Home-Prepared Dog and Cat Diets

edit: Note about this book mislabeling baking soda as calcium: Caution should be noted in the first part of the book (1-267) there are 2 instances of baking soda written to be the same as calcium carbonate; both in chapter one: page 8 (one occurrence) & page 12 (one occurrence), and in the recipe/diets portion (269-505) there were 21 instances found in the following... dog recipe section: 416-420 & 422-424 (recipes for dogs with renal disease), 425 (recipe for dogs with struvite urinary stones) & cat recipe section: 457-459 (recipes for senior cats), 473 (recipe for cats with cancer), 497-501 (recipes for cats with renal disease), 502-504 (recipes for cats with oxalate urinary stones)...these all label "Baking Soda" (which is also known as sodium bicarbonate, sodium hydrogen carbonate or NaHCO3) mislabeled as "Calcium Carbonate" (which is also known as CaCO3, and often used medicinally as an antacid/calcium source supplement). Do not give your pet Baking Soda as a Calcium supplement. There may be other reasons to use baking soda in a recipe, but it is not addressed in this book, and baking soda is wrongfully identified as calcium carbonate.*I originally gave 4 stars, before seeing for myself this baking soda error...an error too easily overlooked, since it's listed as "calcium carbonate (baking soda)" and "baking soda (calcium carbonate)" & the eye/mind can correct (as one or the other) while reading, without realizing...not good if someone reads as "baking soda"."HOME-PREPARED Dog & Cat DIETS 2nd Ed." (Schenck) is one of the most informative books on this subject I have found; that is available to the non-professional (but has the baking soda mistake...you will need to correct the pages mislabeling baking soda as a calcium carbonate supplement); on figuring out (calculating) and understanding recommended analysis on pet's nutritional needs...this is very hard to find in the books available today.Although this is available to the non-professional (and in an easy to read format for the average person), it's not something I'd recommend if you are not use to preparing diets, or have no clue about the time and efforts required...this book may appear quite overwhelming. This is not a "first book", but more of a tool/resource for those wanting to be more precise with their pet's nutritional needs. If you choose to get this book, try to find it used and at a less expensive price (especially with having an error on baking soda/calcium) and make sure you correct the pages with this mislabeling.For a great book on getting started, I'd recommend "Better Food for Dogs: A Complete Cookbook and Nutrition Guide" (Bastin, Ashton, Dixon, DVM) and/or "Raw & Natural Nutrition for Dogs: The Definitive Guide to Homemade Meals" (Olson, PhD) as an informative beginner's tool, before reading this one, and/or to use along with this book. (sorry, I don't have any cats)What to expect getting out of this book:-Learn how to make precise calculations for your pet's feeding requirements (daily Caloric needs/kcal), based on your pet's weight, age & activity levels by using easy mathematical formulas. [example: RER = 70x(body weight in kilograms)^0.75 & DER = 1.6 x RER] (RER = resting energy requirement; DER = daily energy requirement)-Learn importance of vitamins, minerals & other nutrients and the appropriate *ratio for your pet's weight, age and specific needs (depending on health issues or diseases that may or may not be present). *This is given in percentages (%) and if you do not wish to give a full spectrum multi-vitamin/mineral supplement (and/or desire to give minimal supplement necessary w/ complete diet), it will require some mathematical background in working with percentages (having an ability to do so; without needing a tutorial, since the book doesn't give a "lesson" on this). --If this is too hard for you (or you don't feel confident), then you'd want a veterinarian (that specializes in nutrition and diet for pets) to help work it out for you. *remember NOT to use baking soda as a calcium source!-Read information about several of the most common diseases (and health concerns), how they reflect your pet's nutritional needs and what should be added/subtracted from your pet's diet; to help create a more nutritional specific diet for your pet.-Find very useful information on safe food handling, ways to monitor your pet's health/nutritional needs, along with useful resources and suggestions.How to use this book:It's best to use this book as part of a teaching tool, to help enhance the way you balance (and help monitor) your pet's nutritional needs...mainly with calculating. The recipes should be looked at as a baseline, and in my opinion, should be altered by concerns; in order to make complete. Note: Recipes will need altered, especially for those wanting higher protein and lower (to no) grain diets (& those with baking soda labeled as calcium). The recipes provided are made in a way this can be easily achieved; with common sense knowledge using basic mathematics skills on calculating measurements & working out percentages.What this book isn't:This is not an "easy breezy" "no thought needed" cookbook! The recipes included generally include a meat (or protein source), a grain (or starchy vegetable source like potato or legume), a fat and added supplements (like bone meal, multi-vitamin, mineral). *Most do not have fruits or vegetables included in the carbohydrate portion of the recipe. When adding these, you will need to alter the grains (calculating proper total kcal from carbs to include both grain & fruit/veg).Overall, HOME-PREPARED Dog & Cat DIETS 2nd Ed, is well written (outside of the mistake on baking soda) and a good educational tool for calculating. At worst, this book should help with understanding how to read pet food labels correctly and how to calculate these recommendations. This is still a useful tool as long as used with caution.My gripes about this book:-The nutritional analysis recommendations calculate proteins and fats in the form of DM (dry matter) and not in their natural matter (whole), while carbs (grains/vegetation) and fiber are calculated as unspecified or DM (more DM in health condition specific diets)...this can make it too convenient for the prepackaged 'science type diets' to be enforced. Most people who prepare foods at home for their pets won't use DM measurements on (especially) meats and fats, since we are working with whole-foods. *The author does explain how dry matter is calculated, so you will be able to work out the whole matter (with the mathematical formulas provided and explained), but this does add more work and does make these analysis recommendations more convenient for "dry kibble", prepackaged and manufactured foods.-Mislabeling baking soda as calcium carbonate can be dangerous to your pet. No one should use baking soda as a source of calcium! Hopefully, the author will correct this error, because this book could be a great resource for many. If baking soda was meant to be in the recipe, it should be given the appropriate name AND explained as to why the baking soda would be beneficial. If it's a misprint, then TUMS would be a better "familiar name" for calcium carbonate.

