I should just rename this "The Dog Food Blog"

Yesterday, the Holistic Club hosted a rep from Natura foods (Innova, California Naturals) to come talk about their foods and to kick off a new free feeding program for vet students. I thought it went quite well, even though the rep got a little torn up by some tough questions ("Who says dogs don't do fine on by products?" "Why is it not good for dogs to eat a grain-based diet?" "Corn is digestible- why should it not be in a pet food?" etc). She answered them pretty well, basically stating that their company's philosophy is that fresh, whole foods equals better nutrition, and better nutrition equals healthier pets. Not everyone shares that philosophy, and that's fine, but she wanted people to be aware of it because we'll have clients who are looking for a food like that.

Someone asked her why they feel by-products are bad, when we know that wolves eat organ meats in the wild, and her response was something along the lines of, "You wouldn't want to be feeding your kids that stuff, would you?" Of course that lead to an uproar of "Dogs are a lot different from kids!" I just rolled my eyes, because I was afraid she'd pull some of the emotional-type marketing lines that I hate seeing in holsitic/natural foods. There are so many great reasons to feed less processed foods besides "you wouldn't want to be feeding your kids that stuff." But the more I think about it, the more I realize that that pretty much sums up why I feed Winnie a diet that uses human-grade meat. I hear a lot of people say "Dogs are dogs, if they had it their way they'd be living off cat poop and garbage scraps- they don't need human-grade meat." Sure, but if your 5-year-old had it his way he'd be living off hot dogs and Kool-Aid. The point of being smarter than your dog/kid is that you can give them a healthy environment to live and grow, including nutritionally. I'm not saying dogs can't live long, healthy lives on foods that use by-products and corn, or that people who feed IAMS don't consider their dogs family members. But for Winnie, I want her eating food that wasn't rejected from the human food supply- not because I think she's human, but because I have serious concerns about why it was rejected.

I'm still working out my own philosophy on pet food. I'm trying my best to stay objective, which is surprisingly difficult. I wish I could defer to science and say, well, the studies show that [such and such formula] leads to healthy, long-lived pets, but alas, I don't think that will ever happen. People get great results on Ol' Roy, people get terrible results on Eagle Pack. For now I'll just do the best for Winnie that I know how, and hopefully in three years I'll have a decent reply prepared for when clients ask me, "So what brand of food should I be feeding?"

Anyway, I think the meeting went well. The next goal is to get ready for the wetlab on Saturday! This week is uber Holistic Club week.