Ever wonder how to tell what an animal should eat?
The answer lies in their mouth!
]]>Nature created all animals, from their mouth to their digestive system, to be able to efficiently consume the diet they are intended to eat.
Look in your cat's mouth and you will see a mouth made for hunting!
Incisors - small pointy teeth in front of mouth on top and bottom - usefull for picking up small items and grooming - they also help to hold prey while the next teeth go in for the kill
Canines (aka fangs) - these are designed to kill and tear flesh!
Molars - cats have premolars that are sharp and serrated so designed to further tear chunks of meat into smaller pieces to swallow whole. Then they have 4 molars to crush bone.
None of these are designed to grind food
Since a cat's mouth is designed to eat meat, then it stands to reason that the rest of their body is as well. Mother Nature knows best!
So, while it isn't always feasible, or the best choice, due to nutritional knowledge or convenience, to feed your cat fresh meat, in order to stay as close to their natural diet as possible, look for foods and treats that contain high amounts of meat and avoid cereal grains, etc which they are not designed to eat (if they were, they would have grinding type molars like horses).
Happy feeding!
]]>Covid-19 has been hard in some ways a great in others. Especially for pets who have benefitted from having people home with them.
With lockdowns lifting, what does that mean for them?
Read about some ideas on how you can help you pets transition to our "new normal"!
]]>Many pets have actually benefited from the changes that Covid-19 brought whether as part of the steep increase in adoptions, or just having their families at home with them more. And although it isn’t over, there will be some changes that seem to be on the horizon that may change that for them.
Many pets have not been left on their own for a very long time. Some maybe never! If that suddenly changes for them, they may struggle to know how to behave properly.
Best we can do is set them up to succeed. And the time to do it is now.
Some ways you can help are
1. Leave for short periods of time. If they struggle being left completely alone, and you have more than one person in the house, have one person at home while the other goes out and then switch. If the pet is more attached to one person, make sure that person leaves more often.
Ideally, you want to only leave as long as the pet is comfortable
When you go, start using some cues that all is good, like leaving a toy stuffed with healthy treats (like a Kong) or a favourite “safe to chew unsupervised” toy that they only get when someone leaves….helps your pet see you leaving is more of a positive.
You can also put on some nice music to help the house not seem as “empty”
When you return, say a calm “hi” but don’t make a big deal otherwise.
2. Now try everyone leaving. Again for only as long as the pet can handle at first and build the time up. Using the same cues that you left before is helpful because they do learn to associate that with you coming back at some point.
3. If your pet is used to and happy in their crate, this is a good time to reinforce that. If you know you have time to properly crate train someone who isn’t already there, then you can start that training as well, but don’t make it a negative for them by moving too fast through training
4. Some dogs struggle more than others. You should consult a professional trainer or behaviorist if your pet shows self-harming behaviour when left alone.
5. There are also products that can help. Pheromone based calming sprays or plug-ins that help make your dog feel better while you are gone. These vary in effectiveness from dog to dog so be sure to try before you need to use to see if it helps your dog
6. There is another tool that can help. Food can play a role in dog behaviour and there is a product created by Italian Vet and food borne sensitivity specialist Dr Sergio Canello based on the research he did at his research and development facility in Italy. It’s called Behavioral and it works to not only calm the dog with plant-based nutraceuticals like Linden Flowers, Tea Extract and Valerian Root, but also helps to combat inflammation and open up the neural passageways that sometimes get blocked in order to release and receive the “good chemicals” like dopamine and serotonin for the dog to feel better and therefore learn better. This food has proven effective a tool to be used as part of a training/retraining program for many behavior issues, including separation anxiety.
You can read more about the science here https://forza10usa.com/blogs/science/tagged/nervous-system-and-behavior.
Just remember, as with any other training program, your dog loves you and is trying to do their best.
Our job is to support that by giving them the tools they need to understand our expectations.
They don’t watch the news and have a way to prepare themselves for changes in their life. They don’t have access to information that will help them either.
That is our responsibility.
Here’s to some positive changes coming our way and the easiest transition possible!
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For years now we have taught concerned pet parents to read ingredients and how to better understand them to make sure they are getting what they want for their pet.
A great example of this (and how the needle keeps moving) is that ingredients are listed in order of weight on the package so if you want a lot of meat for your pet, meat should be listed at the top of the list.
To complicate that, if it is fresh meat, then the water is still in it when it is weighed so there isn’t a guarantee that the amount of meat is as high as it appears
So, it is then suggested that meat meals are better to see at the top as they have the water removed so the amount of actual meat is likely higher….
And then it is suggested that meat meal is a lesser form of meat because it is more processed….not necessarily true, but it is something to consider
I could list so many examples here, but I won’t. The point is that people wanting to do best need to keep asking questions. But one thing was learned is that ingredients matter
With the “ingredients matter” movement came a dent in sales of some of the lower quality foods and it started getting bigger.
The thing about business is if a company sees themselves losing their share of the market (especially in businesses who are there to make money vs provide a better product), they will look to see what is luring the consumer away.
There may have been some good things that came from this. Better ingredients possibly?
But dollars talk and marketers are smart and they can find a way to make things look the way consumers want them to so this complicates things.
I am not telling you which foods to buy and which not to buy. I will give tips in other posts to help you choose, but the reason for this post is to simply say…
Look past the bag…
Ask questions….
