Why Do We Do this?
Plus a guide to formulate your own dog food!
This week we are sharing about why we feed such elaborate meals to our dogs. We get a lot of love from our followers (thank you!!), but whenever a video goes viral we get a lot of hate too. Something about seeing a dog eat lobster triggers people.
Friendly reminder; everything we make is safe for dogs. Also, you can get lobster tail on sale for less than the cost of a Happy Meal in many places. Asian grocery stores are awesome.
But honestly it’s not just strangers that get triggered. We even get angry messages from people we know saying things like “you fed your dogs lobster, while I’m only getting chicken!”
Ironically, in colonial America lobsters were seen as food of the impoverished. There is folklore of indentured servants writing in their contracts the maximum number of times they would eat lobster per week. How things change over generations…
Before we go on, we have good news: All Pups Seasoning preorders have shipped! Thanks so much for your patience. We couldn’t make this happen without your preorders, so we are super grateful for you. We are so excited for you to get them.
You can sprinkle them on the homemade food you already make for your dogs, elevating the nutrient profile.
Or, here’s two recipes to make fully balanced meals using your All Pups Seasoning: (More to come, so if you have any suggestions, let us know!)
“There are people starving…”
When posts go viral, undoubtedly there will be virtue signalers asking why we aren’t out there feeding homeless people, starving children, and ending world hunger. We do our part quietly. Also, we do our best to bring some happiness to people with these videos. But clearly not everyone is laughing… ;)
Ultimately, we’re really lucky to be able to do what we do. Spoiling the dogs with fancy food may seem frivolous, but the goal is to bring awareness not to show off. (The truth is creating content and making products is not very glamorous.)
Our mission is to show people you can feed dogs real food and to inspire and entertain while doing it.
For far too long, companies have convinced the public that the best food comes in a package. So people buy highly processed foods made from cheap ingredients. Labels with words like “balanced” and “vet recommended” lead people to believe that what’s in the bag is better than real food.
Marketing claims
Marketers are experts at presenting alternative facts and often use law makers and bureaucrats to help them further their objectives. According to Statista there are about 13,000 registered lobbyists in Washington D.C. With only 535 members of congress, this equals to nearly 25 lobbyists per congressional member. In case you didn’t know, lobbyists are paid by companies to influence policy and laws in their favor. This is at least part of the reason why the United States is one of only two countries in the world to allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly to consumers.
By 1950 researchers already had multiple published studies linking cigarette smoke with lung cancer. Yet brands like Camel were still allowed to insinuate that doctors recommend smoking. It wasn’t until the 1970s that advertisements for cigarettes were banned. As we covered in a previous newsletter, regulating hydrogenated oils took even longer.
Now, if substances that were this bad for human health took decades to be regulated, how much longer will it take for pet health? Maybe never. This is why it’s essential for us to understand the science for ourselves.
Balance and nutrition
Do you ever wonder why healthcare professionals never talk about balanced meals for people, but vets and “certified dog nutritionists” insist dogs have to have 100% balanced meals? Are dogs so much different than people?
The reality is that people and dogs have pretty similar nutritional requirements. After all, dogs and people lived together for over 10,000 years. And since dogs live shorter lives than we do, that’s more than 70,000 people-years of evolution. Domesticated dogs even have enzymes to digest carbohydrates that their wild cousins, wolves and dingos, do not.
But just because they can digest carbohydrates doesn’t mean that it should make up the majority of their diets. Modern kibble is 40% or more refined carbohydrate. This is likely the reason that rates of obesity, cancer and tooth decay are exploding. Dogs aren’t meant to get so many of their calories from carbohydrates. As far as micronutrient needs (vitamins and minerals), most animals evolved in competitive environments so they had to develop ways store these nutrients. As we referenced in a previous newsletter, dogs severely restricted in iodine were able to stay healthy for up to a year.
They’re distracting you, and it’s working…
The emphasis placed on vitamin and mineral balance for dogs is a distraction from the fact that kibble lacks proper balance of carbs, proteins and fats. Adjusting micronutrient balance is super easy. All manufacturers have to do is add some vitamin powders to their processed balls of dough. BUT Macronutrients is a challenge for them. They keep carbs high for reasons that aren’t health motivated — carbs are cheap, AND the machines can’t extrude the kibble from mixes lower than about 40% in carbs.
So just like cigarette manufacturers had a huge incentive for people to believe that cigarettes were good for you, manufacturers of kibble have the same incentive.
What do dogs really need?
After covering thousands of research papers and testing different formulations on our own dogs, our position is as follows. (As research changes we will update.):
Macronutrients for healthy adult dogs:
Carbohydrates: less than 30% of calories (ideally between 10-20%)
Protein: 30 - 40% of calories from protein
Fat: 40-50% of calories
For essential vitamins and minerals, the main differences between dogs and people can be summarized with the following:
Unlike people, dogs can synthesize vitamin C and don’t require it in their diets.
Dogs require vitamin D, while people can synthesize it with sunlight.
Dogs have higher requirements of Vitamin A, some B vitamins, and Vitamin E.
Dogs have higher requirements of some minerals like zinc, copper and calcium, while also needing a calcium to phosphorus ratio lower than 2:1.
People need a lot more sodium than dogs but we both need iodine, which can be difficult to get (this is why our salt is iodized).
In general, these requirements can be met with a few basic additions.
Organ meat: liver can make up for most of the B-vitamin requirements. Beef liver is particularly nutrient dense and also contains zinc, copper, vitamin A, and many other vitamins and minerals.
Vitamin E: we use roasted, unsalted sunflower seeds or wheat germ. Wheat germ oil and sunflower oil are also high in vitamin E, though we typically avoid sunflower oil.
Calcium: included in our recipes by adding eggshells, the ratio of calcium to phosphorus isn’t typically a concern unless too much calcium is added. In studies, dogs fed restricted calcium do ok for a long time.
Zinc and copper: abundant in beef, venison, bison, oysters and oyster powder.
Vitamin D: very high in fatty fish like salmon and moderate in eggs
Iodine: Sea kelp (A. Nodosum) is the main source of iodine in our recipes
These six points can help you start to formulate your own dog food.
Conclusion
Our fancy meals are done simply to raise awareness on what people believe they can feed their best friends. Your best interests are not the priority of companies and healthcare providers. Manufacturers value profit above all else, while healthcare providers are most interested in self-preservation and conformity (most vets have good intentions). Kibble is made to be the cheapest and most convenient way to feed dogs. Veterinarians are incentivized to keep things simple. (Guess which company is the largest employer of veterinarians in the United States.) The only way to make sure that we are making the best decisions about the health of our loved ones is to be informed ourselves. That is why we do what we do.
Thats it for this week.
All the best,
Joelle and the Precious Creatures Team