Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats (13 page)

Note:
Some pet supplements supply large amounts of calcium without phosphorus, as you’ll discover from the label. If this is the case, decrease the calcium supplement in the recipe a bit. Further, it is important to avoid any pet supplements containing the preservative sodium benzoate, especially for cats, because this preservative is an accumulative poison.

Vitamin B

B vitamins are essential for normal body functioning and therefore for a healthy body. The term “B vitamins” refers to a family of vitamins, including thiamine, riboflavin,
pantothenic acid, niacin, B
₆
(pyridoxine), biotin, choline, folic acid, and vitamin B
₁₂
. When you use a B vitamin supplement, be sure each of these are included in the formula. Deficiency of these vitamins is common—mostly due to the fragility of these chemical substances to the conditions of processing and storage. Even with a home-prepared diet, it is a good idea to supplement with a B-complex formula. Food purchased from a market is not necessarily fresh and, unless organic, may have undergone forced growth and be subsequently low in natural vitamins.

The amount to use varies with the size of the animal. If you are using a formula made for human beings (which is perfectly fine as long as there is no sodium benzoate preservative in it), a good rule to follow is to adjust the dose proportionately for the size of your animal. For example, let’s assume you have a 50-pound dog and your B vitamin is recommended at two capsules a day (for the average human). Assume that the human dose is for a 150-pound person; since your dog weighs one-third of the human weight, give only ⅓ of that dose to your dog.

What if the animal is really, really small, like a cat or little dog? Give about 5 mg of the B-complex formula to ensure correct proportions of the major (thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin) and minor B vitamins.

Vitamin E

I include extra vitamin E, an antioxidant, in the diet for several reasons. Not only does it aid important body functions, such as fighting disease, but it also helps minimize the effects of pollution. Vitamin E helps to preserve and protect the vitamin A and fatty acids in other supplements and in foods. There are two ways that this supplement can be provided:

• Natural-source vitamin E capsules.
  Look for products containing the d-alpha tocopherols, which are the natural form. (The dl-alpha tocopherols, with a lowercase “l” after the “d,” are a synthetic, and generally less expensive, form.) The gelatin capsule variety provides a good “storage container.” Open a fresh capsule for the recipe or premix it into the vegetable oil. It’s okay to use more vitamin E than the amount called for, if that’s more convenient.
  
• Wheat-germ oil.
  This is a good way to provide vitamin E in a natural complex. But be careful not to feed your animal rancid wheat-germ oil, which is detectable by a slightly bitter or burning aftertaste—taste it yourself. Buy wheat-germ oil in capsule form. Read the label to determine the appropriate amount to use.
  

Taurine (optional)

When preparing cat food, pet food manufacturers have been adding taurine, a component of protein. Unlike most animals, cats cannot synthesize this amino acid themselves, so they have to get it from their diets—which basically means from meat.
Taurine is necessary, because a deficiency is known to cause degeneration of the retina and possible blindness, as well as cardiac problems. Apparently, shortages in taurine levels in pet foods occur as a result of processing procedures. Studies have shown that up to 80 percent of the taurine that occurs naturally in meat can be lost from the cooking temperatures in commercial food production.

Investigating further, however, I learned that the daily taurine content of the wild feline diet is about 25 to 50 milligrams and that this amount has been found adequate in most experimental studies. In the wild, of course, the cat would consume the heart, brain, and other high-taurine organs, so maybe muscle meat is actually deficient by the standards of the overall prey. Commercial food manufacturers now supplement with taurine to bring the levels up. You can do the same thing with these recipes. I am not concerned about the taurine content of my cat diet if the meat is fed raw. If, however, you feed the meat cooked (e.g., from your own leftovers), use a partly vegetarian diet (see chapter 5). To err on the safe side, there are three ways to address this shortage:

• Add capsule(s) or tablet(s) of taurine in the amount stated in the recipes as an optional ingredient. Pills or powdered capsules of taurine can be purchased at many stores that specialize in nutritional products. Also, many vitamin-mineral supplements for cats now contain taurine. Read the label to see how many units are needed to provide the amount of taurine indicated in the recipe, rounding the figure upward if necessary. Be sure to add heat-sensitive taurine to the recipe only after the cooked grain has cooled down, or the heat might destroy it.
  
• Use Vegecat, a supplement for vegetarian cats that provides the taurine that is missing in a meatless diet.
  
• Include tuna, mackerel, clams, and heart in the diet. All are naturally high in taurine. (Maybe that’s why most cats love them!)
  

There are two other amino acids, cousins to taurine, which cats require. They are arginine and cysteine, both of which are readily found in meat, eggs, and a variety of other foods. Most diets are adequate in these. If you follow the diet guidelines we have discussed here, there will be no problem supplying adequate amounts.

Now that you have a good understanding of what goes into a fresh, natural diet for your pet, learn how to put it together in practical, tasty, balanced recipes! That’s our next chapter.

CHAPTER 4

EASY-TO-MAKE RECIPES FOR PET FOOD

N
ow it’s time to really talk turkey—to show you a variety of delicious, well-balanced recipes for feeding your animals. Fixing fresh, nutritious meals for pets is very little trouble once you get the hang of it. Many people even find it fun, especially when the concoction meets with the enthusiastic approval of an eager eater.

To ensure the best nutritional content, I again remind you to follow the recipes fairly closely. Do, however, use a variety of grains, meats, and vegetables rather than sticking to the same formula every time.

STREAMLINE YOUR PET FOOD PREPARATION SYSTEM 

Follow these tips for easier preparation of your pet’s meals, preserving extras and adding appetizing touches when serving.

