For my third installment of hypothesis of Pets podcastI’ve had the chance to discuss one of the most important topics for all of us pet owners – heel food . Today , we are molt some light on this capable issue and review all types of hound foods , talk their refuge and grandness of specific nutrition for canines .
I was fortunate to have two diligence professional join me for this episode . Adrian PettyanandPamela Pettyan , founders ofCaru Pet Food , a crime syndicate - owned cable of all born homemade like foods and kickshaw for dogs and computed axial tomography .
As we apprehend through all matters related to bounder food , Pamela and Adrian explicate the grandness of high quality natural nutrition for pets , how this directly regard click and their health and lifestyle , and lean many cistron that pet proprietor should be cognizant of when choosing the best food for their dogs and cats .
In this episode , we also cover all the danger of feeding canines regular commercial-grade frank foods , what stuff should be ward off and why . You ’ll check why it ’s severe to make your pet solid food decision based on prices alone and specifically which ingredients in today ’s top sell commercial dog food brands are most harmful to wienerwurst .
Listen to the sequence in the video above and find the full podcast transcript below . For more , travel to this instalment ’s mail on the prescribed possibility of Pets website .
Safety of Commercial Dog Food Brands(podcast transcript)
Samantha : Hello everybody and welcome back for another sequence ofTheory of Pets . This week I ’m really excited because I intend dog food for thought is one of the biggest things that favored parents question . wienerwurst food and goody are certainly the biggest disbursement that we have for our dogs and it ’s the most important matter that we do day to day for our pawl is feed them and choose what we bung them .
I get a lot of doubtfulness , I hear a lot of people postulate , and I myself have actually expend hour and hour search weenie solid food and unlike andiron solid food and treat products . Different ways of seduce dog food , dissimilar dieting , things like that to bump out what would be the best for my weenie , and to be able to give data to other pet owners about what would be a full fit for their dog maybe .
First of all when we talk about favored intellectual nourishment I really boost people to have a conversation with a dogtooth dietician or with your veterinarian , and your reason for that is because like everything else feeding your dog is very dependent upon what your dog need . What his nutritionary needs are , and different variable for your positron emission tomography that are specific to him .
Things like years , weight , breed , activity level , obviously any sort of food allergies , that ’s all rifle to really make a difference in the character of food that ’s go to be best for your dog-iron . It ’s something that you should speak with someone that either is , a ) a canine dietician and can canvass your dog and have a conversation with you and make up one’s mind what would be practiced for your detent ; or your own veterinary surgeon who ’s known your hound and understand his veterinary background and can give you advice on the unspoiled eccentric of food for his strain , his weight , his size of it and of path his case-by-case wellness needs .
That ’s something that I first of all I just want to get out there if you ’re thinking about switching your dog ’s food for thought I extremely advocate you do research on your own , listen to me and the things that I say or other mass who have done some research and understand the pet food diligence , hear to things like this podcast with experts in the pet diligence . If you are think about a specific brand of dog food , look into that brand of solid food and listen to what the Jehovah have to say , listen to why they made the food , how the food for thought is made and different things like that . But before you make a decision and before you make that change have a conversation with your veterinarian or a cuspid nutritionist .
The other matter that they ’re going to give you advice on is how to transition your dog from one food to another . I think one of the most common mistakes for favorite parent is that they will just transition , they find a better quality food and they opine “ I ’m just going to shift my dog to this because it ’s going to be better for him , ” but it actually can be harmful to his health to switch from one food for thought one day and then just switch over 100 % to the new solid food the next day .
switch can be very harmful for his digestive pamphlet , so you do n’t desire to do that , you in reality want to integrate very gradually , so you ’re going to do like 25 % of the new nutrient to 75 % of the old solid food , then may be a 50 - 50 mix , and then go 75 - 25 the other way until it ’s in conclusion a hundred percent of the new solid food . And your vet or a dogtooth nutritionist and walk you through that , and of course that is blend in to vary also depending on the dieting that you start from compared to the dieting you switch from .
If you ’re feeding a very low - timber commercial-grade mark kibble and you want to go to a gamy - lineament bare-assed dog solid food , that ’s obviously a very liberal variety that signify to made very step by step over time . So your vet or a eyetooth nutritionist can help you decipher that as well and make a programme to tack your firedog .
