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Pet Life Radio. This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
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Welcome to Catitude. I'm so glad to have you join
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me today. I'm your show host, Michelle Fern. So today's
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guest is a chef. He was a professional chef for years,
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and then he decided he needs to make a product
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for dogs. But yes, you're listening to Catitude. But then
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he found out that cats can use this too. So
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interesting story. because it doesn't always go that far down
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to cats, right? So stay tuned. We're going to be
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right back, and I will meet Chef Scott.
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Hey, everyone.
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Brandon McMillan here, CBS host of Lucky Dog Reunions and
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Lucky Dog Down Under, and spokesperson for the 18th Annual
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Cross-Country Pet Adoption Tour. Get your licks on Route 66.
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Brought to you by Fido Friendly Magazine and campaign partner
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Tranquil Tales, along with media sponsor PetLife Radio. The tour
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travels down America's favorite highway, supporting shelter events across America.
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With support of Tito's Vodka for Dog People, Hands On Gloves,
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each shelter event can donate to spin and win prizes
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from our sponsors with all proceeds benefiting the shelter at
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the end of the day. Go to FidoFriendly.com to see
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where the tour stops near you. And who knows, you
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might just find your new forever friend.
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Let's Talk Pets on PetLifeRadio.com.
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Welcome back, everyone. I'd like to welcome Chef Scott to Catitude. Welcome.
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Michelle, thank you so much. I'm super excited to be here.
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You spent more than 30 years as a professional chef,
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and then you went into pet wellness. So that's an
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interesting transition. How did it happen?
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It's a long story, and I'll spare you most of it.
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But I'll tell you that after cooking for 30 years,
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35 years to be exact, we ran up against that
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little thing called COVID. And had a restaurant, and that
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restaurant didn't make it through COVID. And I found myself
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a chef with idle hands. That is not a good
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thing to have because we're used to being extremely busy.
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And we're also used to helping people and serving people.
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And I found myself with time again, once again in
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my life, for animals in my life. And that's when
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our girl Lily Lou came to us, a Moyan Poodle.
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And Lily came to us with, you know, the standard
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problems that some dogs, many dogs have, nervousness and tear
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stains and just all around allergy symptoms and stuff like that.
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And I started thinking about what's the core? What's the foundation?
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Where do all these things start? And everything I read
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and everything I was learning just started going back to
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that foundation of diet and how we feed them. And
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I wanted to create something for my girl to help
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her through allergies and through allergy season that would be
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just an extension of a good diet, you know? And
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that's how I started developing our first products.
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You know, it's interesting how we look at things that
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so differently than even 10 years ago. You know, we
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look at our dog's allergies. Probiotics was a word that
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nobody used a decade ago. Now we talk about it
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for our felines and our canines and gut health. So
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it's good. It's good that this is happening, especially it's
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happening for cats, but we're not there yet. So your
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journey began with your dog who had allergies, Lily. And
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how did that make you change your mind towards pet nutrition?
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I know she had allergies and you said it all
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led to diet.
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Well, it made nutrition, looking at her and working with
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her and looking at things through a nutritional biological lens
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rather than just heating food up and seeing how it
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changes physically, it made nutrition feel less theoretical. I began
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to see that what we feed every day can either
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support the body or continually ask the body to compensate.
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And that's what was happening with Lily when she came
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to us. Her body was asking for compensation. It was
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screaming out to be balanced. And that view, that idea
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of changed the way I look at ingredients. It changed
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the way I think about supplements and it changed the
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way I think about long-term wellness. And it introduced me
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to the concept of healthspan. We all want a good
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lifespan and we want our loved ones to be with
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us as long as they can. But if they're not
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healthy through that period, no matter how long or how
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short that is, then we're not doing them a good service.
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Very interesting. And just like for humans, you are what
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you eat. That's it goes to, you know, our dogs
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or cats. Okay, tell us about as you know, with
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your background in food, and especially professional chef, which I
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don't even do the cooking in my house, but I
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watch a lot of TV shows about cooking, and I've
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worked in restaurants, but not as in the cooking, the
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front of the house, serving and working in the bar.
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So back in the day. Anyways, so my experience is
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very different than yours. So how, as you as a
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chef and knowing ingredients and all that, what do you
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see in the pet food area today that makes you think, wow,
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even some of this stuff that's supposed to be great
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for dogs. We're not talking like the mainline kibble, but
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there's all these raw and, you know, specialized food and everything.
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Is it good or is it just a lot of marketing? Yeah.
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I think you're onto something when you talk about the
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marketing part. You know, my biggest concern is how easily
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convenience and marketing can take priority over biological appropriateness. A food,
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it can meet minimum standards. It still rely heavily on
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highly processed ingredients, right? Minimum standards, that's the key thing there.
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The food can meet those standards and it can still
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have excessive starches and ingredients chosen more for, I don't know,
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manufacturing efficiency rather than nutritional value. Most often, ingredients are
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chosen for profit margin. And on the other side of
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that coin, though, is something that not a lot of
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people think about. The other side of the coin is
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treating biological appropriateness as an absolute value. Without considering the
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individual animal in front of you, you know, species matters.
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It matters that you're looking at a beautiful cat or
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a beautiful dog, but so does age. So does the health, history, digestion, lifestyle, tolerances, intolerances,
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and what that particular cat or dog can actually thrive on.
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You know, my girls, they eat a 100% raw diet.
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I've worked with a lot of pet parents that dogs
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don't fare well on a raw diet. They need a
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gently cooked diet. And these things are important. The goal,
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in my opinion, should not be an ideology. It should
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be thoughtful, biologically respectful, biologically respectful nutrition. And it's adapted
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to the animal in front of you, not forced on them.
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Okay, thank you. So Wolf Creek, which is your main company,
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is launching Feline Foundation. And this is your first product
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that's specifically for cats. Now, we know, you know, on Catitude,
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cats are normally thought of as second, even though there's
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actually more cats out there that have pet parents than dogs,
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because most people have two or more, like I have three,
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which is actually kind of, you know, on the small
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side to some cat households. So why was it so
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important to think about designing for cats? And how is
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it different than just adapting it for dogs?
