Dear friends,
I have been spending a lot of time rootling through Mom's notes and through our library here at the clinic so I can tell you about the kinds of food you should be eating. Here's the sad story, buckaroos: You may be eating a food that is not very good for you. It might TASTE good, but so does Chicago style deep-dish pizza. And with all due respect to the folks at my favorite pizza place - Lou Malnati's, home of the fabled (that word means, my friends, that it may or may not be true, but who can tell?) ORIGINAL deep dish Chicago pizza - we ALL know that as yummy as it is for a special and occasional dinner, it would be bad for you if you ate it every day.
I don't think that our people stop to think, sometimes, that they feed us the same stuff every day and give us the same treats. Now, I want you to think about something. C'mon - focus. Try hard - this is important! What if someone were to go to your owner, and tell them that they needed to make sure that they ate a healthy diet, and to make certain that they did that, they were only going to get to eat Total breakfast cereal for every meal, every day, every week of the year - do you think your owner would think that this was an OK idea? I mean, Total breakfast cereal is 100% balanced, and it is crunchy, so it would be nutritious AND good for their teeth, right? And if it is 100% balanced, they don't ever need any fresh things to eat, like fruits and vegetables and home-cooked food, right? They don't even ever need to eat Lou's pizza, ever, right?
Right? My fuzzy friends, I bet your owner would say that this is a BAD idea. They would tell you that they need variety in their diet, maybe. And that they even need pizza once in a while. And some fresh food sometimes. And a good home-cooked meal, a couple of times a week. If you had a really smart owner, they would tell you that people evolved to eat a whole lot of things and that it would be a bad idea to always eat just ONE thing. They might even talk to you about vitamins and other good things for your diet, like probiotics and fatty acids and stuff like that - things that help you have a nice coat and good digestion and a good strong immune system.
So, my dears - why is it OK for them to feed US the same thing every day? Don't we need variety in our diets, too? Didn't we evolve to eat a lot of different things, too? In fact…did we EVER evolve to eat chunks of dried stuff? Or those icky sqooshy treats that look like fake meat? Or anything with peanut butter in it? In fact, did dogs and cats evolve to eat anything cooked at all? The smart people who lectured at this meeting that my Mom also lectured at say that we SHOULD eat a lot of different things, and that healthy dogs and cats don't get sick from regular rotations to their diet, and that the diet SHOULD be rotated every couple of months at least. And that eating only dry food is bad for you, especially for my cat friends, who should ALWAYS have fresh or at least canned food in their diets so they don't get sick. My own cat at home (well, he doesn't know he is mine, but he is) eats a fresh raw diet every day and he is so much healthier than when my Mom rescued him when he was 8 years old. His ringworm is gone and his terrible diarrhea is gone and his bad cough is gone and his eyes aren't as runny and he has a mean left hook and his right hook isn't bad either! I used to be able to chase him when he first came to our house and I could catch him, too. But now he stands right up on his hind legs - boy, is he tall when he does that! - and he hits me really hard with both front paws. I tell you, I was SHOCKED the first time that happened! So now I don't bother him very much. It just isn't safe.
I have some more cool stuff to tell you! I looked at some new books on nutrition, and some new cookbooks for dogs and cats, and some websites for pet food recipes, and some articles on "organic" pet foods, and oh my, there is a lot of stuff to confuse your owners out there! And this is because there is not very good regulation for pet foods, even after the very scary problem we had last year with some of my friends dying from eating bad foods, even foods that were made by some famous companies, and Mom has told me that I cannot name any names or call these companies bad names like I did in my columns last year so I will tell you to go to those old columns if you want to see who I think is a slime-sucking bottom-dwelling pet food maker who lies to veterinarians and the public! And I still think their Mamas should be ashamed of them!
Anyway - I am sorry, my friends - it is so hard for us Terriers to keep on track, you know, when we get on a rampage - what I was meaning to say is that the people who regulate what goes in your food and mine are from the pet food companies themselves - which is sort of like having the Republicans responsible for telling our President when they think that he is doing a bad job, don't you think? And even after last year's terrible crisis with pet foods, there are still problems with bad and unsafe pet foods that make the news every couple of months. So you really have to make sure that your owners are very careful about the kinds of foods they pick for you, and that they do more than look for something that says "organic" or "natural" on the bag or can. Did you know that those words often really mean nothing? It's true! Even if there is only ONE organic ingredient in a food, and even if it is only a teeny-weeny part of the whole, the word "organic" can go on the label.
