Yvonne’s cat, Fifi, was 14 years old and having kidney failure. Yvonne took her to one of the most prestigious pet-care centers in New York, where, she said, "they almost killed her."
In search of other options, Yvonne took Fifi to "This crazy holistic vet about two hours out of Manhattan." He immediately took Fifi off of steroids and discontinued her food, a specially formulated, but pre-packaged, "prescription" pet food.
"It’s got white flour in it," Yvonne explained, "no whole foods. Things people know are bad for them." Fifi started on a diet of brown rice and turkey. Before long, Yvonne says, Fifi was running around, healthy as ever. She lived for another three and a half years.
They are what they eat, too
The consensus among animal practitioners with an eye on natural health is that grocery store pet food is just plain bad for the animals. The pet food industry generates billions of dollars each year, and, unfortunately, many manufacturers are far from ethical. Most pet food companies are subsidiaries of larger people-food or product manufacturers, and the pet foods provide a convenient place to "dispose" of foodstuffs unfit for human meals. In addition, pet foods are processed and boiled so that most of their essential nutrients are destroyed. Added vitamin supplements or not, processed kibble and canned food do not even come close to providing the benefits of good whole food.
And the premium food? "Well, I’d hardly call it premium," remarked one holistic vet. "All packaged food is basically dried cakes of rendered protein."
Remember, cats’ and dogs’ ancestors were wild. In the wild, they ate the whole prey, including bones, hair, and vegetation left in the stomach. Each animal part met some nutritional need, from the roughage in the hair and the calcium in the bones to the vitamins and enzymes in the partially digested stomach contents.
If you modify your own diet for health reasons, then you already know the effects that good, natural food can have on the body, mind, and spirit. Why not treat your furry friends to the same benefits?
Whole pet meals
There are a number of good "pet cookbooks" containing many cat and dog whole food recipes. I found the two most comprehensive and informative books to be Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats, by Richard H. Pitcairn D.V.M., Ph.D. and Susan Hubble Pitcairn, and The New Natural Cat, by Anitra Frazier. Both books recommend making large quantities of the natural pet food and freezing it in individual-sized portions, then thawing day-by-day so the food will be as ready-to-serve as if it were being poured from a bag or spooned from a can. Freezing will decrease the nutrients a bit, but nowhere near as much as the high-temperature boiling does in the processed food. Both books also provide ingredients for a powdered vitamin-mineral supplement mix to add to the food, so your pet receives the best possible balance of nutrients. You will have to spend an afternoon every couple of weeks preparing the food, but it will be worth the work to see your pet’s health improve.
A good whole food diet can include raw meats such as ground turkey, beef liver, canned mackerel, ground chicken, hamburger, beef heart and chicken liver; grains/starches such as oats, cornmeal, millet, barley, brown rice, wheat berries, bulgur, buckwheat, nutritional yeast and potatoes; legumes such as soybeans, split peas, pinto beans, red kidney beans, white navy beans and lentils, dairy products such as cottage cheese, eggs, cheddar cheese, milk and yogurt; raw vegetables such as parsley, alfalfa sprouts, carrots, and zucchini (finely grated); and cooked vegetables such as corn, peas, green beans, and broccoli. (Avoid spinach, swiss chard and rhubarb, as they contain oxalic acid, which interferes with calcium absorption.)
Should owners feeding raw diets be concerned about bacteria? Not as much as you might think. Bacteria such as E-coli and salmonella, which can be disastrous, even fatal to humans, are less of a threat to animals, in large part because animals’ digestive tracts are shorter than humans’. Most potentially harmful bacteria are in and out before they can do any harm. This is just a hunch, but I am also inclined to believe that some animals are much more able than humans to "sniff out" bacterial threats. During the salmonella outbreak of the mid-1980s, my Maine Coon cat, Marblecake, began turning up her whiskered muzzle at the milk she had eagerly lapped for the past three years. I, on the other hand, neither saw nor tasted anything amiss in my milk, and ended up bedridden for over a week.
Raw beef, chicken, and turkey usually are not problematic for animals. Fish, rabbit and pork, however should always be cooked to eliminate parasites. If you would rather take some measures against bacteria in all of your pet’s meat, freezing the meat kills a number of microorganisms. If you feel more comfortable cooking all of the meat, choose methods like parboiling, boiling, or baking, which minimize nutrient loss. Be sure to feed your pets their raw meals in smaller helpings so uneaten food does not sit out and spoil. Bones can also be a part of this diet. They are a good way to fill your pet’s calcium requirement and can be seen by your pet as a tasty and fun treat. They exercise the jaws as well as clean the teeth, sweetening up that awful breath a little. Don’t just give them any old bone, though. Make sure the bones are raw, since cooked bones are much more likely to splinter. Steer clear of chicken, turkey, fish, or pork bones in any form, as they will splinter no matter what. Beef bones are the firmest, and often the tastiest. Limit your pet’s bone time to 15 minutes at the beginning. The digestion of bone meal can irritate the digestive tract of an animal who is not used to bones and cause constipation or diarrhea, so you will want to start your pet off slowly. Hard, white stool is nothing to be alarmed about in bone-eaters; it is simply evidence of the bones being digested.