Keep recipes and supplies handy.
Once you work out a basic routine, copy the recipes onto cards or durable cardstock, adding notes if you care to. Store them with your pet’s supplements in a cupboard or some other spot convenient to your food preparation area. That way they’ll always be right at hand while you’re mixing the chow.

Use quick-cooking grains.
These include rolled oats, bulgur, cornmeal, whole-wheat couscous, and quinoa. For a small pet it sometimes makes sense to use crumbled whole-wheat bread.

Coordinate pet food preparation with cooking your own food.
Unless you’re fixing very large quantities of animal food, it’s often convenient to prepare it while waiting for your own food to cook. Better yet, coordinate both meal plans, using the same basic grains—maybe rice or cornmeal—and other ingredients, such as tuna or lean hamburger.

Freeze extras.
For small animals, make up one to two weeks’ worth of food at a time, freezing extras in plastic dairy and deli containers. Thaw the frozen meals in the refrigerator 24 hours in advance of feeding time.

Warm up prepared food.
Since you will probably make enough chow to last for several days at a time and refrigerate the extras, here’s how to warm up cold food to make it more palatable for your pet and easier to digest. Rinse your pet’s bowl with warm water. Dish the food into the bowl and pour a little hot water over it. Use a fork or shake the bowl to lightly mix the food in the water without making it mushy. Sprinkle a little yeast or other flavoring on top, if you wish. I don’t recommend microwave cooking because it would defeat the purpose of using raw meat. Warming the food, however, for 10–15 seconds is fine. Take it out of the plastic first.

Where possible, the recipes very much exceed the minimal requirements usually recommended for feeding animals. It is my opinion that “minimum” is not the same as “optimal,” and I prefer that both dogs and cats have more protein and fat than available in commercial foods. For example, the minimum recommended requirement for dogs is 18 percent protein and 5 percent fat—yet the natural diet of wolves is around 54 percent protein and 43 percent fat (as fed at the San Diego Zoo). Big difference.

A frequent question I’ve tried to resolve over the years is how much to feed. The difficulty in giving specific amounts is that food quantity is extremely variable depending on what the food makeup is (especially fat content), the size and age of the animal, and its level of activity. Just consider the difference between the small Yorkie weighing 12 pounds and having almost no exercise and the 65-pound sled dog that is pulling heavy loads all day.

What I have found to be the most reliable approach is to feed what seems to be a reasonable amount, enough to satisfy the dog or cat in 20 minutes or so (not leaving food out during the day), and then monitor body weight.

A simple indicator: You should be able to feel your pet’s ribs easily as you slide your hand over his sides; if you can’t, he’s probably too heavy, so begin to feed a smaller quantity. Visible ribs usually mean the opposite, and you need to feed more. In cases of obesity, use the weight-loss recipes in the next chapter.

If you have a number of animals, you will, of course, need to multiply the recipe amounts accordingly.

BOOSTER MIXES FOR DOG KIBBLE

Let’s start with something simple: three fresh food combos that you can add to a good-quality dog kibble, such as those sold at natural food stores. If you’re not ready to jump whole hog into the home-prepared diet, or if you have several large dogs, these shortcuts offer a convenient way to provide many of the benefits of fresh foods and nutritious supplements and still maintain nutritional balance. By adding fresh meat, dairy products, vegetable oil, and food supplements, you boost your dog’s intake of quality protein, fatty acids, lecithin, B vitamins and minerals—all helpful for skin and coat problems.

Resist any temptation to simplify these additions by just throwing a slab of meat or a dash of oil on the kibble rather than following the recipes as given. Meat is dramatically low in calcium as compared with its phosphorus content, so using meat alone could result in a net dietary calcium deficiency. That’s why a calcium supplement is added to the recipes. Extra oil by itself is also counterproductive, as it will lower the overall percentage of protein and every other nutrient in the kibble, which may already contain a marginal amount of the essentials.

As with other recipes, you can always premix larger amounts of these supplements and freeze extras, thawing and using them as needed.

Here is the idea behind these supplements. I start with the likely minimum values present in many dog kibbles, e.g., 18 percent protein, 9 percent fat (or less), and about 67 percent carbohydrate (grains and vegetable products). Then I add in the good things I want you to add—fresh meat, vegetable oil, and vitamins—then balance for calcium and
phosphorus. Of course a better quality, higher protein product will bump up the amounts, but likely not significantly (most commercial foods are not very high in protein or fat).

Here’s the first one.

FRESH MEAT SUPPLEMENT FOR DOG KIBBLE

• 3 pounds (6 cups) chopped or ground raw turkey*, chicken, lean hamburger, lean chuck, or lean beef heart
  
• ¼ cup vegetable oil (cold pressed, organic)
  
• 1 tablespoon Healthy Powder
  
• 1½ teaspoons Group I** bone meal
  
• 1 tablespoon Animal Essentials calcium (or Group III† equivalent for 3,000 mg calcium)
  
• 50–200 IU vitamin E
  
• 5,000 IU vitamin A with 200 IU vitamin D (or alternate regularly with
  Fresh Egg supplement
  )
  

Mix the oil, powder, bone meal, and vitamins together. Then combine the mixture with the meat, coating it well.

At mealtime, feed about 6 tablespoons of this mixture for every cup of dog kibble served. You can either mix the meat supplement and kibble together or serve each separately.

Yield:
Slightly more than 6 cups
.

* I assumed using whole turkey for my calculations in this recipe. Once mixed with kibble, it yields at least 30 percent protein, 20 percent fat, and 50 percent carbohydrate. Look at “Protein, Fat, and Carbohydate Content of Various Meats” (
view
, to see how proteins in various meats compare. Notice that the protein in whole turkey is half that of lean hamburger. You can, however, substitute meats without concern in this recipe supplement—if you prefer to keep the protein lower, then use correspondingly less of the higher-protein meats.