Dog-Eared Reads: Yin & Yang Nutrition for Dogs

Yin & Yang Nutrition for Dogs will not appeal to or be useful to everyone, but for those looking for a natural diet for their dogs, this book does the trick.

It was written by veterinarian Judy Morgan with her husband Hue Grant. Morgan is the author of two previous books, From Needles to Natural: Holistic Pet Healing, and What’s for Dinner, Dexter? Cooking for Your Dog Using Chinese Medicine Theory, also with Grant.

The full title is Yin & Yang Nutrition for Dogs: Maximizing Health with Whole Foods, Not Drugs, and it was published in 2017 by Thirty Six Paws Press. It is available on Amazon.

Through her veterinary practice in New Jersey, Morgan gradually realized that traditional dry dog foods caused a wide variety of health problems in her patients, and so she began researching and experimenting with feeding her dogs whole foods.

Morgan is a proponent of traditional Chinese veterinary medicine, which involves balancing the Yin and Yang factors of your dogs’ internals. Yin is when your dog’s internal temperature is too cool and moist, while Yang would be when the dog’s internal temperature is too hot and dry.

By feeding a variety of various ingredients over time depending on your dog’s natural tendencies, a state of balanced health can be achieved.

This cookbook will not be helpful for most dog owners, because of the time, energy and expense of planning out and then actually cooking these meals.

There are over fifty recipes included in the various chapters ranging from meatloaf and salmon-based entrees to kale chips and cookies, many with photographs of the ingredients before cooking.

These recipes often include exotic or hard-to-find ingredients like fish and other seafood, venison or liver, many of which will likely be out of the price range of the typical consumer.

However, if you have the means and inclination to do so, there are recipes designed specifically to combat or deal with dry skin, kidney disease, pancreatitis and weight loss, among other specialized recipes.

There is also a handy chart providing general guidelines for how much food should be fed daily, based on their ideal weight.

For more information about Dr. Morgan’s methods, see her website for details.

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