# Pitcairn Recipes?



## Paula_in_Oregon (Feb 13, 2010)

Does anyone have opinions - good, bad, or indifferent on the Pitcairn recipes? I like the idea of feeding a homemade diet but I'm not sold on a raw diet - as in BARF, etc.


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## sagira (Nov 5, 2009)

I'm curious too. I own the book, and it's interesting to see that he includes good grains such as oatmeal and rice. 

Anybody?


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

I am sure they are balanced and fine but I prefer to feed more meat than he suggests. He is providing good kibble recipes when *I* think kibble is carb heavy and animal fat is better for dogs than vegetable oil. Very unsure about the healthy powder. Seems to me it could just cause all sorts of issues. Have you seen http://www.dogaware.com/ ? There are other books listed there plus articles about cooking for dogs AND a nice article about how real people feed cooked food to their dogs. And http://monicasegal.com/aboutus/newsletter.php makes up recipes that are balanced to the NRC levels. There are a couple recipes in the newsletters and elsewhere on her website plus she has written books and pamphlets. I combine the two methods. I balance to NRC and feed more meat than MS suggests.

Hope you continue looking into cooking for the dog. I have found it to be very rewarding and plan to never go back to commercial dog food.


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## Paula_in_Oregon (Feb 13, 2010)

Kathyy said:


> Very unsure about the healthy powder. Seems to me it could just cause all sorts of issues.


First of all, thank you for replying - but what issues do you think could arise from it? 

Thank you for the links, too.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

The yeast is often mentioned as an allergen and the B vitamins it is rich is are also plentific in meats. Lecithin, why? Vitamin C is made by healthy dogs.

Then of course no way Sassy could eat it. It is super high in phosphorus and she has kidney disease!


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## Paula_in_Oregon (Feb 13, 2010)

Thank you, again, for replying. 

I didn't realize the recommendation was to feed it to a dog with special needs - ie, kidney disease - actually, I thought there was a section with recipes for dogs with special needs but I must be mistaken.

And I don't think the amount of Vitamin C being recommended would _hurt_, and the B vitamins are probably recommended because the diet isn't very high in meats, so I don't see what the problem would be with that. 

I guess I should rephrase my question - because I'm curious as to what the pros/cons would be for a healthy dog, not necessarily one with special health needs, like diabetes or kidney/liver disease, etc. 

Thanks again.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

Of course you are correct, this is all my bias. Also you are adding in heavily processed materials when you could look for fresh foods containing those missing nutrients. Fresh meat has all those vitamin Bs. Use more. Another bias is against buying stuff I won't otherwise use. That yeast and lecithicin would be a waste if I didn't use it for the the dogs.

My push into cooking for the dogs was the kidney thing and those horrible 2007 dog food problems. I had seen this book long ago and was not convinced it was any better than kibble at that point. Now I do think those recipes are far better than kibble these days, your dogs would be well nourished. 

I found the canine kidney diet recipe on page 364. Not a fan, not much meat, high phosphorus whole egg instead of meat, parsley not good for them, extremely low in protein but moderate fat. No healthy powder though! Egg is a more expensive protein source than meat as far as Sassy's phosphorus budget - 15 mg of phosphorus per gram of protein when beef round steak is about 1o mg of phosphorus per gram of protein and Sassy's usual stewed chicken is only 5.75 mg P to gram of protein!

I cannot put all the ingredients into a recipe in nutritiondata of course as ND doesn't have the right yeast or lecithin or kelp powder listed. I did try the loaf on page 70 in there using wet kelp at 5x the dry and baker's yeast. Low in vitamin E, vitamin B12, zinc and copper but not absent just at 30,54,84,95% of level required. Would be just fine if used along with other foods. Part of this could be he is balancing to AAFCO and I balance to NRC. One other concern is using commercial products is the sodium, this recipe has whole wheat bread which of course adds a lot of sodium nobody really needs, this recipe comes in at over 400% of Sassy's needed amount.

Go for it, I am being super picky about this. And I don't want to put my feet on the cold tile floor to go cook for my hungry dog who is currently eating her brother. He hates getting eaten when she is hungry.


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## Paula_in_Oregon (Feb 13, 2010)

Yeah, I can totally appreciate all that. I had a dog that we did some of the Pitcairn recipes for and it worked out great until she decided she didn't like it any more (she was a very sensitive eater). She didn't have any issues (at the time) though. And it actually really appealed to me for it's lack of meat, because when we had her on a diet with higher meat content, she really had some problems - she always had a sensitive gut though.

At this point, I'm looking into this and other diets because I plan to get a new dog (probably a puppy) in the fairly near future and don't want to feed commercial dog food, although I know that there are some good ones out there.

As for buying things I don't have a use for other than for the dog, that's not a problem for me, but I can understand that thinking. 

Thanks again.


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## sagira (Nov 5, 2009)

I just discovered this site: www.naturaldogfood.com


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

Isn't that neat! Did you check out the emergency food button on the left hand side? That is the method to see if it is the sort of way you would like to feed your dog.

Feeding Sassy low phosphorus and trying to keep up her protein and calories is hard enough though. If I varied the menu day by day I would go completely nuts. I could put an ounce or two of our meat and veggies into her basic food though. It would make her happy, she loves eating what we eat. Maybe I will try to build that into the plan next time I cook for her.


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