Book Review – The Whole Pet Diet – 8 Weeks to Great Health for Dogs & Cats – Andi Brown
I’ve only had this book for a few days, but so far I must say that I’m impressed! Quite obviously dog nutrition is a subject that interests me and Andi Brown is a very interesting author! Her basic premise is one of good, quality food for dogs and cats and its direct effect on the health of same.
Andi stresses removing all commercial dog food from a pet’s diet and gradually substituting with home-cooked food over an eight-week period. She almost guarantees that following her diet regime will eliminate most of the troublesome health problems that affect our pet dogs today!
Andi has a very organic focus — choosing to use organic meat and vegetables, as well as grains; and while I am not overly fussed whether the meat, vegetables etc that I eat or give to our dogs is organic — obviously organic sources should have lower levels of additives.
Naturally, it makes sense to try to eat food with as little added extras as possible, I am still not convinced that ordinary meat and vegetable sources are as contaminated as is suggested. So for the moment anyway, I do not pay the extra dollars that organic supplies ALWAYS require.
Organic matters aside — Andi’s recipes appear to be very sound! Basically, she advises dog owners to cook a diet that is high protein — meat based and richly supplied with vegetables, and minimal amounts of cereal.
One point of issue – Andi suggests the use of cooked barley in her recipes. She appears to recommend the whole grain, and we feel that it should be rolled grain.
The reason for this is that if it is not rolled – the protective husk of the grain prevents it being digested and you’ll find the grains just pass straight through! There is absolutely no point in adding a grain if it is only going to end up in faeces – in fact we’ve found that here in Australia, wild birds then become accustomed to picking through the faeces to get at the seed!
If you buy the book and adopt her diets, I would recommend using rolled oats and white rice, since they are far more readily digested and won’t just end up as bird food or waste!
Initially, I was also concerned about an apparent lack of calcium in her diets, but later found that she recommended whole powdered eggshell once per week. Additionally, she recommends the use of natural yoghurt and even cottage cheese. As I have already mentioned in my recipes, calcium is a vital element for dogs — though I am still undecided as to whether one eggshell per week is enough! I would certainly want to add an extra two or three eggshells to the diet of a pregnant bitch or a bitch with nursing pups!
We recommend the use of raw or cooked chicken necks – the soft vertebrae are safe – no matter if they are cooked or served raw and readily assimilated providing an excellent source of calcium, phosphorus and magnesium etc. If you use these, absolutely NO calcium supplementation is required!
I LOVE Andi’s – Recipe For a Beautiful Coat — a combination of high-quality, nourishing oils — aimed at supplying all of a dog’s EFA’s (essential fatty acids). I like the recipe so much, that we have trialled a variation for our dogs. We have long used a combination of sunflower and fish oil, combined with a product called LSA (linseed, sunflower, almond), but I like the combination and quantity of oil that Andi suggests.
All up — I believe that this book alone has the power to dramatically change the health of your dog.
