Today I discuss the topic of pet health, emphasizing the importance of providing pets with food that aligns with their natural diets. Comparing pets to wild animals, I critique the common practices of feeding pets processed and unnatural foods. Included are anecdotes and examples on improving pet diet for the sake of their health. I discuss the misconceptions and misinformation about pet foods and promise to provide solutions for better pet care and health in the next episode.

Pet Health part 1

Erik 1: Welcome friends. Today's episode is going to be a little bit different.

And by different, I mean, we're not even talking about humans.

This is one of those topics that most people probably already know.

But they don't want to face it. And I get it. I completely understand. Most of us do understand. But then we think. Well, how can I change things? I mean, really?

What do I do?

Or.

No, what do I do?

We'll get into that. Don't you worry?

Like I've told you before.

I have a soft spot for a couple life forms.

And so today we're going to. Delve into.

A topic. I find. Really.

Important. And fun to talk about.

Because it doesn't get any more gritty. Than this topic.

You see.

Protect themselves.

So, what can we do? Well, That's what this episode's about. How to protect. Your pets.

Wait. Erik, what are you talking about? I thought this is a health podcast. Well, And Hey, we're going to talk about their health.

It's a soft spot for everybody. Come on it. Admit it. You love your dog or your cat or both? Or your bird or fish? It doesn't matter. We all have the same. A

soft spot in our hearts. For our pets, do we not? Why is that? Because you feel like they're part of your family, they're part of your clan. Am I right.

So if they're part of your clan, part of your family,

This is going to hit home for some of you. Others are going to say, I'm going to turn it off right now because how dare you say that? I don't take care of my pets. I'm sure you do. I'm not here to tell you that you don't. I'm here to enlighten you on ways to take care of your pets that you never have thought about. Possibly. Or maybe you've heard about them, but didn't know why you should do these things. Either way.

This should be one of the most important things you do with your life. You are entrusted to take care of. Another life form. Not just your children. Not just your parents. But actually something that can't technically speak to you.

And with that. Comes great responsibility.

Have we ever asked our. Animals. Hey. Do you like this, or are you just super hungry?

If you have cats, you will know that they can be super finicky. So it doesn't matter what you put in there or how hungry they are. They're like, nah. I'm not eating that. Dog's on the other hand are scavengers. They will literally eat pretty much anything. And that's cool. Except the fact that because they will eat almost anything. What we feed them can actually be detrimental.

So in this episode, we're going to cover.

Health for our animals.

Let's start with. Diet. So we do a diet for ourselves, and then we think we don't need to put our dog on a diet. How is that?

These companies make for our pets.

Let me just state right now. This is going to be part one.

This is a massive topic. And in order to keep it less than. You know, just. Uh, Joe Rogan type. Episode, we're going to cut this down. I hope that's okay with you. I think you're going to find this really fun. Really interesting. Very enlightening.

It might even change how you think about your pets.

Okay. So let's go.

The diet for your animal.

let me just throw this out to you.

Have you ever seen.

A Rottweiler. Isn't that a great name, Rottweiler. He ever seen a very. Powerful dog. Of any kind.

Nope. You've never seen that.

Have you ever seen. A pack of hyenas. Stock. An antelope.

Now, you know where I'm going with this.

You see, we feed our animals food. That's easy.

Yes. This topic. Today.

Is going to offend you. Most likely. And you know what it should. I'm stepping out right now and telling you. That this is going to be offensive.

The reason that it's going to be offensive. Is because you're going to hate the fact that you've been sold. To believe that's where you should buy your food.

Guess what. Great news is. You can turn that around right now.

And I'm going to show you how. But first. Let's just.

Delve into this a little bit.

Most of the animals in our lives. Are either carnivores. Or scavengers.

They don't eat grain. They don't eat vegetables. They don't dig the earth in pull-out carrots. That's not what they do.

So, what are we feeding them?

Would you eat food out of a bag like that? Oh, wait. Yes, we do. We do it all the time. It's called the frozen section of the grocery store.

That's not where food comes from.

And if you are.

That is not your preferred form of food.

I'm sorry. If this is going to offend you. This is not meant to be offensive.

This is meant.

To enlighten you. To help your animals. Or animal. I feel better. Just like you should feel better in your life.

