In this episode, the Michael and Stephen discuss the basics of reading a pet food label with guest Dr. Megan Sprinkle, the president of the American Academy of Veterinary Nutrition. They emphasize the importance of understanding pet food labels and making informed decisions about pet nutrition. The chapters cover topics such as the attraction to pet nutrition, the importance of a balanced diet, understanding calories on pet food labels, laws and regulations for pet food, and tips for choosing pet food. The episode concludes with a fun fact and information about Dr. Sprinkle's podcast, Vet Life Reimagined.
Links
The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO)
Dr. Sprinkle's podcast Vet Life Reimagined
Takeaways
Chapters
00:00
Introduction
01:26
Starting the New Year
01:56
Getting into Pet Food
03:40
Guest Introduction
04:04
Guest's Attraction to Pet Nutrition
05:30
Understanding Food Labels
06:06
Importance of Reading Labels
07:04
Balanced Diet for Pets
08:49
Where to Start Reading Labels
10:58
Calories on Pet Food Labels
15:58
Nutritional Adequacy Statement
17:15
Laws and Regulations for Pet Food
20:26
Understanding Ingredients
24:46
Tips for Choosing Pet Food
29:04
Additional Resources
30:56
Fun Fact
33:36
Guest's Podcast
33:56
Conclusion
In this episode, the Michael and Stephen discuss the basics of reading a pet food label with guest Dr. Megan Sprinkle, the president of the American Academy of Veterinary Nutrition. They emphasize the importance of understanding pet food labels and making informed decisions about pet nutrition. The chapters cover topics such as the attraction to pet nutrition, the importance of a balanced diet, understanding calories on pet food labels, laws and regulations for pet food, and tips for choosing pet food. The episode concludes with a fun fact and information about Dr. Sprinkle's podcast, Vet Life Reimagined.
Links
The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO)
Dr. Sprinkle's podcast Vet Life Reimagined
Takeaways
Chapters
00:00
Introduction
01:26
Starting the New Year
01:56
Getting into Pet Food
03:40
Guest Introduction
04:04
Guest's Attraction to Pet Nutrition
05:30
Understanding Food Labels
06:06
Importance of Reading Labels
07:04
Balanced Diet for Pets
08:49
Where to Start Reading Labels
10:58
Calories on Pet Food Labels
15:58
Nutritional Adequacy Statement
17:15
Laws and Regulations for Pet Food
20:26
Understanding Ingredients
24:46
Tips for Choosing Pet Food
29:04
Additional Resources
30:56
Fun Fact
33:36
Guest's Podcast
33:56
Conclusion
Stephen (00:01.189)
Oh, a coupling coming that low over ours. That's right. All right. That's all good. Welcome into the Family Pet Podcast, the podcast for curious pet parents where we believe the more you know about pet healthcare, the better pet parent you can be. I'm your host, Michael Shirley. Joined this new year, same old co-host, Stephen. But we're much closer today. This is true. We're still working on our video setup. We're not quite sure how far apart we have to sit to be on camera. Just a reminder for those of you listening to this podcast that we are now also video recording these and you can find us on YouTube. If you just search for Family Pet Health, you'll find all of our videos that we've made for our office, including all the episodes of the Family Pet Podcast. We are excited to get started on another season here in 2024. We hope that you've enjoyed listening and we appreciate those of you that have shared liked and followed and leave reviews and all those things. We appreciate it and we are going to continue, we hope, through this entire year. Are we going for 52 episodes this year? I feel like that may be a little much. I still think that there's value in taking a couple of weeks off. But maybe we just put replays in. I don't know, maybe. As placeholders. We'll see. But recording, definitely getting in that 46, 45, 46.
new episodes. We'll try. So you listeners and viewers keep sending us your questions, and we will continue finding the people that can help answer them, because Stephen and I cannot usually do that. Now, we have decided to start 2024 off with a bang. There is a question that we have avoided. Politics, religion, and pet food. That's what we try to stay away from. But we are getting into pet food today.
But rather, so you could go a lot of different ways when it comes to pet food, but what we're doing today is starting with the basics. And if our guest, if we don't scare her off, she maybe will come back later through the year and do some more episodes with us. But today we have a great guest who is going to be helping us navigate the basics of reading a pet food label.
