Speaker 1: This is Pet Life Radio. Let's Talk Pets.
Speaker 2: Hello pet parents, Welcome to Best Bets for Pets. I'm
your show host Michelle Fern. So today we're going to
talk about a topic near and dear to all pet
parents' hearts. Dent don't care right. We know it's important,
but it's a challenge, and it's really a challenge when
it involves cats. And my guest today is going to
tell us about a product for cats, and I'm so
excited to have them on, So stay tuned, we'll be
right back.
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Speaker 4: Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone. I'd like to welcome doctor Greg Reinhardt.
He is the cheap Scientific Officer at Pet Honesty. Welcome
doctor Greg.
Speaker 5: Thanks Michelle, thanks for having me on your show.
Speaker 2: I'm very excited to have you on. Can you share
a little bit about your background to our listeners.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I have training in animal nutrition in a subspecialty
in nutritional biochemistry. I've worked on human hospitalized patients malnourished
children in over twenty five years in the pet food industry.
I've been with put Honesty for almost four years now.
Speaker 2: Wow. And before we talk all about the great products
at pet Honesty, especially what we're going to talk about today,
do you have any fur babes right now yourself?
Speaker 5: We lost our four footed dog, Cody, and he's not
We've got a vacuum right now, unfortunately. But I've been
a dog lover and dog parent for most of my
adult life and I've also had three cats. But right now, unfortunately,
we don't have a pet in the home, and it
doesn't feel right.
Speaker 2: Well taking a break, and I'm sorry for your loss.
It never goes away, and sometimes you just need to
kind of take a break.
Speaker 5: I do have many grandpops and grand cats, so.
Speaker 2: They all count. At one time I had five cats
and two dogs. Now we're down the three cats, So
it changes that for a baby. Household changes. So let's
talk about dental care for cats. I thought it was
hard to brush your dog's teeth. Brushing a cat's teeth,
to me is almost impossible, So I think it's best
if you start when they're kittens. But it is really
hard to do, and cats have much sharpper teeth than dogs,
and there's a lot of bacteria in their mouths. So
I'm always petrified that i might get bit or clawed,
and I've heard some scary stories. So what can we
do to take care of our cat's teeth well?
Speaker 5: The first thing is to recognize that problems with oral
health is a big that you often a very big
unaddressed issue in cats. Over seventy five percent or almost
seventy or seventy five percent of cats over the age
of two have for oral health. And as you mentioned,
trying to brush the cat's mouth as an adult, it
takes difficult. The definition of different called to a whole
new meaning. It's just not easy to do. The cats
don't like it. It's very stressful, and compliance long term
from the path plant perspective, is very poor. And if
you don't address the poor oral health it creates a
barber for bacteria to reside. They grow, they produce toxins
that causes inflammation, and the gum the recess and over
time tooth losses is often in the picture. The other
thing that's very scary, and this is true for cats,
dogs and us humans, is if there's a lot of
bacteria in the mouth and especially around the gum line,
those bacteria can travel into the bloodstream. That's called bacterial translocation,
and it can cause a lot of inflammation inside the body.
It can lead to heart disease, kidney disease, things like that.
So you want to have a clean mouth so you
can have a clean body. And the best way to
really address that is establishing practices and routines that keep
the mouth healthy from an early stage. MA cats is
probably not the preferred route.
Speaker 2: No brushing is hard, and it's interesting when you've brought
up I have heard that before, but a lot of
people have not that oral care is so important because
of tartar build up. And while the dentist's office is
not my favorite place I go, I go when something
comes up, I go. I don't just you know, close
my eyes and pretend and I try to do the
same for my fur Babes was much easier brushing my
dog's teeth. I mean he would lick the toothbrushes. I
was trying to get in there, but it was possible
with cats, forget it. I've seen some people brushing their
cat's teeth on social media, but usually kittens or maybe
very skilled people. So besides some of the consequences you
just talked about, what else can happen if we don't
brush our cat's teeth.
