- Welcome to the Natural Health for People in Pets podcast, a show that aims to empower you with the knowledge and tools needed to take control of your own health and wellbeing, as well as providing health promoting strategies for the dogs in your life. The world of health and nutrition can be overwhelming, so what better way to understand what works and what doesn't, what's evidence-based and what's not, then to hear it from someone in the know.
So please welcome your host of the show, accredited naturopath and nutritionist Narelle Cook. - Welcome back to Natural Health for People and Pets. I'm your co-host, Glen Cook, and introducing the host of the show. We have Nelle Cook. - Hello everyone. Welcome - Back. - Good to be back. Always. - It's episode six. - I know we are getting there, aren't we? - Yep. And we've got a live guest on the show today. - I know today is my first official interview. Mm-Hmm.
So today we have Brittany Young. Yep. She is the pet girl. Mm-Hmm. from Queensland, the Gold Coast, - The pet girl, - The pet girl. So really excited to have Brittany with us today. So just a bit of a backstory before we get onto you, Brittany, when I did my episode five mm-Hmm. , I was talking about complete and balanced and I mentioned just briefly within that episode that generally pet food manufacturing and safety and recalls are poorly regulated.
Yep. And voluntary and a lot of people are quite interested in that aspect and sort of touch base with me and Brittany did as well because while I have a background in regulatory affairs, I must say, sitting down at night and reading codes of practice and Australian standards is not my go-to - Not your strong suit. - No. But Brittany has a wealth of experience in that area and she's got her own amazing story and journey in just the dog world. So welcome Brittany.
- Thank you so much, Noelle for that that incredible introduction. Um, I did like the pet girl, I often get, is it the Pet girl or that pet girl? I'm the pet girl - . Yeah. Just so we can clarify that. Um, - So yeah, thank you so much for having me on the show and as your first guest, that is a humongous honor, so thank you very much. I'm massively appreciate it.
- Pleasure. So as I mentioned, I love to hear people's stories because I think it's so fascinating the direction that people's lives take and things that you don't often expect. You know, like the fact that you've been a police officer in the midst of all your dog world stuff. Mm. So, so maybe if you just wanna start out by telling our listeners sort of what your background story is. I think that's how the boys - Origin stories, the origin - Story. - Yeah. We need some funky musics.
You know, those when you go back in time . - So yeah, if you wouldn't mind just sharing your, your journey, um, Brittany, how you got into dogs, how you got into training, how you got into the police force, how you got more specifically for today's episode, how you got into manufacturing dog food yourself. But yeah, if you wanna just sort of take it away from there. - My story's a little bit different.
A lot of amazing dog people have these stories of them, you know, running through fields with dogs at the age of three years old and it's just, it just wasn't the case for me. I studied film and television and drama at school, which probably lends itself to my live videos and craziness. But I went through and did, you know, a university degree in fine arts and drama and then I just, typical creative industries, I couldn't find, uh, exactly what I was looking for.
And at that stage I was working with youth at risk and working and doing community cultural development. And I just kind of found myself falling into hospitality doing community staff. And I was like, this, this is not really reaching my goals. It's not really where I wanna go. So I applied for the police force and I got in, I passed all my exams, I did all my physicals with flying colors and I got through and I got into the police force into an intake of 80 males and 10 females.
And I was one of I think six women to actually graduate from that intake, that specific intake. So that was very exciting. But I noticed in the first, I did my first year and unfortunately at the time I had a couple of different scenarios play out that didn't really lend itself to being able to transfer to remote locations. So my first posting would've been in rural Queensland, particularly in Mount Isa.
And that those kinds of regions now, you know, when you're single and you've got, you know, you're just free and flexible, it's great to go and travel to those places and boom your career. But unfortunately for me, well, I mean fortunately 'cause you know, whatever, love always perseveres and prevails. But I was engaged and my husband had, we had a house together on the Gold Coast and we had multiple businesses here on the Gold Coast. So unfortunately I had to turn in the police force.
And that wasn't such a bad thing because at the time we were starting to think about pet food. And I know that sounds like a really strange sort of jump from being a police officer to being, um, into pet food, but how it actually happened was that our dogs were always fed a raw diet. So the man that I married ended up being a, a guy that lived next door to a cafe that I managed and he used to travel away from work and he had two little puppies.