Have you ever had any formal training on reading a vet food? I will be honest. I mean, you gotta remember, I used to feed a pet food that wasn't that bad. But a pet food I bought at the grocery store. That's convenient. It was convenient and it was cheap. But I had no idea what was in it. I just bought it because there was an ad. A little jingle. I could sing. I don't need to. I thought you were gonna sing for us. No, I'm not singing. But...
Stephen (02:54.973)
I didn't know what's in it and I was referred through my veterinarian that I might want to consider a higher quality. And I still, I mean, I just went on the recommendation. I still don't know what's in my dog's food. You are blindly trusting your veterinarian. I am trusting that Dr. Sam is not leading me astray. That's right. But Maverick is healthy. He's got a shiny coat. His teeth are in good shape and he's not getting fat or losing weight. So I feel like we're...
We're in a good place. I wish I could say the same for myself. I did not make good eating choices over the holidays. Okay, but enough about us and our journey in pet food. Today we have Dr. Megan Sprinkle is joining us on the Family Pet podcast. Dr. Sprinkle, welcome in.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (03:40.078)
Well, thank you so much for having me.
Stephen (03:42.185)
Now, you are the president of the American Academy of Veterinary Nutrition. Is that correct? Did I get that right? Okay, so when we appreciate you, another expert, joining the Family Pet Podcast, how did you, like, what was your attraction to pet nutrition?
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (03:49.046)
That is correct, yes.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (04:04.274)
It's a very long journey. As we were talking early on when I was a little girl and I already knew I wanted to work with animals for a career. It started with a love of marine mammals and exotics and conservation medicine. And the interesting thing was as I was getting lots of experience in that world, I found that the fundamental part of taking care of these animals is knowing how to feed them. So a lot of what I was doing was in the prep room.
Stephen (04:06.326)
Okay.
Stephen (04:31.479)
Mm-hmm.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (04:34.348)
you know, making food for these animals and all the care that went into that to really make sure that we were feeding these animals appropriately. And so that was really when my love and inspiration for having a big impact, what was through nutrition. And as a I went into vet school, so I got my veterinarian degree, and trying to find what was the next step.
And for our veterinary, when it comes to nutrition, one of the main things that we do to specialize is do a residency. So there aren't zoo nutrition residencies, it's a little bit different of a path, but as I got in working, understanding clinical nutrition for cats and dogs, I realized, oh, this is kind of fun too. And so I really fell in love with also companion animal nutrition. And that's kind of how I got into nutrition.
Stephen (05:30.229)
When we talk about the food label, if that's where we're going to enter into this discussion, I am familiar with the American grocery food label for humans, that it has calories, fat, sugar, protein, ingredients, and maybe some of the vitamins and nutrients that are listed and what percentage.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (05:34.094)
Mm-hmm.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (05:45.041)
Hmm?
Stephen (05:58.481)
I don't know much more. I don't really know even human labels. Is it important that Stephen does know how to read a pet food label?
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (06:06.714)
Yes, I think it is. At least for a few features that I think we'll talk about, it is important to know a few parts of that pet label. Absolutely.
Stephen (06:08.67)
Okay, good.
Stephen (06:18.081)
So why is it important that our curious pet parents understand how to read the label?
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (06:25.07)
I think that feeding our pets is one of the most fundamental things that we do, right? It's the one thing that we do every day for our pet and it's a huge thing because how we feed our pets is different than how we eat ourselves. What we provide our pets should be complete and balanced nutrition.
And so it's a big deal for a pet owner who wants to make a good decision. Because we also, we love our pets, we wanna make sure that they're healthy. So picking out the diet is again, one of the basic fundamental and important decisions that a pet owner has to face.
Stephen (07:04.101)
You said a balanced diet. I'm confused because Maverick only gets one item as his food. He gets two cups every feed, so he eats twice a day. He gets two cups of the exact same kibble. How is that balanced?
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (07:25.982)
Exactly. And that's why there are people like myself, a veterinary nutritionist who it's, it's not just veterinary nutritionist. There's a lot of people that go behind making sure a diet for a pet is complete and balanced. And that means complete means that it has all the essential nutrients that your pet needs to not only survive, but thrive ideally. And so
Stephen (07:29.022)
Okay.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (07:51.222)
that is it's taking a big team of people to make sure that one thing that you are feeding is providing all of the nutrients that your pet needs. So that's the idea behind complete imbalance for pets. And the thing is our pets are okay with that. They're okay with getting you know that one kibble every day because well one thing is they have a lot fewer taste buds than we do.