I want to empower you. To make your pets healthier.

They can't tell you they're feeling bad. They can't say, Hey, I'm starving over here. Why. Because you're feeding me food that doesn't satiate me.

No.

Many of our pets can go a long time without eating. They're designed that way.

Animals like scavengers dogs. They can go a long time without food and they'll just eat everything as soon as it's put in front of them because they're scavengers. Cats. They don't do that. There are more selective. Y because that's just the way cats are.

These animals. Our animals. We're treating them like children. You wouldn't feed your child. Food, you know, is. If you're listening. To this podcast. Chances are you don't feed your kids garbage food.

You know what I mean ? Fast food and just total garbage food. You at least have some control. Then why do we feed our pets? Just anything. Whatever comes in a bag.

Take down another animal. I eat that animal. What do they do? They basically. Fall asleep. It turns into nap time. For a long time. They go a long time. And then all of a sudden they're like, I'm getting hungry again and they go kill and then they eat and then they fall asleep.

Why did they do that? That's because.

That's the food that satiates them. That's how they're designed. They're designed to kill. Eat. And then relax.

I wonder if that's how we are. That's an interesting thought.

I'm simply stating that your animal is not happy. With human made. Pet food. That's. That's not what they would eat in the wild. What would they eat? Well, let's think about it. They would eat. Anything that's living. And if it was dead, they would know if it was rotting. So here's an interesting thought for you.

Or you could even say vegan.

But most of our animals. That we have in our homes. Our carnivorous.

That means they want. Meat. Bone organs fat. Guess what? It's really easy to feed that to them. You don't even have to spend a lot of money. Matter of fact, some of the foods you might eat. There's leftovers. Those leftovers. Could be the chicken carcass. Or something like that. You could actually feed your animal with that.

Don't cook your bones. Let them stay raw. That's better for them. But.

There's nothing wrong with giving your. Pet.

Raw meat.

Raw eggs. Bones.

A pride of lions. Sitting around a campfire. With. An antelope on a spit. Roasting it. Never going to happen. Why is that? They don't need to. They're not designed for that. They're not smart enough for that. What did they require? Straight antelope.

Just a dead antelope. They know to go to the organs, the flesh, they chew on the bones.

They're happy.

It's not always the case. A lot of what you see on the label.

Well, let me just say it like this. Is a lie. They are lying to you. the whole, where there's horse meat in there and all this kind of stuff. I'm sure. There's probably a horse meat who gives a crap. A pack of wolves would take down a horse and eat at any day. Horse meets, not that bad. Soldier's lived on horse meat. It's not a big deal.

The problem is not the horse meat. The problem is. We're feeding them. Rotten.

Scraps from food mills. to.

Scraps of food from everything. Type of food mill. It's just. A conglomerate. Of companies bringing food together to give to animals because animals don't care. They're just eat it.

I could go on and on with what's in your food, but I don't want to scare you that bad.

So instead of just giving you the complete evil. I

have 90% of the food that you could give your animal. Why don't I do. What I should do for you, and that's tell you what you should feed them.

No reason to scare you. With what you could buy at this point. I think you get my point. Now. We should talk about. The positive side. What can you do for your animal? Well, Here's the first thing you could do. What kind of animal do you have and then what would they normally eat? I mean, it's pretty simple.

Let me ask you a question. If you were that animal. What do you want to eat?

A leg of lamb. From your grocery or anywhere, but you get. Animal foods. And just. Tell the dog to sit. By the door. And you throw that thing into the backyard and making the dog sit the whole time. Then. All of a sudden, you'd tell him. Go. And he runs out there as fast as he can. And he destroys that leg of lamb. That is what a dog wants to do. Do you think your dog will be healthier and have a better life doing that? Or sitting in front of a stainless steel bowl or some pretty little. Bull that you bought it up. Art festival. With.

That is nothing. But foods, they would never eat.

And foods they wish they were in there.

Let me tell ya. If you want a happy pet. Feed them what they want. Is it that hard? It's not. They will be better for it. And I'm going to get into that. In the meantime, let's just hammer this point home a little bit more because I'm in the mood. All right.

Most of the food that you think is natural. To give your dog is not natural. It isn't. What's natural. Well, Let's pick a dog.

