As I’m learning more and more about human nutrition, I’ve decided enough parallels exist to find a common ground between whole food nutrition for my family – including our pet. We have just one now.
Our last menagerie – er, ah, family of 4 (2 cats, 2 dogs) who lived with us from 1995 to 2013 have now transitioned. I miss them dearly and think of them regularly, reminded of their individual personalities through photos and memories. Losing them, one by one, was heart-breaking. In a 6-month span from 2013-2014, we lost three of them. By lost, I mean, we had to make the tough call and I had to accompany them to their forever home. I aged ten years in those six months.
Having come to understand a lot about food additives, mouth feel, feed, grain, the 5th taste, and more, I took a hard look at what we were feeding our cat and decided to change it. (The preceding pets were on premium dry food/kibble and some canned yet near the end, the cats developed kidney disease, the dogs were prone to being overweight (by breed) so I wish I’d known then what I know now.)
We started off buying from Chewy this year- very nice to have auto-ship and discounted high quality pet food delivered to our door on a schedule we set. I really like the service, have given them an excellent review because I find them to be very responsive. However, premium pet food is – well, premium priced, too. Very expensive.
For two years I’ve been watching for Dr. Karen Becker of Mercola Healthy Pets, to release an updated cookbook. I finally found it and I guess, since it’s co-authored it didn’t show up in previous searches – because it was published in 2017. I am overjoyed! My husband is a meat cutter (aka butcher) so, he will be able to secure high quality meats, on sale, and remove the bones for me (which I’ll then use for bone broth!) Totally win-win.
Our cat has been enjoying AAFCO approved premium canned cat food as well as Primal Raw Freeze Dried food – both of which she loves. This will make her transition to human food much easier. Dr Becker’s Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats can be found at Amazon or Goodreads. I’ve linked to Amazon but I do not earn affiliate income from this OR I would have provided notice of such. This is THE book I’m very excited about learning from and the one I’m going to adopt on behalf of our furball. She adores food and I’m excited about giving her the best nutrition possible.
I’ve discussed this nutrition plan with our mobile veterinarian, who also referred me to a dental spray, LEBA III, to address healthy teeth and gums for her – in lieu of brushing. As long as we are diligent about using, we might be able to avoid the challenging task of brushing her teeth and ideally, the need for professional teeth cleaning. Time will tell.
After I’ve been making our pet food for a while, I’ll create an updated post to advise the results and leave reviews for the book and the dental spray.
Update 2021– Looking back, making pet food was a monumental, time-consuming endeavor that lasted about 6 months (I usually choose that benchmark by which to decide) and what I decided was that, like container gardening, these activities are best left for when I retire. Our cat eats AAFCO approved pet food and is doing well.