Dr. Pitcairn Recipes

[1 bruce 1]

Quick question,

A friend of ours has been laid off and has four cats that are fed a high quality dry/wet combo diet, but finances won't allow this during this stage. they were interested in Dr. Pitcairns recipes. They're higher in grains than I would like, but their cats are all young, healthy, no health problems or allergies. They want to feed a quality diet that's budget friendly for probably about 4-6 months until they (estimate) they can get back on their feet.
I know nothing about these recipes so is this a healthy choice that won't break the bank for a somewhat short term diet?

 

[mschauer]

I'm not in the "anything but animal ingredients is poison" group but goes a bit too far in my opinion. I hadn't looked at his recipes recently but took a look again after I saw your post. He seems to have moved even further in the direction of plant based diets. Just looking at his blog may be misleading but he seems to appeal to and to mostly target, dog owners.

Is it primarily because they think a home-made diet that isn't all animal based will be cheaper that they are looking at Pitcairn's diet? Personally I think feeding something like Friskies wet foods would be fine for 4-6 months and would be both easier and probably cheaper. Friskies might not be the highest quality but it is a nutritionally balanced diet.

 

[lisahe]

I googled up Dr. Pitcairn and found a recipe with a lot of oats and not too much hamburger -- I'd stay away from that, too.

I agree that something like Friskies would be better, easier, and cheaper. Some stores, like Tractor Supply, grocery stores, and Walmart, have store brands with pretty decent ingredients, too, though of course the best foods are probably the most expensive.

 

[lalagimp]

Natural Cat Food Recipes

No. I wouldn't.
Honestly I did Dr Pierson's recipes so that I could afford to feed my boys the wet food they needed. Feeding them a bunch of carbs and preground meats would have me buying Fancy Feast instead. I would not home cook something that inappropriate for an obligate carnivore.

 

[1 bruce 1]

Thanks everyone, that's what I was thinking too.
I'll tell them about Friskies and give them Dr. P's website too. I did mention to them 4 Health sells big cans (nice for 4 cats) and are about a buck a piece.
I also told them we'd see about gifting them some hearts and gizzards, we get them dirt cheap we'll call it an early Christmas gift. ("Merry christmas friends, there's a 5 pound beef heart and 3 pounds of gizzards in your stockings. Hope they're not thawing over that fireplace." )

 

[MJT]

Lisa this is an old thread but if anybody is caring about this I've used Dr Pickens books and I don't think they're grain heavy as far as cats he has purely vegetarian recipes in place but he also has ones with meat. His books are inexpensive on Amazon and Barnes & Noble carries them so your friend or anyone interested could go in and pull it down off the shelf. Good chance your local library has it too as there are four additions. I recently heard from recommendation from Dr Beverly Royal who's an excellent holistic vet that another veterinarian put a lot of information on the web on how to feed your cat and that website is catinfo.org.. that is Dr Piearson. There is also Dr Becker Karen Becker who is very interested in species appropriate so I don't think you will find any grains or very small amount of grain in her cat recipes. There's also website called balance it to help you feed your pets balanceit.com