Bone Appetit!
March 22, 2007— -- If you smell the aroma of dinner emanating from Lori Perrotti-John's kitchen, it's possible that meal may not be for her. It's likely for her dogs.
For the past nine, years Perrotti has been whipping up home-cooked meals for her three golden retrievers. And not just any old table scraps… she actually cooks turkey, free-range chicken and organic veggies just for her dogs and she serves it to them warm. She'll even throw in some yogurt, bananas and apples.
"I have much healthier, happier, animals," says Perrotti-Johns. "My vet actually thinks I'm crazy."
The Food and Drug Administration will review the latest details in the tainted pet food recall Friday, March 30, at 10 a.m. ET. Watch the news conference live on ABC News Now.
Perrotti-Johns spends about $50 a week and is in the kitchen every three days making meals for her furry friends. It's a little bit pricier and more time consuming than buying typical pet food, but she says it's worth it.
"I noticed the difference in his coat. He didn't get the hot spots like he used to, he didn't get the digestive problems, he didn't get the diarrhea and the runs. That all stopped … when I switched his diet," she says.
So when pet food came flying off the shelves in last week's recall, she didn't worry about her dogs. And she wasn't the only one.
Since 1998, Mary Straus has fed her dogs a steady diet of raw meat -- chicken, turkey and beef. Straus says that when her dog was 6 years old, a raw diet worked wonders for the pup's arthritis.
"When I switched her to a raw diet with no grains, I was able to take her off the medications, and her arthritis was actually better," says Straus. She has since had to put the 15-year-old Sharpei back on medication.
Straus and Perrotti-Johns are among the small -- but growing -- segment of American pet owners who are making home-cooked meals for their pets.
"I'd say it's [a trend that is] growing all the time," says Nancy Kerns, editor-in-chief of the Whole Dog Journal. Kerns says most people find out about the benefits of a home-prepared meal when pets face a medical issue and both dog and owner learn to stick with it.