Speaker 5: Well, there's multiple stages that occur in having problems happen
in the model versus plaque formation. And plaque is when
you have bacteria that set up shop in the mouth
and they produce this film. It's a biofilm called plaque,
and it coats the teeth, it coats inside the mouth
and humans, you know, we brush that plaque off once
or twice a day and that keeps that biofilm from
being there, and over time, calcium in the saliva attaches
to that plaque and it forms tartar. It's like a
low grade mortar, and as tartar builds up, it provides
more spaces for bacteria to hide, more platform, more tartar
form and it just becomes this vicious cycle in over time,
you have a lot of problems. So what you can
do are things from a supplement standpoint to help disrupt
the plaque formation. If there's biofilm there, there's things that
can break it down. You can modulate the bacteria in
the mouth so there's less plaque formers in the mouth.
And you can also provide things that bind calcium. So
if there is a little bit of plaque, if you
bind up the calcium, it doesn't attach and form tartar.
So there's methods that don't involve brushing that can reduce
the formation of plaque and tart and that's really I
think the goal that's best, the best approach for cat
oral health.
Speaker 2: Okay, and we're going to talk about your amazing products soon,
but I have one more question. What about for those
pet parents listening that say, well, you know, I take
my dog to the vet to get a deep cleaning
once a year, which is a deep cleaning, which is
a lot different than the twilight cleaning that there's like
a semi cleaning that they have. I've heard this is
for dogs, I'm not sure for cats. Then there's a
deep cleaning where they have to put your dog under
and that's what you in my personal opinion, that's what
you really need. And for cats, I'm not sure what
do they do for cats. I mean, you can do
a deep clean for cats. I think for cats they
must put the cats under. It can't do any twilight cleaning.
Speaker 5: It had to be under general anesthesia, and that involves
a pre anesthetic assessment of the blood CBC in a
profile and make sure that the cat is in healthy
enough shape to go under anesthesia. And then they'd go
in and do a complete dental and that includes scaling
the teeth, removing that harder that has formed at the
gum line, and taking that off. It's very expensive and
for older cats, it's risky. For any older dog or cat,
it's risky, and it's a lot. It's a lot both
time cost and risk. It does get the job done.
That's a treatment approach. The other approach is more trying
to prevent these things from happening in the first place.
Speaker 2: Okay, and if you are diligent in preventing, can you
avoid the deep cleaning?
Speaker 5: You can certainly reduce the frequency and severity of the problem.
And that's approach we would recommend.
Speaker 2: Okay, and Mark, this isn't really We're not going to
get too much into dental care as far as the
different treatments. But I have done deep cleaning with my dog.
I have not done it with my cats.
Speaker 5: It's not as common. It's not as common.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and what about the twilight you've heard of that, right,
they don't put the dogs under, but they just do
it really good cleaning. I just think that's I don't know.
Some people swear by it. I've never done it. I
did the full on as long as my dog's blood
work was okay, I did it. But there are risks.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the compromise is that it doesn't require anesthesia, so
that's a plus. But the negative is is it it's
not as thirl. It doesn't get down right at the
gum line or sometimes even below the gum line to
remove the tartar and plaquet, and that if that remains
after a twilight cleaning, that just is a place where
all the bad stuff can begin again. So they it
has a jump start to start that whole negative process.
So I would prefer that if a dog is gonna
have a dental clean, that it gets a very thorough
one which includes the scaling and the polishing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. All right, we're going to take a
short break. Ho, We're gonna come right back.
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Speaker 7: Radio, Catlive Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone for talking to doctor Greg Reinhardt. He
is the chief scientific officer at pet Honesty. So one
of the new products that pet Honesty has are dental
bites for cats, which I think is fabulous. How did
the idea for this product come about?
Speaker 5: Well, Michelle, we have a lineup of dual texture cat supplements.
