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The Best Diet:
GENERAL DIET GUIDELINES This is really critical. Common, commercial foods are not adequate. A great diet will help restore health to ill pets and often prevent health problems. The best diet to feed is a balanced, supplemented, homemade diet. Think what is best for people - fresh or processed foods? The same is true for all animals - the least processed is the best. On a scale of 0 - 100, 90 - Organic, raised in your gardens and your fields, is a 90. Not 100 because our soils are so depleted, and so even organic produce, and the best raised animals, are mineral and nutrient deficient. 75 - Health food quality fresh organic produce and meat. 35 - Non-organic meat and produce from regular grocery stores. Liver must be organic or do not feed it (or eat it yourself) because it is the detoxifier of the body. 5 - A few quality canned or dry processed foods where I personally know the owner and so can vouch for the quality. (Pet Guard, Wysong, PHD, Precise, Halo, Owens) 0 - Other “Natural” pet foods - they might be fine, but I cannot personally know. 50 to 100 - Any other commercial food, including Science diet. Put your scientific mind to work on this issue. If an animal has ripping and tearing teeth along with bone crunching teeth, a small muscular stomach and a short digestive tract and most inhale their food rather than chewing, should they be fed pap? What quality are the ingredients and the processing? What about chemical additives & preservatives. As with people, some animals seem to maintain their health on poor quality foods, but others become more and more unhealthy until their diet is changed. A brief example: A new patient’s problems were not too severe, so I started with only diet and not homeopathy. Symptoms were mostly behavioral: constant movement, could only sit still for minutes at a time; would circle the room for 20-30 minutes when someone came in the house; drooled on walks and in car when excited; jumps up on counters (she is a golden); swallows anything - socks, scrunchies, paper; gets into trash for food and other items. She shakes her head even when there is nothing apparent in the ears and rubs and scratches her face a lot. She has a history of ear and UTI problems. After 3 weeks on a raw food diet the report was: 90% better on the lead with no pulling at all; calmer at all times; ears are only slightly pink now, the skin lot its redness and is now white; she itches her face 80% less; does not get into trash but still watches her do laundry; still eats stool; still drools; she is 20% better when people come to the house and can sit still for 3 minutes rather than 10 seconds; her stools lost their odor; her hair is glowing and a deeper color (common change on good diet); she is now showing increased frequency of urinating and mucus on the stools so it is time now for a remedy. These are some changes one frequently sees on diet change. Water should be whatever you consider the best, probably not from the tap. As with a person starting a new diet, you may want to recommend books for guidance, but after a time, people will either follow recipes, feed their own combinations, cook mixtures or give raw meat plus what they eat. Since each individual animal needs different foods and people have different schedules and abilities, your duty as a holistic veterinarian is to support and guide people, not insist on one way being the only way. The following books are the classics and the appendix lists more books. Natural Health for Dogs and Cats, The New Natural Cat, Its For the Animals “Cookbook”, Cat Care, Naturally, Dog Care, Naturally, The Ultimate Diet, Give your Dog a Bone and Reigning Cats and Dogs. Each has a slightly different perspective. You must find the best diet for each animal and for yourself as “chef”. WHAT ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE INGREDIENTS? Organic or not organic? As noted on the scale above, organic is certainly best, but when not available or affordable, fresh is key. You can compile a list of where is purchase meats(the most expensive item) at what prices and quality. Remember that wild game is hormone and steroid free even when they eat pesticide reared corn and crops. Look into meat lockers and reselling wild meat, or finding butchers who will keep the scraps from game, or hunters willing to bring in the organ meat they clean out in the field, and the stores who discount their almost ready to expire meat. The more research you can do to find inexpensive, healthy meat sources, the more likely your patients will get to eat healthy meat. Look for “happy meat and happy vegetables”, says Dr. Pollak. I remind people that paying extra for organic is like making a charitable contribution to the health of our planet, and sometimes people can afford better food if they decrease their tithing and put some of that money into organic ingredients. Dr. Winter feels it is better to use AFS or other meat sources that will NOT be eaten by people, so fewer herbivores will be killed. **Every animal is an individual and has different requirements - you need to find out what will satisfy their personal nutrition needs. Dogs need 30% - 60% (even up to 90%)protein, and a few can be healthy with a vegetarian diet. I have seen dogs die who did not do well on vegetarian diets. Cats need 60% - 90% protein, mostly meat, and therefore cannot be vegetarian. (even ones with kidney problems.) Meat should be raw. Cooking destroys enzymes and denatures the proteins rendering them less digestible to cats and dogs. Feeding chunks of meat lets your pet exercise jaw muscles, form saliva and enzymes in the stomach (most animals swallow their food relatively whole) needed to digest food properly. Ground meat is