Speaker 1: This is pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2: Hello, pet lovers, Welcome to Best That's for Pets. I'm
your show host, Michelle Byrne. So it's a fresh new year.
I'm excited. And you know, we always start the year
with promises to ourselves to take care of ourselves better,
and that usually last two weeks. But we also always
promise to take care of our pets better. That seems
to last a lot longer. So what does that say?
We're kinder to our pets than ourselves. You know, we priorities, right,
all right, So my guest today, we're going to talk
about raw nutrition, which is very exciting and becoming more
and more popular. So stay tuned. We'll be right back.
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Speaker 4: Let's talk pets on Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone. I'd like to welcome Ashlyn Lane. She
is the consumer experience manager of Vital Essentials. Welcome Ashlin.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here.
Speaker 2: I'm so happy to have you. So even though we're
recording this at the very end of twenty twenty five,
this show will be out to all of our listeners
in twenty twenty six. So since we're starting a new year,
many people, you know, reset their wellness habits. And I
talked a little bit in the intro about, you know,
thinking about updating our pets health routines. What are your
thoughts on that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So the holidays are a busy time for everybody
and most of us, even our pets, are going to
get out of our normal rhythms. We've got holiday parties,
we've got friends and family bringing all the treats by
everybody knows how that goes. So while we kind of
take the beginning of a new year to reset, think
about our own usually fitness and health and diet. It's
a really really easy pathway to just thinking about that
for our pets as well. A lot of people you
know are going to start a new fitness routine, it's
really easy to bring your pets along, especially if you
have dogs, super easy to add them into your walks
and runs that you might be starting in the new year.
And if you're already in that mindset of change, it's
a great time to be taking a deeper look. If
you're doing that for your own diet, to do that
for your pets as well.
Speaker 2: So when pet parents think about their dogs and cats
overall well being, what are some early signs that indicate
it might be time to rethink their diet. I'm going
to answer my own question because one of the obvious
is if they're overweight, because that's usually you know, most pets.
Parents can see that, right would assume. But what are
some other indications they can look for?
Speaker 5: Yeah, weight is a great one. Some of the best
indicators whether a diet's working or not are digestive markers
like stool quality and frequency. Those are things that we
tend to pay a lot of attention to, and skin
and coat health is another really really obvious one. If,
especially if you're looking at your pet all the time,
they're wanting attention, you're petting them, you're touching their hair
and their skin. You're going to notice if they're having
a lot of dan druff or excessive shedding or itching,
or a really dull coat. You'll also definitely notice if
your pet is like constipated or they have very loose stools.
So on either end of that spectrum, that's something that
you're probably gonna be able to notice super easily. How
often they're going to the bathroom is another indicator, and
so most pets are definitely gonna let you know if
they like their food too. And that's another really easy
one that I think we overlook because it sounds so
obvious sometimes, but we sometimes tend to forget that we
want them to like the food too, And so if
they're not enjoying something, they will probably let you know,
and you'll be able to see either a decrease in
interest or a lack of interest from the beginning if
you offer something that they're not super interested in, and
so any of those might be signs that it's time
to think about something now.
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks. So, so let's talk about Vital Essentials. Let's
talk about raw nutrition. And before we get into it
and discussing what raw nutrition is, I just want to
put out a message. I try to do this whenever
I can. You know, plant based has been a thing
for two legged people, guys. It doesn't work for your pets.
It's possible to have your dog on a plant based diet, possible,
but it is fatal for your cats. They are carnivores.
So if you have an issue with it, then you
go plant not your cat and probably not your dog. Ashley,
what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 6: So?
Speaker 5: I mean, you're absolutely right. Dogs can survive on a
plant based diet, they will not thrive on it, and
cats cannot survive on a plant based diet. So you're
one hundred percent correct. That's something that at Vital Essentials
we're super serious about. Our diets are literally entirely meat
with a handful of supplements that make up less than
one percent of the final formula. So we're very very
serious about providing them appropriate nutrition that's led by protein
and something that is highly digestible and doesn't contain all
these unnecessary ingredients and especially plant ingredients that they just
are not super equipped to digest.
