Animal Authors

[Shearaha]

Sqee! I just found out that one of my favorite animal behavior author/trainer/behaviorist is coming to my town in November. She's going to be having a dinner followed by a presentation. I HAVE TO GO! If I can just see her on stage it will be one of the best days of my life. So gonna bring my books in case she does a signing afterwards!
*Devolves into babbling fangirl*

But to make this an actual topic. Who are some of your go-to authors for animal issues and general information?

For me when it comes to training and behavior it's Karen Pryor and Patricia McConnell. I'm also getting ready to read some of Temple Grandin's work, but haven't gotten to it just yet, but have heard really good things.

Oh, I'ma make this a list!

Author Title Recomended by
Karen Pryor: "Don't shoot the dog" "Reaching the animal mind" Shearaha
Patricia McConnell: "The other end of the leash" "For the love of a dog"Shearaha
Sandy Arora:"whole health for happy cats" Gabrielle_AnimalLuver
"the whole pet diet" Gabrielle_AnimalLuver
Dr. Billinghurst"Give your dog a bone" Gabrielle_AnimalLuver  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

The only main trainer I know of who I'd be willing to read a book of would be Ian Dunbar. But, I just don't find I agree with more than maybe half of any one trainer. Like I like Zak George (youtube and animal planet) his whole, go beyond positive reinforcement and communicate with your dog. But one I find he's very egotistical and acts like he's the founder of that entire concept and so much better than any other trainer, and 2, he completely refutes that dogs have any kind of "pack" behavior at all. Which for those of us with high prey drive or highly dominant dogs, know refusing to accept that can be dangerous.

I'm much more interested in reading about nutrition. My absolute, go to book, that I never put away is "whole health for happy cats" by Sandy Arora. This book should be a necessity for cat owners (or dog owners cause there's one for dogs too but I haven't read it yet) when they get a cat. It has eevvveerryytthinngg. It explains nutritional needs without going so much into detail as to scare away new owners, it has easy to follow recipes so you can feel confident in making your own food. But it doesn't emphasize too much that one method is the only method. Like it suggest raw as the ideal, but gives recipes for cooked and suggests what to look for in commercial. It talks about litter boxes, ailments, home remedies, vet care, minimal vaccinations. It's the best book I have.

Another book I would recommend is "5 weeks to better health" or something like that, shoot, can't remember, anyway, perfect for someone looking to transition. Makes the process easy and stress free. Cause I lent my "Give your dog a bone" book to a friend and they were a bit eek overwhelmed lol.  

[Shearaha]

I've read some of Ian Dunbar as well. He's good and was a pioneer in early positive reinforcement. My main issue is that he really hasn't incorporated any of the new information that's out there when it comes to behavior. He's still citing the same studies from the 70's and 80's.  

[pompoennetje]

I only have cat books. lol

But "whole health for happy cats" is a must if you own a cat.
I also would recommend "Cats/Focus" from DR. Bruce Fogle. So much information about cats. History, cats in art, breeds, living with a cat, about food and to take care of your cat. It's like an all-in-one book.

And I also got a really old book, that is probably not really up to date anymore. It's called "Everycat" by Eric Allan, Lynda Bonning, J. Rowan Blogg. It explains diseases and what you can do if a cat has a broken leg before you bring it to the vet. Poison, Which one are deadly and need a vet.  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

Dianda Panda

I only have cat books. lol

But "whole health for happy cats" is a must if you own a cat.

xd

Oh, just a quick correction, it's actually called "The whole pet diet" and then below that says 5 weeks to better health. And ya, as mentioned, good for someone transitioning, new to supplementing or home feeding, or with any specific issues. It's a great starter book and then if they want more recipes or more info they can go into Billinghurst which really goes into why your feeding each ingredient. I really do like to recommend that people read more than one book though, and with the easy to use recipes some people might not want to try new things or experiment with their own recipes, but read more than one person's take on it. Get a book by a vet, or with a forward or recommendation from a vet read both sides of a debate and decide for yourself. It pisses me off sooo much when the students at school make fun of the people who don't want to feed by-products. All you know is what the teacher told you to think. Sure, some by-products are good, but some are bad and personally, I feel I deserve to know what I'm feeding my pet.  