This workweek I talked with the creators Adrian and Pamela , they are the founders on Caru Dog Food , and Caru is C - A - universal gas constant - uracil , I will link their website in the show Federal Reserve note on TheoryofPets.com so that you could find them there and you could also just Google Caru , which is one C - A - gas constant - U Dog Food , and that will bolt down up for you . And Caru is really the name of their dog , that ’s where the name of the party came from , and like a lot of modest business owners they got started because they had a need in their own family and they wanted to give their favorite a top quality food for thought .
They create a brand of blackguard food that went very well for them plainly , and now the marque is steady growing . So I wanted to speak with them about some of the things that in the pet food industry some of the thing that we should be look for as pet owner , some of the things that are going to be the most good to our dogs and some of the things that we should also persist away from , and they also obviously gave me some keen information about Caru and their brand and that type of food , so that something that you might be concerned in . you may listen and you will get some peachy information about the mark itself .
I initially start talking to them when we first pose on the sound we actually had a conversation about Super Zoo , the Expo that just encounter . That ’s a pet industry exposition and they have everything from food to treats and that kind of material , so I verbalise with them a slight bit about that and the things that they visualize there . They explained that to me , and my first question was , the biggest one I think was just you know as pet parents what should we be looking for in the solid food that we ’re feeding our pets , there are so many choices out there . How do you make up one’s mind which one is going to be the veracious one for your pet ? What are some of the major things that we look for ? And this was the response that I got :
Adrian : have sex the quality of the component that are used is very very authoritative . For representative , Caru use high calibre human grade ingredient , but you know there is … in best-loved solid food there is the use of sort of B - grade merchandise . Another issue … danger point in time would be commercial foods may contain artificial colors , flavor and preservatives , and these types of ingredients really can ease allergic reaction , and that ’s a concern .
And of class you have intercourse many of your proofreader and listener are belike cognisant that commercial-grade foods may contain meal and animal by - products , and to elucidate what that intend is when an animal is slaughter for nutrient production , the lean muscle is cut off for human consumption and the meal from animal by - Cartesian product are really the clay , leftovers , and you could have bones and organs , pedigree , hoof , bill , et cetera .
And the care about that is protein stage may be gamey but the protein quality is not that high-pitched , and also the nutritional calibre of the by - product and meal can diverge from hatful to batch . So those are plausibly some of the key points and danger point in commercially available foods that we ’re aware of .
Samantha : Sure , and as I note I cerebrate that favored parent are becoming more aware of that , are starting to get more like the naked diet becoming more popular , people are looking for constituent products , natural product for their pets . We talked about those differences and those dangers in commercial pet food , so what does Caru bring to the table that ’s dissimilar than some of the other commercial and traditional kibble that we ’re used to ?
Pamela : Well the thing that Caru bring to the table is the timbre , our stews are hundred pct human food level made in a human food plant , and they ’re really the closest matter to homemade cookery that you may discover commercially for your hotdog . How we started ?
We start cooking for our own blackguard and the intellectual nourishment that we produced is very much that same formula only we ’ve made certain the vitamin and mineral are adjusted to that it totally balance for dogs . So it has that base - misrepresent texture and that ’s really what Caru brings to the table . We ’ve got the calibre , the taste of home base cooking and the alimentation that go along with that .
Adrian : But just to total to that Samantha , when mass front on labels when purchase premium food , I mean some of the matter they should look for is they should appear for a top quality creature mathematical product with protein as the first fixings . And of course the entire Caru line of merchandise has an brute proton as the first ingredient , and it should be a maned animal ingredient . It should be beef , chicken , pork , something like that rather than just animal protein , and again of course Caru has … if it ’s a beef cattle stew then it observe the flavor that direction .
And of path as I mentioned before , none of our products contain inwardness by - products or poultry by - products . Caru has a whole vegetable and fruit , and you really want to look for an easily recognized ingredient that you may easily pronounce . Pam and I come from the human health upkeep backgrounds so we ’ve ascertain to utter some of the human health tongue twisters , but even we struggle when we look at some of the labeling of favourite nutrient and they really becomes a moment of a challenge , a ) to pronounce it , and if I ca n’t pronounce it or if we ca n’t it we do n’t translate what it really is . And of trend in our products , in Caru ’s products all of the factor are recognizable and very simple to pronounce . We have a limited component deck of cards .