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That's a great question. And for your listeners, I'll tell
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them one thing that me, even though I own this startup,
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what started as a canine centric company and has now
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we're moving out into the feline world. I grew up
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with cats. There was always a cat in my household
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and usually it was a lot more than one. So
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right now we don't have cats around and I miss them.
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I miss them a lot. But cats, they're just not
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smaller dogs, you know, and I can tell you that
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from observation, from relationships I've had with cats growing up.
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They have different nutritional needs, a different digestive physiology, different
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taste preferences, and they have a much lower tolerance for
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ingredients that don't make sense to them biologically. We built
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our first cat product, the Feline Foundation, and hopefully it'll
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be the first of many. From the beginning around cats,
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we just didn't build a product and say, you know what,
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this happens to be good for cats too. We built
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this around the feline digestion process. system. And it's taken
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us about three years to bring it to market, including palatability,
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protein-based ingredients, digestive support, feline-specific probiotic strains. It's all geared
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toward just that wonderful cat is.
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What it's for. You know what? Thank you, Chef Scott.
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One of the things, and we've talked about this on
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the show before, hopefully I'm remembering it correctly, that We
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know cats aren't just picky eaters. They're different than dogs.
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For example, dogs, I believe, can be vegan, although it's
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not that good for them. But cats cannot.
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No.
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Absolutely cannot because it would, you know, it affects something
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in their digestive system. So it can be fatal for
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your cat. Plus, I don't think people should put whatever
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your views are for your dog. You have to manage
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how your dog eats. They're different than your cat. They're
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different than humans. They have a different, biologically, we are different.
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So what is it besides that difference, which is huge,
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I think, what are the other differences between cats and dogs?
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What makes it that much more difficult to design something
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just for cats?
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I've noticed that cats are marketed as being finicky, and
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that's really a bad rap they get. Their bodies are
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designed completely differently. They're designed around animal protein, like we
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just said, for being obligate carnivores, proteins and fat. Those
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very unique nutritional requirements, including their lack of ability to
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manufacture taurine and some of the fatty acids. Unlike dogs,
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cats can't even manufacture some of this stuff. They also
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process carbohydrates very differently. differently. And what we don't consider,
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what we think is finicky is really cats being very
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cautious about what they're eating, being very mindful about what
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they're eating. They're a bit neophobic. They don't like a
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lot of change. And people say, well, curiosity killed the cat.
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They're always exploring us. And the cats aren't always exploring.
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They're always on the watch out. They want to investigate
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what might be in their area. to see what's happening
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in their environment. And one thing that kind of gets
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forgotten about cats is cats are, they don't spend a
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lot of time at the water bowl, right? They need
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hydration in their food. And we have to really consider
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that because a cat can easily dehydrate because they don't
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self-hydrate as often as a dog might be. We hear
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a dog lapping at a bowl all the time. That
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sounds normal to us. If a cat's drinking a lot
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of water, there might be something going on. Their behaviors
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are very different. Cats like certain amino acids. They love
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the smells and aroma of certain proteins. They like food
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to be relatively the same temperature every time they eat it.
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Is that finicky? That's just them being cautious, making sure
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that they're getting exactly what they need in their diet.
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I don't know. I could go for hours on this.
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I think they fascinate me.
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Well, I have more questions, but we're going to take
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a short break, so we'll be right back.
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Let's Talk Pets. Let's Talk Pets. On PetLife Radio. PetLife Radio.
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PetLife Radio.com.
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Welcome back, everyone. We're talking to Chef Scott. His company,
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Wolf Creek, is launching Feline Foundation, and we're talking about
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gut health and digestive systems and all this great stuff
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you need to know about your cat. So, Chef Scott,
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what are some subtle signs that pet parents can look
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out for that might show that their cat's digestive system
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is kind of out of balance?
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Okay, yeah, that's a good question. Changes in stool consistency,
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strong stool odor. is number one, right? You'll notice that
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before you see it. More frequent hairballs, you know, something
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out of the ordinary. And that's just one of those
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things that's going to be, okay, I know my cat
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in front of me. My cat's a frequent hairballer, you know,
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or you know by observation that something's different. Vomiting, gas,
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reduced appetites. A lot of these are the the basic
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signs that we would look at. And there's also some
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subtle things, you know, the excessive grooming, inconsistent litter box habits, right?
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That can also be a clue. My cat usually goes
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to the litter box a certain time of day and
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all of a sudden it's not happening or it's happening
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more often. You know, none of these specifically automatically mean
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there's the gut is the cause. We don't really know
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always what the cause is. That's why we have to
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be very vigilant and observant. But these are signs worth
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observing and discussing regularly. You know, with your veterinarian or
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something that persists. Cats can be elusive. So my girls,
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my dogs, they're pretty obvious when something's going on with them.
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But every cat I've had, I got to pay attention.
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You know, got to pay really close attention.
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Yes, you do. Otherwise, you might get swiped.
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Yes.
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And it's not a negative thing. It's just that's their
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way of saying enough. But they have sharp claws, you know.
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That's right.
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I've learned. I was first a dog person, so I
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had to learn my cats that have all adopted me. Okay,
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so digestion. and improve gut health. How else can the
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right food help the cat's immune system and maybe their
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skin and coat and energy levels? I know you're a chef,
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so we're going from a chef viewpoint, not like a
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veterinary viewpoint. But I'm a big believer in you are
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what you eat. I'm not perfect, but I try to
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eat clean. So how important is all of that for
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our cats and seeing it in the subtle areas like
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their coat and their activity level?
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Gut health, right? And how we've heard about all these axes,
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the axi of gut health, and we're learning that gut
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health can, and this is very important for cats, directly
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affect kidney health and brain health and therefore behavior, you know.
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And I believe that it all goes the other way.