[pompoennetje]

Gabrielle_AnimalLuver

Dianda Panda

I only have cat books. lol

But "whole health for happy cats" is a must if you own a cat.

xd

Oh, just a quick correction, it's actually called "The whole pet diet" and then below that says 5 weeks to better health. And ya, as mentioned, good for someone transitioning, new to supplementing or home feeding, or with any specific issues. It's a great starter book and then if they want more recipes or more info they can go into Billinghurst which really goes into why your feeding each ingredient. I really do like to recommend that people read more than one book though, and with the easy to use recipes some people might not want to try new things or experiment with their own recipes, but read more than one person's take on it. Get a book by a vet, or with a forward or recommendation from a vet read both sides of a debate and decide for yourself. It pisses me off sooo much when the students at school make fun of the people who don't want to feed by-products. All you know is what the teacher told you to think. Sure, some by-products are good, but some are bad and personally, I feel I deserve to know what I'm feeding my pet.

Of course we deserve to know what you're feeding your pet.
I haven't completely used Sandy's book yet. I'm still reading it, and I want to try it out whenever I have time. And I've read somewhere that the by-food in commercial pet foods can be dangerous, indigestible fillers, and chemical preservatives, etc.  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

Dianda Panda

Gabrielle_AnimalLuver

Dianda Panda

I only have cat books. lol

But "whole health for happy cats" is a must if you own a cat.

xd

Oh, just a quick correction, it's actually called "The whole pet diet" and then below that says 5 weeks to better health. And ya, as mentioned, good for someone transitioning, new to supplementing or home feeding, or with any specific issues. It's a great starter book and then if they want more recipes or more info they can go into Billinghurst which really goes into why your feeding each ingredient. I really do like to recommend that people read more than one book though, and with the easy to use recipes some people might not want to try new things or experiment with their own recipes, but read more than one person's take on it. Get a book by a vet, or with a forward or recommendation from a vet read both sides of a debate and decide for yourself. It pisses me off sooo much when the students at school make fun of the people who don't want to feed by-products. All you know is what the teacher told you to think. Sure, some by-products are good, but some are bad and personally, I feel I deserve to know what I'm feeding my pet.

Of course we deserve to know what you're feeding your pet.
I haven't completely used Sandy's book yet. I'm still reading it, and I want to try it out whenever I have time. And I've read somewhere that the by-food in commercial pet foods can be dangerous, indigestible fillers, and chemical preservatives, etc.

In nutrition class we were told by-product couldn't be feathers. But I think it CAN be feet and beaks. I can't remember exactly. She said by-product in Hills refers to liver, kidney, stomach etc. Like I say, my issue with that is they need to SAY that. Even if Hills thinks that's what they're getting, is it? Okay, yes they have lots of quality control, but look at what happened with the melamine in Iams/Eukaneba/Purina, all vet recommended foods. Until FDA and ADCO get some better laws on labeling in place, they should actually write on the package, chicken kidney. Until THAT happens, I'm not touching it.

Preservatives don't fall into by-product, they have to declare preservatives EXCEPT for ethoxyquin. Which is a poisonous chemical, the fish they get could contain ethoxyquin and they wouldn't know it. Or they could put it in themselves no need to declare it. Other bad ones like BHT/BHA they do have to declare and hills still uses them. They claim these synthetic preservatives have some beneficial effects (nevermind their cancerous) At least medical/royal canin stay away from these, but only for sales, they don't actually care, they just don't want customers to be scared off from using their food.

