but “soylent brown” made me laugh. so. hard.

    Posted by Helly  on  03/29  at  04:44 PM

  3. Helly, my brain was so fried from exhaustion (baby kittens! no sleep!) last night that it took me about twenty minutes to come up with “soylent brown”.  I appreciate you noticing.

    And Roxie, Sammy, and Andy, I promise to get to those reviews ASAP.  It’s those darn kittens…

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  03/30  at  03:16 AM

  4. WE can entertain the kittens for you ....  grin

    Posted by Roxie, Sammy & Andy  on  03/30  at  04:33 AM

  5. Hi,
    Just make sure the Taurine you use isn’t from China, to be on the safe side..
    Lauren

    Posted by Lauren  on  04/01  at  03:23 PM
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