[.ca] Home-Prepared Dog and Cat Diets: The Healthful Alternative (ISBN 0813821495)

Excellent, if a bit dry:
Of the several resources I looked into, this was the best for implementing a home-cooked diet for my cats. An earlier reviewer was disappointed with the quantity of information available for cats, but I didn't find this to be the case (and I certainly was able to find many diets which didn't contain clams...). Besides basic healthy diets, the book also covers diets for a variety of medical conditions or food allergies. "Clear and easy-to-understand" is probably not how I would choose to describe this book, however. The author sometimes uses highly technical terminology without offering any simplified definition (e.g., what the heck is "coprophagy"? Once I found out, I wasn't sure I WANTED to know, but no definition is offered in the book.) Some readers might take as a negative the fact that he promotes cooking all the meats because of potential health risks such as salmonella. Many now believe that raw meat is healthier for a true carnivore (which cats certainly are) than cooked. The issue of raw vs. cooked isn't given much attention here, so you will have to go to other sources for more information on that. While this book can't be described as perfect, it certainly was very satisfactory. This is the book that I would give my cats' vet for Christmas.

not bad, but i don't agree with the diets:
this is a decent book if you are wanting to make home cooked meals for you pet. it gives scientific evidence, backs up what it claims, and sites sources, which a lot of books on this subject fail to do. my problem with the book is opinion based. my opinion is that although it is better to feed your dog a homecooked meal over kibble, it is much better to feed raw over homecooked. and after reading this book i still stand firm in my belief that raw is the better way to go. but, if your a person who feels that homecooked is the way to go, then this is a good book to have. it's very detailed, and explains a lot on how much calories per day a dog/puppy should have, etc. also outlines meals that you can prepare.

Much too techincal for the layman:
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 ...

Excellent nutrition reference:
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.

Easy recipes with explanations for ingredients - CATS & DOGS:
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!