What do you think is optimal nutrition for a pet?

Optimal nutrition is based upon the pet’s ancestral diet. Dogs and cats have very short digestive tracts and have not evolved to digest grains so we use grain free products. A lot of dogs and cats suffer from dermatitis and other allergy symptoms so you should really avoid feeding them beef, corn, wheat, soy and yeast. Some dogs and cats do okay with corn but others do not.

When we look at the ancestral diet of a cat or dog, we know that they most efficiently digest protein and fats, not carbohydrates. Cats and dogs were not eating any grains. They definitely weren’t farming. They definitely foraged for some vegetables and fruits, but definitely not wheat, corn, etc.

Before the modern grain-containing pet food, cats and dogs didn’t get obese, didn’t get diabetes, didn’t get thyroid disease.  Some estimate that 60% of overweight pets are because of too much grain consumption. People tell me that they don’t overfeed their pet too much cat or dog food, but overfeeding often sneaks in as too many unhealthy treats. Many pet treats found in the store contain a lot of what’s on the “avoid” list like artificial ingredients and lots of grains.

So for our store, we avoid the primary list of artificial ingredients, find products that use real meats and no by-products, and don’t use wheat or corn.

Do you recommend free-feeding?

We don’t recommend that you leave food out all the time. It’s best for your pet physiology and pancreas that they eat only twice per day. It’s also best for your pet’s sense of security that they know they will get food twice per day at a specific time. Pets don’t like to have to guard their food and worry about it all day long. If they know that at a certain time in the morning and certain time in the evening they are getting fed, its much less stressful. What a lot of pet owners who free-feed don’t notice is that most dogs and cats don’t nibble throughout the day and will actually choose on their own to only eat early in the morning and then again in the evening. Leave clean fresh water out all the time and pick it up 20 minutes before eating to preserve your pet’s healthy stomach acidity.

The raw food diet thing is probably the most controversial and debated subject in the pet food world right now. What’s your take on this?

I think the best diet you could feed your dog or cat is a well balanced raw food diet and the worst diet you could feed your pet is an imbalanced raw food diet. A lot of people try it, but the don’t do enough research to find out what the balance should be. A common mistake is for people to think that an all meat diet for their dog is healthy. Dogs will die with an all meat diet. Also, a raw food diet is not the same as feeding from the table. Dogs don’t do well with a lot of cooked foods or spices. A comprehensive well-balanced raw food diet is better than any bagged or canned food, but it’s the most challenging way to feed a pet. It also takes a lot of time.

The second best way to feed your pet is a using a frozen or dehydrated raw food diet. You don’t want to cook the frozen or dehydrated raw food, because heat destroys the raw food’s natural vitamins and enzymes making it less nutritious. I was one of the first retailers to have a frozen raw food section in my store. I used to buy hundreds of pounds of kidneys, livers and meat and make the food for my customers. Today, there are pet food makers that do this and I sell their products pre-packaged. I sell the best five frozen raw food diets. These are complete balanced diets.

The third best option is a dry kibble grain free diets. These somewhat match the balance of protein and vegetables in the form of dry food. We have the best three dry and canned grain free diets for dogs and cats. The problem with any consumer product is that there are a lot of other people trying to make grain free diets, but they don’t have the knowledge base on how to make a truly healthy and balanced diet.

What do you recommend for pet dental care?

The American Veterinary Dental Society (AVDS) came out with a study about 10 years ago that found that dry dog food is only responsible for 5% of tartar reduction. Their recommendation was to use some sort of dental cleaning chewing device. An example of this would be a natural and toxin free raw hide, raw bones, or Nylabone. Basically it would be something that would mimic your dog chewing on a stick – a dog toothbrush found in the wild. Another option is brushing their teeth from the time they are a puppy or kitten. This is a really good way to bond with your pet.

Let’s move on the subject of fleas. Is there a way to avoid poisoning our pets?