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If you live in a tumultuous environment and you haven't
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built a great environment for your cat, then you might
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affect gut health in the reverse direction, right? Behavior goes
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inward and behavior goes outward. The gut communicates to the
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immune system and the gut communicates to the nervous system
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and it plays a major role in nutrient absorption. Digestive
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health can influence immune balance, scan, coat, like you said.
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And I'm a huge believer that the gut balance can
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influence stress response. And that's why it's so important to
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be observant of your cat's diet and understand that though
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they might be eating? Are they absorbing all that nutrition?
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Are they getting everything in there to not just have
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a balanced diet or balanced gut, but a balanced life?
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Okay, thank you. So there's a lot of, we talked
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about this earlier in the first half about marketing, and
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there's a lot of claims on labels that people can
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be fooled by. I kind of think of it as,
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you know, all natural when they talk about that on
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packaging for like humans, all natural. It doesn't, sugar is natural.
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shouldn't have a lot of sugar. Salt is natural. Shouldn't
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have a lot of salt.
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Cobra venom. Cobra venom is natural. It's also natural.
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See?
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And cobra venom, right? So there's all this kind of
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stuff that is, you know, all natural and they could
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use that all natural for pets too. So that's one
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of the ways I think that you see food and
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you're kind of like, you know, you're lured by what
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the labeling says. What else should pet parents watch out for?
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That's good.
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And believe me, I use the word natural, but we
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also like to carry it a little deeper and explain it.
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I would start if I'm picking up a new product,
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say food or something like that, I do like many
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pet parents do and just flip it around and look
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at the actual ingredient list and not the front of
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the package first and skip past the buzzwords like natural
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and complete and these things and And look for clearly
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named animal proteins, appropriate fat sources, minimal unnecessary starches. And
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I also look for a transparency of what each ingredient provides.
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And sometimes I have to do the extra work to
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see what all these ingredients provide, especially if I'm looking
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at a supplement or something. I want to know if
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everything in there is 100% functional or not. Are there
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things in this product that I'm looking at that are
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what we call carriers or filler, you know, things like
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dextrose or rice hull? You know, we don't really need those.
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Probiotics are often on labels. And that way, when that happens,
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I look for strains rather than the word probiotic. I
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want to see what strains are going in there and
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how deep that information goes. Can I find out where
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those strains are from, you know? Things I'd be cautious
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about is vague terms like premium, holistic, like we said, natural,
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human grade, vet formulated. I wouldn't take those on just
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on face value. I want to know, well, what does
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that mean? What are they trying to designate? Those phrases
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can sound impressive without telling you much about the sourcing,
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the processing, portion sizes, and nutritional value.
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This has been very informative. So let's talk about, I
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think this is amazing. So you have your animals, your
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fur babes, self-select herbs. Yeah. How do you do that?
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And how did their experience, did that teach you more
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about nutrition and what should go into your product? Did
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they just sniff one and like it? Yeah. Like I
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don't like cilantro, so I don't even know if you
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can smell it, but I do not like it. And
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it doesn't taste like soap. I just don't like it.
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Cilantro is a love or hate relationship for almost everyone.
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And that's an enzymatic reaction. And that's another podcast. Lily
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and Layla, when they get acid reflux or their stomachs
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aren't doing well, they tend to look for something herbaceous.
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Usually.
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a grass. Lily selects clover, ryegrass, or tall fescue. Why?
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I'm not quite sure, but I see her selecting those.
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Layla enjoys dill. She also enjoys chervil. and lettuce greens,
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but not as a regular part of their diet. Any
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other day, I can put that right on top of
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their food and they will not eat it. They'll eat
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around it. But when they're feeling a certain way, they
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know what they're looking for. And I did that by
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just experimenting. I discovered it because I have a hydroponic
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wall in my house, a little system that I grow
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lettuces and herbs on. And I kept walking by and
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my dill plant was always out on the floor. And
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I finally found that Layla enjoyed dill when she wasn't
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feeling well. So the whole bottom rack of that now
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is all dill.
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You know what? I got to interrupt something. That's interesting because,
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you know, there's that old chicken soup is good for you.
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And I've always had it and it always has dill
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in it. Maybe it's just how I made it. But interesting.
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Incredibly nutritious herb. Why she flocks to it, I really
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don't know. But I just know that, you know, I'm
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cognizant of what's growing in their area. Especially when we're
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out in the yard and they're walking around, I'm cognizant
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of what's growing there. And I have a little app
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on my phone where I can look up plants. Is
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this toxic to my babies or is it not toxic
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to my babies? And I'll check everything.
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If it's toxic, we.
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Pull it out. and not toxic, they're free to enjoy
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it and check it out. It's something that happens to
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them naturally. I've seen cats do it. Cats obviously love catnip.
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Cats also, I've had cats that enjoy basil and different
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types of basil. Thai basil is one that my cats
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used to enjoy. And always in the winter months, if
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I don't have enough grass out in the yard, I'll
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grow some rye or some wheatgrass inside so that they
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can select it.
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So what about knowing which herbs are not good for
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your cats?
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That's very important. You know, I just encourage you to
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get a good book, do some research and make sure
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that you're well versed in what plants are good and
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what plants aren't good. Most cats are going to be
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pretty smart and instinctual and not gravitate towards something that's
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not good for them. But I wouldn't rely on that alone.
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You know, I would want to make sure I know
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what's growing in my area. And you can also just
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grow a little garden for your cat and make sure
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it's in their pathway. Make sure they get to walk
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by it daily.
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Okay, thank you. You also want to have sustainability as
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part of your mission. Tell us about that.
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It's really important to us. And sustainability, that's a big word.
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And it's another one of those buzzwords that you'll see
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on some packaging or on a seal on a package.
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And for us, we visit that in many different ways.
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Our supplements come in little tin cans, not in plastic.
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And boy, does that make manufacturing difficult for us, but
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we will not compromise. We have, instead of plastic scoops,
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we have wooden scoops, you know, little bamboo spoons that
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go into our products. Anything that's liquid that we produce
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goes into a glass bottle. And we like that for
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a couple of reasons, the sustainability, the recyclability, and also
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the inert nature of glass. There's no forever chemicals involved
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in that, in the glass. And all the way down
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to how I source ingredients and materials for all my
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products and And the fish that go into making the
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omega fatty acids, everything is sustainably certified. We're very careful
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about where we source everything from. We buy organic when
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we can. Also, case in point, our salmon oil. We
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have a salmon and hemp seed oil. We were out
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of that for over a year because the harvest was bad.
