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To a Healthier New Year for Your Dogs…feed some “real food”

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Dr. Denette Cooke

With the New Year approaching, I wanted to wish everyone a wonderful and prosperous New Year. But in prosperity, I also want to include health for all those reading this blog and health for our loved ones, which of course, includes our pets. (Why else would anyone read this blog…).

Diet is a the most important aspect of overall health (in human and veterinary medicine) but the most under utilized aspect of veterinary medicine. I would like to share some cooking tips that you may want to incorporate this year for your dogs that will help them feel better. (I’m working on this with my cats….but they won’t eat anything I cook so far).

First lets set the stage. Dogs and cats are carnivores. Cats are strict carnivores and dogs prefer to be carnivorous but will eat vegetables if necessary. Carnivores eat meat, fat, and blood. They have a very low requirement or need for carbohydrates. Carbohydrates in the body are processed as sugars. Most commercial dry dog and cat food that the big pet food companies make, and the veterinarian profession has completely endorsed, is largely made like cattle food. To see this for yourself, go read the ingredient list on your dry bag of food. You’ll see lots of corn, wheat, sorghum, soy, rice, etc. You’ll see very little meat! It doesn’t even closely resemble…”wolf or lion food’, does it?

Think about this as well….If NASA invented a dry biscuit that was complete and balanced for the human race….do you think we would be as healthy eating that dry biscuit food as we would eating a variety of locally grown organic freshly prepared food that has been minimally processed??? So why are our dogs and cats better off eating a completely balanced dry biscuit…especially considering that they are meat eaters being deprived of meat…ie protein, fat and blood. The truth is they aren’t better off!

So what I have started to do is to add some ‘real food’ to my dogs’ ration. Papi and Millie eat Timberwolf Organics dry food as the base of their food. It would better if I would completely home cook for them but I don’t have the time to shop, purchase, AND COMPLETELY BALANCE a diet to do this. So the next best thing that I CAN EASILY DO for them is to feed 1) a great organic very high quality complete and balanced dry food like Timberwolf and 2)add plenty of moisture in the diet by offering some organic high quality canned food like Timberwolf Organics, Wellness, and Evangers Pet Foods, and 3) incorporate ‘real food’ that nourishes the ‘blood’ and moisture that is lacking in their dry diet.

It’s easy to add some real food in your dog’s diet. Here’s how:

Some Foods that Nourish ‘Blood’:

Beef, Liver, Heart, Sardines, Eggs, Carrot, Kidney Beans, Parsley, Apricots, Dates

Some Foods that Nourish Moisture (Yin):

Duck, Rabbit, Eggs, Tofu, Black Bean, Kidney Beans, String Bean, Asparagus, Barley, Spinach, Peas, Apples, Pears

Here’s an Example of using the ingredients above:

In the crock pot add:

1.5 lbs ground beef (I use 80% lean/20% fat)

6 oz. kidney beans ( I soak dry beans overnight in cold water)

6 oz. black beans (dry beans soaked overnight as above)

6 oz. carrots

1 bunch of whole chopped parsley

1 container of chicken livers (pour in the entire container esp. the juice). I add this near the end of the cooking process to allow it to turn color and cook but not to cook it to ‘shoe leather’.

Make sure the carrots and beans are cooked and soft. Add water as needed. If your dog is sensitive to fat, drain all the fat off after cooking the meat. Usually only 2 hours of cooking is required, if that to cook the food. Save all the juice created and pour over the dry food. You may freeze some, if needed and thaw and offer throughout the week. Begin by adding small amounts of this food to your current diet. Papi and Millie get 1 cup to 2 cups daily to their evening meal. They are 88 lbs. and 68 lbs. respectively.

Don’ let your dog get fat! Remember if you are feeding more canned food or ‘real food’, then you will want to decrease the dry food offered to manage calories and weight. Also this is a good idea anyway as the dry food is full of carbohydrates (ie processed sugars). Think of dogs and cats as ‘Atkins’ Dieters’.

Since starting adding real food to my dog’s rations….they look at me differently! Their stools are smaller. I am more ‘green’ at home and I incorporate my leftovers into their diet. Less food goes to waste… Hey wasn’t that the way dogs ate prior to the 40s when Purina invented dry dog biscuit food!

Don’t feed onions, raisins, grapes, macadamia nuts, and anything else that is toxic. Consult your veterinarian for diet changes. Don’t expect all veterinarians to endorse this diet addition. Slowly make changes in diet to decrease the chance for diarrhea or other gastrointestinal issues. We offer a nutritional consult for those who want to get the most out of nutrition AND MAKE THIER PETS THE HEALTHIEST!

This entry was posted in blog and tagged blood tonic foods, dog food, home cooked dog food, human food, qi tonic foods, traditional veterinary chinese medicine. Bookmark the permalink.

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3 Responses to To a Healthier New Year for Your Dogs…feed some “real food”

Dr. Denette Cooke says:

February 21, 2012 at 12:12 pm

To the right of the blog page. Also we have a Facebook link at the top left of the home page at the top of the banner photos! Thanks and please ‘Like’ us on FB!
Brooke says:

February 27, 2012 at 6:24 pm

How do you feel about just strict raw feeding?
- Dr. Denette Cooke says:
  
  February 28, 2012 at 12:02 pm
  
  The answer to that is complex. My background in Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine is the basis of how I answer this question. My answer is “it depends”.
  
  Just as no one diet is good for every human, no one diet or product is good for all dogs or cats. Raw food has lost favor with some holistic vets over the years. I personally would not feed it exclusively to any of my pets. Raw food should never be fed to geriatric pets, immune comprised pets, and pets that are energetically depleted battling illness. Raw food should be fed with extreme caution in households with children, elderly people, and immunocompromised people.
  
  Raw food often contains higher levels of bacteria and parasites that can be transmitted to humans (zoonotic). It has been proven that freezing the raw food does not in fact kill parasites and bacteria. Raw foods may not be complete and balanced. We just treated a pure bred Ocicat with pansteaitits due to eating ‘complete and balanced chicken raw food product’. This was a serious illness that caused her to have high fever for a week, become anorexic, and nearly die. The disease was diagnosed on an abdominal exploratory that involved procuring biopsy specimens. This raw food was deficient in vitamin E and ultimately caused this kitty and her owner alot of worry and expense.
  
  Just like a teenage boy can eat anything without worry or concern, some young energetic high strung dogs such as border collies, jack russell terriers, and other dogs like that can do well on a raw diet. Chinese theory reminds us that life is about BALANCE. The diet isn’t the only thing to focus on with health. Our focus should be on a high quality rotation of different foods and flavors as well was exercise and mental stimulation.
  
  So the NEW trending holistic approach to diet is ‘rotate, rotate, rotate’. Nothing should be fed repetitively as this increases the chances of a pet building antibodies to their diet.
  
  I find raw to be a pain in the rear to deal with, it is expensive, and there are worries and concerns with feeding it. I would rather home cook for my dogs and feed them some beneficial organ meat, rotate this food and complement a balanced commercial 5 star food for ease!

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