The point is to question. Question the pretty pictures on the bag. Question the words they use. Question the ingredients even if they appear to be what you have been taught.
Even if you questioned at one point and feel you have the answer, it’s a good idea to check the needle to see where it lies now.
If you ever needed a reason to visit your pet specialty retailer, the relationship that they have with their companies so you can find answers to these questions is key.
So, first question is, can you ask these questions where you shop?
]]>It illustrates many issues that we have in the industry right now. As well as the problem with division and statements made by people in authority without gathering proper knowledge.
As many of you know, earlier this year there was a “link ” made between certain foods and Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM*).
The reason for the “” around link is that there actually wasn’t one made
*(DCM is a horrible disease. Simply put, it is a disease of the walls of the heart that eventually weakens the chambers making it unable to pump efficiently. This leads to a decrease in quality of life as the pet becomes lethargic and weakened making everyday activities more difficult. It can lead to heart failure).
To make things worse, a list of 16 manufacturing companies was released by a governing agency (FDA) and it was suggested that feeding the foods on the list could cause DCM.
It was expanded to suggest that the link was to all grain free foods (even though not all the foods on the list were grain free and foods with high levels of pulses (lentils, chickpeas and peas)
There was no science behind any of this.
This could be compared to taking a group of people with broken hips and gathering information on what they eat and then create a list to tell people that eating those foods causes broken hips
This would be missing the following
Proof that eating that food actually causes broken hips
Correction for the popularity of a food – ie more people may have eaten a certain food because it’s popular which would lead to a higher number
Correction for many other aspects which could also contribute to the broken hip like all foods consumed, genetics, health condition, activity level, medications, etc
Yet companies were named, it was broadcast loudly across all sorts of news and media channels with this list of companies stating that feeding them could be harming pets.
The media expanded that further to state “boutique store” foods pose a danger to pets health.
This caused a reaction throughout the industry
Pet parents were scared
Retailers were put in a position to ease their fears and try to help the parents feel they are making safe choices, all while not having any information other than this unbacked statement. It was exhausting, unfair and wrong.
Retailers were hurt financially as many consumers were scared away from buying from them, not even giving them a chance to discuss. These are the same retailers who exist because they are trying to do best for pets.
Manufacturers were hurt. Customers often switching away from any foods on the “list” or in the other categories without looking further into things.
Manufacturers scrambled to defend their formulas and some even created “grain inclusive” foods to stop the bleed from their brand (more on this in another post)
The message was sent to pet parents that the only foods that were safe were the ones sold by vets. This message was sent by people in authority and without proper information which is very dangerous.
Many vets repeated this message. Not all of course. But it felt like the very people who should be working together in the best interest of pets, were on opposing sides . This is not new (more on this in a future post), but this situation made that divide bigger and stronger than ever
It has recently been quietly proven that there is not enough evidence to state that there is a direct link between diet and DCM. That DCM is complicated and that there are many different aspects to be considered.
It will be interesting to see how much this message gets broadcast
Clearly, the need for understanding nutrition and its role in the health of our pets is absolutely necessary.
Both sides of this “divide” believe that.
The problem we have is the underlying biased thinking of “we are right and they are wrong” that is creating what is wrong in our industry. And that lies on both sides.
It has been bubbling for years now, but this situation just highlighted how broken things really are.
It is strikingly like the situation in the US – the divide of a group of people who should be on side with each other (they for all being "American" as we are all "pet lovers") being highlighted and then increased by the spread of incorrect information and the feeding of people’s fears.
Only in this case, instead of a nation of people being affected negatively, it is another group who are.
A group without the ability to gather their own information and do their due diligence to make sure they are ok.
A group without a voice who trust us to do right by them. Our pets.
I will be starting a pet project to help change this as, underneath all of this “us against them”, most of us are here for the same reason, to make like better for pets.
And the best way to do what is right for them is to work together and utilize all the information and talents that exist throughout our industry, on both sides of the divide and from those who reside in the middle.
So many brilliant, passionate people and organizations who, if we work together, drop our "we are right" mindsets to open our minds, can really make a difference and take the health of our pets to places much greater than if we are to continue divided.
The DCM situation, while it had negatives, is not made better by people staying disunited and using it to feed a side.
Let’s use it as a learning point and a springboard for change.
More on this project to come. If you would like to keep informed of this, please contact me and I will set up a mailing list for sending updates.
]]>Welcome to the Pets and People Blog!
Here you will find information on all things pet along with the people who love them.
These are more general pet interest, education, news and information about everything to do with pets!
]]>Welcome to the Pets and People Blog!
Here you will find information on all things pet along with the people who love them.
These are more general pet interest, education, news and information about everything to do with pets.
We will share what we know and reach out to experts in their fields to do the same as that is why we have experts!
Differing opinions and friendly, productive debate is encourage and open minds are invited so we are able to use these discussions to better lives for our pets.
Just a quick note on comments as they will be monitored prior to posting.
The idea of this site is to do best by our pets so only comments, questions and input that are in that spirit will be posted. You certainly don't have to agree as it is through open discussion that we learn the most - You just have to be nice 😊
Suggestions of topic ideas are also always welcome!
Looking forward to hearing from you! 🐾
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