Donald R. Strombeck
1 On Raw Food
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.
2 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!
3 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.
4 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.
5 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.
6 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 ...
7 a contrary opinion
This book might be fine if you have a dog or two. If you only have cats, as I do, there's not enough in it to justify the price. You have to wade thru many pages of material on dogs to find several sentences on cats.
There are also only about four recipes for cat food -- very repetitive and all using clams.
8 Finally, sane nutritional info & recipes for pets!
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.
9 An Indispensable Reference
This is an excellent book on animal nutrition. It's clear enough for a layperson to understand, as long as they have some background in biology and nutrition. If you plan to feed your pets home-prepared diets, this book is a must-have reference. You will probably want to look at the Pitcairn book as well.
Strombeck used a computer to balance his recipes. This results in some awkward portioning, and some odd yields. Be prepared to use a pencil and paper to adjust the recipes to your needs, especially if you intend to make more than one serving at a time, or if you have multiple animals. The ease of use issues here lose him a star.
Faults aside, this book is refreshing in its objectivity. Strombeck backs up every single point he makes with hard science, unlike most other books on the subject. In a world where most animal care professionals learn their nutrition from materials provided by Hills, this little 300 page volume is invaluable.
So buy two copies: one for you and one for your vet!
10 A wonderful, fully documented resource
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.
11 I Saw A Complete Change in My Cats' Health and Energy
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.
12 A great resource for animals with GI tract problems.
If your dog (or cat) is suffering from GI tract problems and/or food allergies, this may be a book for you. If you are convinced that raw meat is the only way to go, you might want to stop here. But if you find the thought of feeding raw meat a little terrifying, the book is chock full of recipes for dogs and cats - including some vegetarian alternatives.
Flipping through it upon receipt, I was surprised to read that "ethoxyquin is safe as well as effective...has a very wide range of safety...[and] more so than any other antioxidant, has anticancer properties." Checking the author's bio, I found out that he "is widely published and has received numerous awards, including the Ralston Purina Award for research excellence in small animal diseases..." "Terrific," I thought, "an apologist for the pet food industry." NOT what I was looking for...
Reading further, however, I discovered Dr. Strombeck laying out his expose of commercial pet foods in a dry, clinical style that was actually a refreshing change from the strident and at times self-righteous indictments of the whole foods and holistic alternatives literature. Here is a lot of the same information expressed in a way that not only you can understand, but that your very straight-laced conventional veterinarian might actually consider.
The book is full of recipes that seem easy to prepare with one exception: unless you have a large animal, or are prepared to cook in larger batches, you will be trying to figure out how to measure 1/5 of a vitamin tablet or 1/10 of a teaspoon of salt (at least the recipes don't call for ethoxyquin). And, returning to that dry, clinical style, keep a dictionary handy unless you already know that "borborygmus" is basically those gurgling sounds in the gut.
I found the book very helpful in understanding why my dog's GI tract problems, which are probably food allergy related, are both so hard to diagnose and so hard to treat. It lays out a program that requires both patience and perseverance, but little in the way of medications or other invasive procedures. I'd give it at least 4 stars (5 if I wasn't a basically hard grader).
13 Superb summary of Dog and Cat Nutritional Requirements
Whatever diet you choose to feed your dog or cat, this book will guide you in understanding the nutritional requirements for each. It is an outstanding treastise that contains many charts which do the intricate calculations in the NRC or Waltham Center Requirements so that you don't have to do them yourself. Additionally, there are well thought out cooked diets for cats and dogs enabling the breeder or pet owner to easily cook for their own dog(s) or cat(s). There is no other book that I know of on the market today that contains the wealth of information in this one; whether you are feeding a cooked, raw or commercial diet to your dog or cat, this information will be of value.
