Cheap Nutrition (Natural Pet Care Pocket Series) (Book) (Lisa S. Newman) Price

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Customer Reviews of Nutrition (Natural Pet Care Pocket Series)

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While the author of this little book states that feeding a homeprepared diet is optimal, she doesn't include nearly enough information to enable people to formulate a balanced diet for their dogs or cats. Moreover, like the authors of many dog food cook books, Newman takes what would be a healthy diet for humans and applies it to dogs and cats as if we were all the same species with the same dietary requirements. This is not the case. For instance, being carnivores, dogs and cats, with few exceptions, have no nutritional requirement for carbohydrates. While dogs often do well with small amounts of whole grains in their diet (we feed two small grain meals a week), the bulk of their diet should consist of raw meat and bones. This brings me to my next problem with this book: Newman states that dogs and cats "have been domesticated for so long that they have become processed food eaters," and consequently are no longer able to digest raw meat and bones. She seems to forget that processed pet foods didn't become popular until earlier this century -- hardly long enough to stamp out thousands of years of evolution. Can dogs digest raw meat and bones? While there are a few health problems that call for a cooked foods diet, the vast majority of dogs and cats benefit enormously from eating raw meats and bones. Our family has been raising dogs naturally for nearly three decades and their exceptional health is in large part the result of their biologically appropriate raw diet. Over the years I have assisted many people in switching their animals, young and old, to a raw foods diet, and the results have always been extremely positive.

The book's section on vitamins and minerals isn't bad, but unfortunately some of the information is incorrect (e.g., the calcium:phosphorous ratio), while other important information is omitted (e.g., the fact that cats are unable to convert beta-carotene to Vitamin A). The section on fasting and detoxification is quite good, but I have a problem with the rather cavalier manner in which homeopathic remedies are suggested throughout the book. Homeopathy is a fascinating but highly complex system of medicine, and remedies need to be selected by taking into account the totality of the patient's symptoms. When we make a blanket recommendation such as Arsenicum for appetite problems (also known as the "this for that" approach), we are using homeopathic remedies allopathically, and many would argue that we aren't really practicing homeopathy at all. Used in this manner, homeopathic remedies are rarely effective, since it would be sheer luck if we happened to select the correct remedy.

Newman does a good job of discussing the problems with commercial pet foods, but other books do it just as well or better, while also providing sound advice for those interested in feeding their animals a fresh foods diet.

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Simple to Use, Easy to Read...Finally
I get so frustrated trying to decipher pet food labels - I could just scream!! Newman is very clear and consise about just what the industry code words are that allow pet food producers to sell overpriced, slickly marketed 'garbage' to those of us who care about what we feed our pets. She makes a great case for how very important nutrition is as the building block to keep my 'kids' happy and healthy. This book is small enough to take shopping and covers cat and dog food. She has a very freindly writing style and is easy to follow. I have done homecooking, but was always worried about what I was missing. It was a lot of work. This book really helps cut to what is needed for good health and how to find it.