So even though, and I've got one of these picky dogs too, even though you may have a picky dog, they have a lot fewer taste buds. So they can be a little less picky than us, where we're not gonna eat, you know, cereal every single day for every single meal, right? That's just not how we're wired. But the pets are okay with that.
Stephen (08:42.383)
When we decide, okay, we're ready to learn how to read a pet food label, where do we start?
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (08:49.326)
Great question. So I think the best place to start is think about your pet, you know, before you even start looking for pet food. And it's great if you can talk to your veterinarian too, just to get a few ideas of your pet so that when you are looking at that label, you know what to look for because every pet is an individual. I have two great Danes.
and they eat different diets. They need different things. So it is a very individual pet thing. So that's why I really, I don't like talking about bad diets, good diets, right? It's what's right for a particular pet. So understanding your pet first and foremost, I think is the most helpful thing. So one of the big things that you started to mention before, I love that, that your pet is a good healthy weight. So that is a big thing that we think about is
body weight as well as body condition of a pet, because that's a great example of an individual need. There are some people who can eat a piece of every dessert at holiday and they don't gain a pound. And then there's some who you just walk by the dessert table and look at and you feel like you just gained five pounds.
that actually happens in pets as well. There are some that are just really easy at gaining weight. And there's some that seem to stay very trend and lean. And so that's, that's one big thing that we can think about is, all right, if my dog is extremely food made motivated, they're very good at gaining weight, then I probably don't want the most energy dense diet, meaning a lot of calories and a small amount of food. Right.
We want to be able to fill their tummies, make them feel satisfied, and try to keep them in that good body weight. So that's one thing that you might be looking for in a pet food label because every pet food has to have the calories on the food. And that's one thing that's similar to human foods, right? We do see calories on there. That's also something that you can look for. So I think that's a good place to start. Again, think about your pet.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (10:59.794)
What are some of the unique things, breed, energy, activity level, all of those things and your veterinarian can help you with that, especially when it comes to body condition scoring. So very first thing, know your pet. And then I think, you know, you talked about buying food at the grocery store. That's not a bad thing.
the world of pet food and where it is being sold, you can, it's kind of interesting. I'm a nerd, right? So I find the pet food products and pet treats and everything in every store. I mean, it is, they are spreading. You can find pet food and, or at least treats in almost every store it feels like. So where are you wanting to shop for your food? If you wanna shop online, do you want to shop at a pet store?
Do you want to pick it up on the grocery store? Those are all fine, but those are also things to kind of think about when you're looking for a pet food to purchase. So a lot of this work is like, before it even gets the label, so. So.
Stephen (11:54.974)
I.
Stephen (11:58.345)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. So you talked about the calories. I assume that's, you said that's number one. And the calories on a pet food label are the same unit of energy as a calorie on human food.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (12:12.286)
It's a little bit, it's a little bit different in how it is going to be on your label. So it's going to be, you're going to see it in two different forms. You're going to see K cows per, usually it's kilogram of diet. And you'll also see a K cow per cup. So that's an eight ounce measuring cup. So they're going to have both of those ways of measuring on the label. And so I'll, of course I'm a nutritionist. I'll use both when it comes to figuring out how many calories to feed a pet.
Stephen (12:14.465)
Okay.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (12:42.362)
But that's how it's going to be labeled for pets. For people food, again, remember people are eating a little bit differently. We're not going to eat just the box of cereal. So the cereal box is probably going to have calories per a certain number of grams. Sometimes it might be a measuring, but it's not pretty, it's not standard across the board either. It, you know, it may be a full cup and maybe half a cup. So it is actually a little bit more confusing.
Stephen (12:58.122)
Right.
Stephen (13:08.509)
It's the serving size could vary from product. Yep. Okay. But pet food labels don't go by serving size. They go by Kcals per kilogram or Kcals per cup. And your veterinarian will give you the number of calories that your pet should be eating. Correct? That's where, because the, I know human, it's 2000 calories. That's kind of the generic total. There's not a generic total for dogs because the sizes are...
