Dr Becker's Real Food For Healthy Dogs and Cats: Simple Homemade Food

You are not going to find out the information you need on how to feed your dog off Internet articles! Believe me, most of them don't even mention offal in the recipes. Similarly most pet shops are selling junk in a bag or a can. Get this book, it will give you the info to feed your dog on either a raw or home cooked diet in the right proportions of muscle meat, organ meat, bone or bone substitute if doing home cooked, what extra vitamins and minerals you are going to need to give and additions like eggs and sardines. The book also covers what not to feed. I don't have cats but Dr Becker covers how to feed your cats too. Wonderful book. Thank you Dr Becker.

Of all the books I have on making my own dog food this is by far the best. It’s very detailed, full of very useful information, great recipes for meals, veg and supplements. One of my dogs despite trying all sorts cannot deal with raw food and has stomach problems, this is the only recipe food he will not only eat and lick the bowl clean, but will look for more. It’s been a life changer for us and him. Yes it is a bit of a faff to prepare until you get used to it but I now prep in bulk and it’s a breeze.

Good book lots of info way over your head simple if your Dr Becker

Far too much information than was needed

Excellent book, a must have for those interested in raw feeling!

Very informative book about how to start making food for your dog and cat.

The book provides good information on what meats, vegetables and fruits to use, plus how to prepare, mix and serve them, along with explanations for the various supplements needed to make a healthy, balanced diet. For that, it should get 5 stars. Where this book fails is lack of consistency. There are many tables covering the different ingredients for the meals. Some tables are shown as weekly requirements, some as portion requirements (it’s not clear if this portion is per day or per meal), some are calculated as daily, and some as “this recipe rotation only” (which I think means per week). For the bone meal replacement, some tables refer to bone meal (calcium and phosphorus combined) and some tables to calcium only. This made it very confusing to calculate the actual quantities for my dogs. I ended up creating a spreadsheet of the tables in an attempt to make sense of what was needed but even then was still left confused. For that, it loses 2 stars since, without clarity, it's not clear how to plan a balanced diet and your animal’s health will suffer seriously. There’s a section on vegetable and fruit mixes and 3 example veg & fruit mix recipes are provided, plus a lot of text on what veg and fruit can be used. What is lacking is guidance on what quantities to use for the fruit and veg not shown in the example recipes. As for the example recipes, when I calculated the calorie totals they differed wildly (ranging from 406 – 735 kcals). This doesn’t make sense since the same quantity of each recipe mix is added to the meal, meaning that depending on which veg & fruit mix you use, the meal fed to your animal differs in calorie count quite siginificantly. So, another 1 star subtracted for lack of clarity and consistency in this section. The author also recommends adding the supplements only at meal times rather than at time of batch preparation and freezing but doesn’t explain why. I couldn’t find any information on the internet as to why this should be the case. As a full-time worker, it’s essential I make this process as efficient as possible, reducing the need to weigh/measure several elements at each meal time for different dogs. So, for lack of explanation, it loses another 1 star, bringing the grand total to 1 star. There are also a couple errors in tables where incorrect figures are given. I was able to work out the correct figures by looking at all quantities and the pattern of change across quantities. Someone less vigilant would be using erroneous quantities, affecting the balance of the meals. Overall, if the tables were made consistent and clear, explanations provided for some of the recommendations, and the errors corrected, this book would be an excellent guide to healthy, balanced, home-made dog food. As it currently stands, I’m left thoroughly confused about how to proceed, rendering the book useless to me.

*Has been an educational book in most aspects, although written for people living in USA or 1st world countries where most stuff mentioned is reasonably priced/easy to obtain. Supplements etc and various other information is totally US based. For example - I am unable to get sardines/salmon and turkey isn't common either and even if I could it would be VERY costly. *I am unable to get majority of the supplements mentioned, again it will be very costly for me to ship in from the states, finding an alternative shouldn't be too much of a mission but the supplements section is fairly vague followed by getting very technical!! and if it is so important why don't they knock up all these supplements together and sell it saying feed this if you're feeding bone. feed this if you are not feeding bone etc. I don't even take that many supplements!!!! *Discussing with my integrative veterinarian is not an option; there are not many people/veterinarians in my country that have enough information about feeding raw to assist. (I am infact the only person I know who feeds raw.) discussing with vets here is a bit of a futile exercise. *And despite saying this can be used by first timers/layman it does get quite technical and convoluted. *Finally it isn't 100% kindle friendly so I am missing vital information when there are tables involved (I have zoomed in and out and tried portrait and landscape to no avail). Should have bought hard copy but wanted to get reading asap and not wait months. *So I still don't know how much of what to feed my dog partly because of the non kindle friendly issue and partly because there is a vast amount of information all over the place. *I have been feeding my version of raw quite happily for a year or so now but now after reading this I feel that I am doing more harm than even kibble which has vits and minerals added in it at the very least.

Lo mejor library de lo mejor experto. Madre mia por fin!!!! Un libro muy pero muy completo. Ojalá que lo tenia antes...mucho antes... Jamás más dudas y sin falta nutrición para mi perrito. Este libro tendría que tener todos los dueños. Muy muy contento muchísimas gracias a Karen.

Great information from an expert. I tailored it to suit my pooch.

Prior to purchasing this book i read a ton of reviews and got a bit discouraged, so i decided to start slow and get library books. I read them and ended up using one of them. Hungry for more information after trying to formulate my own meals i decided to read the sample of this book was a great sample by the way i was hooked and ended up purchasing the kindle version regardless of warning (quality issues reported) because i simply could not wait the shipping time and I’m so glad i did, because i found NO issues after reading 100% of the book in fact you can maximize each graph to view it on a whole separate page which is nice. Book does have a-lot of information so i would suggest to have something handy to take notes, because you will need all your notes to make your balanced meal. I did not take notes at first and after finishing it i had to go back and take notes. Ive only read this 4th edition and it seems to be more flexible with ingredients than other versions. At first will be a bit overwhelming but it all makes sense once you finish the book. Remember take notes very important, and re read as needed the second or third time will make sense specially for the nutrients.

Even if your still deciding whether to feed raw food or not, read this book. You'll know after reading if you can handle this diet or not. This book is very informative. She explains why dogs and cats should have all the components she suggests in their diet, which I found very helpful. The meat recipes are simple and everything in them can be purchased at the grocery store. The best part of this book is that she has veggie recipes and vitamin recipes that you add to the meat mix and she tells you how much to feed of everything. There is also recommended brands and stores for supplements. She makes it really easy to find everything that you need. Dr Karen Becker's youtube videos are also very helpful.

Even though it’s a relatively small book, it manages to go through most - if not all - aspects of nutrition, including recipes, supplement considerations, discussion about the necessity of feeding bones vs bone replacement etc. I’ll keep referring to this book when making food for my cat.