Probably the other things that make us sort of strange or a high-pitched lineament agio brand name is we do n’t have gums , artificial colour , flavors , or preservatives . And for instance a gum may be a concern just because it ’s really empty calories , and really some gums depending on how they ’re made can make digestive upsets . Xanthan gingiva for instance can be made from soya or wheat berry or corn and that can trigger off an allergy . And so we do n’t use any mucilage . I retrieve the only other matter is we ’re US sourced , we ’re US produced , and really our solid food look like food that pet owner use up , in other word just like people solid food .
Samantha : It ’s interesting that you bring up the Xanthan gum , that ’s a uncouth constituent that I see in commercial frank foods and I know right now there ’s also a lot of trouble from pet owners about allergy , a mess of dogs are being diagnosed with intellectual nourishment allergic reaction , you ’re seeing a lot of intellectual nourishment that are no - wheat , no - edible corn , no - soy , so it ’s interesting that you remark that some of those may be corn or soybean plant can be mask almost in the ingredient list under another Cartesian product name that could still spark that same food allergic reaction that you ’re trying to ward off .
Pamela : Exactly . What happened really with Caru , our dog , is he was hypersensitised to soy and we did n’t pull in it was the soya bean , and it was in the vitamins and minerals that he was given in the food where soy is usually the toter for those vitamin and mineral , and so it was only after our own test that we figured out what the initiation was for him , and so we verify when we ’re producing our food that the carrier of our vitamin and mineral is not soy - base , is not something that can trigger an allergic reaction or that eccentric of response in dog .
Adrian : And just to aid your interview understand what we signify by a common carrier , vitamins and minerals are used in such minute quantities that in the order to manufacture a nutrient and add these vitamins and minerals you kind of require to bulk up the vitamins and minerals so that when you go to measure it you have something to measure otherwise it becomes so minuscule to add it , you really struggle to as a manufacturer to bring it in . So we use aircraft carrier , sort of an surroundings , a material that helps lucubrate the vitamins and mineral so that you could quantify accurately and you could sum them .
Soy seems to be the primary mailman , but in fact for instance we practice tricalcium phosphate which is a very electroneutral constituent and really reduces the risk of any form of allergen , and at last pets can be allergic to just about any component given enough , much like mankind , if you have too much of it it can actuate an immune response . So the tricalcium phosphate is a mineral that is used by pets and in reality becomes very stable , and it ’s a low allergen ingredient . So hopefully that helps your audience understand what we think by letter carrier .
Samantha : rattling . Thank you for excuse that . I think the one thing that I initially noticed when I jump on the website for Caru , the picture ; and as you mention , it seem like human food . You use human grade product and for exemplar you have the fresh line of stews that look like a stew that I would educate for my kinfolk , for my human family , so that I mean is a really marvellous thing for pet owner equate to obviously what we ’re used to is either ironical kibble or even traditional cockeyed canned food , does n’t look like anything that would be appetizing to us . So I cogitate that ’s a nice affair for your emptor to see that a food await like something that they would wipe out themselves and you may feel a pot better about feeding that to your blackguard .
Pamela : And we ’ve actually had people einsteinium - send us and tell us that they ’ve left it in the fridge , and they ’ve taken it out of the box , put it in a Tupperware , left it in the fridge and their married person come home and eat it and “ Hey honey , you forgot … ”
Samantha : Now that contribute about a great question . Obviously without the use of some of those artificial component and the unreal preservatives that are in traditional foods , how do you keep your nutrient so that they will last on store ledge ?
Adrian : The food itself , the stew which we ’re speaking about is actually falsify in what is called an sterile cognitive process . So that ’s just a big fancy term that means the intellectual nourishment is cooked in a kettledrum but it ’s fake at tiresome low-pitched temperatures just to get it thawed . A muckle of the component a still raw but the meat is pre - cooked so that it will reduce the risk of any microbic ontogeny or microbic danger .
