The Natural Pet Food Cookbook - Healthful Recipes for Dogs and Cats

In the late 1960s and early ’70s, organic and all-natural foods were becoming commonplace in human diets. As we became more aware of what we were putting into our own bodies, it seemed only natural that we began to consider what we were feeding our pets. Little did I know that my first job, at the young age of 17, would shape the course of my life. My duties included taking care of the Goldstein family’s two girls and working four days a week at their Katonah, New York, store Lick Your Chops, one of the very first all-natural pet stores. Robert Goldstein was and still is a prominent veterinarian, now based in Westport, Connecticut. After 30 years in the holistic pet industry, Goldstein and his wife, Susan, remain pioneers in the field. Their book The Goldsteins’Wellness and Longevity has won numerous awards. What I learned in that summer of ’78 was the reason I started cooking for my pets. In 1985, I welcomed home my first puppy, a Chinese Shar-Pei. Six weeks later, he became very ill. Weeks of tests showed
that he was allergic to soy, salt, and preservatives. At the time I was in cooking school and newly married, but I thought, how hard could it be to create some food or at least a treat for my dog? To my surprise, learning the ins and outs took about 8 months; just figuring out how to make the treats crunchy without burning them was a challenge. Lip Smackers®, the people cookie made for dogs, was born, and so was my career in the pet industry. After graduating from cooking school, I started the company Lip Smackers and began applying everything I had learned while I worked for the Goldsteins. For example, they taught me that brewer’s yeast is wonderful for dogs; it helps bitter the blood to retard fleas. Since writing my first cookbook in 1991, I have been on a mission to teach people how to cook and care for their pets in a healthy, all-natural way, always keeping it easy, fun, safe, and practical. In 2007, for the first time we had a major pet food recall. This recall turned the industry upside down. Having lost confidence in pet food manufacturers, more and more pet parents are looking for healthy recipes that they can cook for their dogs and cats—like the recipes I have been creating since 1985. This book contains all-new, all-natural recipes. I have had the good fortune to work closely on this book with Kevin Schlanger, DVM, who is my own pets’ veterinarian. In addition to providing tips for you, Dr. Kevin has reviewed all the recipes in this book to make sure that they are safe for your pets.