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (13:10.91)
Yep, serving size is different. Exactly.
Stephen (13:38.346)
massively different.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (13:41.094)
And even with people, right? So that's a great way to think about it. So if someone my size, and I know I look very tall on video, I've been told, but in real life, I'm 5'3". So I'm gonna be a lot shorter than my husband who is almost six foot tall. And so even our calorie needs are very different from each other. And we have a lot smaller,
Variety I guess in sizes then in dogs when you can have a little teacup Yorkie, you know up Against my great Dane right that there's huge differences with and sizes and breeds especially when it comes to dogs so there we use an equation for a starting place and Another thing that is required on the pet food label is how much to feed your pet? So you have to give feeding guidelines
Stephen (14:08.001)
Variants, yeah, yeah.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (14:37.558)
on pet food labels. So that's a great thing to know. Usually those are easier to find. It's a little bit bigger if you can find that. Now that is just a starting place though. So yes, absolutely your veterinarian can estimate how many calories they think your dog needs. We have equations to do that. So they can calculate that. But even that is going to be a starting place for you. It's really important to watch your body at your dog's body condition score, your cat's body condition score.
and adjust appropriately. Again, little bit different individual needs. You've got some dogs that are spayed or neutered. They usually require a lot less energy or calories than our spayed adults. So there's gonna be a lot of factors that go into that. But yes, it's always good to have a starting place and then monitor and adjust as needed.
Stephen (15:29.845)
So for our starting place, is to go to the particular, whatever food you've chosen to feed, go and look for the feeding recommendations on that particular food and start there. Okay? All right. What else should we be? So we've talked about calories, matching it to your pet, the feeding guidelines that are on the bag is a good place to start. Are there any other big thing, big ticket items that we should be looking for when it comes to reading the pet food label?
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (15:58.714)
Yes, and it goes back a little bit to that complete imbalance statement. So every product that you find has to have what's called a nutritional adequacy statement. So I know that's a mouthful, but they have to say if this is actually complete imbalance, because not all products are. So that's something to look for. Make sure that it says that yes, this food is complete imbalanced. And then the step two
is what life stage. So that instruction has to say is it balanced for, I know this sounds, it's kind of a weird term, maintenance, which means adults, so adult dogs. It can also be if you have a puppy, a growing dog or a kitten, so a still growing animal, you need to find one that says this is complete and balanced for growth, right? So that's two things. And if you have a large breed puppy, this is what
gets even more important. So there are special rules just for our large breed puppies. It needs to say including the growth of large breed dogs. And for afco, that means the adult weight of 70 pounds or greater.
Stephen (17:15.457)
All right, I'm going to step into it. I'm just going to do it because our dive right in. I mean, we have set the foundation. OK. There are. Many, many different food options out there for pet parents, and it seems that every famous person realizes, oh, this is a great market to get into, so they'll stick their name on another product are all pet food.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (17:18.024)
Okay
Stephen (17:43.753)
Are they all required to have this nutrition adequacy statement or just that those that are subscribing to recommendations from the American Academy of Veterinary Nutrition? Is there a law that pertains to pet food so that consumers know that these products have been researched, they're safe, and that they are by law required to back up the statements that are on the labels?
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (18:09.15)
Okay. A lot in there.
Stephen (18:09.941)
That was probably a lot of stuff in there. Yeah, so I don't know how to ask those more concise. So you just take it from there and we'll, yeah, I'll be quiet.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (18:18.066)
Yeah, absolutely. So the legality, the rules that you have to follow when it comes to pet food. Yes, they exist. There are laws and the organization that writes the guidelines is called AFCO. And so you if you're looking around and as actually they have a very good resource, I can never remember the name of the website. So I always Google AFCO for pet owners and it pops right up so you can find it and that's
happy to share that link so you can put it in your show notes. But Avco is the organization that creates the guidelines for how you label your products, what nutritional parameters you're aiming for. We talked about all those life stages. They're the ones that write all those guidelines. Now it gets a little, a little tricky because they aren't the ones to enforce those laws. They, they create the guidelines.
each state individually has to adopt the guidelines and enforce them. So if you think about it, yeah, all.
Stephen (19:22.381)
What? That does not sound efficient. That doesn't sound good. So who at the state, like what governing body in each state does that?