It's crunchy on the outside and cream on inside. It's
a format that's very common in treats, and we've been
able to put active, active ingredients in there and cats
love them. Cats, as you know, cats are very finicky,
and any supplement that has a seventy percent of approval
rating or hire and a cat is considered good. We're
over ninety percent on our nine products that we have
in this dual texture format, and the one we just
most recently introduced is the fresh Bread dental Bite. It
has actives in there and it's really a the cat's
viewed as a treat, but it's a treat with benefits,
and this format is highly acceptable and we think compliance
is going to be very good because of that.
Speaker 2: Well, I think it is the best thing ever my
cat crew. So Dennis Charlotte and Molly Charlotte's the pickiest
and the most misunderstood strangers. They're all rescues. Dennis will
pretend heed anything and then he decides, so he's a
little picky too. Molly's in between. So I had to
put the dental wide sample in a drawer because Dennis
was finding his way to them and he has clawed
open things before. So yes, very palatable among my cat crew,
which I think they're a good blend, you know, between
the three of judge, because yeah, I was a little
bit finigy and a little bit you know, okay and
all of that, but they loved it. Are the dental
bytes enough for dental tream in for your cats?
Speaker 5: They will go a long ways to prevent the problems
from occurring or certainly slow down the rate at which
they occur. This product has not just one or two,
it has got four different approaches to combat plaque formation
and tartar formation. We have in their help and help
is known to reduce tartar in cats, and that's very helpful.
It's got hexametaphosphate that's a calcium binder. So if there
is some plaque it's formed, that calcium gets bound up
by the hexametap phosphate and it keeps it from attaching
to the biofilm or the plaque. That's also used in
human toothpaste, by the way, and many chart control human toothpaste.
It's got a very potent next generation ingredient called a
post biotic, and this particular post biotic decreases plat formation,
which is very exciting. And lastly, it's got what's called
the Fresh Breath Blend. It's a combination of decaffeinated green
tea and parsley. The thing about green tea is it's
got a compoundent called cattakins and that decreases microbes in
the mouth and it also decreases inflammation. I don't know,
if you've ever drank unsweetened green tea, your teeth and
mouth kind of feels squeaky afterwards. That's the catkins that
do that. And then the other component is the parsley,
which has chlorophyll, which is known to help with platosis
or bad breast. So it's a very powerful four pronged
approach to help bats keep a healthy mouth.
Speaker 2: What made Pet Honesty decide to create this for cats
Because I know you have a product for dogs that
you've had on the market. Cats are a lot more difficult.
Did you see a space in the market for it?
Did Pat Honesty say, you know, this is a challenge,
we're going to take it. What was the thinking behind it,
because it's not easy to create products for cats. We
have all kinds of products on Best Bets for pets,
and a lot of times, you know, there's products for
the dog, what about cats that's coming, It's going to
be way after when you know, so your product came after.
But we're people writing in and saying, Okay, you have
my dog that he has his dental powder, he's fine,
I need something for my cat. What was the thought
behind it?
Speaker 5: There was actually two things that kind of came into play.
One is the high incidence of for oral health and cats,
and we knew that was an unmet need that had
to be addressed and it really wasn't being addressed effectively.
And the other is is that we first came out
with a cat specific dental powder and we feel that's
best in class. It's got many of the same actives,
and it gives you a lot of versatility. You can
mix it with food, you can you know, do other
things with it. And as we were working with this,
we thought, you know, we we have such a great
format in that Billow technology to trunch you outside, creamy inside.
Let's see if we can get these same active ingredients
in that treat format. And we did. And one of
the things with these supplements is you never know these
actives have adverse impact on palatability, and we're happy to
share that this was our most palatable supplement. Ninety eight
percent of cats approved of it, which is unheard of.
Speaker 2: Right, that's crazy good.