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We could have still bought it, but we knew that
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the salmon harvest was not up to par and that
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that system in Alaska was being stressed. So we stepped
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away from it for a year. It's just really important
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to us.
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I'm glad to hear that.
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Really important.
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So with the launch of Feline Foundation, I want to
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know what you hope cat parents notice once they start
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using the products. And also, does that mean you might
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be a cat parent soon yourself? So you have a
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cat tester?
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I'm on the lookout for sure. There's one little, and
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I'll answer your question in a second. There's one little
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cat in my neighborhood and I call her Ghost. Because she's,
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I don't know where she came from. She's a little
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white cat and she crawls up out of the drain.
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She goes from the pond up the drain up to
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the street. I know she's just out there. And when
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I go and try to find her, I can't find her.
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So I've called her ghost. But I would happily adopt
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ghost if I can find her. But we're definitely looking
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for a cat. These two girls I have here, I
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have to be very careful because I need to explain
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to them the difference between rabbits, squirrels and cats. Right now,
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everything with four legs, they want to chase. And what
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was the first part of your question?
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So Chef Scott, what excites you the most about the
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launch of the Feline Foundation? And what do you hope
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cat parents notice once they start using the products?
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I'll tell you what I know they're going to notice.
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They're going to notice that Wolf Creek has some of
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the most caring and wonderful customer service people that you
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will ever, ever come across. Meaning you can reach out
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to us and ask questions about our products before you
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even buy them. We want to know about your pet
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so that we can explain whether or not this feline
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foundation is right for you. We're very excited about what
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we expect to be a very positive reaction to it
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because we're doing something that is cat specific that has
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a lot of thought and research behind it. And I'm
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hoping that what it will do for cats and cat
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parents is just I don't want people to take a
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product and see a major noticeable difference. I want people
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to use my product and see my cat's just doing
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great and my cat's continuing to do great. This product
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will help with gut balance and stool quality and overall wellness.
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And we're just excited to be part of this community
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and really want to dive in as deep as we can.
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Cats are amazing, truly amazing. And I don't have to
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tell your community that, you know.
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They are, you know, you said it earlier, their cats
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are not small dogs. We've talked about that on this
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show so many times. I still think it's wild how,
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you know, much their DNA represents. Is it 95% tigers
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or lions? And there's a lot of that if you
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watch them. They have those mannerisms from the little I've
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seen up close with tigers and lions. I think they do.
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And we recognize that.
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Yeah.
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What we're producing, it does have probiotics in it, but
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these are not just regular probiotics. They actually are pass
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through wild Canadian cougars. So they're species specific and it's
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not a huge probiotic load. That's not what we're going for.
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You know, we want just enough probiotics for daily use.
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And yeah, cats, man, cats. Yeah, I got to get
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a cat, Michelle.
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You got to get a cat. Yeah.
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It's going to happen soon. I promise. It's going to
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happen soon.
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Yep. And so finally, where can our listeners learn more
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about Wolf Creek and especially follow the Launch of Feline Foundation? Oh, great.
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Wolfcreek.com. W-O-O-F-C-R-E-E-K.com. And on there, you'll see, click on the
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resources tab. Before you even do any shopping, just click
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on the resources tab and go to the Wolf Companion.
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You're going to find a bunch of blogs about cats
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on there. We just did a bunch of research. Our
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head of research, Kay Stewart, did some great research on
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cats and wrote some wonderful blogs. So there's a lot
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of good resources in there, not just for dog parents,
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but cat parents too.
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Chef Scott, thank you so much for being on Catitude.
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Absolutely. My pleasure.
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I hope you all enjoyed this show. I certainly did.
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It's kind of eye-opening when you're talking to someone who's
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creating a product and their background is of a chef.
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You know, Chef Scott was a chef, a professional chef
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for 35 years and has come out with some great
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products for cats. So check out Feline Foundation and Wolf Creek.
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So thank you, Chef Scott, for coming on Catitude. Thanks
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to my cat crew, Dennis, Charlotte, and Molly. that have
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taught me so much more than just about cats. Thank
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00:28:10.440 --> 00:28:13.920
you to my listening audience. Thank you for listening, for
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00:28:13.980 --> 00:28:17.380
sending suggestions, for reaching out. You can reach out to
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00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:22.140
me at Michelle at PetLifeRadio.com. And of course, the show
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00:28:22.180 --> 00:28:25.410
would not be the same without the magic of my producer.
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00:28:25.430 --> 00:28:28.450
Thank you, Mark, for all you do. And hey, remember,
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lose the attitude, have catitude.
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00:28:32.460 --> 00:28:37.660
Let's Talk Pets, every week on demand, only on PetLifeRadio.com.
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Pet Life Radio. This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
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Welcome to Catitude. I'm so glad to have you join
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00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:32.439
me today. I'm your show host, Michelle Fern. So today's
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00:00:32.500 --> 00:00:36.840
guest is a chef. He was a professional chef for years,
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and then he decided he needs to make a product
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00:00:39.479 --> 00:00:43.479
for dogs. But yes, you're listening to Catitude. But then
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he found out that cats can use this too. So
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00:00:48.390 --> 00:00:51.520
interesting story. because it doesn't always go that far down
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00:00:51.560 --> 00:00:54.520
to cats, right? So stay tuned. We're going to be
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right back, and I will meet Chef Scott.
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Hey, everyone.
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Brandon McMillan here, CBS host of Lucky Dog Reunions and
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Lucky Dog Down Under, and spokesperson for the 18th Annual
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Cross-Country Pet Adoption Tour. Get your licks on Route 66.
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Brought to you by Fido Friendly Magazine and campaign partner
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Tranquil Tales, along with media sponsor PetLife Radio. The tour
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travels down America's favorite highway, supporting shelter events across America.