Speaker 2: Okay, and I know that's a little while we're talking
about nutriation. It's a little off topic, but I like
to mention that on shows where it can relate because
I have gotten I've received so many emails about, you know,
because vegan for two legged people, it's a buzzword. Now
it's like, I'm somewhat but I did the vegan thing
when when there wasn't a plant based this and that
all over the place, you had to get real creative. Yes,
and I've adjusted some, but I don't do that for
my pets. Their bodies are different, they have different needs,
and people get I think, hung up in the fat
of the moment, so to speak, absolutely, and then they
want to, you know, put that on their pets. And
people need to be educated on that as much as possible. Okay,
let's talk about raw nutrition, which is something that has
been hoody prevalent in the pet industry probably the last
I want to say, it's been around the last ten years,
but the last five years has really taken off. So
what exactly is raw nutrition and how is it different
from traditional kibble or canned.
Speaker 5: Food, so raws exactly what it sounds like. It's not cooked.
Cooking is pretty much always not even pretty much. It
is always going to be defined in the pet food
industry as adding heat to something to alter the especially
protein structure, and alter the food in a way that
the safe part of it is that it removes pathogens,
but there are other ways to remove pathogens as well.
You don't have to cook the food to have a
safe food. And so the biggest drawback of cooking food
is that it inherently causes nutrient losses. So we're looking
not only at macro nutrient losses that's protein, fat, and carbs,
but we're also looking at pretty significant micro nutrient losses
that's vitamins and minerals. There's also multiple scientific studies that
show that raw food is inherently more digestible than kibbler
can food. And what that means is that it's easier
for our pets bodies to break down into usable fuels,
so usable nutrients that they can get energy from. They're
going to be far better off with something that's less
processed versus a cooked, highly processed diet like Kibbler can food.
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks, what makes vital essentials special in the raw food.
Speaker 5: Market, So I kind of touched on it earlier, but
it's the fact that we don't use any plant material.
Our diets are literally just meat. We use a high
proportion of organ meats in our diets to meet the
micronutrient needs. Where a lot of other brands will use fruits, vegetables,
and sometimes grains to add vitamins and minerals to their diet.
Instead of that, we're using a larger amount of organ
meat than what a lot of other brands would use,
and we're getting our micronutrient content from those organ meats.
We have decided to formulate this way because when you
look at the differences in the digestive system of a
dog and cat versus something like a cow, they're completely
different digestive systems because they're designed to process completely different
types of diets. So we have chosen to gear our
diets with a lot of meat handful of supplements to
best meet their needs and be that fuel that they
need to live a vital life.
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks, Yeah, A lot of people have thought about
raw food, but they're not quite sure and there's a
lot of misconceptions out there. What are some of the
misconceptions you hear about with regards to raw feeding and
what are your suggestions to help pet parents get past
these misconceptions.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the biggest one I think that I hear is
that it's difficult to feed raw and that doesn't have
to be true. So I think a lot of times
people think about home prepared raw when they're thinking about
I need to buy raw chicken and then some raw organs,
and then I'm going to have to add broccoli and
strawberries and blueberries and all these things to make sure
it's complete and balance with commercial raw food as a
first step, all that math has done for you, the
formulation is already done. You know it's complete and balance.
And then taking it a step further. Since we do
have frozen diets, we also have freeze dried diets as well,
and freeze dried is such a convenient way to feed
raw food because it doesn't have to be refrigerated or frozen.
It can be stored at room temperature, and it makes
it just so much easier to navigate feeding raw because
it takes all of those logistics out of the equation,
makes it easier to travel with which is a big
reason that a lot of people don't feed raw since
it can be if you're using frozen or fresh raw,
it can be very difficult to travel with because I
have to be temperature controlled. Another big one is people
think that often people think that raw has to be
all or nothing, and that's not true. You don't have
to feed one hundred percent raw to get benefits. There
are some studies that show that benefits start at just
twenty percent of your pet's diet, and so we believe
that adding a little bit of raw is better than none.
