Commercial pet food is not good for your pets. It causes all the same degenerative disease that commercial people food causes in people. Yes, they can eat it. But it shortens their life. If they don't eat it, you will notice a difference in their fur, their smell, and their energy levels. And not paying the commercial food industry is its own satisfaction.

150 years ago pet food did not exist. Pets ate what they could catch or what their people ate. Dogs did not get diabetes. Cats did not get kidney disease. Pets lived long healthy happy lives, barring injury.

There are many differing opinions about how, exactly, to feed your pets without commercial food. I am not an expert. But I have deduced that common sense provides adequate instruction. Dogs and cats are carnivores. Feed them meat. Cats need more meat. Dogs can get by on other foods as well.

Milk does not cause diarrhea in cats or dogs. Let me repeat that. Milk DOES NOT cause diarrhea in cats or dogs. You can feed cats unlimited bowls of milk, cream, butter, or yogurt. They will be happy. You can feed dogs all that over a couple of slices of bread or leftover waffles with two raw eggs cracked over the top and they will be happy. Through the years I've fed cats and dogs that way hundreds of times with joy all around. And that was before I had access to raw milk, which is even better. But meat is best for carnivores. I have a standard system for feeding our cats and dogs more than milk. Here's the recipe.

Into one stock pot put lots of meat. Some weeks ground beef will be on sale. Some weeks its chicken legs. Variety is good. Put meat in your stock pot and simmer with water to cover until tender. When the meat is well cooked add enough rice to give the food pleasing consistency when done. Add organ meats. Add a can of pumpkin. Or add a sweet potato. Add anything you want to add that makes sense. Plus a couple of packages of gelatin. Cook until done. Make sure there is plenty of fat. No fat skimming. If your meat wasn't fatty enough, add some.

A 12 quart stock pot of this stew will feed my two large dogs, a cup and half each once a day, for about a week. It also feeds my cats. For the cats I mix this stew with a can of fish--salmon, mackerel, or sardines, in a one to one ratio. They love it. The kitten is growing well on it. This two or three cup mixture will feed my two cats several days.

This sounds like trouble but its just a routine. Its not more expensive than buying commercial food. And its hardly more trouble. I make and store the food all in one stock pot. We cook for ourselves everyday anyway. So, its easy. Unlike commercial food, this stuff is never disgusting. And the animals are happier.

Some folks just feed their animals raw meat. I have no doubt that is best of all. I supplement with occasional raw chicken legs and table scraps for the dogs. (Except we rarely have table scraps.) All the animals get brewers yeast in their food when I remember to add it. I don't buy vitamins. And if I'm late making more pet food, I just give everyone milk.