Rating: 
Summary: I Saw A Complete Change in My Cats' Health and Energy
Review: A great book! With a little time, concentration, and a calculator, I figured out my cats' nutritional requirements based on their weight. Over a period of about six months, I watched my (formerly) two fat cats become sleeker, shinier, and more energetic, and my third slim cat doesn't hurl huge dry-food meteors across the living room anymore. Cats are carnivores, and they need meat! These cooked diets are the best way to give it to them. Since I've stopped feeding my cats dry food, they're also producing a lot less waste, a sign that they are more efficiently using what they are consuming. If you think it's too much time and effort, imagine watching your cats slowly and steadily losing all of that extra blubber, and regaining so much energy they're like kittens again. Following the outlines of this book is the most responsible thing I have ever done as a cat owner. You'll feel good, and most importantly- so will they.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, sane nutritional info & recipes for pets!
Review: For those of us who believe in and enjoy feeding our dogs whole foods, enjoy cooking for our dogs, and want to ensure the nutritional content of your home-cooked meals, this book is an answer to a prayer. It's filled with nutritional information and easy to follow recipes. The author has provided a chart for finding out the optium number of calories to feed your dog or cat, based on their weight, and the recipes have the number of calories listed. Very, very few of the commercially pet food labels provide the number of calories in their food. The book will provide you the basics, your own initiative can fill in for a little creativity with the recipes. Most important, you can assure no additives, no preservatives, no sugar, etc. for your pet. And for those of us with pets that tend to be chow hounds, you can monitor the number of calories easily. The author provides recipes for overweight dogs and cats, and for those with various medical problems. The author, Donald R. Strombeck, has been a vet for 40 years, and tells it like it is about most commercially prepared dog food. This book is not for those who advocate a raw meat diet for your dog or cat. The book is a must for those that are serious about home cooking for your pets and want balanced, sane, nutritional information, and to have a guideline to measure against to ensure you are providing what your pet needs.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful, fully documented resource
Review: I bought this book because my oldest dog was recently diagnosed with pancreatitis brought on by a food allergy and another reviewer had posted that it was a great resource for dogs with GI problems. Unlike other books that I've recently purchased on this subject, when this author was expressing an opinion on something, the underlying research supporting that opinion was documented. As are the studies quoted in the text. I would have felt like a fool sitting down with the vet and talking about the content of some of the other books I've purchased. In most of these books, when studies were mentioned they were seldom, if ever, documented with end- or footnotes, or even referenced by name, researcher, etc. in the text. I will feel confident discussing this book with my vet. Everything is fully documented, and it is written in a crisp style that is easy enough for the non-medical person to read and understand (but keep a dictionary handy for some of the medical terms), and will (hopefully) be appreciated by the clinical veterinarian.
Rating: 
Summary: Much too techincal for the layman
Review: I found this book to too technical. I felt as if I were reading a textbook for a nutrition course in veteriniary school. Contrary to the other reviewers, I found the recipes confusing and repetitive. Why do most feature sardines and have NO fruit or vegetable content?? The author says that "Owner -prepared diets should be formulated with a natural source of phytochemicals" and that "phytochemicals are found in fruits, vegetables, graqins, and legumes". Yet, his recipes have no fruits or vegetables in them. This is also an example of the overly technical nature of the book.
It does, however, contains the absolute best discussion I've ever read about why commercially prepared foods are bad for your dogs and cats.
On balance, I don't think it's worth the price ...
Rating:
Summary: On Raw Food
Review: I have been feeding my two dogs raw food, the hardcore full carcass and veggies deal, for about a year now. I have seen great improvement in health and energy the whole time, and they look beautiful. Despite these results, however, I have decided that I need to start cooking the meat and removing the bones. I write this because you who believe in the raw food diet might believe someone who has been there - and gotten excellent results - when they say that raw food is NOT A GOOD IDEA. I have recently found a lot of literature on the harm that a raw food diet can do to a dog. Know that even if domestic dogs were built like wolves, which they are not, they should still not be eating a raw meat diet. What raw foodists don't seem to know is that even wolves in the wild are often malnutritioned, infested with harmful parasites, and internally injured from a NATURAL diet, the diet you are trying to replicate. You should also know that there are NO SCIENTIFIC STUDIES that prove that a raw meat diet is better for a dog than cooked meat. I am not advocating commercial dog food, which I know is garbage. I am just saying COOK THE MEAT and find recipes that will provide your dog with the nutrition it needs. For starters, I'd like to refer those raw food feeders to a website called Second Chance Ranch (secondchanceranch.org). It is a good place to start learning about diets and dogs. Remember, you started feeding your dog raw in the first place to make it healthy. Do what is best for your dog and don't be petty about changing your beliefs.
Rating:
Summary: Easy recipes with explanations for ingredients - CATS & DOGS
Review: I wish I would have had this book 3 years ago when I started going natural with my pets. Strombeck is referenced in The Natural Health Bible for Dogs & Cats by Shawn Messonnier, DVM which I use as a favorite reference. As I have a group of FIP positive cats with the disease localized in different areas, I have had a difficult time trying to find a pet food without preservatives which would further assault their immune systems and Brewers yeast that makes their allergies unbearable. (I will have to substitute my own vitamin mixes for the Brewer's in the recipes where Strombeck does use Brewer's.)
Strombeck gives easy recipes for different health problems as well as why he uses the ingredients he does. My cats love the sardines for B12 and the taurine rich clams with which I have been experimenting added to their food mixes.
I have been using a Strombeck only diet for one of my boys with urinary crystals and Brewers yeast allergies (gives waxy smelly ear discharge). The probiotics I was using to counter his ear problems from the ingredients in commercial urinary food these last years had stopped working. As he is finally happy and doing well, I plan to use Strombecks renal failure diets next and eventually get to the dogs. Useful book!
Rating:
Summary: Easy recipes with explanations for ingredients - CATS & DOGS
Review: I wish I would have had this book 3 years ago when I started going natural with my pets. Strombeck is referenced in The Natural Health Bible for Dogs & Cats by Shawn Messonnier, DVM which I use as a favorite reference. As I have a group of FIP positive cats with the disease localized in different areas, I have had a difficult time trying to find a pet food without preservatives which would further assault their immune systems and Brewers yeast that makes their allergies unbearable. (I will have to substitute my own vitamin mixes for the Brewer's in the recipes where Strombeck does use Brewer's.)
Strombeck gives easy recipes for different health problems as well as why he uses the ingredients he does. My cats love the sardines for B12 and the taurine rich clams with which I have been experimenting added to their food mixes.
I have been using a Strombeck only diet for one of my boys with urinary crystals and Brewers yeast allergies (gives waxy smelly ear discharge). The probiotics I was using to counter his ear problems from the ingredients in commercial urinary food these last years had stopped working. As he is finally happy and doing well, I plan to use Strombecks renal failure diets next and eventually get to the dogs. Useful book!
Rating:
Summary: Easy recipes with explanations for ingredients - CATS & DOGS
Review: I wish I would have had this book 3 years ago when I started going natural with my pets. Strombeck is referenced in The Natural Health Bible for Dogs & Cats by Shawn Messonnier, DVM which I use as a favorite reference. As I have a group of FIP positive cats with the disease localized in different areas, I have had a difficult time trying to find a pet food without preservatives which would further assault their immune systems and Brewers yeast that makes their allergies unbearable. (I will have to substitute my own vitamin mixes for the Brewer's in the recipes where Strombeck does use Brewer's.)
Strombeck gives easy recipes for different health problems as well as why he uses the ingredients he does. My cats love the sardines for B12 and the taurine rich clams with which I have been experimenting added to their food mixes.
I have been using a Strombeck only diet for one of my boys with urinary crystals and Brewers yeast allergies (gives waxy smelly ear discharge). The probiotics I was using to counter his ear problems from the ingredients in commercial urinary food these last years had stopped working. As he is finally happy and doing well, I plan to use Strombecks renal failure diets next and eventually get to the dogs. Useful book!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent nutrition reference
Review: I've read most of the popular books out there on feeding dogs and cats, and I have to say this book impressed me the most of the lot. The details on how all the different nutrients are metabolized were fascinating, and the precisely calculated recipes put my mind at ease. I'm not sure what the previous reviewer was talking about when he or she complained about a lack of information on cats. While I bought this book for ideas for my dog, I also own cats and found quite a lot of information for them (more than in most popular pet diet books). There are no fewer than 60 diets for cats (not 4!). The purpose of the ingredients is explained carefully, including the use of clams (a taurine-rich meat). A wonderful reference for healthy and sick dogs and cats.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent nutrition reference
Review: I've read most of the popular books out there on feeding dogs and cats, and I have to say this book impressed me the most of the lot. The details on how all the different nutrients are metabolized were fascinating, and the precisely calculated recipes put my mind at ease. I'm not sure what the previous reviewer was talking about when he or she complained about a lack of information on cats. While I bought this book for ideas for my dog, I also own cats and found quite a lot of information for them (more than in most popular pet diet books). There are no fewer than 60 diets for cats (not 4!). The purpose of the ingredients is explained carefully, including the use of clams (a taurine-rich meat). A wonderful reference for healthy and sick dogs and cats.
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