So anything that you can add to your current feeding
routine to include a little bit of raw in there,
even if that's just treats, that's beneficial, and that's better
than not having anything in the diet at all. We
also make it super easy to feed partial raw and
partial kibble or fresh food or whatever else you're feeding
with our nutrition calculator. So on our website, you can
access our nutrition Calculator and you can tell it a
little bit about your pets, a little bit about the
diet you're currently feeding, and it's going to give you
personalized recommendations based on how much raw food you want
to include in your diet. So if you say you
want to feed fifty percent vital essentials, you're going to
tell it what else you're feeding right now. It's going
to give you a new recommendation for how much to
decrease the current food buy and then how much vital
essentials to add To make that new feeding routine a
complete no brainer for you. We're going to do all
the work for you and make it super super easy
for you to just improve your pet's diet by that
little bit much more.
Speaker 2: So, how do you recommend pet parents sussess whether their
dogg or cat is benefiting from the addition of raw nutrition.
Speaker 5: So we recommend there's a couple of different things they
can look at. Body condition is a great one. With
raw nutrition, you're usually going to see an increase in
lean muscle mass, and so you'll see them bulk up
in muscle a little bit, but they will still look
very fit. They're not going to be overweight. That's a
fantastic thing that you can look for. One of the
biggest benefits that we see, and this is a longer
term benefit, but we do tend to see very very shiny,
lustrous coat and reduce standraff or no dandriff at all,
reduce itching and reduce ear in facts and things like that.
And then again the stool is a really big one too.
The biggest report that we hear is that pet stools
are firm without being too crumbly, and they are a
lot less frequent. And so what's normal for your own
pet can vary based on you know, quite a few things,
but you will definitely notice the difference in all of
those things, especially the longer you feed raw as well,
those things to continue to get better the longer you feed.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're going to take a quick break and we'll
be right back.
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Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone. We're talking to Ashlyn Lane about raw food,
nutrition and the great products at vital Essentials. So Ashland
and we were talking about before the break about how
your forbade can benefit from raw food and it doesn't
have to be in all or nothing. What types of
products does Vital Essentials have, So we've.
Speaker 5: Got quite a range of things. We do have some
treats and chews, that tend to be really really popular.
Those are items that a lot of people might know
us for, So things like our minnows that's our number
one sellar. People love our minnows treats. They're super unique.
We have our raw bar treats which are really recognizable
as well. So we have things like salmon skins, pigs snouts,
duck heads, duck necks, turkey necks, all sorts of kind
of whole animal treats and chews. And then we also
have our entrees, So we have frozen and freeze dried
entrees for dogs and cats, and those are available in
a couple different formats. So for our frozen we have
just the frozen patties. On the freeze dried side, we
have three different formats, have freeze dried patties, freeze dried
crunching nibs, and then freeze dried soft nibs. So we
have quite a few different options depending on pets needs.
And we really specialize in having a wide variety of
protein options available as well as some novel proteins.
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks, I had a smile when you said entrees.
Do you think we would have even used that word?
Maybe five years ago, two years.
Speaker 5: Ago, it has definitely become more popular.
Speaker 2: Which entree would you like tonight? Would you like rabbit
or would you like duck?
Speaker 5: Right, it's so similar right to what we do in
human food.
Speaker 2: Hey, you know, we're getting better and better at being
better pet parents at extending the life of our furbabes.
So we're just improving it, you know. So it's all
a good thing. Speaking of pet wellness and long term health,
how can a rog diet help a pets diet reduce
save maybe vet visits, or extend their life or minimize
any long term health issues.
Speaker 5: Yeah, this is super individual. Obviously, every pet's unique, Every
dogger cat is individual and has their own needs and
health challenges or health strengths. But in general, we often
see pets that have unknown allergies or sensitivities really improving
with the introduction of raw diets and especially diets like
vital essentials that are super simple and only meet a
lot of those pet parents are finding themselves in the
vets office every couple of weeks trying to mitigate an
ear infection or excessive itching or other problems that they
can't seem to find the root cause for and so
when they change to a simpler diet like something like
Vital Essentials, that's removing a lot of common allergens and
it often resolves those issues without them needing to do
a lot of deep diving into what exactly, you know,
what specific ingredient it was that might have been causing
those problems. And at the end of the day, when
you're finally solving the root cause of all of the
individual symptoms you've been seeing, you're going to find yourself
calling your vet less often because your pets a lot
happier and healthier as a result of that diet change.