I wrote a book titled Flea Control: A Holistic & Humorous Approach. The purpose of the book was to help people understand how to control or eradicated fleas without resorting to poisoning their pets. Many of the conventional veterinary flea control methods involve using topical poisons or pesticides on your pet or in your home or yard. A conventional flea collar, Advantage (Imidacloprid), or a flea bomb are all insecticides and poisons to humans and pets. These are neurotoxins with serious side-effects that persist on your pet and in your house for weeks getting absorbed by all members of your household, humans and animals.

What are some of the signs of an adverse reaction to some of the spot-on treatments?

Convulsions, seizures, shaking, vomiting, drooling, and more. The problem is many people apply these flea control chemicals to their pets and usually don’t notice the connection. They just think that their dog or cat is getting sick. The CDC got so many adverse reaction reports to these flea control chemicals that now the EPA is investigating the topical spot-on flea and tick control products for safety. The EPA has made recommendations for clearer labeling.

My book educates pet owners on the life cycle of fleas and how they can stop flea reproduction not only on their dog, but also within the home and yard. There are stages of the flea life cycle in which it is much easier to eradicate fleas than other stages. Diet also plays a factor in making your pet a desirable place or host for fleas. In the book, I teach pet owners how to have natural flea control without using harsh and toxic chemicals. I teach people how to take a holistic approach by treating the cause of why fleas reproduce in homes and on pets. I like to remind pet owners that just because it says the flea control product is naturally derived; it still may harm their pet. Natural is not always safe.

Dr. Gibran Ramos completed his six year training and internship in Naturopathic and Chinese Medicine at National College of Natural Medicine. Dr. Ramos helps patients transform their lives and optimize their well-being at a private practice in Portland, Oregon.

Chip Sammons and Allie, his 11 year old rescue.

The rain is coming down hard as I drive up to the humble storefront of Holistic Pet Center in Oregon City. Chip Sammons greets me and takes me to his office. His desk is wedged between shelves of veterinary, nutrition, dog, cat, biology, animal physiology and anatomy books, and stacks of file folders containing what I soon find out are thousands of articles of research studies on pet health. On the wall are pictures of his family and himself with many different dogs and cats. This man loves pets.

How did you become a pet food expert?

I had a Boxer 40 years ago who died of cancer at only 4 years of age. I felt that part of the death of this dog was my fault and I wondered if I could have done anything differently, like fed the dog differently. The veterinarian said, “No, and all foods are about the same.”

At this time, I didn’t know much about dog food, but his answer just didn’t seem right to me. This drove me to research the pet food industry. What I found out, horrified me. I found out it was legal to use certain ingredients including the bodies of cats and dogs who had died of cancer. These were called the 4D meats or the dead, dying, diseased and disabled meats of animals and pets that had been euthanized.

Is this practice of using the 4D meats still legal?

It is still legal to use meats from euthanized animals who were sick and/or dying in pet food! The first big news investigative exposé was the 1990 two part article by San Francisco Chronicle staff writer John Eckhouse. He was the first journalist to make the word renderers better known. In his article Mr. Eckhouse explains how millions of dead cats and dogs are sent to rendering plants every year to be processed into pet food and cosmetics. Even though the pet food companies were, as they claimed, “recycling,” the rendering process involves using harsh carcinogenic or cancer causing chemicals to breakdown the nutrients that make their way back into pet foods. Chemicals that persist from the rendering process include creosote, phenol and euthanizing agents like pentobarbital, and pesticides from flea collars.

Photo by muahace_dc.

What would be the ingredients to avoid when you’re looking at pet food labels?

It‘s a very similar to what you look for on food you’re buying for your family.

• Artificial preservatives
• Artificial colors
• Artificial flavors
• Nitrates
• By-products
• Sugars

These are the ingredients that cause cancer in pets. I was concerned with what could cause cancer.  I never intended to open a pet store, but in 1988, I opened Holistic Pet Center as a place people could buy quality and healthy pet food. My dream was to make a store in which people could purchase and thing and not make a bad decision. The exclusion list was the absolute criteria for anything I carried in my store. All products are safe and not cancer causing. Even twenty-two years later, I still use the same criteria for the products in my store. It’s a simple concept, but a very good way to ensure health and quality.