He's running in a pack with other dogs. In. A forest. The woods. Whatever.

What's he going to kill and eat? Is he going to stop by.

That pack is on a mission.

So in our homes, is there a hierarchy? Yeah. It's supposed to be us. But usually. We let them.

Run our homes because we think they're cuddly little. Living Teddy bears. They're furry. They're soft. We think they have personalities. Where they understand us. We think all this. In reality. They're working us.

Psychologically. More than we know.

They know what they're doing. They know they learned when they were puppies. How to play dead. How to be alpha. How to. Give in how to take control. They learned all this stuff. They know how to do that to us. By the way you might be asking, why am I qualified enough to talk about this? Well, I've had dogs myself.

Who trained us. To train our dogs to have an enjoyable life.

And what I saw that. That was about the time when I realized that dogs hurt.

They feel pain. They have diseases and sicknesses. Just like we do. Why do dogs have diseases and sicknesses or cats? It doesn't matter. I don't, I don't care if you have fish. Why do our animals get sick?

I can tell you there's two reasons.

First reason is what we feed them. Second reason is.

Dog park. They all just want to start running around and there's. Biting and. Tossing and turning and barking and growling. Cause that's what they want to do.

But Erik, you don't understand. I have a little tiny Yorkie. I would never do such a thing. That's fine. It doesn't matter if you have a Yorkie or you have a great Dane. They want to eat meat. They want social. Interaction with other animals. And it's fine if they never do the minimum we can do is their diet. Because the way that their digestive system is designed and the way that their psyche is designed, they want to eat flesh. They want animal. They want to eat another living thing.

Well, Edible. That makes them a scavenger. Cats won't do that. Fish won't do that. So your goldfish eats whatever you put in there. Why? Because there's nothing else in there for them to eat.

If you through tiny little, tiny, tiny little fish in there that goldfish would eat those little fish telling you.

So let's get back to this.

How do you take care of your pets?

Diet wise. Well, Let's start feeding them what they desire. That's the first thing they'll be happy because they're eating what they desire.

Species.

They don't want kibble. They'll eat it because that's all that's there.

If you want your pets healthy, you must give them what their species requires. And that's another animal. It's not that hard to do. Okay. I just totally laid that out. I hope you're still listening because. This is a very. Well, let's just say sensitive for you and me.

I care about. Your pet's health because they can't tell you how they feel. I'm not bashing you for feeding them the wrong way. I'm merely stating let's start now. If you don't know. And start feeding your animal in such a way that they get healthy. Feel better. Whether they're six months old. Six years old or 12 years old. Trust me this episode. We'll enlighten you and help you.

Humans are quite like [00:24:00] that. Even if you had a perfect diet as a human. You're gonna experience some things were a little bit more susceptible animals. Aren't they aren't, they are very, very resilient. Now when they get the food they require. Wow. They thrive like crazy. There's a few things that I will tell you that in the health world, We have the most outcomes.

Their food, their diet. Must be what they would normally eat in the wild. That's the long and short of it. I'm sorry. That it's harder to do this for them. But if you love your animal, They can't tell you when they're hurting, even if it's just a minor tummy ache. They can't say, Hey. Mom. Do you have any Pepto? Maybe I could have like, just a. Just a little bit. You got any, [00:26:00] um, Milk of magnesia. Or. You got any thing for like, man, I don't understand, but my head is pounding.

They can't do this.

So, what do we do? Take away all the variables that would cause that. That way they have all of the nutrition that's required for their species. To be healthy.

Okay. I know I'm pounding this. I get it. I know. That you're like, just tell me what to do. I'm going to tell you what to do.

First things first with the diet.

What kind of animal do you have, have you ever looked up, what does your animal normally eat? Because a dash hound eats different food. Than a Rottweiler.

Pit bulls seem to eat humans. I'm kidding. That's just a joke.

I mean. Come on. This is the heavy topics so far. I've got to lighten this up a little bit.

I would say that a Rottweiler could eat.

Anything. So his food can be larger. The bones can be bigger. It's not a problem. But you can't give a pork shoulder. Well, many could. To your. Yorkie.

But he's going to have a hard time. He's going to eat like. A little bit of it, and then he's going to be full. So pick your food for your animal appropriately. Organs should be a staple. In your animal's life. Especially cats.