Speaker 2: And would you say that diet change is due to
the protein quality that helps pets, like helps them with
their energy, their mobility, helps their immune help as they age.
Speaker 5: I think that's a huge part of it. Yes, protein
quality is essential to a healthy pet. For sure. Dogs
and cats are both carnivores by classification, so their needs
are best met with a high meat protein forward diet.
And that's in comparison to something like high plant protein diets,
so dyets that contain protein isolates like p protein, potato protein,
or corn gluten meal. Those are all really common plant
proteins that you'll find in heavier plant based kibbles or
kibble that relies at least more heavily on plant protein
than animal protein. And it's important that we meet those
amino acid requirements. Amino Acids are the building blocks of
protein with the most appropriate source of amino acids, and
so meat meets those amino acids perfectly. It provides the
exact amino acid profile that dogs and cats need, and
it's super easy for them to digest and they love it.
It's super super tasty for them. So all of those
things kind of line up to put your pet in
a better position for again, their energy, their mobility. When
their body is working the way it's supposed to, they
usually feel better, which means they're able to do more
with you and you can get more quality time with
your pets.
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks, If there is one specific condition that you
can say this is, and I know all pets are different,
you know cats and dogs are different at different ages,
different breeds, so it's not it's a generalization kind of
question for sure, But is there a specific condition like
either allergies or digestive issues or dull coats or being
lethargic that raw nutrition would really help the most.
Speaker 5: I think the two issues that I see the most
improvement in, especially in what I do our body condition
and skinning coat. Those are obviously very obvious too, so
it's something that pet parents can very easily notice. But
skinning coat issues is where we see the most dramatic improvement.
It's very very easy to tell when your pet has
gone from a poor coat condition, even if you maybe
didn't realize that at the time. When you see that
improvement and see how much better they've gotten, you can
look back and see the massive difference. Again, it's something
that's very very noticeable because we are very hands on
with our pets. Usually it's something you can actually feel
with your hands, you can see it with your eyes,
you can see it in photos. It's something other people
often notice and so that's a huge one. And then
body condition, again it's very visual. This is something that
we can see super, super easily. Raw diets are super
beneficial on both ends of the spectrum for body condition
as well. So whether that's an overweight pet or a
pet that's underweight and needs to put on mass, those
are both areas where a raw does it can help
them reach the correct condition. Either by helping them lose
weight and get to a leaner condition or put on
muscle mass and get to a healthier spot.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's great information. You know, as you know, raw
food becomes more popular and more mainstream and people realize,
you know, it's it's portable, but easily portable in the
freed stride form. How do you see raw nutrition shaping
the future of pet wellness?
Speaker 5: Yeah, we're already seeing pet parents seek out better foods
and alternative nutrition options to make their pets bowls better.
And so because of that, I think we're going to
continue to see the raw category just grow. As a result.
Pet parents are challenging the status quo every single day
as they become more educated and invested in nutrition and wellness,
and so a very natural next step is taking that
leap into raw feeding, even if it's just for part
of their pets diets.
Speaker 2: First of all, where can people find vital Essentials?
Speaker 5: So, vital Essentials is available through independent brick and mortar
pet stores nationwide. So you can visit vital essentials dot
com and click find a store to search by your
city and state or your zip code, and we can
help you find stores in your area that carry it.
We also have products available on vital essentials dot com
to order directly from us, or you can order on
Chewy or Amazon.
Speaker 2: Okay, great, so it's easy to find vityl Essentials. Can
you give us some tips as to some new products
maybe coming out later this year?
Speaker 5: Yes, I am super excited. We do have a new
formula that we're releasing that I can share about. We're
excited to add a new soft nibs formula to our
lineup for dogs. It's going to be quail, pheasant and egg.
