With the Menu Foods pet food recall and the resulting deaths of so many companion pets, Buddha and Stella have asked me to please speak out for their fine furred friends.
So here it is, folks. Plain and simple.
I know that the idea of cooking for your dog or your cat seems rather absurd in this day and age of drive-thru burger palaces and microwave macaroni and cheese. If we’re feeding our own children food that was prepared by small children in a factory in China and then flown 10,000 miles and nuked before it was dumped in a bag and shoved through a window and into the back seat of our cars, why on earth would we consider shopping at a grocery store for our dogs and then coming home and actually cooking them a meal?
Well, here’s why.
Because you love little Scruffy just as much as you love Muffy and Junior and if that really is the case, Scruffy deserves to eat just as well as everyone else in the family.
Now, Buddha and Stella eat an all organic diet. Except for those Kentucky Fried Chicken and Taco Bell ground scores they find at the dog park (they’re just like teenagers, I tell you!), their diet, since they have come to live at Chez Naked, has been one that includes 100% organic lamb, seafood, chicken, grains and vegetables and yogurt. As well as herbs.
When this entire Menu Foods pet food recall started happening recently, I was able to rest easily. Not only do Buddha and Stella not eat any mass produced foods. They also do not eat wheat. Ever.
They don’t eat wheat because it is a major allergen for a lot of dogs and has also been a large contributor to arthritis in dogs. Clyde had some pretty bad arthritis in his later years and I’d like to think that if nothing else Buddha and Stella could be the beneficiaries of the lessons I learned from Clyde.
So no wheat. No corn, either. The only grains that Buddha and Stella get are oats, barley and millet.
Now here’s the thing. I’ll go back to it. I’m really careful about what my dogs eat, but they’re members of my family. I want them to live long and healthy lives. I just don’t feel comfortable feeding them foods that wouldn’t be fit for MY consumption.
Most dog food produced in this country has a very low standard as to what is considered consumable. Despite the appealing blandishments of pet food advertisements with their claims of providing "complete and balanced nutrition," if you're not exceedingly circumspect, you may end up feeding your pet chicken heads, road kills, spoiled or moldy grains, cancerous material cut from slaughterhouse animals, tissue high in hormone or pesticide residues, and even shredded Styrofoam packaging, metal ID tags and minced flea collars. This is because there are rendering plants that take euthanized cats and dogs and turn them into a dry protein that is then sold to the pet food manufacturers. The pentobarbital that has been used to euthanize some of these dead pets actually survives the rendering process and has been found in the resulting pet foods.
There is also the real potential for many deadly fungal toxins from the various grains used in pet foods. Corn and wheat are the most common grains used, but in most pet foods this is the leftovers created after the grains have been processed for human consumption. It has little nutritional value, has often been swept up off the factory floor and includes rodent droppings, pesticides and mold!
This isn’t something you’d want to consume. Is it something you want your pet to eat every single day?
Again, I know that the idea of cooking for your dogs or cats seems just ludicrous and time consuming. But what about at least purchasing human grade dog or cat food? Yes, it is going to be more expensive. But not that much more expensive than what you’re currently feeding your pets. And you’ll save money in vet bills.
The following are some human-grade pet foods that are made by small manufacturers who are mindful of their ingredients and our companion animals’ well-being:
Timberwolf Organics
Eagle Pack Holistic Select
There are lots of others. But these are some of the ones I know that Buddha and Stella would enjoy.
Now, if you’re willing to take the plunge and cook for your dog or cat, I can’t recommend Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats enough. Really, if you have no other book in your personal library for your animal companions, you should have this one. In it you will find an abundance of recipes that are easy to make. There are even recipes for special needs animals and bulk recipes that you can make in advance and freeze and then reconstitute each day.
I can attest that cooking on one day for 30 days worth of meals is really well worth the effort. It makes the entire month of meal time that much easier!
Here is his recipe for Doggie Oats. It’s a versatile maintenance recipe for adult dogs. You can substitute tofu for the turkey and that will lower the protein and fat content considerably.
Doggie Oats
8 cups raw rolled oats (or 16 cups cooked oatmeal)
2 pounds (4 cups) raw ground or chopped turkey
1⁄2 cup Healthy Powder (below)
1⁄4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup cooked vegetables (or less if raw and grated) (may be omitted occasionally)
3 tablespoons bonemeal (or 5,400-6,000 milligrams calcium or 1 tablespoon eggshell powder)
10,000 IU Vitamin A (optional if using carrots)
400 IU Vitamin E
1 teaspoon tamari soy sauce or 1⁄4 teaspoon iodized salt (optional)
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed or minced (optional)
Bring 1 gallon (16 cups) of water to a boil. Add the oats, cover and turn off the heat, letting the oats cook for 10-15 minutes, or until soft. Don’t stir while cooking or the oats will become mushy. Then combine with the remaining ingredients and serve.
Yield: About 22 cups, with 205 kilocalories per cup
Daily ration (in cups): toy—2/3 to 2 2/3; small—2 2/3 to 5 1/3; medium—5 1/3 to 7;
large—7 to 9 3⁄4; giant—9 3⁄4 to 14 2/3+
Healthy Powder
2 cups nutritional (torula) yeast
1 cup lecithin granules
1⁄4 cup kelp powder
1⁄4 cup bonemeal (or 9,000 milligrams calcium or 5 teaspoons eggshell powder)
1,000 milligrams Vitamin C (ground) or 1⁄4 teaspoon sodium ascorbate (optional)
Mix all ingredients together in a 1-quart container and refrigerate. Add to each recipe as instructed. You may also add this mixture to commercial food as follows: a to 2 teaspoons per day for cats or small dogs; 2 to 3 teaspoons per day for medium-sized dogs; 1 to 2 tablespoons per day for large dogs.
I have made these doggie oats up and frozen in single serving containers. And then just defrosted and served to my dogs. SIMPLE!
I’m just going to say it. It all comes down to exactly how much you really care about your pets. Will they survive on Alpo? Sure. Of course they’ll survive. But will they thrive? Probably not. Ever since we started feeding our animals processed pet foods instead of our raw meat bones and scraps from our own tables, they honestly have exhibited more health problems and have started to live shorter lives.
The same, actually, can be said of us.
We are what we eat. So are our companion animals. The crucial difference is that they are truly counting on us to make the best choice for them because they can’t just go shopping for themselves.
Feed them to thrive!