Speaker 5: In fact, this was so remarkable that we won the
twenty twenty five Pet Innovation Award for Cat Dental Product
of the Year with this fresh Bread dental byte. So
we're really excited about what it's going to sort of
help in ease of use, it's going to provide to
cat parents out there.
Speaker 2: Well, congratulations on the award. Can you tell us a
little bit about it a little more detail.
Speaker 5: The only thing I know about is it's called the
twenty twenty five Pet Innovation Award, and a panel looked
at all the new innovations that came out in the
cat dental space and decided that this was the best
one of the year. So we're thrilled to have the
hard work and expertise that went into it be recognized
by an external panel.
Speaker 2: Well, congratulations and thank you. I'm also glad to see
that there is a focus on cat dental care because
dental care is so important and so overlooked in felines
because of you know, as we talked about earlier, the
challenges of brushing and you know, putting them under and
their little creatures, and they're stoic creatures, so there's there's
just so much involved. So to have a product where
it's as easy as here's the treat is, I mean,
it's a no brainer. Let's talk about how to introduce
dental bites to your cat.
Speaker 5: The bullsage of this is very, very straightforward. It's one
small chew per pound of body weight, So if you
have a ten pound cat, you give them to these
little little chows. For cats under two pounds and kittens
under six months, we cut that dose in half and
so it'd be one shoe per two pounds of body weight.
And we recommend that kittens under four months of age
check with your veterinarian before you you would approach this.
But the acceptance is so good that there's really not
a lot of work that needs to be done on
the pet parents. Part is just give them the number
of supplements that corresponds with their body weight, and they
usually treat them like it's a treat and they'll readily
consume them, and so it's an easy transition.
Speaker 2: Actually, right before we recorded, I gave some more to
my cats. And I'm going to confess I'm the kind
of person that does it then reads instructions. So back
in the day, you can imagine how much furniture I
put together backward. So that's what I did. But I
only gave them one and then I read the dosage,
which is not what you should do, listeners. You should
read the dose before. But I only gave them one.
I mean, they ate it so quickly it even beat
regular treats. I mean, they just chumped. And I thought,
I wonder if I can give you more, and I
read the dosage and I thought, yes, you can have more.
So I gave them some more. Now it was a
little before their dinner time. But still they are cats
and they will not eat anything that you put in
front of them. They're not too finicky, but they're on
the border. So they love them and I'm glad they
can have more than one. What about you said for kittens,
what about for older cats? And if you have a
cat that for some reason cannot consume in a treat format,
can you also mention there's a powder.
Speaker 5: There's a powder and if for whatever reason, they don't
our cat doesn't like the treat format powder would be
an option for older cats. It's fine. In fact, probably
even more indicated because an older cat gets it, seems
like the incidents of oral health also increases. The only
watch out is if the cat would happen to have
renal failure, and in those cases with renal failure, the
vetinarian will normally recommend a phosphorus restricted diet and the
pet parent would want to check with their vetinary to
make sure that the phosphorus that comes in with the
treats is compliant with that restriction.
Speaker 2: Okay, So, as we always say here, if you have
any concerns, check with your vet first. But in most cases,
the dental bytes for cats from Pet Honesty are fine. Yes, Okay,
what other products does pet Honesty have? We have a
couple of minutes if you can share some of the
other products that are maybe new or very innovative or
some of your favorites.
Speaker 5: Well, we have nine dual texture pillow cat supplements. We
get a multi vitamin, hair ball support, palming get in cote,
joint support, robotics, urinary tract health and immune support. So
they're all this really highly palatable format and we're the
largest Portfolio brand on Amazon. The catsup thement Portfolio brand,
So they're doing very very well. Just cat parents love them,
their cats love them, and there's great feedback on how
the cats respond from an efficacy standpoint. So it's really
it's been a very very win win proposition for us,
and that's why we continue to introduce supplements in this
format when it makes sense.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad to hear that. So I have a
question at the office. Do you have cat taste testers?