passable for most animals occasionally. We find in practice that some animals just do not seem to be healthy until on chunks of raw meat, although others are fine with all the fresh ingredients pureed. You can buy in quantity and freeze in portions. (Freezing only slightly decreases the nutritional value). An excellent meat is heart meat (good price, too). Other organ meats are great. Liver must be organic since it processes toxins. A must to read on the topic of raw meat is Pottinger's Cats. An M.D. in the 1930's kept 3 groups of cats in large outdoor enclosures. He found that feeding raw meat, raw milk and cod liver oil produced great health, including reproductive and off-spring health. When either the milk or the meat was cooked, health deteriorated rapidly. We rarely see Salmonella, E. coli, and toxoplasmosis due to the intestinal flora and short transit time of dogs and cats. Raw bones, yes bones, are great on a regular basis. If the animal is eating the bones, you need not supplement with calcium. Raw fruit & vegetables are great, but must be grated so their short intestinal tracts can fully digest them. Milk products are fine. Only a few animals get diarrhea from milk. Carbohydrates need to be overcooked/soggy and raw vegetables ground finely since dogs and cats have very short digestive tracts. In the wild, the intestinal contents of the prey are seeds, which are high fat and protein, not our modern grains which are high carbohydrate. While many animals will tolerate carbohydrates, others can not be fully healthy and need few , if any, grains. As with people, some animals do not thrive on specific food items, so individually adjust your companion’s diet. Digestive enzymes are useful while the animals are healing, and may be needed once they are really healthy. A “whole food” or “super food” supplement is essential since soils are poor. (Blue green algae, colloidal minerals, wheat grass, spirulena, Missing Link, etc.). Rotate these every few months or less, rather than just using one. Have a "meal-time" - don't leave food out. Do not feed dry food to cats. A normal, healthy cat is NOT THIRSTY!!! (You may see them drink rarely.) Feeding dry food will make them thirsty and may stress the kidneys, so I do not suggest dry food for cats. This should be fun for both you and your companion. BE PATIENT while switching to the new diet. If there are appetite problems - finicky or ravenous - these are signs of energy imbalance and the animal needs holistic medical treatment. A healthy animal will eat any good foods presented. Overfeeding causes pickiness, too. No one knows exactly which animals need which supplements, just as each person needs different supplements. There are a basic few that follow, and many owners give 10 to 20 different supplements they have heard of and some none. If an animal needs more than just a few supplements to stay healthy, more holistic treatment is needed, as healthy animals will get the nutrients, vitamins and minerals, from a good diet. Keep experimenting to see which supplements are really needed for each individual. Juliette de Bairacli Levy found that animals grazed and selected their own herbal supplements. Vitamins and minerals that may be needed, include calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, A, D, & E. Please follow the books' guidelines or use a commercial source. Vitamin C is good: 500‑2,000 mg per day, especially when pets are stressed. All forms are good - develop your preferences. Ester-C, C-flex, ascorbate powder (helpful when the body needs acidifying). For under 12 mos., very large breed dogs, use calcium ascorbate. A “whole food” supplement is needed because of our deficient soils. Missing Link, Blue Green Algae, Spirulena, Sea Meal, wheat or barley grass, are but a few. Rotate them until one is found to be best for a particular animal. Many other supplements are available – PetFoodDirect.com caries many of them. I DO NOT EVEN COOK FOR MYSELF, HOW CAN I COOK FOR THEM? This is a common response. My interaction often starts with: Do you eat? Meals can be prepared weekly, &/or entrees & salad bars purchased for your animals. Next best, for busy or traveling owners, while switching over, or for taste variety is a combination of good quality commercial food and home prepared food. I do not recommend most foods available in your supermarket, pet store, veterinarian's, or even health food store. Yes, even Science diet. They usually are full of chemicals and poor ingredients. The ones I recommend are in the Scale of 0-100 on page 22. Different animals need different foods: you need to coach the owner to be the judge of what foods are best by watching the effect of the various diets. All animals need the freshest possible food. Commercial FERRET breeders have found that fresh, home-prepared food is the best. If needed, "Totally Ferret" is a preservative free good quality ingredient diet. (800-843-1738). GUINEA PIGS can be fed mostly fresh cut grass and crimped grains, with vitamin C added. (See Pottinger's book for a GP diet study.) HORSES should be fed whole oats (crimped/rolled for young or old), corn, grass, hay, alfalfa, bran mash, cracked barley. No molasses food, no milo, no pelleted. Vegetables are fine. Best water available. Separate salt and mineral blocks should be used. Advanced Biologics has the best - 800-373-5971.(If you order from ABC, let them know I sent you and I will get a rebate.) Blue Green algae is good for all species, human, too. Halo has a great organic seed mixes. 813-854-2214, www.halopets.com. Harrison Bird Diet - organic pellets for all birds. 800-346-0269 (has to be ordered by a vet) Dr. Twila Floyd, (ALA), 334-821-7810, works with birds and has diet recommendations. Remember that birds do not eat seeds year around. |
