Customer Reviews

The Holistic Animal Handbook: A Guidebook to Nutrition, Health, and Communication

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This handbook, written by two animal communicators, is meant to serve as an introduction to the holistic care of animals. The book is divided into four parts.
The first chapter deals with nutrition and the authors point out some of the problems with feeding our canine and feline companions processed foods. They recommend raw diets, and the information provided is basic but quite good. Unlike many recipes/feeding instructions in holistic/natural health books for dogs, the two recipes (one for cats and one for dogs) presented here do not contain serious nutritional imbalances (provided one doesn't go overboard with the cod liver oil and uses bonemeal instead of substituting a multi-vitamin/mineral supplement with calcium).
Chapter number two deals with using Bach flower remedies to balance emotions. This is the best and most thorough discussion of flower remedies for animals I have seen in a book that is not devoted exclusively to this one subject.
The third chapter is entitled "Natural Techniques for Balanced Living Situations" and describes some basic training techniques for dogs, cats, and horses.
The book's final chapter focuses on interspecies communication and while much of it is too 'New Agey' for my taste, I'm sure it will appeal to many other readers.
There's also a good resource directory featuring lists of books, holistic vets, animal communicators, shops and mail order catalogs, etc.

This book is a great resource for pet lovers to use in dealing with any behavioral problems their furry friends display. I would recommend it to anyone that owns cats, dogs, birds, or horses - tons of good information on what makes these lovely animals tick.

Based on the recommendations in the book, I bought "Rescue Remedy", and use it every now and then on my little dolls, Gigi and Lulu. It quickly soothes and relaxes them - works great! I wish I'd found this stuff before! This book also discusses bach flower essences, and which ones might be best for your animals, based on their behavioral problems. Gigi used to be a holy terror, and she's become the sweetest cat since I started retraining her.

Definitely check this book out if you are a pet lover! Another great herbal resource to try - prescription for nutritive healing, herbal meds. I will never take non herbal medicine or go to a non-holistic doctor again, if I can help it.

I bought this book on a whim after reading about animal communication. Each subject that the book covers could of course be (and probably is currently) the full subject for yet another book, but it was a great intro to animal communication, raw feeding and the Bach flower essences. I read it in a day and was intrigued enough to buy another of the authors' books. Mind you, this is a book for people who are quite open-minded and seriously into their companion animals. Not at all traditional ways of taking care of animals, but certainly something worth looking into if you can open your mind a bit.

I found this book to be a wonderful resource, particularly the Bach Flower remedies. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in natural remedies for animals.

This is a useful book with information not available elsewhere which gives you info not only on a healthy, natural approach to feeding animals, but specifics for different breeds. We are killing our pets with dried kibble, and this book tells you not only why this is so, but gives you alternatives.

I have read and purchased much better books on the pet care, diets and communcation with animals, but this book is easy reading and will get you started quite well.

I honestly don't have the time to read all the books I buy within the time period that Amazon sends out the survey, so I will say this review is based on some sheepish quick skimming of the first few chapters. As I read the excerpts, I am getting sucked into reading this a bit more... of course, the book IS for the demographic of pet owners that are willing to spend $40 on a 17lbs bag of cat food. =)

P.S. I recommend Innova, but the NaturaPet company has several good lines. Regular pet stores carry some organic lines, after this brand (special pet stores) Newman Organics is the next in quality, followed by the By Nature and Naturals in regular Pet stores.

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The authors of this book basically think that they are animal psychics. Red alert! Right away that tells you something...their whole book is filled with nonsense about communicating with your pet telepathically and teaching holistic care and feeding. They also talk about herbal remedies, which was somewhat interesting, but, thinking realistically, I wouldn't use them.

Overall, this book has very little substance to it. There was not much at all to be gleaned from it. I knew most of the information already without reading this book. To sum it all up: it was a thin read, and very disappointing at that.