Speaker 5: We do, not necessarily in the office, but we have
a number of colleagues who have cats and they always
try them. And we've got a couple of people who
are you know, have a lot of cats and they're
very just like your three, you know, each very unique
and what they like and don't like, and they they
screen force and we also feed these new products at
a category with train cats and get data on that
as well, so we make sure that we have plenty
of experiences before we go out into the marketplace.
Speaker 2: That's good to know. And a quick question regarding supplements,
is there a limit into how many supplements you should
give your cat? For humans? I know what vitamins I take,
I don't take everything, but I take multi and a
couple others and that works for me. So is this
something you should discuss with your doctor as far as
supplements go, I mean, not necessarily dental btes, that's dental care,
but maybe for autoimmune. For joint support.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's common because oftentimes cats will have more than
one issue that needs to be addressed, and so like
a multivitamin, let's say, a joint support or things like that,
we call that stacking. And in general we say you
can stack three three supplements and it's okay. The one
caveat is that we don't recommend stacking more than two
supplements that have probiotics, And the reason is is that
probotics are a live bacteria, and if you overload the
cat's gas intestinal system with a lot of live bacteria,
those bacteria will have a party and there's going to
be some intestinal turbulence and they're fine from a health perspective.
It's just it's there's gonna be some gas and maybe
some loose stool, so you want to try and minimize that.
Speaker 2: Right, which is not fun for the cat, certainly not
fun for the pet parent exactly. I mean, it's like
a stomach ache, bad stomach ache in simplified version. But
that's good to know. So you can stack two. The
only stack two supplements if they contain probiotics. Otherwise you
can stack up to three. Correct great information.
Speaker 5: With all of our head honesty ingestibles, things that a
companion and animal will will consume, we adhere to what
we call the honest difference. It's our steak steak in
the ground, and we don't formulate with corn, soy or wheat.
We don't formulate with cellulose or palm oil, and that's
very intentional. We also don't use artificial preservatives or artificial coloring,
so it's a cleaner, cleaner supplement than most and that's
a very intentional formulation strategy that we've undertaken.
Speaker 2: Your intentional formatting for Pet Honesty products is for all across.
Speaker 5: The burden, all ingustables. We do have a grooming line, okay,
and that doesn't apply to the grooming because that's a topical.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, of course not. Well, that is really good
to know. So tell our listeners so that they can
have dental bliss with their cats and fresh breath. Where
can our listeners find dental bites from pet Honesty and
other Pet Honesty products.
Speaker 5: All of our cat products, including the new fresh Breadth
dental bytes, can be found on Amazon, Dewey, and our
own direct to consume Pet Honesty dot com website.
Speaker 2: Okay, wonderful, well, doctor Greg, I want to thank you
so much for coming on Best Bets for Pets.
Speaker 1: Sell.
Speaker 5: Thank you, it was my pleasure.
Speaker 2: I hope you all enjoyed this show. I want to
thank doctor Greg from Pet Honesty for coming on Best
Bets for Pets. Thanks to my cat crew that so
enjoyed testing the dental bites, so thank you, Dennis, Charlotte
and Molly, Thank you cars to everyone that listens to
Best Bets for Pets, I greatly appreciate it. You have
got to try these Pet Honesty dental bites. But to
be honest, it is one of my biggest fears to
even try to brush my cat's teeth. I value my
hands too much. So when I had the opportunity to
try these d Pet Honesty dental bites, I thought, yes, yes,
I love that idea. And finding out that the product's
clean and you know what, my cats love them was
just wonderful. So listeners, this is definitely product you want
to check out you know. Thanks again Cat Crew, and
of course thank you so much to my producer Mark
Winter for working his magic and making our shows sound amazing.
And hey, keep listening. You never know what will happen next.
I'm Best Bets for pets.
Speaker 4: Let's talk bets every week on demand only on PETLVE
radio dot com