Food for Thought
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Feeding Instructions | Dogs
Big or small, we've made it simple.
**Please note that this is only a guideline, and every pet's needs may vary depending on size and activity levels. If your pet noticeably needs more or less food, please adjust accordingly.
THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION.
INTENDED FOR INTERMITTENT OR SUPPLEMENTAL FEEDING ONLY.
Keep frozen until ready to use; both thaw & store in refrigerator. This is a raw meat product, keep raw meat separate from other foods.
Remember to ALWAYS wash your hands before preparing your pet's meal. After feeding, wash all surfaces, utensils, bowls and hands that come into contact with raw meats with warm soapy water.
Pet owners are the biggest contributors for cross-contaminations because of improper handling of foods.
Feeding Instructions | Cats
Adult cats: For each 10 lbs. of cat’s weight, feed approximately 4 oz daily. Kittens and pregnant or nursing cats can eat up to 3-4 times the adult amount.
Do not cook. Thaw prior to feeding in the refrigerator.
**Please note that this is only a guideline, and every pet's needs may vary depending on size and activity levels. If your pet noticeably needs more or less food, please adjust accordingly.
THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION.
INTENDED FOR INTERMITTENT OR SUPPLEMENTAL FEEDING ONLY.
Keep frozen until ready to use; both thaw & store in refrigerator. This is a raw meat product, keep raw meat separate from other foods.
Remember to ALWAYS wash your hands before preparing your pet's meal. After feeding, wash all surfaces, utensils, bowls and hands that come into contact with raw meats with warm soapy water.
Pet owners are the biggest contributors for cross-contaminations because of improper handling of foods.
Can I mix raw with kibble?
but not really recommended. Mixing the two is sometimes the only way to transition from kibble to raw, but it may actually put more strain on the digestive system because they digest at different rates. Raw food is much more digestible, taking only 3-4 hours, while kibble usually takes 9-12 hours. Kibble is cooked and processed therefore it’s harder for your pet to digest because the molecules are bound tighter together. So, when raw and kibble are mixed together the raw will digest, leaving some of the kibble to rise to body temperature and ferment. Bacteria level in your pet’s digestive system will then rise and can cause some unwanted problems. If you are feeding both raw and kibble we suggest you alternate the two.
Processed pet food is constantly being recalled even after being cooked to avoid such pathogens. Raw or dehydrated foods maintain good competitive bacteria and enzymes that work to naturally neutralize pathogens. We are more careful about our cleanliness because we are using raw products.
Are dogs designed to tolerate pathogens?
Dogs have short digestive tracts that pass foods quickly, more acidic stomach acid, and saliva that contains high levels of barriers and enzymes that attack bacteria and defend against infection. Some bacteria is good for your pet to aid a strong immune system and our products have it.
Many raw pet food companies use a process called High Pressure Pasteurization (HPP), claiming that it decreases potential pathogens such as Salmonella and E. Coli, but really the process loses essential amino acids, protein digestibility, and nutritional value in the product. We are HPP-Free.
Where do By-Products of the Human Food Industry Go?
They go in dry kibble for pets. Why? Because it is a cheap alternative for pet food manufacturers and when they are cooked into a dry pet food they are no longer distinguishable by the consumer (your pet). Fresh fruits and rotten fruits, and fresh meat and rotten meat, look the same in kibble.
Why does dry kibble cause chronic dehydration?
When a pet eats dry kibble their body has to draw from its own water resources to rehydrate the food in the digestive tract so it can be absorbed. This decreases the body's ability to perform metabolic duties such as detoxification. Our raw diet is 70-90% moisture.
Where do we source the meat for our diets?
Our meats feature high-quality raw beef, elk and lamb meat from animals raised hormone and steroid free at Kinikin Ranch in Montrose, CO, and bison from Bear Ranch in Kremmling, CO. All of our meat is bred, raised, and processed right in your COLORAWDO backyard, giving you the freshest meals possible for your pets. You will always know exactly what you are giving your pet from Anderson's Natural Pet Food™.
Why does dry kibble take longer to digest?
There is a specific enzyme that breaks down starches and dogs don't have it, so there's an inability to digest it. Dry kibble food must contain at least 30% starch to be a kibble shape. This can lead to food allergies, dry skin, bulky stools, poor dental health and disease. Our raw meats and blends will never have starches.
Can my raw fed dog shed bacteria in their saliva?
There is very little risk of your pet passing bacteria back to you when fed a raw food diet. Dogs have an enzyme in their saliva called lysozyme. This enzyme neutralizes harmful bacteria and also prevents the spread of bacteria from your dog’s mouth to other surfaces. This enzyme is not found in human saliva and is unique to dogs. (You might recognize the familiar product Lysol that derives the brand name from this powerful enzyme.)
The Wolf Diet
The closest relative to the dog in the animal kingdom is the wolf. Dogs and wolves share many similarities in their requirement for specific nutrients, their body chemistry and their physiologically. Adult wolves’ primary source of food is prey animals. Their typical diet consists of deer, moose, elk, caribou, bison, wild boar, rabbits, wild sheep, goats, horses, beaver, fish, eggs, and livestock. As well as, grasses, seeds and fruits. However, with all these proteins to choose from, wolves’ stomachs have been found to contain only one, or at most, two prey sources. With this in mind, your dog probably has a preference in proteins. We supply a variety of proteins to choose from. Dogs, like wolves, have similar digestive systems that are designed primarily for eating meat and the same stomach enzyme, pancreatic amylase, that digests vegetables, not carbohydrates. They also both have teeth designed for tearing meat from the bone and crushing bones. Wolves eat most of the carcass of their prey. So, we feed off that concept and provide blends with: 10% organ, heart, and liver; 10% fruits and vegetables; and 78% whole muscle tissue, with about 2% crushed bone, which is a source of calcium for your pet. That’s exactly what your pet will be consuming from our products. Allow your pets to independently choose what they want to eat and which protein makes them drool the most! Just like a wolf’s dinner, our meats and blends come in a variety of single-sourced proteins, packed with LOTS of nutrition, all bred, raised, and processed right in your COLORAWDO backyard.Complete & Balanced vs Intermittent & Supplemental Feeding Only What does it really mean?
AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials) was established over 100 years ago. Only about 35 years ago AAFCO realized that commercially available pet foods were significantly deficient in health-sustaining nutrients, leading to the addition of synthetic vitamin and mineral pre-mixes in commercial pet food products. (1) This supplemental requirement was intended to meet the minimum nutritional requirements to prevent immediate illness and disease. Now, nearly 100 years later, there are still nutrients that AAFCO continues to attempt to establish satisfactory nutrient requirements for. (2) For example, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Copper, Taurine and many more are all arguably improperly supplemented in pet feeds as AAFCO still attempts to define proper requirements. As science has not yet firmly established these numbers, old levels continue to suffice according to AAFCO standards. (3)To further compound the concerns of pet owners, there is a significant allowance for side effects caused by synthetic products. For example, the synthetic form of Selenium used in pet foods, Sodium Selenite, is 109 times more toxic than Arsenic according to its MSDS report. It has been proven to cause symptoms ranging from liver necrosis and target organ damage, to cancer, to death. (4) However, as long this “nutrient” is not used in excess it is acceptable to use it as your pets only source of dietary Selenium…. besides, who could identify Sodium Selenite as the cause of your pets disease or death when less than one grain of sand per 10 pounds of body weight per day is lethal?
There are 4 ways to gain an AAFCO “complete and balanced” claim on a product:
1) Add a synthetic vitamin and mineral pre-mix to the product. This blend contains “some or all” of about 25 synthetic vitamins and minerals, though a piece of broccoli contains over 8,000 nutrients. The MSDS for this product makes concerning claims such as, “containing hazardous ingredients exceeding 1% of the total mix… if one or more of the mineral ingredients in this premix exceed 1% of the total mixture, then the entire mixture must be classified as toxic according to 29 CFR 1910.1200(d)(5)(ii),” and “WARNING: MAY BE HARMFUL IF SWALLOWED. DO NOT TAKE THIS PRODUCT INTERNALLY…. These products are manufactured as animal feed additives. They are not for human consumption.” (5) Despite these statements, this pack makes a pet feed product adequate according to AAFCO standards no matter what the ingredients are in the product. One company went so far as to make a product from shoe leather, sawdust and motor oil to prove that with the synthetic vitamin and mineral pre-mix added it would pass as a “complete and balanced” food for pets… and it did. (6)
2) Expensive laboratory testing. If a company chooses not to use a synthetic pre-mix they must prove that their product meets the minimum AAFCO nutrient standards by sending their formula for laboratory testing. This is an expensive process as the product must be re-tested if the formula is found to be even only slightly inadequate in as little as one nutrient.
3) Feeding trials. A company can feed a set of at least 8 dogs exclusively their food for 26 weeks. 25% of the pets in the group are able to drop out of the study. The reason for removal from the study does not need to be reported. The remaining dogs cannot lose in excess of 15% of their body during the study. (7)
4) Compare the product to another that’s like it – yeah you read that right. If a company doesn’t want to go through any of the hassles of “complete and balanced” requirements, they are welcome to submit a claim that their product is similar enough to another “complete and balanced” approved product to be, itself, complete and balanced. This is acceptable though no testing, trial or verification is done beyond comparing labels.
What does it mean to be “for intermittent and supplemental feeding only”?
1) There is no synthetic vitamin/mineral pre-mix. This also means there is no toxic and potentially contaminated supplement in the product to cover up the inadequacies of junk ingredients in the product.
2) There was either no laboratory testing done or as little as one nutrient requirement was not met. In some cases this is not a problem because the manufacturers intention was to allow owners to be more interactive with the product. For example, some companies urge consumers to maintain a rotational diet. There are also cases where a company may of tested their products and determined that a certain nutrient is not available in adequate levels but they have not yet found a source for supplementation that they are ethically in alignment with. For example, Vitamin E is often sourced from Genetically Modified Soybeans and preserved with Propylene Glycol, an anti-freeze derivative. If a company is aware that their product must increase Vitamin E levels but they are unwilling to add a poor quality source of that nutrient to come into compliance, they may choose to label their product as “for intermittent or supplemental feeding only” because they value your pets health over a meaningless claim on their package.
3) There was no feeding trial – Feeding trials are very, very expensive and time consuming. In most cases, companies that bear the “for intermittent and supplemental feeding only” label are small, independently owned. They often began manufacturing quality products because of a passion for animals or nutrition… they felt there was a gap in the market that they could fill with a product that is higher quality than what they’ve found. These companies cannot afford to do large feeding trials that take months to finalize. While they may choose not do participate in feeding trials, they also tend to individually hand pick, hand mix, hand and package their products… this form of quality control and attention to detail is unmatched in large factory settings.
4) They can’t compare to other products – As stated above, most companies that bear the “for intermittent and supplemental feeding” claim entered the market to fill a void. They couldn’t find the quality they felt would be good enough for their own pets, so they chose to commit their lives and finances to making a product that provided for their own pets and other pets in the world with a quality all pets deserve. Therefore, quality manufacturers are not in any way attempting to make a product that compares to the mass produced Big Kibble products on the market that have caused such significant rises in diseases like obesity, diabetes, cancer, seizures, dilated cardiomyopathy and more.