UPDATE: 2015: One of my dogs fell ill some time ago and we could not get her well. Turns out she has bladder cancer and has probably had it for some time. For the past year, I have been feeding her homemade food, following the guidelines that are detailed in this book for cancer and this dog has amazed me! We decided against chemo, since the chemo drugs made her so sick and miserable. We have managed her cancer with Piroxicam, diet, and certain supplements to boost her immune system. She is actually stronger now than she was a year ago. I don't know how long we will be blessed with this good health and energy, but I am very grateful. I think the homemade cancer diet is a major factor in her well-being and highly recommend this book for anyone who is willing and able to make their own food. Not only has it proven to be the best thing I've ever done for my healthy dogs in general but it is a lifesaver for this cancer dog.ORIGINAL REVIEW:This, along with the first edition of this book (That one authored by Strombeck) is the only cookbook that I trust to give my pets proper nutrition on a homemade diet. Homefeeding is a big fad right now. There are a lot of books on the subject along with a ton of advice on the internet. Most of it is not accurate. A study by UC Davis recently showed that when analyzed, most of the homemade diets were either lacking, or were overdosing. These recipes were developed and analyzed at a university and so they are the only ones I trust for long-term use.I've had excellent results with this program. I have performance dogs and so I have to get it right. I need a food that will keep them in top form, maintain weight, muscle and good health. I need food that will keep the bones and teeth strong and food that is clean so that risk of cancer or kidney damage is minimised. These recipes do it for my dogs. I also appreciate sections devoted to geriatric animals and those with specific health issues which require a kind of prescription diet. With this book, I think anyone could work with their vet to come up with a better diet than you can buy.That said, the book has one serious flaw which almost gave it four stars instead of five. PLEASE READ THIS: In a homemade diet, calcium is critical. In these recipes, the calcium source is Calcium Carbonate BUT some of the recipes actually say 'Baking Soda". That's a BIG problem, because plain old Arm n Hammer is actually Calcium BI-Carbonate and that's a very bad thing to put in dog food! So what you want is to buy Baking soda SUBSTITUTE- which is Calcium Carbonate, not BI-carbonate.On page viii of the Preface, the author explains that she did this because she wanted people to buy food-grade calcium carbonate instead of the bulk garden-grade stuff. That is available as Baking Soda SUBSTITUTE, but her omission of the word SUBSTITUTE in some of the recipes is bound to cause confusion and lead to trouble for people who do not read carefully. So that's one thing I like better about the first edition. Dr Strombeck just uses Bone Meal, which is available as a human grade supplement. I think that's a whole lot better way to do it but anyway, if you are sure to buy Calcium Carbonate and NOT regular baking soda, you'll be fine. It's just something that anyone using this book needs to be aware of.This has been a good series of books, the best in my opinion but I am hoping for a third edition that will address the baking soda thing. If you have any worries about it, the information in the first edition is available online: [...] and you can always use that.EDIT: I want to point out that MANY of the recipes do not use Baking soda substitute at all. All of the ones I've been using just use Bonemeal and salt substitute, etc. Very Simple! So please do not let all the flack about that scare you off. It's just something you need to be aware of if you do this. This is a top-notch feeding program and in giving us this book, the author has given our pets a tremendous gift! The work and research that went into this is phenominal. I changed the rating from 4 to 5 stars just because the longer my dogs are fed this way, the better they do. Truly grateful!

