I’m falling down a new rabbit hole I just found, full of twists and turns.
The topic is pet food (back to this in a minute; hang with me as I digress into the point of my story). I tried to research harmful ingredients after interviewing Jeff Jenkins, owner of Pet Wants in Frostburg, Md. Pet Wants is a Cincinnati-based franchise.
Pet Wants produces a line of dry pet food and approves other brands and products stocked by its locally owned storefronts.
Pet Wants’ delivery service caught my attention. Jeff delivers regularly to parts of Maryland, West Virginia (including parts of Preston and Mon counties) and Pennsylvania.
“One of the cool things about buying from us, is you can name your quantity,” Jeff said, explaining they get bulk product from the factory, store it in an airtight container and scoop out as needed.
Now, you know me — I had to ask if customers could provide containers, avoiding plastic waste. Jeff said customers bring their own containers to the store, and he would be willing to do the same for delivery. Customers would need two containers, one for him to drop off full and one to pick up empty for next time. The process is contactless.
“We show up with a mask, I’ll text you that it’s on your porch,” Jeff said.
Pre-COVID he enjoyed meeting customers (humans and pets), but to keep everyone safe, he switched to quick and safe transactions.
Jeff compared Pet Wants food to conventional store brands, saying conventional pet food often sits for a year before reaching your pet’s bowl, whereas Pet Wants food gets to bowls in one or two months.
The ingredients in Pet Wants’ seven dog and four cat formulas also differ. Jeff said the company doesn’t include corn, wheat or soy, which lack nutritional benefits of other grains healthy for pets.
Back to my own peek into the world of pet food ingredients: I quickly learned that it is difficult to assess pet food ingredient lists.
Having found a list of harmful ingredients, I rushed to check the bags of cat and dog foods I use. I sighed in relief, as mine were free from those. But I noticed food coloring in my cat’s food, and “by-products” — whatever those might be — mentioned.
I also noticed the long list of vitamins on the labels I usually buy. Searching for information online, I found vitamin K is probably not great to feed pets. They produce it naturally, and too much can be toxic.
Jeff said Pets Wants uses U.S.-made vitamins, and the majority of conventional pet food recalls are due to vitamin packs made overseas.
Jeff and his wife also make four types of treats for dogs, as well as pet salves and sprays.
They were inspired to open a Pet Wants store after doing their own research on pet food.
“We had a dog that literally just died out of nowhere about halfway through its expected lifetime,” Jeff said.
After learning more, they decided, “let’s just help other people do it right.”
Shortly after they opened, about three and a half years ago, a customer brought a list of 24 ingredients her dog was allergic to. She had the dog tested, due to a slew of health issues. Jeff carefully reviewed all the foods they offer, and found one free of all the dog’s allergens. The pup has been free of digestive and skin issues and all other symptoms for three years.
Now that’s a happy ending, if I ever heard one.