It is a complete and balanced diet. It is a
limited edition formula, so when it hits out there, I
definitely recommend checking with your stores to see if they
have it. I believe we may be offering it on
our website as well, so if your local stores don't
have it, you may be able to find it on
our website. It's going to be a great fit for
sensitive dogs who need novel proteins, and it's a very
safe bet for dogs who are allergic to chicken because
egg is a unique protein structure, so dogs that are
allergic to chicken are not automatically allergic to egg, so
this should be a great option for adding some variety
for those sensitive pets or if this is something that
you know, if you have a dog or even a
cat that gets super bored easily. Since these are novel proteins,
these should be super super attractive to those picky pets
as long as they are into poultry, you know. But
since they are novel proteins, they should be super interesting
as a something new to introduce. They can absolutely be
fed to cats as a treat or a topper, even
though it's a dog entree. That doesn't mean cats can't
have it at all. Cats can definitely have a small
amount as long as their main diet is a cat food.
But yeah, this is something that we're really really excited
about and we are really hoping that everybody is going
to be as excited about it as we are.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm excited and thank you for the treats. My
cats love them.
Speaker 6: Ali was so glad.
Speaker 5: Good.
Speaker 2: What is your dog's favorite?
Speaker 5: So I have two dogs. My dogs, I will say
one of them is a Labrador, so he will eat anything,
so he's not the best judge of what he really
really loves. But my other dog is a senior and
she is super picky. It's been really hard her entire
life to figure out anything that she'll eat very consistently.
She has yet to find a Vital Essentials product that
she doesn't like. She will eat any of the vital
Essentials treats, entrees or chewes that I put in front
of her, And that really is the truth.
Speaker 2: That's great news.
Speaker 5: It's so wonderful, and it's you know, as she ages.
It's nice to see her really enjoy the food and
not just eat because she has to. You know, but
I think her favorite is our lamb and whitefish soft nibs,
very closely followed by the pork soft nibs. She is
missing some teeth, so I do tend to stick for
the soft nibs for her. And yeah, the lamb and
whitefish and then the pork I think have than her favorites.
Speaker 2: Oh good to know. Well, I want to thank you
so much for coming on Best Bets for Pets and
telling us about vital Essentials and the importance of raw food.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much. Having New Year, I.
Speaker 2: Hope everyone enjoyed this show. You know, ron Aetrishan is
becoming so important and I love that vital Essentials has
a great assortment of product. I love that they have
freeze dried product. My cats love them. You know, Dennis
is not picky for the oldest cat. He's a senior,
and he's like a senior senior. He's about sixteen. He's
not that picky, and he loved everything. Misstevamali's different story,
but I didn't know what was her favorite.
Speaker 5: The Middow's for.
Speaker 2: Sure, but she loved everything. Charlotte is the strangest one.
She's my misunderstood cat. You know, she operates in a
in Charlotte world, and you know, I love them all,
but Charlotte was at first you know, what is this
and had a sniff a little bit, and then she
gobbled it up and it actually came to find me
and wanted more. And if you guys, you know, listen,
and especially if you listen to my other show, Catitude,
you'll know that Charlotte is my misunderstood oddcat and I'm
not her favorite. So it was better in Europe for
the treats. Anyways, the vital essential treats and food are fabulous.
I tried the freeze dride and my cats love them,
so thank you Mollie, Charlotte and Dennis, thank you to
my guest Ashley Laine for coming on Best Bets for
Pets and telling us about vital essentials and ron nutrition,
And of course, thank you so much to my listening
audience for listening to Best Bets for Pets for We've
been doing this fifteen years, so thank you, thank you.
I don't even know how many shows because in the
beginning I did two shows per episodes, so I know
it has to be over five hundred, so a lot
of wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful products over the years, So
thank you for listening. I so appreciate it. And of course,
thank you to the magic of my producer, Thank you
Mark Winter for all you do. You are so appreciated.
Without his editing, our shows would not be as wonderful
to listen to. I can guarantee you that, So thank
you Mark for all you do. And hey, keep listening.
You never know what we're going to happen next. On
Best Bets for Pets.
Speaker 4: Let's talk bets every week on demand only on Petlike
Radio dot Com.