And believe it or not, as naughty as this is, I used to jump the fence on my lunch breaks and go and play with his puppies that were crying. So those two puppies, Yogi and Pepsi, and we still have them today, Yogi is eight and Pepsi is seven. That's how I sort of met him. And um, we'd always been feeding a, a fresh food diet. We'd always been feeding raw food at that stage. I didn't really understand it. I didn't really understand why you feed raw food.
Like it didn't make sense. I mean, I'd had a dog back in when I was a, you know, 16 or 17 my first dog. And it was always fed, I would say premium kibble. And that dog was absolutely nuts. And anyway, people used to comment about our dogs and how well they were behaved and whatnot, and we'd always tell them, oh yeah, we feed them this raw food and, and whatever. Now it started happening that all our friends were, uh, super interested in what we were feeding.
And then my husband being the amazing man and he started calculating, well, hang on a minute. If we can get this in bulk and we can get it for cheaper, then that might give us savings on our dog food and we could, you know, deliver it to all our friends. And so that's how it actually started. And then through inquiries that we were making, we realized, well if this is X amount of dollars to buy wholesale and then these people are marking it up, you know, how much are they actually making it for?
And is this a business model? Like could we actually do this as a business? So fast track, we sold our gyms that we had, we basically quit everything in our lives and we dedicated to building a manufacturing business. So that is how our manufacturing journey started off. And we were manufacturing a raw dog food and we were delivering it. Our slogan was from our kitchen to your door. So it was straight from the manufacturer's hands and into the hands of the consumer or the pet parents.
So that was something that kind of wasn't, I guess happening. There was always a middleman, like a retail middleman. And we also decided that we wanted our model to be a subscription based service. So meaning that you just signed your dog up, you could modify the daily intake and then dog food would turn up at your house every week fortnight, or every four weekly as you allocated. And you would never run out of dog food. So there would never be like a pack left over.
It would be like pretty much to the 250 gram of the dog food that you needed. So that's how the manufacturing journey started. - That's, that's really fascinating because even most people who feed Raw and have friends at Feed Raw, I guess maybe because of your background with the businesses that you did have and the cafe your mind sort of went beyond where the average person's mind would go in terms of, okay, we can do something with this.
Like why just accept paying the prices that we pay, let's bulk it up and let's spread the love. - Yeah, I owe that to my husband Tyson. He is completely incredible when it comes to pulling businesses out of nowhere. I'm kind like the cheerleader, the excited, motivating cheerleader in the background. I like to make things happen and get people excited about stuff. But he's definitely, he was the brains behind it and he come up with it and was the numbers person.
So yeah, that's sort of how we just come out of nowhere and we were kind of looking for a change anyway, after leaving the police force and selling the, the gyms that we had. We were looking for a change in scenery and we wanted to, you know, do something together. We're all excited about doing a business together. So that's where it took off. - Yeah, no, I think that's great. And I mean you need those two different styles, I think, in a business.
'cause there's no point having a great business and dealing with all the numbers and the practicalities if you don't have someone, you know, cheerleading on the side to get it out there and get the message out and the product sold. So I think that's great. But tying that all back into what we spoke about on the last episode, you've gone into this business model for raw food feeding. What are the challenges?
You know, I've said that it's quite poorly regulated, but if you can talk a little bit about what's actually involved in running your own raw food manufacturing business. Yeah, - This is a really huge topic and I think that a lot of people have the idea that it's as simple as making dog food and selling it. It sounds like in your mind it makes a lot of sense and it's a super easy business model and the the, there's a market for raw food out there, but it's just not the case.
So what people don't realize is that you can't just make food in your kitchen and sell it to other people. There are so many different legalities and hoops that you have to jump through and that changes from state to state depending on where you are. So if I bring back to where our manufacturing facility was, we had a commercial premises in, uh, new South Wales, just south of the border. Now at that stage, that premise was just perfect for us.
It was great. And we didn't even think twice about whether it was going to be in New South Wales or Queensland, it just, we lived kind of south of the border of Queensland anyway, so it was just an, uh, a 45 minute trip over the border. Now the legislation from New South Wales and Queensland is different. So first and foremost, I should probably say that it took me about three months to really get my head around what actual legislation was required and what hoops I had to jump through.