A raw food, nutrient-and-energy-rich diet will reward your pet with fewer veterinary visits, less stool, and less dander. (Dander is the substance on pets that triggers allergies. The reason most allergic individuals find themselves to be "less allergic" to some animals than others is that every animal produces a different amount of dander. The healthiest animals tend to produce the least.) It will also increase your pet’s energy and improve his or her mood. That’s right, mood. Both Frazier and Pitcairn report dramatic improvements in the dispositions of dogs and cats who were withdrawn, irritable, or just plain mean.
In addition, animals may eat less overall with a new diet. This is probably because they have been overeating their processed food in an effort to get enough essential nutrients. When they have the nutrients they need, their well-functioning bodies will not respond with increased and unnecessary appetite.
The transition to the new food may be difficult. Many animals turn up their noses at any deviation from their usual diets. Often, their packaged food of choice contains sugar, salt, or artificial flavor, and they have become addicted to it. If you are serious about changing your pet’s diet, there are ways around this, too.
One is to let your pet fast. Fasting is good for most animals, but do not fast a cat with diabetes, hyperthyroidism, or cancer. Be sure to have plenty of water available. Cats will not starve if they don’t eat for a couple of days. On the contrary, fasting, which their ancestors did frequently in the wild when prey was scarce, can help a cat, since the energy that would normally be used for digestion is freed during a fast to repair damaged cells and dispose of waste more completely. After two days of fasting, your cat may be more inclined to eat the natural food. He or she will be quite hungry, of course, and the cat’s systems will be cleansed of many of the substances in the packaged food that caused cravings.
Of course, you may be driven crazy by constant begging, and the look in your cat’s eyes that tells you, as he or she may believe, that starvation is imminent. If so, then fasting is not the way to go. You will want to ease your pet onto the new diet gradually, mixing increasing amounts of natural food with decreasing amounts of packaged food. Mix the two together well so your pet does not pick out the old food and leave the new. You can pulverize dry food in a food processor and sprinkle it on top or mix it in.
If you are absolutely sure that homemade pet food is not for you or your pets, there are a few packaged foods available now that are less harmful. Look for good whole ingredients; "chicken" is not the same as "chicken by-products," and certainly not the same as "digest of poultry by-products." Terms such as "by-products" and "meal" are umbrella terms under which the manufacturers can toss inedible-before-processing and nutritionally unusable animal parts. Make sure several good, whole ingredients are listed at or near the beginning of the ingredient list. Steer clear of preservatives, especially, ethoxiquin, BHA, BHT, propyl gallate and propylene glycol. Look for foods that use vitamin E or vitamin C as preservatives.
"There has been no proven connection between packaged food and kidney or liver failure," said Julie Mayer, a holistic veterinarian and pet acupuncturist, "but it certainly doesn’t help. Any kind of chemical doesn’t help. The animals’ bodies get plenty of toxins from their environment. We should try to limit the amount that is added in the food. Nutrition — that’s the foundation of health. I can’t stress it enough."
Pets may react to their new diets by getting sick at first, but often these symptoms represent old ailments that were never fully cured when treated with allopathic methods. Digestive difficulties are fairly common, as is the passing of worms. Sometimes, old skin rashes will re-surface. If your pet’s overall energy level is high, then these symptoms will probably subside in a few days. However, if your pet’s energy is low or there is a distinct change in mood, seek veterinary help. Be on the lookout for food allergies. Years of packaged food may have given your pet multiple food sensitivities.
After Meals
For optimum breath and mouth health, animals are as in need of a good tooth-brushing as people. It may take awhile for your pet to become accustomed to having his mouth handled, so ease him gently into the tooth-brushing ritual by first incorporating mouth-touching into regular play. Get him used to having his mouth handled so fingers don’t startle him or cause him to bite. Be gentle with his mouth; don’t poke or probe. When he seems ready, you may try rubbing the teeth with a gauze-covered finger. The mild abrasive action of the gauze should lead, if your pet allows, to the use of a soft child-sized toothbrush (concentrate on the outsides of teeth so he doesn’t bite down, gag, or try to swallow the brush) or a special animal toothbrush which fits over the tip of your finger. If your pet whimpers or starts during any stage of the brushing ritual, or if his gums are obviously inflamed, then he is in need of a professional exam and cleaning before you try your hand. Do not persist if the cleaning causes him pain, or he may never let you clean his teeth. If he wants to be in control of his own mouth health, you can give him a thick rope, which provides a sort of flossing action. An oxtail (from the soup) or a raw carrot will also help clean the teeth, as will hard rubber toys. Maybe your pet will let you sneak some pet toothpaste into the grooves of the rubber.
Keeping an eye on health
Even after you’ve changed your animal’s diet, make sure you check his or her outsides periodically. The skin is your pet’s largest organ, and this visible body area is your "window" to internal health. Don’t ignore or write off signs such as grease, dandruff, or itchy raw "hot spots" — they are usually signs of a poor diet. Your pet’s coat should be smooth but not greasy, and should not have a rancid odor, despite what you may have been told about "doggy odor" being natural! The backbone should not protrude. The eyes should be clear and free of irritation, and the ears should be greaseless and odorless with only a small amount of wax. Teeth should be white, not brown or coated, and you should be able to get close enough to check them without being knocked over by your animal’s breath. If your pet resists having his mouth touched, or seems to be in pain, it is probably a good idea to have the teeth examined and treated. Mouth pain is more than unsightly or stinky. It can keep an animal from eating or grooming properly, which, in turn, can lead to a host of other difficulties. A sleek and clean animal, healthy and free of pain, is a happy animal — even without junk food!