Whole Pet Diet: Eight Weeks to Great Health for Dogs And Cats
March 31st, 2008 Posted in Paperback
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1587612712
Manufacturer: Celestial Arts
Average Customer Review: 
(From 28 total reviews)
List Price: $16.95
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Editorial Reviews
Book Description:
Despite their promise of a complete and balanced meal, most commercial pet foods are chock-full of dangerous by-products, indigestible fillers, and chemical preservatives. It’s no wonder that owners spends thousands of dollars every year treating their pets’ digestive disorders, tumors, joint and back problems, skin irritations, allergies, and heart, liver, and kidney disease. In THE WHOLE PET DIET, Andi Brown combines simple home cooking with natural supplements, dedicated playtime, exercise, and good old-fashioned pampering to help regulate pets’ weight and tap into their natural healing powers.
Customer Reviews
Made a believer out of me. by Volunteer885
This book shares a good idea that animals need more moisture in there food. I think this author has it right about the stew idea. We have a six year old yellow lab that is lean and beautiful (other dog owners comment frequently about it) and he loves his stew! Other good symptoms are: he doesn’t crave water, his appetite stays comfortable, and he maintains lots of energy for lots of play. I’m a believer.
A remarkable turnaround with our animals…. by Carolyn
If you are looking into this book, it is obvious that animals are important to you. I love animals… our home is an “animal home”: 2 dogs, 4 cats (1 special-needs cat) and fish. I have always felt that I have provided “the best” for the animals we have taken in and loved. Even so, the recent pet food scare was a serious wake up call. Prior to the scare, I selected only “high-end” foods for our crew. After the scare, I switched to organic foods - thinking that would be a solve all - and started to do more research. And that research was SCARY. In addition to not trusting pet food sources and supply, I needed to address health issues for two of our gang: one diabetic cat and a Cardigan Welch Corgi who was experiencing allergy and health problems no matter what food we tried. Our Corgi wasn’t even 2 years old, and slowly was developing many health issues: chronic ear infections, skin infections, skin lesions, irritated eyes and ears, no energy, depression, vomiting, malaise (I could go on and on). It kept getting worse. Our trips to the vet involved treating symptoms, and food trials to address his food allergy. This is when I started to look into a home diet.
I researched home diets that were developed by veterinarians. After nailing down the main components and needed supplements, I purchased Andi’s book for additional input and recipe variations. Within ONE WEEK of trying the chicken stew, our Corgi Silas had a dramatic turnaround. Now I know other reviewers have mentioned a week turnaround as well - I was skeptical that something could happen that fast - but for us it really did! My husband and I were amazed and so thankful at the difference our home-cooked food was making. Our Corgi suddenly had the energy of a puppy, stopped scratching, his ears, eyes and skin started to clear. After many, many months now of cooking for my animals, our dog’s health issues have been resolved. Even now I am still amazed.
I actually am very surprised that many vets still recommend food that clearly is not sound for our pets (even prescription diets were affected by the recall!). On another interesting note, as a test, I occasionally feed our pets “commercial” food. Without fail every time, one of the animals will continually throw up after eating (never happens with homemade), our cats’ coats and skin start to get flaky and greasy, and our allergy-ridden dog will immediately start showing signs of food allergy - even with high-end organic food.
I know that one reviewer commented that their dog would never eat such a soupy food - I always cook the stew for long periods to thicken it. Also, this is certainly NOT an inexpensive route… especially if you are used to “supermarket pricing.” However, if you currently buy holistic or organic pet food/ products, I worked out the cost and cooking homemade (for my animals at least) costs me just as much as I was spending before, maybe a tiny bit less. I make huge vats at a time and freeze into portions.
Every animal will have some preferences (our cats prefer the other cat recipes over the stew) but with trial and error, it’s easy to find the right fit for your pet. I myself am very glad Andi Brown took the time and effort to research and write this book. I know her efforts have helped us to make a huge difference in our pets’ lives. I strongly recommend this book.
quite a silly book by B&Z
I was looking for nutritional advice, and instead got a lot of “stories” of almost magical healing of cats and dogs with the stew. The book is also somewhat condescending, with weekly plans and check lists that include things like playing with your pet. It made me feel quite guilty for not spending 10 minutes each day playing with my cat. I tried, but was spurned by the cat that would rather sleep.
The magical stew itself isn’t that magical — true, my Boston Terrier loved it, but it made him throw up at least once a day. The cat looked at me like I was crazy and threatened to call SPCA. Now I have a big pot of stew to throw out.
The book also suggests replacing evil treats like jerky with healthful treats like celery and carrot sticks. Great idea! Try it on your dog, see what he tells you.
In summary, the book is very touchy-feely, with no nutritional information, and silly inappropriate recipes.
Okay, but… by K. McCulloch
This book isn’t bad, it has a lot of useful information in it about home-cooking for your pet. However, at times it does seem like vehicle for this woman to sell her company’s products. Sure, she tells you how to make most things for yourself but at the same time for every feeding recommendation she makes, its her company that sells some miracle product that will fit in perfectly.
Other things I didn’t like about this book were that there’s no nutritional analysis given for the recipes. The book also doesn’t advocate feeding variety strongly enough for my liking. She actually states that its better to feed animals your dog could actually hunt. My dog is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel… she can hunt paper towel rolls and that’s about it! If you are going to be home-cooking for your animal you should be sure to use a variety of protein sources on a regular basis. Unless your animal is allergic to every other source, you shouldn’t just give chicken all the time. That’s a diet that’s guaranteed to be deficient in some nutrient.
Dr Pitcairns Complete Guide to Natural Health is a better book. Whole Pet Diet is more readable and possibly more accessible but the quality of the information just isn’t as good. Pitcairn, unlike Andi Brown, is actually a vet and pesonally that makes a difference to me when evaluating the quality of the information offered. If you are serious about homecooking, get both books. Or if you just want one, get Pitcairn. If you are more interested in finding out about dog food and the pet food industry itself then read Food Pets Die For.
Just for the record, I homecooked for a few months. It is expensive and quite complicated since you must use supplements and feed the correct balance of nutrients. You won’t learn about this balance from Whole Pet Diet BTW. I did a lot of research, read several books and various online resources. In the end I switched to raw feeding. Less complicated, cheaper, nutrient quality is guaranteed and much more fun for my dog! Whole Pet Diet doesn’t advocate raw feeding (though Pitcairn does) but that’s probably because Halo doesn’t sell a premade raw product… yet.
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Tags: andi brown, canine obesity, cat health, cat recipes, cats, dog nutrition, dog recipes, dog treats, dogs, feeding dogs, food for dogs, midnight, pet food, pet nutrition, pets