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With support of Tito's Vodka for Dog People, Hands On Gloves,
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My Place Hotels, KOA, and Signs to You. Attendees at
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each shelter event can donate to spin and win prizes
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from our sponsors with all proceeds benefiting the shelter at
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the end of the day. Go to FidoFriendly.com to see
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where the tour stops near you. And who knows, you
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might just find your new forever friend.
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Let's Talk Pets on PetLifeRadio.com.
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Welcome back, everyone. I'd like to welcome Chef Scott to Catitude. Welcome.
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Michelle, thank you so much. I'm super excited to be here.
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You spent more than 30 years as a professional chef,
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and then you went into pet wellness. So that's an
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interesting transition. How did it happen?
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It's a long story, and I'll spare you most of it.
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But I'll tell you that after cooking for 30 years,
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35 years to be exact, we ran up against that
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little thing called COVID. And had a restaurant, and that
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restaurant didn't make it through COVID. And I found myself
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a chef with idle hands. That is not a good
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thing to have because we're used to being extremely busy.
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And we're also used to helping people and serving people.
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And I found myself with time again, once again in
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my life, for animals in my life. And that's when
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our girl Lily Lou came to us, a Moyan Poodle.
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And Lily came to us with, you know, the standard
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problems that some dogs, many dogs have, nervousness and tear
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stains and just all around allergy symptoms and stuff like that.
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And I started thinking about what's the core? What's the foundation?
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Where do all these things start? And everything I read
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and everything I was learning just started going back to
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that foundation of diet and how we feed them. And
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I wanted to create something for my girl to help
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her through allergies and through allergy season that would be
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just an extension of a good diet, you know? And
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that's how I started developing our first products.
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You know, it's interesting how we look at things that
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so differently than even 10 years ago. You know, we
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look at our dog's allergies. Probiotics was a word that
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nobody used a decade ago. Now we talk about it
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for our felines and our canines and gut health. So
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it's good. It's good that this is happening, especially it's
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happening for cats, but we're not there yet. So your
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journey began with your dog who had allergies, Lily. And
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how did that make you change your mind towards pet nutrition?
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I know she had allergies and you said it all
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led to diet.
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Well, it made nutrition, looking at her and working with
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her and looking at things through a nutritional biological lens
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rather than just heating food up and seeing how it
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changes physically, it made nutrition feel less theoretical. I began
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to see that what we feed every day can either
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support the body or continually ask the body to compensate.
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And that's what was happening with Lily when she came
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to us. Her body was asking for compensation. It was
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screaming out to be balanced. And that view, that idea
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of changed the way I look at ingredients. It changed
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the way I think about supplements and it changed the
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way I think about long-term wellness. And it introduced me
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to the concept of healthspan. We all want a good
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lifespan and we want our loved ones to be with
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us as long as they can. But if they're not
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healthy through that period, no matter how long or how
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short that is, then we're not doing them a good service.
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Very interesting. And just like for humans, you are what
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you eat. That's it goes to, you know, our dogs
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or cats. Okay, tell us about as you know, with
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your background in food, and especially professional chef, which I
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don't even do the cooking in my house, but I
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watch a lot of TV shows about cooking, and I've
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worked in restaurants, but not as in the cooking, the
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front of the house, serving and working in the bar.
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So back in the day. Anyways, so my experience is
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very different than yours. So how, as you as a
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chef and knowing ingredients and all that, what do you
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see in the pet food area today that makes you think, wow,
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even some of this stuff that's supposed to be great
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for dogs. We're not talking like the mainline kibble, but
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there's all these raw and, you know, specialized food and everything.
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Is it good or is it just a lot of marketing? Yeah.
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I think you're onto something when you talk about the
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marketing part. You know, my biggest concern is how easily
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convenience and marketing can take priority over biological appropriateness. A food,
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it can meet minimum standards. It still rely heavily on
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highly processed ingredients, right? Minimum standards, that's the key thing there.
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The food can meet those standards and it can still
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have excessive starches and ingredients chosen more for, I don't know,
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manufacturing efficiency rather than nutritional value. Most often, ingredients are
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chosen for profit margin. And on the other side of
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that coin, though, is something that not a lot of
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people think about. The other side of the coin is
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treating biological appropriateness as an absolute value. Without considering the
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individual animal in front of you, you know, species matters.
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It matters that you're looking at a beautiful cat or
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a beautiful dog, but so does age. So does the health, history, digestion, lifestyle, tolerances, intolerances,
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and what that particular cat or dog can actually thrive on.
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You know, my girls, they eat a 100% raw diet.
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I've worked with a lot of pet parents that dogs
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don't fare well on a raw diet. They need a
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gently cooked diet. And these things are important. The goal,
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in my opinion, should not be an ideology. It should
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be thoughtful, biologically respectful, biologically respectful nutrition. And it's adapted
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to the animal in front of you, not forced on them.
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Okay, thank you. So Wolf Creek, which is your main company,
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is launching Feline Foundation. And this is your first product
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that's specifically for cats. Now, we know, you know, on Catitude,
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cats are normally thought of as second, even though there's
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actually more cats out there that have pet parents than dogs,
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because most people have two or more, like I have three,
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which is actually kind of, you know, on the small
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side to some cat households. So why was it so
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important to think about designing for cats? And how is
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it different than just adapting it for dogs?
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That's a great question. And for your listeners, I'll tell
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them one thing that me, even though I own this startup,
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what started as a canine centric company and has now
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we're moving out into the feline world. I grew up
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with cats. There was always a cat in my household
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and usually it was a lot more than one. So
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right now we don't have cats around and I miss them.
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I miss them a lot. But cats, they're just not
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smaller dogs, you know, and I can tell you that
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from observation, from relationships I've had with cats growing up.
