It took us years to learn about diet and nutrition and health care, and to find suppliers for essential products. This list can save you time.
Contents
The following is a list of books in my library. Each one talks about natural and holistic care for cats, including a natural diet. I learned something special from each one.
This book is a gem and you owe it to yourself to read it. From 1932 to 1942 Dr. Francis M. Pottenger, Jr. conducted a feeding experiment to determine the effects of heat-processed food on cats. This short book describes that experiment and his findings. Because the findings are often misrepresented, it's best to read them for yourself. This book changed my life.
This is an excellent book that I just discovered. It has chapters on the principles and practices of herbalism, natural nutrition, materia medica (details on each herb), descriptions of how to treat certain conditions, and an introduction to acupuncture, flower remedies, and homeopathy. Highly recommended by me.
This is an excellent book about diet and nutrition, and it has influenced my practices. While the main subject is dogs, most of the material also applies to cats. Dr. Billinghurst is a veterinary surgeon living in Australia who describes thoroughly his diet of raw, meaty bones with supplements. No bonemeal for him.
Dr. Billinghurst now has a web site: http://www.drianbillinghurst.com/. Highly recommended! You can order the book from his web site.
You can also order the book from amazon.com.
This book is better than Ian Billinghurst's. The author is an Australian veternarian who has since broken with Billinghurst. Lonsdale feels strongly that the commercial pet food manufacturers are poisoning our pets. The book is available on Lonsdale's website, the publisher's website, and Amazon.com.
Juliette was born and raised in England of Turkish parentage, studied veterinary science in college, then dropped out in favor of "hands-on" study of original and authentic herbal treatments. She traveled the world in her search for knowledge and became recognized world-wide as an expert in what she calls Natural Rearing. These books became the foundation of my diet.
This book is subtitled "A vitamin and mineral program for optimal feline health." The foreword was written by Dr. Linus Pauling. Highly recommended.
An excellent "first" book. It has a good introduction to a natural diet and detail instructions for grooming and home health care and nursing. The original book was written ten years earlier and has subsequently passed from the "lunatic fringe" to middle-of-the-road establishment.
The original book was published in 1982 and was a landmark in the areas of natural diet and holistic veterinary medicine. Dr. Pitcairn has become somewhat of a guru in the area of veterinary homeopathy.
Highly recommended. Pat wrote this book to save the lives of pets, lives she feels are threatened by the advice of orthodox veterinarians, especially with regards to diet. Pat separates veterinarians into orthodox and nutritionally-oriented. She describes successful natural therapies—mostly nutritional, but also homeopathic, herbal, and acupuncture.
Celeste is a breeder of Tonkinese. Motivated by her own experiences with sick cats, she researched natural and holistic cat care. This book is a result of that research. It contains a broad discussion of the different "alternative" therapies available today and has an excellent section on diet and nutrition.
This book is a comprehensive encyclopedia of current natural healing methods. It has excellent chapters on nutrition, vitamins and minerals, herbal remedies, and flower essences, among others.
Most of this book applies to cats as well as dogs. It focuses on food and nutrition. It has a special chapter on kinesiology, aka muscle testing, with complete directions so you can practice it yourself on people and animals. Kinesiology is a useful diagnostic tool.
This separate page lists other web sites we've found and enjoyed for a variety of reasons. Perhaps you will too! Suggestions are welcome.
I mail order many nutritional supplements and other stuff. These suppliers can be relied upon to carry products you may not find locally.
They have an extensive catalog of books about nutrition and holistic health care. The Foundation is based on the works of Drs. Weston Price and Francis Pottenger, Jr. who conducted landmark research into the effects of nutrition, both good and bad. Its goal is to promote public awareness of the importance of sound nutrition. They have several books about cats, including Pottenger's Cats, which I highly recommend.
They sell the Animal Essentials supplements, which I use and think are excellent. They also sell Animal Apawthecary remedies. Both product lines are formulated by Gregory Tilford.
This is the best source of cod liver oil.
This is the best source I know for sisal scratching posts. They come in four sizes and last forever. And now they have a web site!
They have a small product line of nutritional food supplements developed by Dr. Wendel Belfield. I depend on them for Mega C Plus. In addition, the web site has an excellent collection of articles about pet health, including diet and vaccination. Highly recommended.
Suppliers of herbal remedies, homeopathy, supplements, natural foods, flower essences, botanical shampoos, and more. They have a great "vest" that I use when I take a cat outside on a leash.
As of 2004, a source of Old Tyme Super Pine Cleaner, an excellent natural pine oil cleaner that I use to clean the cattery, including floors and litter boxes. It cleans, disinfects, deodorizes, and sanitizes. This product is a favorite of mine. Over the years, it has moved from catalog to catalog. It is currently available from Gaiam, and also from www.realgoods.com (a subsidiary of Gaiam).
Celeste is another advocate of the raw meat diet. She sells cat food and food supplements that are consistent with the information in her book.
They sell a variety of cat toys, books, flower essences, and other special things.
They offer a 140+ page catalog of commercial pet products. I buy grooming tools, cat furniture, cages, and travel cages. I avoid the non-natural products.
Holistic veterinarians can be few and far between, especially in areas remote from large cities and veterinarian teaching colleges. Finding a vet is an important task for the new owner of a purebred cat. In our area (Marin County, CA) most of the local vets have been brainwashed by the SPCA to believe that purebred cats are undesirable, compete unfairly with the SPCA's cat shelter, and are not worthy of first class care. Your only recourse is to find a vet who will give your cat the very best care available. Use these resources to do that.
Provides list of member veterinarians.
Dr. Loops does telephone consultations and sells homeopathic nosodes.
Sometimes veternarians are not enough to diagnose and/or treat your cat. I have some experience with the following people:
Registry organizations primarily maintain official records of pedigrees. They ensure that only qualified cats are registered as belonging to a given breed by registering breeders, litters, and individual cats. They also ensure that no two cats are registered with the same name.
Registry organizations also establish written breed standards, sponsor local cat clubs and cat shows, and train and license cat show judges.
The following list is not all inclusive. There are other organizations that are regional in scope and that we are not involved with.
I have benefitted greatly from animal communicators. Here is a documentary video that is a wonderful explanation, sorry about the advertisement. The animal communicator, Anna Breytenbach, has a website which you may find worthwhile.
Revision: 6-19-2015.
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