So from state to state, it varies. You've got, each state has their own regulatory body. So they've got, for Queensland, it's uh, safe Food Queensland's for Victoria, it's Prime Safe Victoria for New South Wales, it's the New South Wales Food Authority and it goes on so on and so forth. Now you have to apply for licensing in your individual state. And then there's other things that contribute to that.
So for example, in Queensland you apply for your safe foods manufacturing or meat processing licensing Queensland. And you've gotta jump through the hoops that they ask you to jump through, pay your registration fee, which is a couple of thousand dollars, and then you have to, you're inspected by them. Then in New South Wales, which is what we applied for, we had to do the same thing.
But what we found was we were super confused because when we started going through the licensing and and whatnot, the New South Wales Food Authority were incredibly concerned about having raw, awful in the product. So our product was a bath model formula, which contained obviously a bath model formula contains, uh, that liver and that other secreting organ. Now they were super, super strict on us.
We were working with biosecurity New South Wales and we were working with our relevant food authority as well. And we had to do such a range of checks. One of the things that you have to do when you are applying for a meat processing license is you have to do what's called a food safety program. A food safety program. Our food safety program was over a hundred pages. I've got it sitting in front of me right now and I did that all myself.
People think it's just a matter of, oh yeah, you just pay for a license and that's the end of it and no , no it's not like that at all. You have to detail your hasp. So ha hazard analysis, critical control point manual. And you need to break down all the different procedures and protocols you have in place for making sure that the meat that you are putting out there is, is safe and not contaminated and you need to make sure all your product's not contaminated.
On top of that, you have to detail, you have to have a detailed product description and every single ingredient has to be detailed in your product. You have to have flow charts about how food comes into your facility. There's even legislation about the type of people that you can buy off.
So in New South Wales we had to have what was called a, an approved supplier list and that approved supplier list, they had to meet a certain criteria to be a supplier to us and if they didn't meet that criteria, then we couldn't use their food. Things like conducting temperature checks when I picked up produce, things like conducting temperature checks throughout the manufacturing process and having written documentation of that, uh, maintaining, you know, fridge and freezer temperatures.
There was just, it's such a range of things that you need to cover. Things like making sure you are covering pest control, fire safety, chemical cleaning, making sure that you're cleaning things properly. There is a range of different hoops to jump through and believe it or not, detailing this is for the New South Wales Food Authority.
Those, so detailing your recall strategies, I had to have a whole section on my recall strategy and if something was wrong with our food, what we were gonna do about it. - It is really interesting. Go for it. And it is super confusing because even this morning, like I was going through again, like the New South Wales Food Authority website on animal food processing and you know, it does outline all of those requirements for the facilities and the quality of the meats and things like that.
But there was something there in those guidelines saying that for animal food processes that there isn't a requirement for like a routine microbial and chemical testing of a product. So it just seemed odd that they've got all these control processes around, you know, hasp and safety and the facilities, but then the actual testing of the product seemed to have a loophole.
I don't know if you know anything about that, but that was, it just stood out to me when I was reading through it this morning. - Absolutely. That is as well. One of the biggest flaws that I feel is in the pet food industry, and I can't necessarily speak for the whole of Australia, but I can certainly speak for my experience, is the product testing. So if you think about it, like let's talk about packaging wise.
Now when you put something on a packaging, you know, you don't just order 10 packets. Like when we did a packaging order, we ordered a quarter of a million bags. Wow. So if you think of a quarter of a million bags and the cost to print a quarter of a million bags and have them, and then you test your product and it doesn't come up to what it was, what do you do in that situation? And this is where there's a flaw because if you're not constantly testing a product, then your product's not safe.
And if you or could not be safe, you might not know. You don't know. If you do test a product and say for example, you tested it and your typical analysis or whatnot has changed, then what have you got printed on your bag?
It's something different. So there's a definite sticking point and a definite challenge point in the processes and it seems, it does, it seems strange that we would have all these procedures in place, but then we don't have that other testing there as well or requirement to have that testing as well. - Yeah, and I guess it's the same with, I mean you've, there's all these standards and codes of practice, but there's no real sort of overarching regulation of the industry.
And you know, when you mentioned recalls, like you've got this whole procedure in place for what you could do if you needed to recall your product, but there's no one to make you do that if you didn't want to, is my understanding of the situation.