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They have different nutritional needs, a different digestive physiology, different
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taste preferences, and they have a much lower tolerance for
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ingredients that don't make sense to them biologically. We built
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our first cat product, the Feline Foundation, and hopefully it'll
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be the first of many. From the beginning around cats,
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we just didn't build a product and say, you know what,
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this happens to be good for cats too. We built
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this around the feline digestion process. system. And it's taken
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us about three years to bring it to market, including palatability,
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protein-based ingredients, digestive support, feline-specific probiotic strains. It's all geared
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toward just that wonderful cat is.
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What it's for. You know what? Thank you, Chef Scott.
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One of the things, and we've talked about this on
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the show before, hopefully I'm remembering it correctly, that We
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know cats aren't just picky eaters. They're different than dogs.
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For example, dogs, I believe, can be vegan, although it's
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not that good for them. But cats cannot.
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No.
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Absolutely cannot because it would, you know, it affects something
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in their digestive system. So it can be fatal for
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your cat. Plus, I don't think people should put whatever
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your views are for your dog. You have to manage
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how your dog eats. They're different than your cat. They're
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different than humans. They have a different, biologically, we are different.
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So what is it besides that difference, which is huge,
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I think, what are the other differences between cats and dogs?
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What makes it that much more difficult to design something
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just for cats?
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I've noticed that cats are marketed as being finicky, and
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that's really a bad rap they get. Their bodies are
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designed completely differently. They're designed around animal protein, like we
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just said, for being obligate carnivores, proteins and fat. Those
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very unique nutritional requirements, including their lack of ability to
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manufacture taurine and some of the fatty acids. Unlike dogs,
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cats can't even manufacture some of this stuff. They also
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process carbohydrates very differently. differently. And what we don't consider,
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what we think is finicky is really cats being very
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cautious about what they're eating, being very mindful about what
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they're eating. They're a bit neophobic. They don't like a
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lot of change. And people say, well, curiosity killed the cat.
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They're always exploring us. And the cats aren't always exploring.
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They're always on the watch out. They want to investigate
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what might be in their area. to see what's happening
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in their environment. And one thing that kind of gets
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forgotten about cats is cats are, they don't spend a
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lot of time at the water bowl, right? They need
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hydration in their food. And we have to really consider
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that because a cat can easily dehydrate because they don't
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self-hydrate as often as a dog might be. We hear
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a dog lapping at a bowl all the time. That
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sounds normal to us. If a cat's drinking a lot
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of water, there might be something going on. Their behaviors
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are very different. Cats like certain amino acids. They love
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the smells and aroma of certain proteins. They like food
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to be relatively the same temperature every time they eat it.
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Is that finicky? That's just them being cautious, making sure
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that they're getting exactly what they need in their diet.
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I don't know. I could go for hours on this.
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I think they fascinate me.
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Well, I have more questions, but we're going to take
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a short break, so we'll be right back.
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Take a bite out of your competition. Advertise your business
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Let's Talk Pets. Let's Talk Pets. On PetLife Radio. PetLife Radio.
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PetLife Radio.com.
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Welcome back, everyone. We're talking to Chef Scott. His company,
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Wolf Creek, is launching Feline Foundation, and we're talking about
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gut health and digestive systems and all this great stuff
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you need to know about your cat. So, Chef Scott,
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what are some subtle signs that pet parents can look
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out for that might show that their cat's digestive system
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is kind of out of balance?
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Okay, yeah, that's a good question. Changes in stool consistency,
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strong stool odor. is number one, right? You'll notice that
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before you see it. More frequent hairballs, you know, something
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out of the ordinary. And that's just one of those
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things that's going to be, okay, I know my cat
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in front of me. My cat's a frequent hairballer, you know,
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or you know by observation that something's different. Vomiting, gas,
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reduced appetites. A lot of these are the the basic
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signs that we would look at. And there's also some
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subtle things, you know, the excessive grooming, inconsistent litter box habits, right?
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That can also be a clue. My cat usually goes
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to the litter box a certain time of day and
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all of a sudden it's not happening or it's happening
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more often. You know, none of these specifically automatically mean
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there's the gut is the cause. We don't really know
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always what the cause is. That's why we have to
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be very vigilant and observant. But these are signs worth
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observing and discussing regularly. You know, with your veterinarian or
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something that persists. Cats can be elusive. So my girls,
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my dogs, they're pretty obvious when something's going on with them.
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But every cat I've had, I got to pay attention.
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You know, got to pay really close attention.
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Yes, you do. Otherwise, you might get swiped.
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Yes.
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And it's not a negative thing. It's just that's their
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way of saying enough. But they have sharp claws, you know.
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That's right.
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I've learned. I was first a dog person, so I
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had to learn my cats that have all adopted me. Okay,
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so digestion. and improve gut health. How else can the
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right food help the cat's immune system and maybe their
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skin and coat and energy levels? I know you're a chef,
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so we're going from a chef viewpoint, not like a
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veterinary viewpoint. But I'm a big believer in you are
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what you eat. I'm not perfect, but I try to
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eat clean. So how important is all of that for
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our cats and seeing it in the subtle areas like
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their coat and their activity level?
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Gut health, right? And how we've heard about all these axes,
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the axi of gut health, and we're learning that gut
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health can, and this is very important for cats, directly
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affect kidney health and brain health and therefore behavior, you know.
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And I believe that it all goes the other way.
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If you live in a tumultuous environment and you haven't
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built a great environment for your cat, then you might
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affect gut health in the reverse direction, right? Behavior goes
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inward and behavior goes outward. The gut communicates to the
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immune system and the gut communicates to the nervous system
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and it plays a major role in nutrient absorption. Digestive
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health can influence immune balance, scan, coat, like you said.
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And I'm a huge believer that the gut balance can
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influence stress response. And that's why it's so important to
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be observant of your cat's diet and understand that though
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they might be eating? Are they absorbing all that nutrition?
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Are they getting everything in there to not just have
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a balanced diet or balanced gut, but a balanced life?
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Okay, thank you. So there's a lot of, we talked
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about this earlier in the first half about marketing, and
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there's a lot of claims on labels that people can
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be fooled by. I kind of think of it as,
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you know, all natural when they talk about that on
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packaging for like humans, all natural. It doesn't, sugar is natural.