Cat owners wondering if this book is worth purchasing (as I was, before ordering it here): it is worth getting.This book is written in informational chapters (so, if for instance, your pet is not elderly you can easily skip that chapter). All chapters in this book begin with dog information. Cats are written about second. Most of the topics in the book cover cats (though, not all do). Not all topics about cats are covered as in depth as dogs but most are. Finally, there are more dog recipes than cat recipes in this book (about a third as many more). Having said that, there is a fair amount of recipes to feed cats dealing with different health issues.What Schenck does state about cats is helpful. If you are wishing to learn about what biophysical needs the feline has that regular feeding must meet for a healthy balanced diet, what cats having different physical ailments need or require of diets, what all of those recipes are, and how to prepare your cat (or dog's) food - this is the book for you.She gets into the biological, chemical, and age/health, life stage, etc. specific details and you may choose to read that in depth or not.She is a bit repetitive in the book (e.g. you read repeatedly, as a cat owner, that cats uniquely (compared to dogs) require the amino acid taurine throughout the book, but this is understandable as not all cat owners will read every topic in the book that pertains to cats and this information is critical to feeding your cat a healthy diet).If you don't mind reading about cats, as a species, in relation to dogs (e.g. "...as with dogs, cats..." or "...being smaller, cats..." and so on) and don't mind there being less cat information than there is about dogs - I recommend you get this book.

I put my 15 year old Lab on a home cooked diet and I found this book very helpful. It gave me lots of basic idea's and helped me integrate into my own recipes.

Excelente para iniciar a mejorar la alimentacion de nuestros compañeritos de 4 (o 3) patitas.

Excellent!