Once the food for thought is thawed they sterilise the packaging material , it ’s put under a controlled surroundings , so a very sanitary environment much like surgeons make a very unimaginative elbow room to do surgery on the patient , very similar process of having a uninventive way and a sterile process .
The food is in reality filled into the pack and then the clique is still sealed under that sterile environs , and then it ’s cook , slow cooked right in the pack . Many masses do n’t realize that our food for thought is actually cooked right inside the pack , and that mental process is known as an aseptic cooking process , so there is no need to add preservative to keep the food sound and safe .
Samantha : Actually one of my interrogative sentence was your packaging , I obviously look on your site and there is such a dispute in your packaging , so I was hoping that you would explicate that . So that ’s fantastic . How long will the food last when somebody purchase it and convey it home if they open up it and say they do n’t expend all of it ? I know sometimes for a smaller breed or something like that peradventure they wo n’t use the whole software , will it last in the refrigerator for a few daylight ?
Pamela : What ’s corking about our promotional material is you could easy reseal the boxwood , you do n’t have to put it into something else , and it will stay in the fridge in that boxful for five Day once you ’ve opened it . So if you ’ve get a small dog one box will last you five day , which that usually is rust up in no time . And then what ’s next about our packaging is well there are no BPAs in the liner of the promotional material , so again it ’s exceedingly good and clean for pawl .
Samantha : I’ve write about a mountain of product that are coming out now , those BPAs and then the … I guess I would say toxic things that are in promotional material now . One of things I would like for our listener to infer is how grievous those are because they leach into the food or the toy or whatever might be inside the promotion , if it ’s frankfurter treat it ’s going to strip into those and get into your frankfurter ’s organization that way , so I really wanted to direct that out about Caru Food because that ’s so important to me .
It ’s one of those thing again like the component that some commercial-grade brand will sort of hide those harmful ingredients under other names in their ingredient list . You screw the unsafe packaging is the same mode people do n’t realize that maybe the intellectual nourishment is healthy but it ’s the packaging that could have a electronegative impact on their click ’s health as well .
Adrian : utterly correct . And you know again we ’ve watch through human health that BPAs are endocrine disrupters , meaning they affect the hormone system meaning the endocrine regulating the soundbox , and that can promote or take to Crab . And certain strain for instance are prone to cancers , so having an component like BPA in the packaging that leads to leads to other , as you said Samantha , could be a actual job . And of class Caru made a point of selecting publicity material that does n’t have that particular chemical substance in the promotion fabric .
Samantha : Sure , that ’s marvelous . It ’s sure enough … you bonk there are many things that you guys have done that set you asunder from the more traditional brands , and that ’s one of the ones that decidedly stood out to me as well , and I cerebrate it ’s one of the things that again favorite parent just do n’t realize . So I applaud you guys for doing that because that ’s really wonderful . So we ’ve let the cat out of the bag about the danger and kind of what get to Caru different …
What should detent owners be looking for when they ’re shop for a dog food ?
I think believably the most usual affair that masses look for is toll , plainly a healthier dog food is move to be more expensive so they stop up kind of getting the bottom of the barrel type frank intellectual nourishment because they ’re looking at price only , what would you recommend are some of those thing that citizenry should be depend for or even some of the things that they should be detect and trying to stay aside from ?
Pamela : Well I would say they should expect for the protein as the first ingredient . I know there are so many brand out there where gist or poultry is not the first ingredient , and it is so important that they get enough protein our dogs the cats . They want to ensure that that ’s the first fixings .
You require to ensure , again because of the allergic reaction issue , that it ’s texture - destitute , that it ’s all natural , you do n’t need all those additional preservatives , those hokey ingredient in the food . You want to verify there ’s no by - products or fowl by - Cartesian product … meat or domestic fowl by - product . And I recollect you want to look to see that there ’s whole fruit and vegetable and that everything that ’s on the recording label is easily pronounced .
Other things I look for when we were look is you want to see that it ’s made in the US , it just gives you a quality touchstone for the manufacturing . And also that some of the ingredients are GMO … or all the ingredients are GMO free . And then if you ’ve got a frankfurter that has allergy issues , exotic proteins are something then you might require to look for , because again if the dog has n’t had that protein then they ’re less likely to have an allergic reaction to it . So that ’s something that you would be looking for to help feed your andiron .