And another thing...how "natural" do you think it is for us carnivores to eat something that is dry instead of something nice and juicy like the animals we would naturally be eating? How good would it be for your owner to eat that Total cereal for all of their meals? Or, if they feed you canned food - would they think it was healthy for them to eat canned chili or stew for all of their meals? Even if your people try very, very hard to get you the BEST canned or dry food money can buy - how "natural" of a diet is it for you?
So what is a smart dog and cat to do? Well, my dears, you can remind them that when they visit our hospital with you next, that we have a big notebook in the reception area that lists a lot of foods that ARE good for you. Michelle and Chani at the front desk will make copies of anything your owner wants to have from that book. And our Nurses will talk to them about foods, too. And if they just want to come in and talk to a Nurse about food, that is a FREE appointment. (You can come and visit me, too!)
Our Nurses can go through the notebook with your owner, and they have some recipes they can give your owner too, so that you can sometimes have a nice fresh meal instead of that dried or canned yuck. Ooh! Here's something else good to know that I just remembered! Did you know that if you eat a special veterinary prescription diet, and if it is from Hill's, that there are recipes that the company has in their own nutrition book that tell you how to make those recipes at home? And that there are websites that give complete and balanced pet food recipes that are put together by nutritionists, so you can be sure that they are good for you? And that there are books out there that give recipes that your owners can try, to see which ones you like best? Mom says I am not supposed to recommend specific things, because my column is not supposed to be a commercial, but I asked her special about these things I want to tell you and she said it was ok.
So - here is a really, really, really good website for you to get some nice recipes from: balanceIT.com
They have recipes for healthy pets and lots of special recipes for pets who have specific medical needs, too. You do have to pay for the recipes, but you know what they say about free stuff. These recipes were all developed by nutritionists and they are GOOD, let me tell you! If you look at other websites that give recipes, PLEASE be careful! Many of them are not balanced recipes, and some of the people who put together those diets don't know anything about nutrition. That could be very, very bad for you. The best example I can think of to tell you about are all the "vegetarian" recipes for cats that you can find on the internet. Why, my friends, would ANYONE want to feed a cat a vegetarian diet? I mean, if an owner wants to be a vegetarian, that is their right - my Mom was a pure vegetarian for 14 years herself, you know. But is it right to make someone else a vegetarian just because that is how YOU choose to eat? Especially if they were not designed to eat that way? Even though my Mom still eats very little meat and stays very healthy, she makes sure that WE eat as nature intended, so that we stay healthy, too. And our staff members and volunteers who are vegetarians and even vegans do the same thing.
And I have a new favorite recipe book - I like it even better than Dr. Pitcairn's book (his recipes are awfully full of grains and a lot of pets do not do well on grains - it makes them itch, and have ear infections, and anal gland problems, so if you have any of those issues you might think twice about recipes and even dry and canned foods with ingredients like that). I mean, if you think of it, did dogs and cats evolve to eat rice, and corn, and wheat, and soybeans?? Or even potatoes??? Nope, we did not.
Especially cats. Did you know that our cat friends are OBLIGATE carnivores? That means that they do not need any carbohydrates at all in their diets. I learned this while rootling through Mom's notes and reading her books. This is why it is bad to feed cats a vegetarian diet. And more and more scientists all the time are thinking that some of the problems we see in cats, like diabetes and thyroid problems, are maybe because of all the grains in pet foods. If you don't think this is true, I want you to go - right now - and look at whatever bag or can of cat food you have. I bet you a dollar it says "wheat gluten" or "corn" or "rice" or some other carbohydrate in the ingredients. (You may bring your dollar to the clinic 9-7 weekdays and 9-2 Saturdays. Thank you.)
Where was I? OH! The recipe book. Sorry! Anyway...my new book that I like best is one my Mom really likes, too, so she says I can mention it: It is called Real Food for Dogs: 50 Vet-Approved Recipes to Please the Canine Gastronome. And another good one is Cooking the Three Dog Bakery Way, from the famous Three Dog Bakery people. And a third is The Natural Pet Food Cookbooks: Healthful Recipes for Dogs and Cats. I snuck up onto Mom's computer and I found all of these books available on Amazon.com and they were on sale!
So, my dear cat and dog friends, I hope that you will whisper a little reminder in your owner's ear that while they are running around like maniacs doing their holiday shopping in the next month, that they remember YOU with something healthy and good for you. Maybe they can get a book to cook you some good food, or maybe they can come into the hospital and get some information about good foods and where to find them. And I know I am not supposed to tell you too many things about specific places to shop, but I will tell you that if you go to the "Our Favorite Things' section of the website, you will find some places where your owners can go to get good food for you.
Until next month, I remain your friend,
LIZZIE