- Yeah, that's right. From my understanding as well, just to make it clear, obviously I have experience with a short experience with the New South Wales Food Authority, but I've done research into other states, particularly Queensland and sort of Victoria. But yeah, that's right.
You don't necessarily, if there's a problem with your food, then I guess what is the recall strategy from there and how do you recall a product and who manages that and who you know, I'm, I have no doubt that if you wanted to it, you could just sweep that under the carpet. But I mean then I guess the liability then falls on, well then if multiple dogs start presenting as being ill.
And that was always a concern and it kind of links into, you know, why we sort of, um, left the business is because the stresses of what happens if, what happens if a dog gets sick from eating your food and then multiple dogs get sick from eating your food, that's a responsibility that you have to burden. And that's where as well, you know, going back to your previous question about people think how challenging is it to become a manufacturer?
That is one of the biggest challenges is being able to deal with the fact that you are responsible for the nutrition. And I'm not talking about you're responsible for someone's collars or harnesses. You are responsible for something that is keeping that animal alive. So that's a huge burden and a huge responsibility placed on someone that's a manufacturer.
And I mean, that's why we have insurance and things like that, but someone that's manufacturing, say out of their home kitchen and selling their stuff on marketplace, they don't have that licensing, they don't have that strategy. If something does go wrong, they don't have that insurance that if something does go wrong and they're liable, what are they gonna do? 'cause it's not just about insurance too, about profe like protecting the manufacturer.
It's about insurance of what happens if that dog has to go through, you know, has illness and has to be treated. Who's gonna pay those vet bills, if that makes sense. - It does. It's, - It's scary. - Yeah. I don't blame you for feeling overwhelmed by that burden of being responsible for so many dogs with their nutrition and their lives.
But I just guess I wanted to highlight to the listeners just how convoluted and confusing the industry is because there are different standards and codes for different types of foods. So whether it's a wet food or sort of a pet meat or a therapeutic food, but with everything, and it varies, as you've mentioned Brittany, it varies from state to state. And I'm sorry for all our overseas listeners today that this is very Australian centric today.
Mm. But with everything, the standards, to me, in my mind, what concerns me is keeps coming back to that the standards are voluntary. So, you know, if 95% plus of pet food manufacturers in in Australia adhere to the standards, but you know, they don't have to, and if something goes wrong, just the enforcement of that is a gray area in my mind.
So maybe you can take us through Brittany, because this has been an interest to you in the quality control side of things with particularly the raw food manufacturing, how you developed your transparency project and sort of where that's led you and what you've discovered in that area. - Yeah, definitely. Firstly, I think it's important to explain sort of why we left the industry. We left the industry because we started to become bigger than Ben Hur, as I like to say it.
And we just couldn't keep up with the demand and supply and the, the jump to scale is really challenging and that's something that we found, you know, our commercial premises of doing a couple hundred or actually half a ton of dog food a week. Uh, then, you know, the next ability to jump up to the next level is just an astronomical investment.
And so unfortunately it's a sad but good thing that we sort of decided on, we don't wanna pursue manufacturing anymore and that's why we had to turn it in. But one of the biggest challenges that I sort of found was that a lot of people, the more I read and the more I was into the Australian standard of marketing, manufacturing of pet food, and the more I was reading about it, I was like, gosh, people just dunno. People just have no idea.
And that's where the pet kind of formed because I was super interested in highlighting to people what I was reading. I was like, this is insane. How is this a thing? How I started to have that interest of thinking of, well, why don't people know about this is because when we had all these hoops to jump through in New South Wales and it was so strict, you know, we had to take photos of the awful that we were cutting and cut it up into little pieces and inspect it for parasites and whatnot.
And then in Queensland, the legislation seemed a lot less intense. I was like, what is going on? How is this so different from state to state? People need to know about this. So what I started to do is to reach out to manufacturers and say, you know, like, people need to know more about the process behind what is going on. I guess a part of me as well was frustrated that everybody was saying, oh, you can just become a pet food manufacturer, anybody that can come become a pet food manufacturer.
And I had dedicated two years of my life to it, and I can tell you right now, not everybody can become a good pet food manufacturer and not everybody should.
And so I wanted to highlight to pet parents or consumers that the people that are transparent and that are opening their doors and are willing to answer these challenging questions, they're the kind of people that you wanna get to know and you wanna talk to as manufacturers because they're proud of their product and they have some amazing strategies in place and they're doing a really great job. Um, and so that's why I created the Transparency Project.
