Pet Life TV ran a great piece featuring Halo’s founder, and how to make Halo Spot’s Stew at home.

Nearly 25 years ago, Andi Brown had a very sick cat named Spot. After a series of visits to multiple veterinarians failed to find a cure, the solution she discovered was a home-cooked stew, made with fresh chicken and vegetables. The elixir was aptly named, Spot’s Stew.

This video tells us how she started Halo, and how to make Spot’s Stew.

Watch her appearance in this video:

By Angela Coulombe

When Halo Purely for Pets, a company co-owned by Ellen DeGeneres, contacted me to work with them again see Angela Coulombe Photography Blog, I was over the moon. Halo’s mission, to provide people and their pets with honest information and wholesome products to better the lives of animals and the people who love them along with their three guiding principles: balance, nature and love, make this one company who’s principles are in line with mine and products I enjoy photographing.

I was focusing on two products: Adult Dog Formula Spot’s Stew Wholesome Chicken Recipe and Adult Dog Formula Spot’s Stew Wild Salmon Recipe. My brief was to show the natural, healthy and wholesome ingredients that go into each product. And here is what I LOVE about the products the most: the ingredients!!!! Just reading the packaging, you realize these are home-style recipes with easy to recognize and understand ingredients. Spot’s Stew Wholesome Chicken Recipe contains, for example, Chicken, Eggs, Pea Protein, Oats, Pearled Barley, Whole Peas, Chicken Liver, Salmon, Flax Seed, Salmon Oil Pea Fiber, Sweet Potatoes, Apples, Blueberries, Green Beans, Carrots, Cranberries, Zucchini, Alfalfa just for starters (even I know what all these ingredients are). Spot’s Stew Wild Salmon Recipe contains Salmon, Eggs, Pea Protein, Oats, Vegetable Broth, Pearled Barley, Whole Peas, Chicken, Flax Seed, Salmon Oil, Pea Fiber, Sweet Potatoes, Apples, Blueberries, Green Beans, Carrots, Cranberries, Zucchini, Alfalfa amongst other nutritious ingredients. Perhaps most importantly, though, Halo NEVER uses chicken meal or other rendered products, artificial flavors, colors or preservatives. Real meat, poultry or fish are the #1 ingredients in these foods.

Below is a small selection of images that illustrate the wholesome, fresh ingredients that go into making Halo Purely for Pets products. Feeding your pet Halo is like giving them a table-ready, wholesome, fresh meal.

For more information about Halo, Purely for Pets, check out their site, follow them on twitter and read about Halo Purely for Pets news via their blog.

She use’s the recipe for spots stews with chicken and turkey and lamb meat she does change the meat and she does use organ meats. I just want to know if this is really good for our pets, or should we use kibble?

Answer: Thanks for writing. Glad to hear you are making the recipes at home. You can meet all of your dogs’ needs with these recipes and there is no need to feed dry kibble.

If you are using the Vitamin Mineral Mix daily you will be supplying an adequate amount of essential nutrients. Make sure you do not add the vitamin supplement during cooking, but to the individual portion for each pet–right before feeding.

Hope that helps.
Dr. Donna J. Spector

Answers provided to pet owners by Dr. Donna Spector should be considered information and not specific advice. Answers are to be used for general information purposes only and not as a substitute for in-person evaluation or specific professional advice from your veterinarian. Communications on this site are very limited and should never be used in possible cases of emergency. Halo, Purely for Pets will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on any information or content contained in a blog or article post.

On ABC 15 (Arizona) TV appearance: I had so much fun going on the local lifestyle show, Sonoran Living in Phoenix, when PETCO sent me there to help get out the message about better natural nutrition for pets and share the HALO Spot’s Stew recipe for pet lovers to make at home.

Watch the TV Spot!

Tracie Hotchner, author of The Dog Bible and The Cat Bible, guest blogs here every Thursday on healthy, natural choices for pets.

On his way to concluding “we should feed our pets the best food we can,” Dr. Greg discussed Halo Spot’s Stew – the only brand featured in the article.

Here’s what Dr. Greg had to say:

“Holistic pet foods like Spots Stew (Halo) began because over 15 years the inventor made food for her sick cat, then her friends, then for millions of our pets. The food label on Spot’s Stew is easy to read, the ingredients sounding like a normal shopping list. Compare that to a can or bag of food in your pantry, garage, or closet. The stabilizers and preservatives almost crowd the food ingredients off the label. Where the human grade ingredients of Spots ; Chicken, carrots, celery, zucchini, green beans, green peas, turkey, calcium citrate, barley, oats , soy sauce, garlic, kelp, pasta, dicalcium phosphate, chicken liver, zinc gluconate, ascorbic acid, copper gluconate are easily recognized as whole foods, minerals, and vitamins.”

Thanks, Dr. Greg. I expect members of the Halo family will be interested in your pet care advice, and homemade dog food recipes.

Click here for the whole article, and lots more from Dr. Greg.

Click to our News page for the whole story.

Thanks to PETCO’s promotion and writer Jill Rosen’s great journalism, readers of the Baltimore Sun got some great Thanksgiving tips. One of those tips was how to prepare our classic Halo Spot’s Stew, Thanksgiving Style!

Click over to our News page to see the whole story.

Click over to our news page for the story.

If you’re considering cooking that perfect Thanksgiving feast for your dog or cat, make sure they’re getting good nutrition from the right ingredients. How about making them Halo Spot’s Stew, Thanksgiving-style?

Halo’s always given out its most famous recipe as a gift to those noble souls who cook for their pets. The original Halo Spot’s Stew calls for chicken (see the link below). But turkey and chicken have very similar protein, fat and calorie content. So they are interchangeable! So if you have some extra (or leftover) turkey, try substituting turkey for chicken in the recipe below. And Happy Thanksgiving!

Click here for the Original Halo Spot’s Stew recipe, and don’t be afraid to substitute turkey!

“If you’re like us here at the magazine, you enjoy celebrating special occasions with your dog or cat. Halo, Purely for Pets sent us this healthy Thanksgiving recipe to try. It was originally formulated when company founder Andi Brown was struggling with healthy issues and looking for something she could make in her own kitchen using grocery store ingredients (yes, people can eat it too). Happy Thanksgiving!”

It warms our hearts when, like Andi for her cat Spot, people cook wholesome, nutritious meals for their four-legged loved ones. Of course, many of us rely on the chefs at Halo to do the cooking for them!

See the Halo News page for a link to the recipe in Animal Wellness.