What is natural flavoring?

Natural is a tricky word because it doesn’t have a definition. Natural flavoring can mean almost anything. Sometimes it means natural and sometimes it doesn’t. I know what it means because I talk to the individual manufactures.

What are some of the signs and symptoms pet owners can look for if they are suspecting a food intolerance or allergy?

Some signs of a possible food related problem are redness on the belly, licking the feet, hot spots at the base of the tail, eye discharge, scratching on the chin, or “my dog/cat is constantly itching or scratching.” Another common phrase I hear is, “My dog has continual ear problems,” or I often have people ask, “Do you have something for my dogs ears?” My first question for pet owners who’s pets have these symptoms is, “What kind of food are you feeding them?”  Our experience is that when you get a pet on a more hypoallergenic formula that the problematic allergic symptom natural goes away.

Why are grains used in pet food?

When Ralston-Purina first made pet food and cereal, they used extruders. Extruders are long machines that compact the food, dehydrate it, and sometimes even bake or cook it, so that by the end of the line out pops kibble or cereal flakes. The only way to make the kibble stick together and not crumble into dust was to use some glue food substance. In the case of kibble and cereal flakes, gluten from certain grains was used in 1954 to produce the first dry dog and cat food. It took almost forty years for the first no grain dry pet food to come out in 1993.

What is ash content on a pet food label? Why is this listed on pet food?

Ash is not an added ingredient. Ash is literally what you would end up with if you burned the food. If the pet food has more by-products, there will be more ash. You want to look for the lower the ash content, the better. In fact if you are considering a good quality pet food, you shouldn’t have to look at ash, because it will have a low ash content. In other words, there will be very little by-products.

What are by-products?

By-products are anything other than meat. By-products include, according to the AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials), beaks, feathers, hair, hides, hooves, feet, eyes, bones, etc.

Photo by Hamed Saber.

Are organ meats considered by-products?

Yes. This is where my expertise for evaluating pet food products comes in handy. I actually have visited almost all the pet food manufacturer facilities to see what exactly the put in their food. Organ meats are considered by-products, but the ancestral diets of cats and dogs did include organs. In fact many scavengers and predators prefer organs for the nutrient density. Organ meats are great.

A lot of the good companies use organ meats in their by-products. The problem is the FDA does not allow the differentiation between by-products from animal parts like beaks and feathers, and by-products from organ meats. This lack of a clear by-product definition is a result of the FDA not allowing any one company the ability to claim something that other companies could not claim. Organ meats cost a lot more than chicken beaks. If a company lists kidney and liver on the front of the package, their ingredient list has to list it as by-products.

What other things should pet owners look for on labels?

So just to recap:

• Nothing from the primary list like the artificial colors, preservatives, and flavors;
• No by-products
• No sugar. In fact cats don’t even have a sugar or sweetness receptor. Sugar can be listed as sugar, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose.
• No nitrates. Nitrates were actually banned by the FDA in the 1950s but the FDA never enforced the ban in pet and human food.  We all know that and it has been shown that nitrates cause cancer. The meat industry said that it would cause a major nutritional deficiency because people would not buy meats if they were grey. Nitrates are used to keep meat red in the grocery store. Also, the meat industry argued that if meat were not kept artificially red, truly decaying grey meat would not be easily discernible and many more people would get sick and die.

Look for part 2 next week as Chip and I discuss the controversial raw food diet, natural flea control, and dental care for your canine’s canines.

Dr. Gibran Ramos completed his six year training and internship in Naturopathic and Chinese Medicine at National College of Natural Medicine. Dr. Ramos helps patients transform their lives and optimize their well-being at a private practice in Portland, Oregon.