In the beginning it was kind of, well, a bit of a, oh well are they following legislation? And, and, and I won't lie, initially it felt to me like not a witch hunt, but it felt like, well let's, if there's going to be places to expose, let's expose 'em, let's get 'em out there, let's filter the bad and push in the the good ones and push up the good ones. But what I started to realizing is that fresh food manufacturers are some of the most transparent manufacturers that you'll ever find.
Like even more than human food. They are passionate, completely passionate people that have a dog's best interest at heart, or the ones that I've interviewed anyway so far, no one's proven me wrong otherwise, but, uh, they, yeah, they're amazing. Um, and they, they really care about how you feel about their food and about the, how your dog's longevity is on their food.
- That's great. And I dunno if you wanted to mention some of the companies that have allowed you behind the scenes in their premises, and look, I know not everyone has opened their doors to you either. And I'm not saying name names for that, you know, there are challenges and not everyone's so excited to have you see what's going on. But for those that do, I mean, I think that's amazing and that's a great sign that consumers should be paying attention to. Yeah, - Definitely.
Initially, so I, the project started about a year and a half, two years ago, and I reached out to a bunch of manufacturers. At first I wanted to go and hit the big manufacturers, so I wanted to get them out of the way and show the big manufacturers. I wanted people to take the project seriously. So I went straight to the big, I call the top guns of the industry, and that was Proudie big dog, prime 100 and yeah, obviously leading raw as part of Big Dog.
And yeah. And I reached out to those manufacturers and said, Hey, look, any rumors that are out there, I wanna put them to bed and I wanna open up what you are doing. And believe it or not, I was super surprised by their willingness to participate. And I went down and visited or went to wherever their facility was located, and I filmed inside their facility.
They gave me a tour of their facility, they showed me their processes, they showed me their product in preparation, so in from start to finish their product. So, uh, Diana from Frontier Pets actually showed me, literally they showed me from start to end how their product is manufactured. And we talked about that. Uh, and then we got down to the nitty-gritty and, and I asked them questions about, you know, consumer questions. You know, why do you, why do all your products have chicken in it?
How much synthetic vitamins and minerals are you using in your product? How often do you test those synthetic vitamins and minerals? What's your recall strategy? How do you implement all these things to ensure pet safety? And they answered those questions very willingly and very passionately, I think at Big Dog's facility. I was there for I think like four or five hours, they even gave me lunch, nice.
Uh, and I had a good laugh with them and I sat down and I, I talked about my pet hates and that what I was unhappy with, with what they're doing. And I, and I honestly voiced my opinion to them about any issues that I had with what was going on in the industry. And the question that I asked every single one of them was, how important is transparency in the pet food industry? And every single manufacturer that I interviewed was just couldn't speak more highly of transparency.
They, they said, we need to be transparent. We need a standard that we can all go off that isn't confusing, and that's what they want just as much as everybody else. So, yeah, it's interesting. It was a, it's a great project and I've just rebooted it and I'm hoping that once the covid stuff dies down, I can get out and get back into it and start opening the doors and checking out some of the smaller manufacturers and the not so large scale manufacturers.
- Brittany, just a question I've got in relation to your investigations and so forth. What would you recommend that people as a consumer pay more attention to in regards to raw feeding manufacturers? What questions should they be asking, or what should they be looking into themselves? - I think the first thing that people need to understand when you start asking questions to manufacturers is that when you ask a question, you need to be prepared to listen to the response.
So I find that a lot of people ask questions, but they don't know why they're asking the questions in the first place. So first and foremost, you have to understand what your values and expectations are.
What is it that you want for your pet, and what is it that you standard is, you know, if you don't really care about feeding pet grade or pet consumption meat versus human consumption meat, then it's not a question that you know, I mean, you can ask it, but you need to be prepared to listen to the answers. So the things that I look for, or I recommend that people ask or look for is, first and foremost, does a manufacturer have a recall strategy? And what is their recall strategy?
If the product has synthetic vitamins and minerals, I mean, this sort of goes with my belief system, but you know, how often those synthetic vitamins and minerals being tested, the ingredients, where do the ingredients come from? Are they coming from Australian farmers, austral farmers? If you value this, is the meat free range meat or is it factory farm style? Like what, it depends on the standard and the quality of what you want.
