To Your Dog’s Health!: Canine Nutrition and Recent Trends Within the Pet Food Industry
November 19, 2011 by admin
Filed under Best Pet Food
To Your Dog’s Health!: Canine Nutrition and Recent Trends Within the Pet Food Industry
Written by a man who is passionate about nature and all living creatures, this book contains everything readers could want to know about giving their dogs the best nutrition possible. Arguing that the processed dog foods on the market today ignore the health needs of most dogs, author Mark Poveromo–an expert in animal nutrition and owner of a dog and cat food store–provides readers with information on dog-food brands, holistic and raw dog foods, and recipes tailored to dogs with specific healt
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To Your Dog’s Health!,
I found To Your Dog’s Health! to be both helpful and enlightening. This book is a great resource for dog owners.
With chapter titles like All Foods Are Not Created Equal and Be a Top Chef for Your Dog, author Mark Poveromo informs the reader on how to give their dog the best nutrition possible. Formerly a teacher, Mark is now an expert on animal nutrition as well as the owner of a dog and cat food store.
He is a holistic practitioner and has his own dogs on raw food diets as well as cooking for them at home himself. His own chocolate lab lived to be 17 years old.
There are healthy recipes included within the book as well as brands Mark recommends. He gives advice on picky eaters and on how to transition your dog from the food he is currently eating to a different diet.
He discusses several interesting topics including dogs with cancer and what foods help prevent it, as well as what foods they should be eating once, heaven forbid, they are diagnosed with the disease. Mark also tells you what to look for when you are reading labels.
I liked that there is a photo included at the start of each chapter. I thought that was a nice touch.
I will definitely be making sure that I am label reading when purchasing food and treats for my own furbaby, Diego. This book has been an eye opener when it comes to my dog’s eating habits and the food that I chose to give him.
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|Valuable information every dog owner should know,
Mark does a great job clearly outlining the health needs of dogs (and cats) in this book. He walks through the different types of nutrition such as grocery store kibble, holistic foods, home cooking, and raw. He gives great advice and recipes for home cooked meals, meals for dogs with kidney disease or cancer, and what to look for in kibble.
His one chapter on raw feeding was a bit of a disappointment compared to the amount of time he spent on other subjects. While he went into great detail on kibble, home cooking for your dog, supplements to use, recipes, and things to keep in mind for certain health issues, he spent only one chapter on actual raw feeding and did not discuss how to do it yourself. He mentioned that there are good raw food manufacturers, but did not discuss how to balance your dog’s meals if you don’t buy a prepackaged raw diet. I would have liked it if he went into more detail in some areas, including this one. I found this lack of information especially odd in light of the last paragraph of the chapter on raw feeding where Mark Poveromo said, “For the record, I have been feeding my pets a raw diet for about seven years now, and have had tremendous success.”
However, there was a wealth of information about vitamins, enzymes, carbohydrates, and vegetables, that I still came away learning a lot. Based on this information, I will try changing up our dogs’ diet a bit, but I will probably also consult some other raw diet resources before making a final decision.
I was delightfully surprised that he wrote a chapter about vaccines and other treatments. I must say I found his thoughts on that subject well balanced and helpful.
I do recommend this book for a quick, easy to read overview of dog nutrition. In fact, despite my disappointment with the raw food chapter, I found enough good information in the book, that I am keeping it on my shelf to read again. There are various facts in this book that more pet owners, and vets, need to know. One such fact is that the protein in most kibble is from rendering facilities. These facilities take leftover animal pieces (meat, fat, blood, bone, and feather) and render them down to be included in kibble. These are the animal pieces that are not sold in grocery stores because they are not fit for consumption! And because of this poor protein quality, we are seeing increased incidents of health issues in our pets.
Just like humans, our pets are what they eat, and we owe it to them to make sure we give them the best nutrition possible.
I received this book free from The Online Publicist. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
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|My dogs have never looked so good,
I had just gotten a new boxer puppy to be a companion for my 10 year old boxer, and if it weren’t for Mark and his book I wouldn’t have been able to start the puppy off the right way. When I first got the puppy he was undernurished [the breeder had the puppy weened off the mother's milk at four weeks old and started him on dry commercial food], and after talking to Mark and reading his book, he’s gained four pounds. Even our ten year old has slimmed down and doesn’t have breathing problems any more [no more snoring!], all because of the raw diet. I would absolutely recommend Mark’s book to anyone whether they’re first starting out with a pup [or a kitten] or if they have a senior; Mark’s advice covers all ages.
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