SPOONS ARE OPTIONAL AS FOR DICK VAN PATTEN, WHAT THE DOG ATE IS ENOUGH.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

PACOIMA - Dick Van Patten, nattily dressed in a striped white shirt and pink tie, smiles and looks into the deep brown eyes of his dining companion.

There's a savory aroma hanging heavily in the air, and the two are clearly hungry. The actor spoons up a mouthful of Irish stew, inhaling the scent with a grin before tucking it away.

``Mmmm ... not too bad,'' he pronounces, then offers a bite to his dinner mate.

Sonny sucks the spoon clean, then sticks his snout deep into the bowl. Slurping, chomping and sharp-toothed mastication ensues.

Van Patten's ``date'' is a greyhound mix, their ``restaurant'' a nondescript warehouse conference room. In a strange reversal of the usual dog-eats-man's-leftovers, man is dining on canine cuisine.

In addition to the occasional film role, the ``Eight Is Enough'' patriarch sells dog food, lending his name, face and ownership to Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc. The 16-year-old, privately held company makes high-end chow, selling more than $60 million worth of gourmet catering for dogs, cats and zoo animals.

It expects to buoy those sales significantly with the Dec. 15 release of Eatables, human-quality meals adjusted for doggie digestive tracts. Sold in independent shops and at Petco, the $2.49 cans come in flavors normally reserved for human palates - spaghetti and meatballs, hobo chili and Chinese takeout.

``The normal beef stew you'd get off the shelf doesn't have the minerals, so it's not healthy enough for a dog,'' said Joey Herrick, Natural Balance's president. ``Everyone feeds their dogs table scraps, which isn't the best thing for them. The vitamins and minerals aren't well-balanced.''

To get the balance between the human taste and the dog requirements, Herrick began with regular recipes and experimented adding phosphates and calcium to tailor it for canine consumption. It doesn't taste any different from what you might enjoy for dinner or your dog might pick out of your trash can, but it has none of the small bones to choke them, no rich ingredients to upset their stomachs and no preservatives.

``There are certain foods that are too rich for dogs,'' said Madeline Bernstein, president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Los Angeles. ``When you start to give them turkey with gravy, steak and cheese, they can get pancreatitis, which can be fatal. ... If the stuff looks gross, it could be the best dog food in the world, but you won't want to give it to them. You want to buy stuff that looks good enough to eat yourself.''

Though marketed with pets in mind, Herrick keeps cans on hand at home in case of an earthquake. When the big one comes, he'll be supping on the same stuff as his 19-year-old poodle mix, Mingo.

If it proves successful, Natural Balance plans to expand the line to a multitude of new flavors and perhaps get into cat food. Herrick predicts it will become a significant part of the company's business, an impressive feat for an enterprise that already enjoys more than 60 percent annual revenue growth.

``The food's the same as we eat, but it's got the science behind it,'' said Greg Kay, who gave up a career as a heart surgeon to become a partial owner of the company. ``It's pretty good stuff, better than the Dinty Moore I used to eat in college, I can tell you that.''

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

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4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Dick Van Patten of the sitcom ``Eight Is Enough'' gets help in Pacoima on Tuesday from Sonny, a greyhound mix, in introducing Eatables, a new line of pet food good enough for humans to eat. The new product is made by Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc.

(3) Tubes filled with dog food roll down the line at the Pacoima plant of Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Pet Foods. The high-end food is also sold to zoos.

(4) Van Patten's pet food company has been in business for 16 years, selling nutritionally balanced meals for animals.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer