Back to the Basics; Feeding your Pet Raw Food - Interview with Susan Hua

In August of 2013, I was scrambling to find an animal nutritionist who could advise me on a natural raw diet for Sweetie, who was diagnosed with kidney disease in February 2013. She was initially was prescribed Royal Canin (similar family as Science Diet), which I started giving her against my intuition. It made her lose weight and gave her yellow diarrhea. Awesome. I later learned that this was most likely due to the fact that the first ingredient was corn.

If I was treating Friskie holistically for her lymphoma, why should I treat Sweetie any differently? So I went on a search. I found a few different animal nutritionists, but they seemed overcomplicated (and expensive!!!). I decided to go to Susan Hua, owner of Bioethics Petfood, whose tent I had recently visited on Sundays at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market.

She knew more about nutrition than any vet I’ve spoken to. She said that if anything, vets have ONE hour of nutrition training in their entire careers! I researched and found that this is because many of these “high end” food companies PAY for vet schooling, and many veterinary offices get incentives, according to a Wall Street Journal article. "Money talks and vets listen! Science Diet has a huge kick-back program for vets," says Susan.

Hippocrates said that medicine IS the FOOD we eat. Why don’t more doctors treat us with food? Why are we so overmedicated?? Why are our pets? Because it is a business. And because humans have the tendency to seek complicated answers. 

Always do check with your vet to make sure your pet doesn’t have any food allergies or other medical conditions that certain ingredients in their food might exacerbate. I will ALWAYS recommend a holistic vet over a traditional vet for this purpose.

I conducted an interview with Susan, where she answers many of my questions (and yours!) about raw food. If you find this interview helpful and would like to transition your pet to raw, please visit the Bioethics Pet Food website, or drop by their tent!

How did you start your business?

Susan: I started making my own food many years ago, because I could not find anything that would meet my basic standards. I constantly studied up on pet nutrition because my pets’ health and wellbeing were in my hands. I took full responsibility, so I had to make sure that I learned everything. I want to pass my knowledge along, because I want to save lives! I want our pets to live long, happy and healthy. It might sound extreme, but my love for animals is so profound that it seems wrong to just absent mindedly feed them what others purposely deem bad/inferior. 

How important is nutrition for our pets?

Susan: Good nutrition accounts for 70% of our health and wellbeing. I deducted that this must be true for pets as well. As you well know, the pet food industry is shameful! When Brian [co-owner of Bioethics Pet Food] and I did our business plan, we came up with our company’s name (“ethic” being the key part) because we said that we would be a pet food company that is love driven, not profit driven. We both have MBAs, so we know and respect profit, but we love animals first and foremost. We were shocked that there’s a whole industry that would feed our pets junk simply because they do not have a voice to protest. It drives me absolutely insane that people often feed ONE type of (terrible) dry food the entire life of their pet(s). Could you imagine? That’s like eating only Big Macs and French fries from McDonald’s everyday of your life. How could that be healthy? 

Why don't we get more nutrition advice from our vets?

Susan: The average vet program only spends an hour on nutrition; the average vet knows nothing about nutrition! I have had quite a few vets, and not one ever discussed nutrition with me until the onset of a disease. Companies such as Science Diet (misnomer) spend tons of money wooing vets. As you mentioned one time, the same brands that got our pets sick in the first place are then packed with drugs in a prescriptive diet to “cure”.  How convenient! Even holistic vets do not put much emphasis on lifelong nutrition. It appears that very few people see the connection between good nutrition and good health for their pets. My hope is that as people are eating healthier, they look over at what their pets are fed and make the ethical (see, it’s that word again!) choice of doing what is right. Yes, it would require more work and can be more expensive. Are our pets worth it? Do we owe it to them to do the right thing? Yes! Yes!

Do you use grains in your recipes?

Susan: I do not include grains in my cat food recipes.  In addition, I do not use pea nor beet protein. Lots of commercial brands, especially the more premium brands, use pea/beet protein to boost their protein count. Pea, especially is high in protein relative to other veggies, so it’s a cheap way to get extra protein without spending money on meat protein. Cats do not do well on veggie-based protein. As for rice, cats do not need grains in their diet. It was not part of their ancestral diet. Grains are cheap fillers in cat food.

Where does your meat come from and what are some of the standards you have for its quality?

Susan: My raw food is made up of 100% human grade food (just as my traditionally cooked). I truly believe that there’s more accountability in food prepared for human consumption than if not. USDA inspection is very strict because of the huge price of liability. I do not regard my pets as second rate creatures, so I do not feed them as such.  This is the same belief carried over to my food for pets whose pet-parents do not treat them as just animals.

Our meat purveyor is a company that supplies mainly to some of the top restaurants in the L.A. area. We feel that restaurants are held to a much higher standard due to the premium price consumers pay for the food/meat. Should there be a salmonella or mad cow disease outbreak, a higher and quicker alert would go out to the consumers if the restaurants want to minimize the damage. There just seems to be more at stake from such a reputable purveyor.  

We also require that all the meats are holistic, no hormones or antibiotics used.  The purveyor is smaller and their pricing is higher. I am a huge believer that you get what you pay for. We are not after the cheaper meats out there. We want quality that befits the company we want to be. I want our niche to be premium and quality. I don’t want to be just another cheap, poorly made, damage causing pet food. You would agree that there are already plenty of those types of pet food companies out there. It is not about how we can compete by low-balling everything. It is all about consciously making something of value for the customers we respect (because they want better for their pets) and the animals we love.

What does a raw diet consist of?

Susan: My argument for a raw diet is that you have to use fresh, local ingredients.  Everything shows through more apparently in the meals you prepare when working with raw ingredients. I can see, smell and feel the texture of everything that goes into the food I prepare. I do this with my own food and I translate this to the pet food I make. I do this because there’s a need for such quality food. I, of course, cannot ever promise that the meats are 100% free of anything bad.  However, I am hedging against meat purveyors who have to answer to the toughest critics: high paying customers, not to mention the usual health and safety governmental agencies. Everyone involved is there to protect the consumers (people) and to do everything they can to not damage their credibility and reputation. Some pet food companies purposely buy their meats “not fit for human consumption” to save money (the operative word is of course ‘human’). There is a difference. 

Why is a raw diet simply better for our pets?

Susan: The raw diet, which is quite similar to what many are calling the "ancestral

diet", is beneficial in many ways. Raw ingredients are much more straight forward. What you see is what you get. This translates to better ingredients, resulting in better nutrition offered. Also, raw food lends itself well to limited ingredients, another increasingly popular idea in pet food. Limited ingredients basically means that only the necessary and beneficial ingredients are used in preparing the food. There is no need for  additives, artificial flavors or stand-in ingredients such as pea protein to take the place of real animal protein. This is all due to the fact that raw offers superior nutrition, flavor and

digestibility. Even though our pets have long been domesticated, they remain ill equipped to thrive on a diet of processed food such as canned food and kibbles, especially when those foods are made of ingredients we deem inferior. Ultimately, raw food is more honest food.

Is there ever a risk in feeding raw?

Susan: There’s always a risk in everything: raw or otherwise. People often bestow their own prejudice, fear and righteousness onto their “charge” (pets, children). While most people have learned not to interfere with others’ method of rearing their children, those same people have no qualms about being judemental on how pet parents care for their cats or dogs. Did you know that a number of customers actually said to me that they do not tell their friends/family about our food for fear of being chastised for spending such money on their beloved pets?

People who feed raw, I believe, feel the benefits outweigh the risks. The big tainted pet food scare a few years back was due to melamine in kibbles. It’s tougher to hide bad/cheap ingredients in raw food. Also, there are strict standards in the meat industry in THIS country. For the most parts, raw ingredients are not imported.

So, it’s a matter of choice. People should really research into something before letting their own fear/prejudice make uninformed decisions.

What are the downfalls of processed pet food?

Susan: Canned, processed food can hide a myriad of less than best ingredients. What’s really in the food? We simply do not know. To me, this risk is much greater than feeding raw. Also, cooked meats contain ash, which is very hard on the digestive system. Ash overtime does a lot of damage to the body. 

How do you recommend transitioning pets to raw?

Susan:  Research and be convinced that raw is best for your pet(s). Otherwise, you will abandon the practice at the first sign of anything different (purging of waste, coat, breath, etc.) even if the raw diet is not at all the culprit. A recent customer transitioned her two dogs nicely to our raw food for almost two months. One dog started throwing up sporadically perhaps because she picked up something on her walks. The other dog was fine. The customer stopped feeding raw to both dogs, convinced that the raw food was making the one dog sick. They are on our food still (cooked version), but not raw. I can’t help but think that the raw food was falsely blamed because the second dog was fine.

Patience. Start by a small amount of raw added to the regular food. Gradually increase raw while decreasing the old food, keeping portion the same as before. Eventually complete transitioning to raw. Keep a close eye on the reaction to the raw food. It is very possible that an animal will not take to raw, especially when it’s been forever fed the traditional canned or worse, kibbles and ultimately worst, ONE kind of food (the SAME kind of one food year after year for years!).

As with any diet, variety is important. You cannot get the spectrum of nutrients needed by just eating one food and popping vitamins. This applies to our pets as well. Go with a raw diet that incorporates various kinds of high quality protein. For instance, pork is very high in the B vitamins. Rotating various meats will cover a wider variety of vitamins/nutrients.

And how do you approach a pet store about carrying raw food?

Susan: Approach a pet store to carry what you want by asking.  A store is a business, and if enough requests come in, management will respond accordingly. This might take some time, so seek out stores that are smaller, more responsive to their customers and/or have a certain value in place.  Some stores do shun the Science Diet, Purina types of commercial food. Check to see if they are open minded to the quality of the food.  If they are, they will usually see the value in carrying raw.

Finally, what do you think about the larger companies now starting to carry raw food?

Susan: Personally, I am weary of larger companies in preparing pet food. When it’s just a business and machines are employed to make food, I tend to think that something is compromised. How long has the raw food been frozen? Both flavor and nutrients dissipate over time. Where is the raw food made? Why does the food have to travel from let’s say Kansas City, Missouri when we have perfectly good, raw meat here? For certain, the food was not made this week or at most last week. Food, such as Nature’s Variety Instinct, is not cheap. Again, what am I paying for exactly? The expense in shipping? The slick advertising? The freezer the food is placed in? I would want all, if not most of the money to go into the quality of the food. With that said, I am aware that sometimes Nature’s Variety is the best option available. If that’s the case, just make sure that you have exhausted other options and deem that NV, for example, is the best value for the money. Try to look for companies that have a face, not just a corporation. Study up on the people in the company. Do they love animals? How do they love animals? Are they involved in rescue work or other related animal issues? 

Bottom line: do they manipulate your love of your pets to make money or do they provide a (much lacked) service that would enable you to love your pets properly?