Since wer'e talking nutrition, it is sort of on topic for me to just say this. As far as QUALITY of ingredients go. I love Acana (and Orijen, but I tend to only use that when my dog is working or suggest it to people with active dogs) My store is pretty dead on Sunday's so I will literally walk around reading ingredients. And I feel Acana is well worth the price. Even some of the other high quality foods, will put canola oil and flax oil above fish. Or they contain meat, one or two veggies and then synthetic vitamins. Acana has such a variety of veggies and even a whole bunch of botanicals. Everything is high quality, from the fat source to the fiber source. So when my teachers bash them constantly it just makes me fume. The ONLY thing they know about that food is that it's high protein and young dogs on it have a higher than norm creatinine. They couldn't tell you where it comes from, who makes it, they wouldn't know it won an award from the glycemic research institute. stressed  

[pompoennetje]

Gabrielle_AnimalLuver

Dianda Panda

Gabrielle_AnimalLuver

Dianda Panda

I only have cat books. lol

But "whole health for happy cats" is a must if you own a cat.

xd

Oh, just a quick correction, it's actually called "The whole pet diet" and then below that says 5 weeks to better health. And ya, as mentioned, good for someone transitioning, new to supplementing or home feeding, or with any specific issues. It's a great starter book and then if they want more recipes or more info they can go into Billinghurst which really goes into why your feeding each ingredient. I really do like to recommend that people read more than one book though, and with the easy to use recipes some people might not want to try new things or experiment with their own recipes, but read more than one person's take on it. Get a book by a vet, or with a forward or recommendation from a vet read both sides of a debate and decide for yourself. It pisses me off sooo much when the students at school make fun of the people who don't want to feed by-products. All you know is what the teacher told you to think. Sure, some by-products are good, but some are bad and personally, I feel I deserve to know what I'm feeding my pet.

Of course we deserve to know what you're feeding your pet.
I haven't completely used Sandy's book yet. I'm still reading it, and I want to try it out whenever I have time. And I've read somewhere that the by-food in commercial pet foods can be dangerous, indigestible fillers, and chemical preservatives, etc.

In nutrition class we were told by-product couldn't be feathers. But I think it CAN be feet and beaks. I can't remember exactly. She said by-product in Hills refers to liver, kidney, stomach etc. Like I say, my issue with that is they need to SAY that. Even if Hills thinks that's what they're getting, is it? Okay, yes they have lots of quality control, but look at what happened with the melamine in Iams/Eukaneba/Purina, all vet recommended foods. Until FDA and ADCO get some better laws on labeling in place, they should actually write on the package, chicken kidney. Until THAT happens, I'm not touching it.

Preservatives don't fall into by-product, they have to declare preservatives EXCEPT for ethoxyquin. Which is a poisonous chemical, the fish they get could contain ethoxyquin and they wouldn't know it. Or they could put it in themselves no need to declare it. Other bad ones like BHT/BHA they do have to declare and hills still uses them. They claim these synthetic preservatives have some beneficial effects (nevermind their cancerous) At least medical/royal canin stay away from these, but only for sales, they don't actually care, they just don't want customers to be scared off from using their food.

Since wer'e talking nutrition, it is sort of on topic for me to just say this. As far as QUALITY of ingredients go. I love Acana (and Orijen, but I tend to only use that when my dog is working or suggest it to people with active dogs) My store is pretty dead on Sunday's so I will literally walk around reading ingredients. And I feel Acana is well worth the price. Even some of the other high quality foods, will put canola oil and flax oil above fish. Or they contain meat, one or two veggies and then synthetic vitamins. Acana has such a variety of veggies and even a whole bunch of botanicals. Everything is high quality, from the fat source to the fiber source. So when my teachers bash them constantly it just makes me fume. The ONLY thing they know about that food is that it's high protein and young dogs on it have a higher than norm creatinine. They couldn't tell you where it comes from, who makes it, they wouldn't know it won an award from the glycemic research institute. stressed

We don't have these brands here. But one of my cats needs a high quality of brand, or else she'll get black pecks on her chin. . _ .

And that was a lot of information! xD