• Anna Bettina Johnson
• Anthony Holloway
• BL Ochman
• Bridget Pilloud
• Janet Roper
• Dr. Jill Elliot

Pawfun Blog Interviews Pet Food Expert Anthony Holloway of K9 Cuisine

We interviewed K9Cuisine founder Anthony Holloway, who will be answering your questions about pet nutrition here on Pawfun Blog. He’s helped me learn how to solve BennyBix Ochman Labradoodle’s digestive issues, and turn him into a thriving, healthy and active dog.

K9Cuisine has been called the Zappos of pet food – since both have built their success on extraordinary customer service. K9Cuisine sells more than 80 brands of premium and super premium pet foods and treats, and provides free shipping on orders of more than $50.

Pawfun Blog: How should a dog owner determine the best food for their pet?
K9 Cuisine: Choosing your dog’s diet is an important task. In order to understand what your dog is consuming, you must understand what is written on the label. Many cheaper (and even some not-so-cheap) foods contain excessive fillers, preservatives, substandard meats, and additives. Over time, these things can affect your dog’s health and quality of life.

Dog owners need to take the time to educate themselves about pet food. Here are some sources of excellent information about pet foods:
• Dog Food Analysis rates dog food.
• The Dog Food Project is another great site that goes into great detail about labeling among other things.
• Whole Dog Journal is the bible of what pet food is good. They are an unbiased source of information. Since they accept no advertising, they have no problem putting companies in their place.

Pawfun Blog: What are the basic guidelines to finding healthy food for your dog?
K9 Cuisine: The first five ingredients are the most important. At least two, ideally three of the first five ingredients should be a named meat.

“Meals” are ok – that’s a concentrated form of protein. But if the ingredient is chicken, it should be chicken meal, not poultry meal. That can be feet, feathers, beaks.

The foods we recommend and sell do not contain corn, wheat, soy, or artificial preservatives. Not all our brands are organic, although some are. But all of them are what would be considered natural.
The foods we recommend are classified as premium or super premium. They contain human grade ingredients, and probiotics. We seek out higher quality food that is closer to what dogs ate in the wild.

Pawfun Blog: What’s wrong with supermarket brands?
K9 Cuisine: The number one ingredient in supermarket brands are plant derived proteins -corn, corn gluten, wheat gluten, or soy. They are very hard for dogs to digest. Grocery brands use plant-derived protein for economic reasons: they’re cheap ingredients.

If the first ingredient is corn, wheat and soy – there is an issue there. Compare those ingredients to Orijen, for example, where four of the first five ingredients are named meats and one vegetable.

Dogs are omnivores and opportunistic feeders – as any dog owner knows, they’ll eat anything they come across. In the wild, they eat primarily meat, and they will eat fruit, vegetables, and grass. They would rarely ever come in contact with grain in a natural diet.

Grains were introduced by the pet food industry, and for the last 50 years grains have been touted as a necessary part of a dog’s diet – but I think that’s just a convenient story for pet food manufacturers.
Some grains are more desirable and digestible than others. Brown rice, for example, can be healthy for them.

Pawfun Blog: Are food allergies new to dogs? It seems like we didn’t hear a lot about those 20 years or so ago.
K9 Cuisine: There is a correlation between mass production of pet food and pet food allergies. Breeding also highlights negative traits. We have a Yellow Lab – Daisy – who is highly allergic to grain. She has some genetic pre-disposition to not tolerate grain.

So a dog has a food allergy, gets the trots, the vet puts it on Hill’s ID, a relatively low-quality food that is full of preservatives. The change of food – shocks the dog’s system and it needs medication. It’s a cycle.

Pawfun Blog: Can’t you just ask your vet what to feed your pets?
K9 Cuisine: Many vets today are focused on treating ailments. Very few prescribe to a “wellness” approach of healthy diet, fewer ailments, fewer vet visits. This is primarily due to their lack of nutritional knowledge and their allegiance to sub-par pet food manufacturers. Many vets may take only one course on nutrition in their entire vet/med education. This class is often taught by Hill’s, who also finances vet educations & provides equipment gratis to schools and vet practices.

Human doctors are not a good source of human nutritional advice either. Many times, they are eating worse than us. But at least human doctors don’t also sell food. Vets sell the mediocre nutrition food in the office, projecting their credibility onto the foods.

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3 Comments

Massage Cushion

you can always buy cheap foods on any supermarket these days because food production is mechanized already -’*

BL Ochman

what would be the point of that? the point we’re trying to make it that it DOES matter what you feed your pets. Same as it matters what you eat.