Table scraps and dull canned goods are over for Fido. He’s going organic. So are his feline pals.
A growing number of health-conscious pet owners are opting for organic pet food over traditional commercial pet products.
Sometimes the impetus for change is a cancer diagnosis for a pet or a recurring food allergy. Sometimes it’s a concern over the quality of ingredients or the use of preservatives.
Whatever the reason, people recognize more than ever the importance of pet nutrition.
“People are becoming more aware that if they adjust their animals’ diets, their animals can avoid certain illnesses, or perhaps require less medication for ailments from which they are already suffering,” says Dr. Narda Robinson, who works in the Department of Clinical Sciences at the Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital. “Organic diets take this one step further.”
Veterinarian Ted Cohn of University Animal Hospital in Denver says he first noticed interest in natural or organic pet foods at least 20 years ago. Today, he estimates that 15 to 20 percent of his clients feed or have expressed an interest in alternative pet foods.
“I’ve been in practice 30 years,” he adds, “and not a whole lot surprises me, and I’ve seen a lot of things come and go, and this has a little more staying power than I would have anticipated.”
Amid the $14.5 billion pet food market, organic pet food represents just 3 percent of dog food and 2 percent for cat food sold, according to 2005 data from the American Pet Product Manufacturers Association. A spokesman for the Pet Food Institute agrees, calling the organic market “very, very small.”
Still, the Organic Trade Association notes a 64.5 percent increase in the organic pet food market between 2002 and 2003. While such strong growth comes in part from the newness of the product category (they only started keeping statistics in 2002), the association projects organic pet food sales to grow 17 percent annually between 2004 and 2008.
Others peg the numbers even higher. “We’re more than doubling each year,” says Brian Connolly, a former Iams employee who is now president and “pack leader” of Oregon-based Castor & Pollux Pet Works, makers of Organix, an organic pet food that will soon hit store shelves at national chain Petco.
“So we’re growing at a much faster pace than (the overall organic industry average).”
Despite the organic pet food buzz, Cohn and other veterinarians don’t necessarily think organic diets are better than more traditional pet foods.
“I have concerns that not a lot of research has been done to assure the proper balance of nutrients,” explains Cohn, referring to industry feeding trials and nutritional tests that are intended to ensure a pet food is balanced for species and life stage.
At the same time, Cohn acknowledges traditional foods have higher levels of preservatives as well as dyes that appeal to people rather than pets and “don’t do anything good for the animal.”
All things being equal, CSU’s Robinson says she would prefer to feed an organic food to pets. However, she says, “Many self-proclaimed animal nutrition experts have little to no understanding of species-specific dietary requirements.”
For example, cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they need meat in their diet. Ferrets fall into this category as well. Cohn has seen two ferrets die of malnutrition after being fed vegetables. “They decided, ‘Gee, this is really good. I’d rather have broccoli than the ferret diet,’ ” Cohn says. “We could not get them back to eating the proper diet.”
For that reason, always discuss any major changes in your pet’s diet with your veterinarian. “If you’re not honest with your veterinarian,” Cohn warns, “you can’t expect to get the best advice.”
By the same token, Cohn advises pet owners to keep an open mind with veterinary recommendations about specific brands.
“I mean, if the veterinarian is trying to sell you something that’s on his shelf, that’s not necessarily a good thing for the veterinarian to do,” Cohn says.
The assumption is that people who feed their pets natural or organic foods eat healthy diets themselves, and organic pet food companies welcome this label-reading customer base, but Alex Teller, owner of Colorado Canines (& Felines Too!) in Boulder, dispels the notion that only a certain type of person shops for natural or organic pet foods. “All-natural dog and cat foods are all human grade,” she says.
“You don’t have to shop at Wild Oats or Whole Foods to have human grade for yourself,” she adds. “You can shop at Safeway. You can shop at King Soopers. It’s all human grade.”
Lori Moreland, who runs the 3-year-old Pet Empawrium in Arvada, acknowledges that her dogs eat better than her family does. Her dogs, she says, treat her like a god for feeding them natural and organic foods.
Her family, on the other hand, is more likely to say, “What’s this healthy stuff?” and head to 7-Eleven for a Slurpee.
She says the double standard like this: “If eating bad means taking two years off my life, so what? If my dog eats bad, and he only has an eight-year life expectancy, and it takes two years off his life, that’s huge.”
