Cooking for your pet

Man's Best Friend News:
Cooking for your pet.
In light of the recent pet food recalls a lot of us have been cooking for our pets. I definitely think that cooking real food is far above and beyond the nutritional benefit that your pet could ever get from eating grocery store or (most) big box store pet foods. However, feeding your pet just a meat with rice and a couple vegetables is likely to cause nutritional imbalances, leading to health problems in the future.
There are several very good quality products available that are almost the same thing as cooking for your pet that should be used as, at least, a supplement to your home cooked diet, or visa versa.
Some of my recommendations include (all of these products are available at Hero's Pets):
Honest Kitchen foods such as the Force, Verve, Embark, Preference and Prowl. See www.thehonestkitchen.com for ingredients list and more information. These foods are made out of dehydrated raw meats, fruits and vegetables. Force is a grain free maintenance formula, Verve is a maintenance formula with organic grains, Embark is a higher fat formula for younger, more active dogs or for dogs with digestive problems. Preference is a meat-free, grain-free formula with all hypo-allergenic fruits and vegetables, designed for mixing in your own meats. Prowl is a grain-free chicken formula for cats.
Dr. Harvey's has organic grain mixtures and organic vegetable mixtures with vitamin supplements mixed in. www.drharveys.com
Sojourner Farms has all natural grain and vegetable mixtures with vitamin supplements mixed in. www.sojos.com
The Dr. Harvey's and Sojourner Farms diets are designed for mixing in your own meats. There are multiple raw meats available for pets. I RECOMMEND NEVER GIVING MEATS FROM THE GROCERY STORE TO YOUR PET. Those meats are not taken care of the same way and are much more likely to have higher levels of bacteria in them and make your pet sick.
Raw foods I recommend include Nature's Logic, Farmore, Raw Advantage, Bravo and Primal.
If you don't want to do an actual raw meat you can try the Ziwi Peak, which is a shelf stable form of raw. It is more like feeding a jerky. It is from New Zealand so it is free range, antibiotic free, hormone free... the closest you can come to organic without actually paying the price of an organic meat.
For more information on raw come in to Hero's Pets

Cat's Meow:
Cat's are notorious for developing kidney problems as they age. We've almost come to the point where we just expect it as a way of life. But is it just the way it is or are we promoting the problem by our lifestyles and the lifestyles we create for our cats?
If you consider what cats would eat if they ate a raw diet, raw foods are about 70% moisture... kibble diets are only 10%. Cats often live in a chronic state of dehydration if they just eat a dry kibble diet. In addition to that, we often feed them foods that are not natural for them to eat. Cats actually lack certain enzymes required to digest starches, so feeding a cat corn, rice and wheat is like feeding your child plastic. Sure, it might pass, but there is no nutritional value to it for a cat and it won't digest. Feeding a grain free diet is the least you can do for your cat. Feeding a diet with a higher moisture content is the next step toward kidney health. Either wet down their kibble or feed canned or raw. If you feed canned food, make sure it's high quality. Pet food companies don't have to put "real" meat into your cats food and "meats" such as chicken feathers and beaks are considered protein but your cats kidneys won't tolerate them well.
Feeding raw is the best thing you can do for your cat. There are multiple raw meats designed for cats, as well as other mixtures to supplement the meat diet.
However, it's not uncommon, in our busy lifestyles, that we don't have time to deal with raw meats for our pets. If you think you won't be able to take time to "make your pet's food" properly then there are other alternatives as well.
Honest Kitchens Prowl formula is a grain free chicken formula designed for cats. It is a dehydrated raw meat, so it is safer than feeding just raw, you just add water and it makes a consistency like canned.
Ziwi Peak has three flavors of "shelf stable" raw designed for cats. It's like a jerky and comes in Venison, Venison and Hoki Fish and Lamb.
For more information about how to keep you cat's kidney's healthy come into Hero's Pets