Feed Your Pets Right -Roger Mason

About one third of American households own dogs and cats. Almost all of these people feed their pets commercial dog food because they don’t know any better. Commerical dog food is junk, even the expensive brands. This includes the expensive “natural” brands. There are almost  no laws regulating pet food, and the makers can put most anything in there they want to. Feed your dog or cat real food. Dried meat and animal products oxidize badly and are full of free radicals. Isn't your dog or cat a member of your family?  Isn’t your pet a family member? If you really love them feed them real food. It’s easy and cheap to do.

First of all, dogs and cats are carnivores by nature. Look at their teeth, and you can see that very clearly. They cannot be fed a vegetarian diet, or they will get sick and die. Buddhist monks in Asia feed their temple cats half rice and half fish, even though they eat no fish themselves. They realize cats are biologically different.

What can you feed your pet that is practical, easy to fix, nutritious, and inexpensive? Lots of things. The best way is to feed them half whole grains and half animal products with a spoon of green or yellow vegetable thrown in. You can feed them brown rice, polenta, or finely chopped whole wheat pasta, for example, mixed with chopped various lean meats.

When we shop for our food we shop for his, too. Often, expired date beef, pork, chicken and turkey are on sale. You can get very inexpensive varieties of fish, especially when frozen. Eggs are too high in cholesterol. There are a wide variety of organ meats you can buy including liver, kidneys, gizzards, brains, tripe and other parts. Vary these as much as possible. Keep rotating their diet so they get different foods every day.

You do NOT have to cook for your pet every night. You can cook, say, a pound of beef or pork and put it in the refrigerator. It takes all of a minute to chop this up well with a chef's knife and mix it with some precooked brown rice, warm it up in the microwave and give it to them. This costs us no more than 50 cents a day for a small 20 pound dog. What if you have a 60 pound larger dog? Isn't it worth a dollar and a half at most to feed them, keep them healthy and well, avoid vet bills, and have them around for as long as possible? Aren’t they part of your family? Don't you love them? Don’t keep pets if you don’t love them. You can also freeze some of his meals in plastic bags for other reasons. When we leave him at the sitters we have food ready to give her. When we just don't have the time or energy to feed him we warm up a frozen meal.

You can and should give your dog and cat supplements just like you would the rest of your family. They will live longer, get sick less, have less vet visits, and be happier. What supplements work for dogs and cats? There is no clear science here, so we have to use logic and common sense. Younger dogs (first half of their expected lifespan) can take vitamins (All Your Vitamins), minerals (All Your Minerals), acidophilus, beta glucan, FOS, vitamins D & E, and flax oil- just like younger people. Older dogs can add CoQ10, lipoic acid, NAC, PS, ALC, glutamine, carnosine, and glucosamine. This must be in proportionate amounts. If a dog or cat is 20 pounds give them one eighth of a human dose. If they are 40 pounds give them one quarter of a human dose. These are not expensive at all, since they will only need a fraction of what you take. Yes, they can do the TMG (Rejuvenate Your Liver article) program, too. They can also do the Good Health Begins with Good Digestion program.

Hormones are far more difficult. The very few vets who do this charge extortionate fees and really don’t know what they are doing. When they are old you can consider melatonin, pregnenolone, and progesterone. DHEA and testosterone are more problematic. You can give an older male dog both of them in appropriate doses. The three basic estrogens for female dogs are even more problematic. Vets can test blood sugar, cholesterol, and triglyderides. Never castrate or neuter any pet for God's sake!!! This is Dark Ages insanity. Pets can be safely and inexpensively given vasectomies and tubal ligations. A castrated pet will never have healthy hormone balance or good health. People who promote castration are all insane.

If you were a dog or cat wouldn't you want to be fed real food instead of chemical filled sub-standard commercial pet food? It really is cheap and easy to do this.

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