04/06/07 Feeding Fido

The latest food scare has pet owners searching for alternatives to prepared fido food and kitty kibble. The culprit has been identified as melamine a chemical found in plastics and pesticides. The chemical was found in wheat gluten shipped into the U.S. from China. The USDA has subsequently banned shipments from that region of China. But the damage has already been done and after pet food manufacturers began recalling products pet owners started looking for alternatives. Those alternatives have been opening the door for various entrepreneurs and veterinarians, some who have written books on the subject of pet nutrition. Dr. Charles Coleman is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and Certified Chiropractor in Pasco, Washington. He says after the recent news he wasn't surprised. COLEMAN: We've had multiple scares here over the last few months and people get tired of that after a while because their pets are more member of the family and they're concerned about the and they want to protect them and do the best they can to nourish them in a healthy way. Even though Coleman expected to see people turn to alternate sources for feeding the pets he says it's very important to make sure the animals are getting proper nutrition. COLEMAN: Balancing a dog and cats food does not necessarily have to be every single meal but it need to be balanced over time, say over several days period of time. You look at wild animals, they don't eat a balanced diet every time they eat but over time they do balance their diet. A growing number of pet owners have been turning to their own kitchens to whip up batches of pet food and Dr. Colman recommends a number of books with pet food recipes. COLEMAN: It depends on whether you want to go raw food feeding which I recommend the Barf Diet Book by Ian Billinghurst. Raw food feeding is by far the healthiest way to feed 90 to 95% of pets. The next step is cooking for your pet. The one book I recommend to people is Dr. Strombeck's book, Feeding Dogs & Cats and he has a number of recipes in there. One thing Dr. Coleman is adamant about is feeding your pets leftovers. COLEMAN: Because most people don't eat very good. That's why their health improves when they start eating more natural raw foods, healthy greens and vegetables and things that are in their raw form. All these processed foods are not healthy for people. Same thing goes back to the dogs and cats and feeding them. The leftovers from people are often times just that; they're leftover things we don't want to eat may not be nutritionally complete for them. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.