Why is it cats love, dairy and fish so much. Isn't that weird. Y Y. They don't even like water apparently. Although. Lots of.

We don't have like salmon dog food. We have like salmon, cat food. In a can. I don't know. But that's the point? Isn't it. We don't know what they want. Therefore.

Find out what they're supposed to eat then. You will find what they like.

I told this before. I'm gonna tell this again. At a friend a long time ago. He owned two. Wolves. One was a full Wolf. The other one was a Husky Wolf mix. He used to take out of his refrigerator. A whole chunk of meat with bone in it. I don't even know what it was.

Yeah. They totally enjoyed that. That's what they wanted to do. Do you think that dogs. Do dogs actually like. Go up to their stainless steel bowl. That's at the end of the counter on the floor, on the linoleum tile. I

grabbed that kibble and just start throwing it around. Like throwing it up in the air and trying to kill it. No. They don't do that. What would you rather do?

Now that I threw that thought into your mind, let's move on.

Ordinary dog food from the store. Is made for profit. It is not made for your dog's health. Therefore. If you don't give your dog. Fat. Protein. Cartilage. Then it's going to be. Sickly. May not be right away. It's coming.

I'm going to get into the stats. Of dog health. Later, probably in episode two.

Right now. I'm just going to bring the reality.

Convenience. Is costing your animals, health.

And again, they can't tell you how they feel. They will.

Act super happy when you come home, even if their stomach is killing them. If their head is feeling like it's going to explode. They will. Still act normal. It takes a very, very trained eye to notice when an animal hurts.

So I say.

By the.

Cheap cuts at the grocery store. There are so many cheap cuts at the grocery store when you're there. There's chicken livers and.

So convenience is not an excuse. You can buy.

Uh, Lamb's leg. But you couldn't just throw it on the grill. It's going to be terrible. It needs long and slow. That doesn't matter for your dog. Maybe even your cat.

Because they're depressed.

That is not their natural diet.

Treats. Well, You can make your own treats. I just told you dehydrator. An oven. It doesn't matter. You can take the cheapest. I mean, I'm talking. The most.

Bring it home. Throw it down. I don't care if your dog is 12 years old. He's going to look at that. Or she. Can I look at that and be like, what the heck is this? It's going to. Go up and lick it a little bit. Might play with it a little bit. Might come back to it later. If your dog, doesn't go after the marrow and start chewing on that bone. Wow. You've got a whole ed toy dog. Let me tell ya. Cats we'll even do it.

When you cook bones. They become brittle. That's not good.

Well, In the wild. No dog is going to take. An elk carcass in, lay it over a fire and cook it. They're not. The bones that they would consume chew on just for fun or, you know, just for their teeth or. Maybe nutrition. Would be raw. So it's not a problem. They have no problem. Chewing Rob bones. So if you make food at home and you're going to take it off the bone first, not cooked, You're going to take it off the bone. Keep the bones, give them to your dog or your cat. See what your cat does. It's amazing where you'll see, cats will eat.

So to bring this home. Let me just throw this out to you. Why don't.

Carnivorous life forms. Eat insects.

Isn't that interesting to think about. Your cat. Might. Go after a fly. Maybe a moth. That's it. It's not going to go after crickets. Grasshoppers and worms. Spiders. Dogs don't do either. They play with them. But they don't really eat them. Why.

Is it. Blood. Or texture. Who knows. But isn't that an interesting thought?

Maybe it's the same as you and me. We don't. Crave insects.

It's like the cousin. Of a crawfish and a lobster.

Which are both. Waterborne insects. Yep. Sorry to bring that to you. Lobster. Is an insect.

And if your cat doesn't, that means he's so. He or she is so ingrained. With having mush. Food in a bowl. That they're not even cats anymore.

You do it a second time. A third time. They will eventually. Start flipping over and that's what they want.

Well, I think this is a good spot to stop. Part one.

I think I've offended. Many people. So maybe. The people who are still here, we'll listen to episode two. Because episode two, I'm going to go into. The actual health of your animal.

I'll help you. With remedies to bring your pet back to normal Thanks for listening. Look up episode two on pet health.

Until then. Thanks for listening.