Pet food books arrived!

emilymaywilcha

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
May 15, 2012
Messages
1,338
Purraise
29
Location
Gainesville, Florida
I ordered Buyer Beware, Feed Your Pet Right, and Not Fit For A Dog! on Amazon last weekend. They were all supposed to arrive Tuesday in the same box. The first two came a day early. 
 
 
 Even though I don't have a dog yet, I will read all three from cover to cover. Which one should I read first?
 
Last edited:

kittylover23

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Jan 29, 2012
Messages
948
Purraise
41
Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Yep! I saw you were purchasing them on the Letter to the FDA thread and decided I might as well read them too.
I've been bored out of my mind this summer anyway!
 

mschauer

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jun 17, 2007
Messages
6,753
Purraise
2,338
Location
Houston, Tx
I recommend starting with Feed Your Pet Right. The authors present an objective, non-agenda based view of the pet food industry and the various regulatory agencies.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #6

emilymaywilcha

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
May 15, 2012
Messages
1,338
Purraise
29
Location
Gainesville, Florida
Yep! I saw you were purchasing them on the Letter to the FDA thread and decided I might as well read them too. I've been bored out of my mind this summer anyway!
Actually I did not "purchase" any of them. I have a $50 gift certificate and the total for all three was $37.


I ordered all three because I could not choose just one.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #7

emilymaywilcha

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
May 15, 2012
Messages
1,338
Purraise
29
Location
Gainesville, Florida
I read the introduction in the only place that made sense: next to Patricia, with my hand on her little head.
 

cinderflower

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Jun 9, 2012
Messages
85
Purraise
4
i just read "food pets die for," by ann martin and "not fit for a dog," and i can't read more.  it's disgusting.  just . . . that's all i can say.  i've known about  it being legal to feed cows and chickens other ground up cows and chickens in their feed, i just never thought of what was being done to cat/dog food.

i don't have an insulated feeling about the FDA/USDA for humans, so why would it be any better for pets?  if they knowingly poison people, animals seem like a footnote.  it's a shame, that's all i can say.

there's a documentary that was only shown in canada.  it was scheduled to be shown on msnbc but pulled with no explanation.  you can find it if you google, "pet food: a dog's breakfast."  at first i thought it was a 2011 film but it's more like 2008.  still relevant, but i think a few companies (like weruva) have stepped it up some.

all these books are at the library, except i don't know about the first one you said.  personally, i've read all i can stand to read. :)
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #10

emilymaywilcha

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
May 15, 2012
Messages
1,338
Purraise
29
Location
Gainesville, Florida
Cinder, you can check out Feed Your Pet Right at the library and skip over some chapters. It explains why people, cats, and dogs have slightly different dietary requirements after describing how people fed cats and dogs before pet food became a big industry. None of that has anything to do with how pet foods are made and marketed. Later on, I will learn how to read pet food labels.
 

cinderflower

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Jun 9, 2012
Messages
85
Purraise
4
sure, i would if they had it.  it's kind of new so i wrote it down.  there are four more books by marion nestle and they're all about human nutrition so i imagine it's a pretty good book.  it also says it's out of print on the simon & schuster site so that might be why the library doesn't have it.  i didn't do an interlibrary search yet so i might be able to get it from a different branch and have it sent to central.

i know a lot about human nutrition but not as much about feline--although it's not too complicated.  cats are obligate carnivores, their digestive tracts are about 4 times shorter than a human, i don't know how many times more acidic, they don't produce as much amylase because they don't need it, but they do need taurine.

i know they need a certain amount of bone ground into their food if they're raw fed, plus certain vitamins and minerals.  i know they're getting enough taurine if i feed them processed cat food, and probably the right amount of vitamins and minerals--but probably not the bone.  especially in weruva, and i wrote hound & gatos and they do not grind up bone into the food.  i'm not too clear on whether phosphorous added to the food makes up for it.

that's partially why it's taking me so long to decide about raw-feeding.  pre-made is wicked expensive, i'd do it if i could but i know i can source organic, free-range, growth-hormone-free meat if i look hard enough, and it will be tons cheaper than a place like wild oats or whole foods.  i can't remember the percentage of muscle meats vs. organ meats but i'm pretty sure cats can eat a lot of stuff we wouldn't (like fish guts and heads).  i have nothing against offal being in the food, my main concern is all the plastic, styrofoam, plastic bags, dogs and cats (complete with collars), roadkill and 4-D animals.  i know how much they pump up livestock to try to get it to walk the line in a slaughterhouse, and the only time it's removed is when it falls and can't get up or dies.  so cancerous tumors, pneumonia lungs, all kinds of disgusting things.  this is one of the main reasons i stopped eating meat so many years ago and if it's bad for humans, it can't possibly be good for something 12 times smaller than i am, especially when that's all it eats.  that plus i have to buy a grinder and they aren't cheap.  i'm hoping to find another person who wants to go raw to help me with this.  maybe someone with a lot of cats.  if they can do most of the work, i'll buy the ingredients. 

i have been looking at pre-made supplement mixes but lisa pierson lists all the stuff you need so i probably won't have to do that, as long as i get the right stuff in the right proportions.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #12

emilymaywilcha

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
May 15, 2012
Messages
1,338
Purraise
29
Location
Gainesville, Florida
The copyright date is 2010. I could tell just by reading it because the authers keep referring to information in 2009. No way is it out of print.

For information about raw feeding, you need to buy a book that is specifically about that. Feed Your Pet Right is mostly about commercial pet foods. It does explain why cats and dog foods are different and, surprisingly, there are not many differences.
 
Top