Customer Reviews

Better Food for Dogs: A Complete Cookbook and Nutrition Guide

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is easy to read and simple to use, but has all the good information you need to cook for your dog. They even break up the recipes based on the weight of your dog so you don't have to figure it out yourself. There is a basic nutrition breakdown for each recipe. Once you know what you're doing, you'll probably want to get some more complicated books about canine nutrition to start making up your own recipes; but this is a great book to get you started.

This book is my first cooking book for my dog. My dog(2yrs.) had been so picky what he eats. I tried many different brand of dog foods, can foods and frozen raw food. He doesn't care about kibbles... He eats kibbles one cup in 2 days for staying alive.(he was 10-15 lb. under weight) He eats can food IF there is whole chiken thigh, or ...some whole thing. He doesn't like mushy can food.) Frozen raw food... he has sensitive stomach. If its still too cold, he will throw up) I know he likes can food, but I didn't want to keep feeding him can food because I don't believe they have enough nutrients. I start thinking about cooking for him. I don't know why I bought this book, but I feel lucky. This book is really easy to read and easy to understand. There are 4 recipes for different weighs(5,10,15,20,25,....50,60,70,....150 lb.) One is basic recipe, other 3 are gourmet recipes. Hard part for me was to find vitamin and mineral supplement. I didn't understand what I was looking for in the supplement.Other than that, it is easy to make and most importantly, my dog LOVEs his food now. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a recipe book for dogs.

This book is a wealth of knowedge. I had recently purchased 3 other books of a like nature, but this is my favorite by far. I especially like the fact that the author is not suggesting that BARF (a raw meat diet) is the only way to go. Instead, options are explained - learn how to feed raw, learn how to prepare home cooked meals or at the very least learn how to feed the best quiality manufactured dog/cat foods. In addition, I learned about the importance of adding vitamins, minerals, probotics, etc. A few of my co-workers who have borrowed the book have returned it to me the next day since they ordered their own copy right away. This book is a must have for any pet owner who wants to learn how to feed their other family member better.

I bought this book some time ago and use it often. I found it easy to use and very complete. Good recipes for the finicky eater and most importantly healthy for them!! This is not in the book but something to consider as to why we should feed our pets home cooked foods. Before the end of WW2 and the start of commercial dog foods, dogs where fed from the table eating most what we humans eat. Back then dogs lived well into their 20's. Now if they live to 10, 12 years it's concidered old!! Something to think about as we feed our dogs commercial foods and vaccinated the heck out of them!

What do I cook for my Chi for dinner? I was disappointed that this book did not give me any more options. I was hoping for a cookbook with a varity of recipes adaptable for small dogs. The few listed are not worth the money.

This book has several recipes in it for different weight dogs. Most of them have some sort of wheat and/or corn products in them. Any of you who are trying to feed your dog good food will know that many dog are allergic to wheat and corn. I tried one recipe for one serving for my 10 pound dog and it made so much that it fed my two 10 pound dogs and my 25 pound dog for 3 meals, and they didn't really like it to begin with.

Our research staff at VitaHound is in the business of contracting veterinarians specializing in nutrition, our objective is to provide a robust platform of helpful pet nutrition info. We are constantly looking for unique sources on dog nutrition. Jennifer Ashton and Dr. Grant Nixon have written a book that is a great resource for raising healthy hounds. Dog owners will appreciate the specific nature of the types of food they should choose being limited to dogs. While other books on the subject may contain better referenced sources for their conclusions on nutrition, these books usually are guides to a much broader range of animal nutrition. I have recommended this book to our staff as a insightful text on dog nutrition, although our expertise is dog supplements the info seems on par with what we believe is a healthy diet for our dogs.

I would read this book as a companion with "The nature of animal healing." This book is very easy to read and gives you a basic understanding of diet & health and it does give you some great recipes with easy instructions. But I would not rely on it soley. Read it with "The nature of animal healing" and you will shock your vet with how much you have learned and you two can actually have a serious conversation about your pets health...you may even be able to teach your vet something! Mine in fact purchased both of these books shortly after I spoke to her about them! (thats kinda scary actually...)

If the option to give this book 4.5 stars were available, that's what I'd give as my overall rating. Since this option wasn't available, I went with 5 stars.

It's VERY hard to find a good book that covers nutrition for dogs and provides decent recipes. With the dog food industry being in control of pet nutrition through the AAFCO (pretty much created by and for the dog food industries), it can be difficult to find "unbiased" solid information on healthy pet nutrition; with the use of whole-foods.

With that note in mind, this book is very good to use as a general guideline for preparing whole-foods for your dog. I'd recommend this book to everyone who is interested in making and preparing foods for their dogs. I would not recommend it as the only book though.

"Better Foods for Dogs" provides a good amount of information on nutritional needs for dogs and helps give recipes that are rather easy to prepare. The recipe sections are categorized by weight of dog; ranging from smallest at 5 lbs to the largest at 150 lbs. This is very convenient for the pet parent. Each "complete meal" recipe does require adding bonemeal and multi-vitamin & mineral supplements. There are also recipes included for "cookies" (snacks and treats).

Allergy note: Some of the complete meal recipes do involve using wheat and/or dairy products. If your dog has a food allergy to either of these products, you can find substitution recommendations in this book. In the "cookies" section, some of the recipies do include the use of wheat, all purpose flour, cornmeal and/or dairy products. These can be altered using different ingredients; given that you have a general knowledge with using substitutions in baking.

Overall, the book is outstanding and provides enough information for the average person to get started on home cooking and preparing healthy foods for their dogs. It also provides very useful information on monitoring your dog's health while feeding home prepared diets. The complete meal recipes follow the ratio of 40% protein/45% carbohydrates/15% fats (the average requirement for adult dogs).

For feeding dogs with special needs regarding health conditions, this book will still provide useful information, BUT you will need to alter recipes by adding or subtracting to the ratio of proteins, carbohydrates and fats; based on what is recommended by your dog's veterinarian (and/or veterinarian specialist). In the same token of thought, if your dog is less active or has a higher activity level, you may also need to alter these recipes.

I've had this book for several months and started cooking the basic Meat and Rice Meals for my six dogs about 4 months ago. I have 4 Corgis (average wt 25 pounds each), a Labrador Retriever (60 lbs), and a Golden Retriever (100 lbs). I love the fact that this book allows me to customize the recipes for each breed according to their size, so I'm neither over-feeding or under-feeding them. My Golden tends to be overweight, so this is a necessity in our house.

The information on adding the correct amount of supplements to the diet is very helpful. It has useful tables for substituting ingredients (don't have enough beef? try some turkey or eggs instead). There are two basic Fruit/Vegetable mixes provided in the book, and while one of them does include whole corn, you can easily substitute another vegetable (peas, broccoli, zucchini) for the corn. I've found all of the recipes easy to make and this book is much easier to follow than the more complicated BARF diets. And while some people may want to steam the carrots, I've found that my dogs are quite content eating raw carrots. In fact, my Golden is very happy to chew carrots, apples and tomatoes, making this recipe very simple to prepare. I've also borrowed the idea of feeding eggshells to my dogs from the BARF diet.

The best part is: all six of my dogs love the food. And it's satisfying knowing I'm feeding them quality ingredients.