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shouldn't have a lot of sugar. Salt is natural. Shouldn't
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have a lot of salt.
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Cobra venom. Cobra venom is natural. It's also natural.
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See?
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And cobra venom, right? So there's all this kind of
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stuff that is, you know, all natural and they could
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use that all natural for pets too. So that's one
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of the ways I think that you see food and
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you're kind of like, you know, you're lured by what
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the labeling says. What else should pet parents watch out for?
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That's good.
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And believe me, I use the word natural, but we
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also like to carry it a little deeper and explain it.
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I would start if I'm picking up a new product,
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say food or something like that, I do like many
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pet parents do and just flip it around and look
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at the actual ingredient list and not the front of
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the package first and skip past the buzzwords like natural
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and complete and these things and And look for clearly
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named animal proteins, appropriate fat sources, minimal unnecessary starches. And
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I also look for a transparency of what each ingredient provides.
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And sometimes I have to do the extra work to
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see what all these ingredients provide, especially if I'm looking
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at a supplement or something. I want to know if
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everything in there is 100% functional or not. Are there
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things in this product that I'm looking at that are
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what we call carriers or filler, you know, things like
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dextrose or rice hull? You know, we don't really need those.
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Probiotics are often on labels. And that way, when that happens,
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I look for strains rather than the word probiotic. I
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want to see what strains are going in there and
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how deep that information goes. Can I find out where
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those strains are from, you know? Things I'd be cautious
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about is vague terms like premium, holistic, like we said, natural,
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human grade, vet formulated. I wouldn't take those on just
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on face value. I want to know, well, what does
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that mean? What are they trying to designate? Those phrases
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can sound impressive without telling you much about the sourcing,
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the processing, portion sizes, and nutritional value.
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This has been very informative. So let's talk about, I
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think this is amazing. So you have your animals, your
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fur babes, self-select herbs. Yeah. How do you do that?
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And how did their experience, did that teach you more
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about nutrition and what should go into your product? Did
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they just sniff one and like it? Yeah. Like I
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don't like cilantro, so I don't even know if you
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can smell it, but I do not like it. And
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it doesn't taste like soap. I just don't like it.
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Cilantro is a love or hate relationship for almost everyone.
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And that's an enzymatic reaction. And that's another podcast. Lily
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and Layla, when they get acid reflux or their stomachs
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aren't doing well, they tend to look for something herbaceous.
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Usually.
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a grass. Lily selects clover, ryegrass, or tall fescue. Why?
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I'm not quite sure, but I see her selecting those.
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Layla enjoys dill. She also enjoys chervil. and lettuce greens,
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but not as a regular part of their diet. Any
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other day, I can put that right on top of
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their food and they will not eat it. They'll eat
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around it. But when they're feeling a certain way, they
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know what they're looking for. And I did that by
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just experimenting. I discovered it because I have a hydroponic
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wall in my house, a little system that I grow
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lettuces and herbs on. And I kept walking by and
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my dill plant was always out on the floor. And
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I finally found that Layla enjoyed dill when she wasn't
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feeling well. So the whole bottom rack of that now
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is all dill.
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You know what? I got to interrupt something. That's interesting because,
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you know, there's that old chicken soup is good for you.
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And I've always had it and it always has dill
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in it. Maybe it's just how I made it. But interesting.
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Incredibly nutritious herb. Why she flocks to it, I really
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don't know. But I just know that, you know, I'm
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cognizant of what's growing in their area. Especially when we're
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out in the yard and they're walking around, I'm cognizant
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of what's growing there. And I have a little app
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on my phone where I can look up plants. Is
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this toxic to my babies or is it not toxic
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to my babies? And I'll check everything.
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If it's toxic, we.
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Pull it out. and not toxic, they're free to enjoy
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it and check it out. It's something that happens to
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them naturally. I've seen cats do it. Cats obviously love catnip.
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Cats also, I've had cats that enjoy basil and different
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types of basil. Thai basil is one that my cats
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used to enjoy. And always in the winter months, if
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I don't have enough grass out in the yard, I'll
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grow some rye or some wheatgrass inside so that they
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can select it.
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So what about knowing which herbs are not good for
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your cats?
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That's very important. You know, I just encourage you to
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get a good book, do some research and make sure
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that you're well versed in what plants are good and
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what plants aren't good. Most cats are going to be
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pretty smart and instinctual and not gravitate towards something that's
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not good for them. But I wouldn't rely on that alone.
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You know, I would want to make sure I know
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what's growing in my area. And you can also just
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grow a little garden for your cat and make sure
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it's in their pathway. Make sure they get to walk
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by it daily.
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Okay, thank you. You also want to have sustainability as
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part of your mission. Tell us about that.
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It's really important to us. And sustainability, that's a big word.
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And it's another one of those buzzwords that you'll see
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on some packaging or on a seal on a package.
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And for us, we visit that in many different ways.
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Our supplements come in little tin cans, not in plastic.
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And boy, does that make manufacturing difficult for us, but
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we will not compromise. We have, instead of plastic scoops,
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we have wooden scoops, you know, little bamboo spoons that
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go into our products. Anything that's liquid that we produce
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goes into a glass bottle. And we like that for
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a couple of reasons, the sustainability, the recyclability, and also
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the inert nature of glass. There's no forever chemicals involved
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in that, in the glass. And all the way down
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to how I source ingredients and materials for all my
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products and And the fish that go into making the
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omega fatty acids, everything is sustainably certified. We're very careful
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about where we source everything from. We buy organic when
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we can. Also, case in point, our salmon oil. We
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have a salmon and hemp seed oil. We were out
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of that for over a year because the harvest was bad.
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We could have still bought it, but we knew that
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the salmon harvest was not up to par and that
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that system in Alaska was being stressed. So we stepped
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away from it for a year. It's just really important
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to us.
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I'm glad to hear that.
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Really important.
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So with the launch of Feline Foundation, I want to
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know what you hope cat parents notice once they start
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using the products. And also, does that mean you might
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be a cat parent soon yourself? So you have a
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cat tester?
