Healthy Pets
The latest “pet food scare” has sent many people into health food stores trying to find some decent food for their animals. In addition, many pets are trying to overcome illnesses of all kinds. This is intended to give you some ideas to help you to help your pet in a positive way.
First of all, dogs and cats have unique body systems, different from humans, horses, and other animals. It is important to learn about your animal as much as possible or talk to someone who understands this to give your pet the optimal nutrition. There are some foods that are ok for humans that are not good for dogs or not good for cats and certain herbs or nutrients should not be given to dogs or cats. Because of space, I don’t have room to go through all of these, but they mostly can be looked up in popular pet health books or the internet.
From a blood type perspective, dogs are considered A blood types and cats are considered B types. Which means dogs should eat mostly “vegetarian” and stick to chicken and turkey as far as meats go. Cats can have dairy, but preferably raw milk, and they can have more meats. Grains in large quantities though can be harmful to pets, but in moderation are considered to be fine. One of the best grains to give your pets is millet. It is an alkaline grain and can help reduce acid in pets which causes all kinds of illness. Other alkaline grains are wild rice, quinoa and amaranth. All other grains are considered acidic – even rice, brown or white!
It is best to give your pet raw meats, and raw veggies. It is an animal. If you feed “dead food” to your pets, you are neglecting the enzymes that naturally occur in raw foods. Wild dogs and cats do not cook their food first, they eat it raw. If you can’t do raw food (which is typically a problem when travelling and such), be sure to put some enzymes in your pets food to help this.
In addition to diet, which I will discuss more later in this article – there are 2 main points I want to stress. First of all, our pets pick up on our baggage. That is their job as man’s best friend. They pick up our stress, our fears, our happiness, and our emotional baggage. I have learned, for myself, that if I really want to see how healthy I am, I must look at my pets as they are a barometer for my health. They are there as a tool to let me know what I should be looking at in myself to get healthier and I thank them so much for doing that.
Second, just like it is important for us to maintain optimum pH balance, this is also true for our animals. Unfortunately, it is pretty much impossible to take the pH of the urine and saliva of our pets, but it is possible to see the positive changes, and there is one sure fire way to see this happening for dogs. I have a dog, a Keeshond, 12 years old that I didn’t have for 1 year (long story). When he came back, he was overweight and I could tell that his joints where bothering him, he didn’t seem as perky. Anyway, for the first month he was back he was on the dog food I recommend that is alkaline. That first month, everywhere he pee’d in the backyard, he burned the grass. This meant that he was pushing acid out of his body. This is a good thing! It isn’t good that he is acidic, but it is good that he is finally pushing it out, instead of keeping it inside him where it can make him sick. As I have mentioned in previous pH balancing articles, if the body has too much acid in it, this causes pain typically in joints, and other illness. This lasted for about a month, which is typical. They say that it takes 3 months to turn illness around and 1 month for every year. He was gone for about 1 year, and eating what was most likely poor food which made him acidic. Putting him on the alkaline diet, helped him to build alkaline reserves and pushed the acid out of his body, causing him to drop about 20 pounds and eliminate his joint issues.
I have hundreds of customers who bring their pets to me to help overcome all kinds of skin, digestive and other issues, including cancers and tumors. I tell them all the same thing as far as diet. I take several raw veggies, like kale, chard, lettuce, spinach, bok choy, whatever I have at home and puree it in a food processor. Then I put in an apple or pear to sweeten it. I add some carrots, parsnips, especially celery and broccoli. And any other veggies I happen to have – like beet greens, turnips, rutabaga, squash, etc. I avoid tomatoes and onions as a rule. Then I add 1 package of Shelton’s natural raw turkey meat. I mix this all up and put it in the fridge. Keep the percentage 75% veggies and 25% meat. It lasts about 3-5 days in my fridge (depending on how much I make). I feed them twice a day. Once your pet is better, you can start adding in some natural dry food, like Canine Caviar or Wellness brands. But if you keep the amount of veggies that your pet is getting at 75% a day, you will help them to build their alkaline ash, helping their stress level, and allowing them to push the acid out of their bodies.
Each pet is different, and some are picky of course, but typically if you add in meat with the veggies, animals usually eat it. Another trick is to sprinkle flax seed oil, olive oil, coconut oil, or salmon oil over the top or mix it in to give it flavoring. This is very good for their coats, bowels, circulation, etc.
Herbally, each animal’s issues can be unique. But there are some regular products available to help overall. Enzymes, as I mentioned before, are great to help with digestion. If you can help an animal’s digestion, you can help their body overcome a lot, because now nutrients are getting where they are supposed to be. Another product that is good for cats and dogs is black walnut. Black walnut is high in iodine, which helps dogs displace the chlorine and fluoride in the water they typically drink, and the bromine that they are exposed to from pesticides. In addition, black walnut is very good for killing parasites, fungus and some other organisms. We find if we give out dogs and cats black walnut regularly with the raw food, they no longer get fleas or ticks. It is very good to brush your pets teeth with also. I do this once a month on my dogs and put a natural product we sell in their drinking water, which does an amazing job of removing plaque and this saves me the expense and their discomfort of teeth cleaning at the vet.
Another popular herb for pets is slippery elm. This can stop diarrhea, and stop tummy upset. It can be sprinkled on food easily. We call it herbal “Pepto Bismol” around here.
The other thing that is very important is when you give your dogs goodies. The majority of the goodies out there for pets are just junk food. They contain sugar, artificial flavorings, colorings, etc. This is not good for you or your pet. I give my dogs raw bones that you can often get from butchers – but try to get organic or at least hormone free ones, else the bone marrow often contains the toxins that are given the cow in the first place which again will not be good for your pet. There are some natural treats out there, and of course there are many recipes on-line that you can make yourself.
I hope this gives you some ideas on how to help your pet live the longest, healthiest, and happy life.