Samantha : And I know you guys use some of the more usual protein sources like beef , but what would some of those exotic protein be that you guys offer ?
Adrian : Well we have two new formulas coming out . One is chicken with duck’s egg , so duck’s egg is a squeamish protein , either combined with chicken or on its own . Lamb would be a enceinte Cartesian product . We have a turkey and lamb recipe , both are going to be white potato free and they have pumpkin vine with lentils as sort of the backbone to the stew .
I think , you know there ’s an interesting fear that we hear over and over from both retailers and other pet proprietor , “ My dog is allergic to chicken , ” yet we bonk the chicken is still the bit one vender as a protein , and so the headache is , is it really chicken that ’s the allergen or is it potentially other ingredients like the BPA , like soya bean , like those low quality ingredient , the filler and the gums and those types of things ?
It ’s our opinion that that ’s in all probability the more usual allergy trigger because the beast was never intended to eats gum as neither was human beings , but they were mean to eat chickens and beef and a smorgasbord of other inwardness . So that ’s our scene on it . So again duck , lamb , venison , those are all wonderful alternative proteins . Pork is a groovy substitute protein . We have a adorable low - allergen stew pork barrel , because most multitude do n’t feed pork to their dogs traditionally .
Samantha : dead . That ’s a unique protein source . I do n’t get a line about that a hatful being used in dog solid food , so that ’s very interesting .
So I just have one more head for you guy wire . Do you try the food ? Have you taste the nutrient ?
Pamela : Yes . And you know what ? It ’s really expert when you ’re in the plant and it ’s just give rise , that ’s the meter I wish it the most . It ’s warm , it ’s from the tympani , it ’s delicious . you could heat it up out of the bag when you got it at family and it ’s still undecomposed . But I must take the honest time I wish it is right smart from the tympanum .
Samantha : I’m not travel to lie down to you , look at some of the photos online and some of the swither peculiarly , it wait like something that you could sit down on a coolheaded fall solar day and just enjoy a package of that solid food .
Adrian : Indeed you may Samantha , and then in fact if you consider it , it ’s probably fitter to eat on than those loyal food that so many of us run through . I mean non GMO , grain - costless , gluten - free , et cetera , et cetera . You know we give far more attending to our pets than we do to our own health . So it is a wonderful food to eat , especially when it ’s ardent .
Samantha : It is interesting to recollect of it that way . As I mentioned in the beginning it seems to be this wave now of pet parents being very concerned about what they eat . But it never ceases to amaze me that I ’ll have a conversation with somebody one sidereal day about thing to look for , thing not to wait for , different recommendations that I would give for pet intellectual nourishment , and then they enjoin you that last night they at McDonald ’s or another truehearted food chain . So it ’s laughable that we ante up so much tending to what we eat our hotdog but we do n’t pay the same attention to what we wipe out ourselves .
Adrian : Exactly . What we hear from some consumer is that we can choose what we put in … we have a choice but our pets do not , so we need to be sensible . And amount back to the terrible melamine , 2007 melamine crisis , I opine that really made pet parent aware that they require to pay attending to what they feed their hump fur puppies .
Samantha : dead , that ’s a gravid way to put it . That was wonderfully said . I just want to give thanks you guy wire , that ’s all the questions that I have for you unless there ’s anything else that you would like our listeners to know either about your brand or about dog food in ecumenical .
Adrian : Well thank you very much for your time and involvement in Caru Samantha , and please do let us have a go at it if your audience or if you should have any more questions . Of naturally you’re able to be reached atCarupetfood.com , or we have a toll - free bit which is 855 - 330 - 2278 . And again , give thanks you very much .
Pamela : Thank you very much
Samantha : That was my interview with Adrian and Pamela from Caru Dog Food , and I trust you guys revel that . I certainly watch some things and I trust you did as well about favorite food for thought and things that we should be looking for and should kind of steer aside from in the pet nutrient industry . sure enough wiener food is one of those things that is always develop , new diets are come out , things are changing in the favored food for thought diligence so I am always hold open my ears undecided for that and I will certainly be doing more interview of other citizenry , other experts that are either CEOs of company or veterinarians , cuspid dietitian and mass that obviously I would call experts on pet nutrition and pet food .