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I'm on the lookout for sure. There's one little, and
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I'll answer your question in a second. There's one little
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cat in my neighborhood and I call her Ghost. Because she's,
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I don't know where she came from. She's a little
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white cat and she crawls up out of the drain.
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She goes from the pond up the drain up to
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the street. I know she's just out there. And when
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I go and try to find her, I can't find her.
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So I've called her ghost. But I would happily adopt
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ghost if I can find her. But we're definitely looking
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for a cat. These two girls I have here, I
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have to be very careful because I need to explain
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to them the difference between rabbits, squirrels and cats. Right now,
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everything with four legs, they want to chase. And what
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was the first part of your question?
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So Chef Scott, what excites you the most about the
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launch of the Feline Foundation? And what do you hope
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cat parents notice once they start using the products?
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I'll tell you what I know they're going to notice.
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They're going to notice that Wolf Creek has some of
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the most caring and wonderful customer service people that you
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will ever, ever come across. Meaning you can reach out
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to us and ask questions about our products before you
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even buy them. We want to know about your pet
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so that we can explain whether or not this feline
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foundation is right for you. We're very excited about what
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we expect to be a very positive reaction to it
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because we're doing something that is cat specific that has
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00:25:29.859 --> 00:25:34.059
a lot of thought and research behind it. And I'm
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00:25:34.140 --> 00:25:36.819
hoping that what it will do for cats and cat
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00:25:36.859 --> 00:25:40.019
parents is just I don't want people to take a
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00:25:40.059 --> 00:25:43.150
product and see a major noticeable difference. I want people
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to use my product and see my cat's just doing
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great and my cat's continuing to do great. This product
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will help with gut balance and stool quality and overall wellness.
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And we're just excited to be part of this community
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and really want to dive in as deep as we can.
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00:26:01.319 --> 00:26:04.059
Cats are amazing, truly amazing. And I don't have to
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tell your community that, you know.
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00:26:06.170 --> 00:26:08.609
They are, you know, you said it earlier, their cats
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are not small dogs. We've talked about that on this
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00:26:11.329 --> 00:26:14.759
show so many times. I still think it's wild how,
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00:26:15.099 --> 00:26:19.500
you know, much their DNA represents. Is it 95% tigers
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or lions? And there's a lot of that if you
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00:26:21.640 --> 00:26:24.759
watch them. They have those mannerisms from the little I've
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seen up close with tigers and lions. I think they do.
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And we recognize that.
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Yeah.
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What we're producing, it does have probiotics in it, but
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these are not just regular probiotics. They actually are pass
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00:26:35.460 --> 00:26:40.380
through wild Canadian cougars. So they're species specific and it's
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00:26:40.500 --> 00:26:43.430
not a huge probiotic load. That's not what we're going for.
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You know, we want just enough probiotics for daily use.
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00:26:46.789 --> 00:26:49.329
And yeah, cats, man, cats. Yeah, I got to get
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00:26:49.369 --> 00:26:49.990
a cat, Michelle.
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00:26:50.130 --> 00:26:51.569
You got to get a cat. Yeah.
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00:26:52.170 --> 00:26:54.049
It's going to happen soon. I promise. It's going to
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00:26:54.069 --> 00:26:54.569
happen soon.
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00:26:55.069 --> 00:26:58.490
Yep. And so finally, where can our listeners learn more
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00:26:58.549 --> 00:27:03.900
about Wolf Creek and especially follow the Launch of Feline Foundation? Oh, great.
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00:27:04.039 --> 00:27:12.079
Wolfcreek.com. W-O-O-F-C-R-E-E-K.com. And on there, you'll see, click on the
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00:27:12.140 --> 00:27:14.930
resources tab. Before you even do any shopping, just click
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00:27:14.970 --> 00:27:18.099
on the resources tab and go to the Wolf Companion.
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00:27:18.119 --> 00:27:20.980
You're going to find a bunch of blogs about cats
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00:27:21.059 --> 00:27:24.200
on there. We just did a bunch of research. Our
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00:27:24.500 --> 00:27:28.240
head of research, Kay Stewart, did some great research on
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00:27:28.299 --> 00:27:30.940
cats and wrote some wonderful blogs. So there's a lot
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00:27:30.960 --> 00:27:33.319
of good resources in there, not just for dog parents,
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00:27:33.359 --> 00:27:34.339
but cat parents too.
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00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:37.220
Chef Scott, thank you so much for being on Catitude.
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00:27:37.700 --> 00:27:39.079
Absolutely. My pleasure.
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00:27:39.569 --> 00:27:43.049
I hope you all enjoyed this show. I certainly did.
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00:27:43.130 --> 00:27:46.950
It's kind of eye-opening when you're talking to someone who's
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00:27:47.089 --> 00:27:50.299
creating a product and their background is of a chef.
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00:27:50.559 --> 00:27:52.960
You know, Chef Scott was a chef, a professional chef
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00:27:52.980 --> 00:27:55.480
for 35 years and has come out with some great
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00:27:55.519 --> 00:27:59.299
products for cats. So check out Feline Foundation and Wolf Creek.
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00:27:59.740 --> 00:28:02.329
So thank you, Chef Scott, for coming on Catitude. Thanks
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00:28:02.369 --> 00:28:06.259
to my cat crew, Dennis, Charlotte, and Molly. that have
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00:28:06.299 --> 00:28:10.400
taught me so much more than just about cats. Thank
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00:28:10.440 --> 00:28:13.920
you to my listening audience. Thank you for listening, for
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00:28:13.980 --> 00:28:17.380
sending suggestions, for reaching out. You can reach out to
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00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:22.140
me at Michelle at PetLifeRadio.com. And of course, the show
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00:28:22.180 --> 00:28:25.410
would not be the same without the magic of my producer.
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00:28:25.430 --> 00:28:28.450
Thank you, Mark, for all you do. And hey, remember,
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lose the attitude, have catitude.
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Let's Talk Pets, every week on demand, only on PetLifeRadio.com.
