Read Online Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats by Richard H. Pitcairn, Susan Hubble Pitcairn - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Richard H. Pitcairn, Susan Hubble Pitcairn
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first, simply because the foods are unfamiliar.Also, any change of diet—even a switch from one commercial brand of food to another—means the pet’s digestive system has to adapt. So take time to introduce the new foods, certainly a few days and maybe a period of weeks in some animals with digestive weakness, substituting ever-greater proportions of natural foods for commercial foods. (See chapter 6 for more discussion on making the switch.)
THE BASIC FOOD GROUPS
Now let’s consider each of the basic food groups used in our recipes—and how best to buy, store, and prepare them.
M EATS
Meat is the food with the most chemical contamination and is also produced at a great cost to the environment and with considerable suffering by the livestock raised according to modern farming methods (see the discussion in chapter 5). Still, it remains that meat is the most natural food for carnivores. It contains much protein and is rich in many other nutrients needed by dogs and cats. In our recipes we try to balance these is-sues—using meat as a major ingredient, but bringing in other nutritious food sources as well. That’s why most of the recipes in this book include some fresh meat combined with high-protein grains, legumes, or dairy products to produce a total amount of protein that exceeds the recommended standards. The resulting protein levels are comparable to (usually greater than) the protein levels found in commercial foods, which use a similar process of combining plant and animal proteins. In chapter 5, we also include some meatless recipes that are suitable for feeding dogs.
It has become popular of late to feed a diet made up almost entirely of raw meat and bones. While this way of feeding is closer to the natural diet, it has some disadvantages, primarily in being too rich for inactive animals and being so high in chemical contaminants (less so for organic bones and meat).
Regarding the suitability of such a high protein and fat diet for pet dogs, consider that wolves, for example, will spend much of their time hunting and traveling long distances—as much as 50 or 100 miles in a day. Extreme physical activity and a high-meat diet go hand in hand. Their lifestyle requires that level of food, which in turn is only obtained by great effort. Our pet dogs, on the other hand, are mostly inactive; their food is brought to them. Feeding them such a rich diet compares with the couch potato who eats steak and fries while watching the tube; the most strenuous activity is going into the kitchen to get more food. It is out of balance for the amount of activity that pet dogs experience.
Yes, many animals will have improved health on a mostly meat and bones diet, but much of that comes from getting away from commercial foods and avoiding the cookedand depleted foods commonly used in commercial products.
The other consideration is the added load of environmental contaminants that is inevitably picked up. Unless meat is organic, the more that is eaten, the more chemicals are absorbed. As just one example, the use of synthetic estrogen (DES), a female hormone used to fatten cattle, is carried over into the meat and thus into your dog, gradually having effects over time. The potential effects are not completely known, but since the hormone is used to make cattle gain weight, we can certainly expect at least that much to happen. Estrogen has also been implicated in cancer development in laboratory animals.
Bones present their own problems. Lead is one of the biggest concerns, as noted in chapter 2, because lead is deposited in bones and does not break down. It is interesting that bone meal meant for human consumption (sold in natural food stores) cannot be derived from U.S. cattle, because there is excess lead in their bones. These same bones, however, are used in pet food, and the more fed, the more lead exposure there is.
I once attended a presentation by a veterinarian who promoted this type of diet and brought up the
THE BASIC FOOD GROUPS
Now let’s consider each of the basic food groups used in our recipes—and how best to buy, store, and prepare them.
M EATS
Meat is the food with the most chemical contamination and is also produced at a great cost to the environment and with considerable suffering by the livestock raised according to modern farming methods (see the discussion in chapter 5). Still, it remains that meat is the most natural food for carnivores. It contains much protein and is rich in many other nutrients needed by dogs and cats. In our recipes we try to balance these is-sues—using meat as a major ingredient, but bringing in other nutritious food sources as well. That’s why most of the recipes in this book include some fresh meat combined with high-protein grains, legumes, or dairy products to produce a total amount of protein that exceeds the recommended standards. The resulting protein levels are comparable to (usually greater than) the protein levels found in commercial foods, which use a similar process of combining plant and animal proteins. In chapter 5, we also include some meatless recipes that are suitable for feeding dogs.
It has become popular of late to feed a diet made up almost entirely of raw meat and bones. While this way of feeding is closer to the natural diet, it has some disadvantages, primarily in being too rich for inactive animals and being so high in chemical contaminants (less so for organic bones and meat).
Regarding the suitability of such a high protein and fat diet for pet dogs, consider that wolves, for example, will spend much of their time hunting and traveling long distances—as much as 50 or 100 miles in a day. Extreme physical activity and a high-meat diet go hand in hand. Their lifestyle requires that level of food, which in turn is only obtained by great effort. Our pet dogs, on the other hand, are mostly inactive; their food is brought to them. Feeding them such a rich diet compares with the couch potato who eats steak and fries while watching the tube; the most strenuous activity is going into the kitchen to get more food. It is out of balance for the amount of activity that pet dogs experience.
Yes, many animals will have improved health on a mostly meat and bones diet, but much of that comes from getting away from commercial foods and avoiding the cookedand depleted foods commonly used in commercial products.
The other consideration is the added load of environmental contaminants that is inevitably picked up. Unless meat is organic, the more that is eaten, the more chemicals are absorbed. As just one example, the use of synthetic estrogen (DES), a female hormone used to fatten cattle, is carried over into the meat and thus into your dog, gradually having effects over time. The potential effects are not completely known, but since the hormone is used to make cattle gain weight, we can certainly expect at least that much to happen. Estrogen has also been implicated in cancer development in laboratory animals.
Bones present their own problems. Lead is one of the biggest concerns, as noted in chapter 2, because lead is deposited in bones and does not break down. It is interesting that bone meal meant for human consumption (sold in natural food stores) cannot be derived from U.S. cattle, because there is excess lead in their bones. These same bones, however, are used in pet food, and the more fed, the more lead exposure there is.
I once attended a presentation by a veterinarian who promoted this type of diet and brought up the
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