The biggest thing that I look for with manufacturers is that when I ask them a question and the response that they give me, is it a generic response as in, is it a response that's got a lot of words but not a lot of reason? And does it lead you in a million different directions? And if it's that I say, oh, excuse me, can you just clarify that a little bit for me? And Prime 100 was really great at that. Peter Slattery from Prime, he's great.
I ask him questions all the time, and when I don't understand something, instead of going, oh, well, I don't understand, he must be lying to me. I, I just ask him to detail what his answer is and explain. Can you just break it down for me? I just don't understand what you're trying to tell me. And you know, big dog's the same. They, they're really great gene's, really great at answering questions and helping the consumer understand what it is she's saying.
That's the kind of stuff that I look for. I guess the main thing that I sort of encourage people is understand the values of the company. If the company is preaching that a natural diet is best and they wholeheartedly believe that a raw diet is best, then are they producing products that are counterproductive to that?
Because how can they produce a product that's counterproductive to that and be backing that product a hundred percent and tell you it's the best thing that you can feed to your dog and then tell you that the raw product is also the best thing that you should be feeding your dog, or what is it? Is it a natural diet or a processed diet? So that for me is a big one.
- Mm-Hmm. Yeah, interesting questions because just being out in the community and reading the limited amount of blogs and social media pages on raw feeding, I mean, I, I know you and Nelle pour over these type of things religiously and do a lot of external research, but as a person who has an interest in it, but only an interest in it, there is so much convoluted information out there.
And it's nice that there are people like you and Narelle and various other people that are looking a little deeper into it. Because you're right, Brittany, there is a lot of pop-up raw feeders happening. And it reminds me when you were talking about earlier on in the show, it's kind of like breeding. There's a lot of people who have a go at breeding too and do a terrible job of it and flood the market with, you know, problem puppies and dogs with health issues.
And it's no different from people who just have a go at it with raw feeding as well. You know, some of 'em don't understand when, well, let me rephrase. When I see and hear Narelle talking about getting the balance right, when you're doing raw feeding and all the meticulate ingredients that you need to go through in order to make sure that you're correcting you, you well, that you don't get imbalances. There is a science behind it.
It's not just about throwing some ingredients in a bowl and grinding it up and throwing it into your pet. You know, because there are obviously nutritional deficiencies there that they will end up suffering from long term. So I give a lot of credit to people who do put recipes together properly and do go through a process. And if they do need consultation with industry professionals that they reach out and get a structure in place
to do that. Well, - The biggest thing there as well is that fresh food feeding, as we say in the fresh food feeding group, fresh food feeding is based on the premise of rotation and variety, right? So the one thing that I do look for, you know, when you have a manufacturer that only has two varieties, like two varieties of proteins, how are they communicating to their consumers that rotation and is important?
Because if they're preaching that their product is the only thing that, that the dog should eat and they should be loyal to that brand, then how is that dog going to get that rotation and variety? And if they're constantly eating that protein over a long period of time, you know, are we gonna start to see intolerances there? So I think it's important for manufacturers.
I'm not saying that manufacturers have to have 50 proteins or there's not even 50 proteins available, but, you know, have to have, you know, eight different proteins available to their consumers. But I think that manufacturers identifying and knowing that just because their product is available, it doesn't mean that it's all a dog should eat.
You know, a dog should have rotation and variety to achieve those balances over time, and they should be open to that and be open to telling people, no, we recommend to rotate through our different proteins. We recommend to, you know, make sure that you're getting a variety and diversity of foods for your dog. And I think that's what Big Dog does really well. I know that they, uh, they have obviously a large protein range, but I know that they talk about that rotation and variety a bit.
I've seen them post about it and I've certainly had conversations with them about it as well. So that's thing that I think is really important. And you know, when you are talking about your popup breeders and things like that, there are, I tell you now, I'm always on the hunt for fresh food or like cooked meal varieties for people that it's just like popping up and they're servicing their local community, but everyone starts somewhere.
Like everybody starts at a small business somewhere and develops their business and grows into a large business. But it's just making sure that before, you know, when you're looking at your manufacturer, are you sure that they're manufacturing in a commercial premises? Do they have, you know, they have insurance who's guiding them and formulating their recipes and things like that.
