With the pet food recall expanding and no real answers forthcoming, I’ve decided it’s time to introduce home-cooked meals to Sydney. Until this Menu Foods fiasco is cleared up, and we know exactly what happened and how, I think all commercial pet food should be considered risky. Now with the addition of Hill’s Prescription M/D Feline dry food and wet dog food Alpo Prime Cuts, both within just the last 12 hours, I think this is going to get worse before it gets better.
So, with that in mind, I came across the Pet Diets website. I have not used them yet, but it looks pretty good. They offer information and nutritional counseling for people who want to provide home cooked meals for their pets.
If you have other resources, can contribute ideas and information about alternative foods, homemade, organic, etc., for all the readers, please do so here. Also, if you’ve used a group like this Pet Diets, please let us know how it was.
Another good source is the Pet Connection website. They’ve been doing a great job keeping people up to date on the latest. They have a blog, pet loss resources, and activism suggestions as well.
This could be an opportunity for children to catch rats and sell them as cat food. I always wondered why cat food has beef and tuna and other animals that cats can’t obtain in nature. I mean, did herds of cats ever get into boats and head out to sea with fishing lines? No, cats mostly hunt rats and mice, but nobody sells canned rats and mice. Why not? I think it’s a big conspiracy by the tuna fishers. Wow, we can solve the rat problem and provide jobs for at-risk youths and end our dependence upon wheat gluten from Communist China and break the evil monopoly of tuna boats. What the heck is “gluten”, anyway? It sounds sinister, doesn’t it? So why are we feeding it to cats? Give ’em rats and mice, like nature intended! Meow!
Our three barn cats don’t need take out thankyou. They’re PREDATORS.
The dogs, on the other hand…
Thanks Tammy! We have a 16 year old male cat (Slammin’ Sammy) who we fed Iams exclusively! Yikes! We are looking for alternatives. As for cats catching mice and rats…Sammy retired this year and I had to “outsource” his job to an exterminator!
why why why with all the important news do two articles about pets get top billing Tammy?
Might i suggest that in this crazy world there are times when animals are the only thing that keep us sane.
Here is my suggested reading list for transitioning pets to homemade meals:
(1) for a raw diet – “The BARF Diet: Raw Feeding for Dogs and Cats Using Evolutionary Principles”
by Dr. Ian Billinghurst (no longer published, but available used) OR
“Raw Dog Food: Make It Easy for You and Your Dog” by Carina Beth Macdonald
(2)for a raw or cooked diet, plus a lot of additional holistic info – “Veterinarians Guide to Natural Remedies for Dogs : Safe and Effective Alternative Treatments and Healing Techniques from the Nations Top Holistic Veterinarians” By: Martin Zucker
(3) for a cooked homemade diet – “Whole Pet Diet: Eight Weeks to Great Health for Dogs And Cats” By: Andi Brown
BOTG, yes, I believe you’re right. Excellent point. And Madam Chow, thank you so much for the book suggestions. Invaluable. So many don’t cook for themselves let alone would know how to start for their pets. Thank you.
[For the record:
Cook:
—Maynard]
May I suggest reading this article (recently updated)
http://www.api4animals.org/facts.php?p=359&more=1
After reading that 5 years ago, I switched to feeding raw. Just google BARF and you will find a wealth of info on the diet and that there are thousands of us raw feeders across the country:)
[What’s the deal, though, with naming a food plan BARF? Not the most appealing name, and makes me hesitate at checking it out. if they’re that stupid with a name, how can I trust them?–ed.]
[BARF=”Bones and Raw Food”, or alternatively “Biologically Appropriate Raw Food”. See Wikipedia. You can Google the term for countless additional references. — Maynard]