One of the key factors for an author to consider when writing non-fiction book is `who is the target audience?' and I am entirely unclear as to what conclusions Patricia reached. The first table in the book (`veterinary nutritionists offering nutritional consultations') offers a clue because all twelve are in America; something of a trek to take Tiddles for a consult.Table 3.4 informs us that the AAFCO considers cats require 2.20 g of Methionine Phenylalanine Tyropsine (one of two pages of nutrients listed in that one table alone) per 1,000 kilocalories as a growth and reproductive minimum, and the same amount as an adult maintenance minimum in case you were wondering. This would suggest that the book is aimed at those formulating diets for pets are opposed to seeking diets.Opposite page 74 (Daily energy requirements for cats) is table 4.12 (daily energy requirements for lactating dogs with up to four puppies) which must not be confused with table 4.13 (more than four puppies). By this time I feel that I am in a lecture hall taking notes without any clear idea of what I am meant to be studying or why. However, any notion that the book is aimed at either academics or vets can be dismissed by chapter 5 when I learn that `both dogs and cats will eat grass or other plants'. Well, I never. Disappointingly, `why they do so is not clear'.I move on a couple of paragraphs to discover that dogs have a tendency to `get into the garbage'. Here, Patricia equivocates that `this behaviour is probably normal'. Oh come on, surely after all this collation of data you can reassure us that Rover is not delinquent for the fact that he chews open the rubbish bag in the hope of finding a bone? I am almost disappointed not to find a table `5.3. Number of dogs per 1,000 identified as prone to investigate the refuse'. The book starts to feel like a Phd thesis that has lost its way, written by an author who does not know how to stop.I start to skip after learning in table 6.1 that dogs with an adult body weight less than 55lb require 22-32% protein as a proportion of dry matter. By this stage, had I been more attentive, I could probably have come up with a few good solid recipes myself.Ahhh. Just as well I didn't skip too far because by page 101 I am into the list of recipes. If you want to create a home-made meal for your kitten consider one of the following. Chicken and rice, turkey and rice, ground beef and rice, lamb and rice, tuna and rice, white fish and rice, salmon and rice ... and so it goes on. For kittens, the only variant on this feline equivalent of the Monty Python Spam song are a couple of recipes which substitute Quinoa (I had to look it up) for rice. I can imagine the poor kitten pleading for Venison and Quinoa only to be told that Quinoa is off the menu, you will have to have the rice. Sure enough, both Quinoa recipes have a rice alternative.At this point, I ask a zoologist (who happens to be in the vicinity) how cats and dogs ever managed before humans cultivated rice (or potato, pasta or quinoa - the only other variants). I am informed that, cats (unlike humans) can obtain all the amino acids and trace elements essential for their healthy living from meat. My tame zoologist suggests that all those tinned recipes with green beans or carrots were developed by marketing departments who know that humans think these are `good' and accountancy departments, which know that they are cheap. Clearly, Patricia is not selling tinned food but she is trying to sell a book and I note that she is part of a faculty that, being American, is into selling itself. However, my local zoologist did not provide me with a single table to prove his view whereas by page 251 Patricia is up to Table 20.2 (copper content in dietary ingredients) - so what does he know?Page 101 lists the recipes but it is not until page 269 that I get to the detail of her dog recipes (chicken and rice, chicken and pasta, chicken and potato, ground beef and rice, ground beef and pasta, ground beef and potato). The cat recipes start at page 433 by which time you can probably guess the extra ingredient in most of them.It is true that there are specialised diets for animals with medical conditions (ground beef and lentils for cats with Idiopathic Hypercalcemia or almost anything with rice for Insulinoma). However, I would have thought that in such situations it would be best to consult a vet because they would be likely to have had up to date experience (or access to up to date information) on the best way to treat such conditions. If this book is aimed at vets, why (for example) would they need to be told that dogs and cats eat grass?By this time I feel I had been blinded with science in an effort to sell a book, which mostly tries to prove to me that the health of domestic pets can be improved by adding various types of carbohydrate to their diet. I prefer to stick with the perceived wisdom, which is that if most animals (including humans) are provided with a balanced and varied diet, their digestive system will have enough content from which to extract what is needed.I look up Patricia on the web and note that her latest academic paper was `Prediction of serum ionized calcium concentration by serum calcium measurement in cats.' The fact that she has numerous papers published in what I assume are academic journals suggests that she is no quack because all such papers are subject to peer review (i.e. vetted, pardon the pun). However, having waded my way through the book I remain sceptical, more so for the fact that this is a curious hybrid of academic dissertation, almanac of data, homilies on what animals eat and recipes that are asserted to bring better health to our four-legged friends. Interestingly, there appeared to be a dearth of empirical data to evidence the effects of such diets. In other words, I search in vain for so much as a single table in over 500 pages offering data on whether these diets work.This is not a reference book that will find its way onto my bookshelf and for some reason I feel vaguely annoyed with the author. Perhaps I feel that in some way Patricia is trying to patronise me to accept her verdict on diet by drowning me in data which, when examined closely, doesn't in any way seem to prove cause and effect.

i have 2 german shepherd dogs and they just love the recipes in this book, the recipes themselves arent too expensive to make either as at most they seem to only use up to 150 grms of meat in them and cheaper cuts can be substituted. the favourite seems too be the liver kidney bean and rice.the bone meal can be purchased from a well known auction site and the vitamins from a high street health store so no difficulties there. the dogs seem less hungry to me and to put it bluntly theres alot less to clear up at the other end which too me means the dogs are using more of the nutrition.the book does get technical about conditions in dogs and cats but unless your animal is very sick and has all of them or you are really interested in the book you are not going to read it cover to cover, my dogs dont have any illnesse at the moment so i admit ive only skimmed the text, it didnt seem to technical for us ordinary folk to understand, and it would be a great reference book for you pets as they get older and need more care. id recommend this as your one investment for your pet and my two are frankly glad i have it, no more yucky shop dried kibble, oh and they need to drink far less on a daily basis and look far better