- Brittany, I think you make a really good point because in terms of feeding a variety of different foods and fresh foods, you know, over time, because a lot of my clients, people just, I think it's just a mindset. I don't know if it's the way we've just been raised, but we tend to feel that we need to be loyal to one brand and one brand, as amazing as it might be, it may not give everything that they need to live a long and healthy life.
I'm always telling my clients, I know your dog does well on this brand, but I encourage you to try different flavors, different brands, and it's, it's hard. People are reluctant to let go, but I think it's really important. So I'm glad you made that point as well. People may not realize that Britney is - Constantly doing that. - Yeah, it's, it's just a thing, isn't it, that people just sort of, they find one recipe, they find one brand, and that's what they stick with.
But people may not realize that your admin to an amazing Facebook group called Fresh Food Feeding for Dogs, kibble Feeders welcome, which I must say I always find quite a mouthful, but it's a really, it's an amazing group. and you and Sasha Packer do a phenomenal job with the information you provide to your members and the resources that you have available to them.
So I highly recommend people, I dunno if you're taking on new new members before I advertise your group, but I recommend that people do check out your Facebook page. Is there anything else you wanna share with the listeners, Brittany, about sort of the commercial side of things - In terms of, you know, understanding commercial legalities and whatnot?
I was actually speaking to a, a manufacturer just prior to this interview, I'm actually going to revisit that manufacturer and do another version of what I did when I, you know, went into their facility and redo my, uh, I guess review on them. But we were talking about the kind of checks conducted that that individual premises has to go through.
So we were talking about being a member, they're a member of the P-F-I-A-A, which they have to, they get checks conducted and inspections conducted through that organization. Then they, any major pet retail store that they sell to, they also, those individual, uh, retail stores conduct audits as well. Then they have their internal audits, and then they also have their state food authority audit on top of that.
So if you think about it, that's like four or five different, and depending on how many major retail stores they're in, that's so many audits for that one manufacturer. So I guess my biggest thing is, is that for me, sometimes people view manufacturers as not the devil, but they view manufacturers in a poor light. You know, oh, it must be poor quality, it's manufactured on a large scale, but honestly, I don't feel it's the case.
Like there are some manufacturers out there that are doing a spectacular job and are really care about pets, uh, and feeding pets properly. And I think it's important to support those manufacturers. And then I think it's important to keep the standard high. And that's what I aim to do through my transparency project, is keep the standard high, keep fresh food manufacturers at a very high standard.
Because when we compare that to other types of food manufacturers in the industry, I don't know if they're that transparent, I can almost bet that they're not. And it's something that I think that we need to give credit to and you know, and be grateful for that a lot of our manufacturers, our fresh food manufacturers are being more transparent than what even our human food manufacturers are doing.
So I think that we need to pay respect to that, and we need to be grateful for our manufacturers and, um, and really support them in their business and on their journey - In regards to that too, with manufacturers who are using high grade meats and vegetables and supplements and so forth, they're going to generally offset that by charging a little bit more for it too.
So I think people have gotta be understanding that when they do find quality material, there is going to be a premium cost attached to that. Essentially with a lot of these people you pay for what you get. I mean, they can't do high grade material or high grade foods, I should say, and then produce it with a low cost to satisfy everybody. I mean, I know that they would like to do that, and they always are market researching to find a middle ground.
However, I have heard people say before, oh, I'd love to do this, but it's so expensive. Well, it's also expensive to pay for excessive vet bills when your dog starts getting sick and Ill later in life when it's Absolutely, yeah. So there is a cost associated with that. And I understand that we looked at it when we changed from kibble to raw feeding for our own dogs, and then the supplementation
that Nelle adds in on top of that. But - Oh, that's just an occupational hazard being an naturopath that the Yeah, - Well that's right. But the point is for us is that we kind of looked at it from what are we preaching to other people and what are we expecting in longevity out of our own dogs as well.
So the cost is, I mean, geez, these people who are calling these dogs fur babies and calling themselves pet parents and so forth, I mean, I think it really is a responsibility of us to accept that there are gonna be costs associated with owning pets, especially in feeding them. But it also comes with a moral responsibility too, at the end of the day. - I think too, as well, like when you look at a product, you think, oh, okay, it costs $9 a kilo to feed.
So what you have to think about in that, yeah, sure, it costs $9 a kilo when you've got the pretty packaging and it's just scooped that into your bowl. But, you know, when we set up our kitchen, you've gotta think of everything. Like we had a piece of equipment that we used, it's a $50,000 piece of equipment, and we had one of them, imagine if we were manufacturing couple of tons a week, how many of those machines would we use? You know, like a, a mix and mincer a loan is, it was like $20,000.
Then you gotta think of electricity insurance, manual labor, like everything, accounting, wages, products like licensing, like there's so many expenses and you are, you know, when you're thinking about how much a product costs, sure, there are definitely more expensive products on the market, but you definitely pay for what you get for, you know, like you, you get what you pay for.
Um, when you look at, you know, there's companies that are producing produce that is organic and they're only buying organic produce to put into their product. When I look at how I feed myself when I choose to purchase organic foods and whatnot, it's, it's more expensive. It definitely is. But you get what you pay for. Mm-Hmm. So I think it all comes down to what your goals are with your individual pet and long-term, how you wanna achieve those goals.
And for me, I know that feeding a fresh food diet prevents me from having to go to the vet a million times. Like my oldest dog Yogi hasn't never had a dental and she's eight years old and her teeth are sparkling clean. Now obviously genetics plays a role in that, but diet is a huge component of that. Mm-Hmm. And so avoiding $3,000 dentals every couple of years, I've avoided that. That's great. The pudding - A hundred percent on board with everything you're saying.
So Brittany, you've got your business on the Gold Coast. Do you wanna tell the listeners a little bit about that and how they can find you and what you can offer them? - Thanks, Narelle. So I am not a manufacturer anymore, gave that away. And now I am the pet girl on the Gold Coast. So I am NDTF certified Dog Trainer Trainer.
I have also completed a canine athlete specialist course with Northeast Canine Conditioning, and I'm an animal nutritionist, so I offer a range of services from private training, uh, nutrition consults, but not for clinical nutrition. And then I have a dog training school in the Gold Coast called that dog school. Uh, and I work with the amazing Julia Terry. And we offer group classes and workshops and hopefully seminars to come soon. But yeah, that's what we do over on the Gold Coast.
So the pet girl.com au or that dog school.com, or if you are interested in fresh food feeding, you can head to the fresh food Feeding for Dogs. Kibble Feeders welcome. And it's a really good, I think, introductory level for people that dunno much about fresh food feeding and want a safe and secure space to learn and want people to support them on their journey. So it's a little tribe that we've got going over there. I think we're 30,000 members deep, but yeah, it's grown a lot in two years.
It's been an exciting journey. I love it. Yeah, - There ain't no little tribe. No. And, um, just for listeners on that page, what I love about the Fresh Food Feeders page is if you're gonna make a claim or if you're gonna say something, you need to explain why you're saying something.
And I love that. So people just can't throw out random statements or, you know, misinformation on the page without sort of being pulled up in a really kind and gentle way and saying, look, hey, what's the basis behind that? Can you explain it so the others can know and learn for themselves? So I think that's great. Brittany, you, like I said, you and Sasha do a great job on that page. Mm-hmm, - Sasha's awesome. She's definitely a, like a mentor of mine and I really enjoy learning from her.
But yeah, she's a huge driving force of that group. She does a fantastic job, so thanks. It's good fun. It keeps me entertained first hours of the morning and late hours of the night. Mm-Hmm. - . Yeah, Sasha's very generous with her information and time that she spends with people, and she's quite a skilled advocate for what she's doing in the industry as well. Definitely. - Mm-Hmm. - Okay. Well that's it for the episode.
So thank you very much for joining us as a first guest on the show, Brittany. So when we do the wrap up with Noelle, where do people find you? - Oh, me? Yeah, sorry, I forgot - You forgot. This is your show. Forgot. - Thought it was a Brittany show, in the Loveliest way. I said that people can find me at natural health and nutrition.com au. I also have the Facebook page, natural Health for People and Pets to support this podcast. So jump onto either of those.
If you wanna email me, it's Noelle at natural health and nutrition.com au. - Wonderful. Okay, well thank you very much for joining us, Brittany, on the show today. - Thank you so much for having me. Again, like I said, it's an honor to speak to you both. Narelle. You are amazing. So thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. - Our - Pleasure. Thanks Brittany. Bye.