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (19:33.1)
Yep, so that's the FDA.
Stephen (19:34.793)
Okay. But everybody state that... Okay, I got you.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (19:36.482)
So each state official, the state official is going, so the federal level is gonna be your FDA. I know, please don't go to sleep on us. The FDA, and then each state has to be the one to enforce it. And they do, they can go to a store, take a product off the shelf and assess it. Everything from making sure that everything on the label is appropriate to actually taking a sample of that product and running nutritional.
evaluations on it. So that is something that they can do.
Stephen (20:10.237)
and that's to protect the consumers and the pets.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (20:13.659)
Exactly.
Stephen (20:14.797)
So some people might go, government's all in our business. Well, some of those things, you know, are there to give us confidence in what we're buying and using our money for. Protect, protect the consumer. Okay. All right, so we talked about calories. We talked about the feeding guidelines on the bag, the nutrition adequacy statement, anything else that our pet parents should, what about ingredients and, yeah, what about ingredients? Should we,
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (20:26.443)
Absolutely.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (20:42.482)
Yes. You are getting into it.
Stephen (20:43.989)
Yeah, I'm telling you I'm just stepping in it here. You're dancing around it still. I'm still trying to be
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (20:50.934)
No, it's a very great question because when you do ask people in general, and this is even in the veterinary community, what's one of the first things you go to look for on the bag? It's often the ingredients. And that is, it's a little tricky. Our life just as human beings and as pet owners, these companies, they're marketing to us, not our pets. The pets not reading the label. Sorry. They're marketing to us.
And so a lot of the pet food label is marketing and I'm fascinated by marketing. So I am not saying anything bad, but you do have to realize that, you know, the pretty pictures, the colors, some of the, even some of the words, this is the same thing for pet or for human foods, right? A lot of it is trying to convince us to buy the product. So, um, so people have used different strategies that fit within legal rules.
Stephen (21:47.818)
Mm-hmm.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (21:48.034)
to encourage us to buy products. And the ingredient deck, so you have to list out the ingredients in your product. That is a law that you have to follow on your label. And the way you have to list the ingredients are in order by weight of the ingredient. So the amount of the ingredient from most to least, but it's by weight before cooking.
So people have used these laws. Yes. So if you think about it, so if you think about a kibble and you are putting in, cause you'll hear a lot of this, oh, fresh meat first and you know, the first ingredient, real meat or something like that, right? If you see like just chicken as the first ingredient, well, first of all, that can mean a lot of different things, but chicken is often a lot of water content.
Stephen (22:18.093)
Okay. I did not know that.
Stephen (22:42.583)
Hehehe
Stephen (22:45.877)
Water, yeah.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (22:47.318)
So, but you're making a kibble that's gonna be about 10% water at the end, right? So it's a lot of water at the beginning, so it's heavy, water is heavy. So you can make that go up in the ingredient list. So this is why I don't feel that the ingredient deck is necessarily the most important thing to look at. Because there, yes, there are laws on how you have to list those things.
Stephen (23:11.344)
Okay.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (23:16.278)
But these companies, they know the laws or they work with people who do. And so they can say, well, we would really like this to be at the front of the ingredient deck because this is how we have convinced the pet owners to know how to look and make a decision to buy a product. So what we've talked about really is, in my opinion, some of the best things that you can look at is
Stephen (23:20.917)
Mm-hmm.
Stephen (23:25.949)
Yeah. Wow.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (23:44.274)
Make sure that the product is complete and balanced for your pet's life stage. Make sure you're working with
Stephen (23:50.437)
And are those words, are those words, do those mean something like by law? Does complete mean something? Does balanced mean something?
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (23:59.322)
Yes, so complete imbalance means that product has meets all of the nutritional requirements that Avco has outlined and a lot of that so you've got about 40 nutrients give or take that we are trying to fit into or meet those requirements and so most of them have minimums so we want to make sure we have at least this much of this nutrient.
Stephen (24:10.267)
Okay.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (24:28.454)
and we're fitting all of these nutrients into that. And then for the nutrients that also have maximums, then we're in that range, right? So the product has to meet all of those nutritional requirements. That research has shown this is what our pets need, just as basic.
Stephen (24:46.881)
Okay. I cut your train of thought off when you were talking about where to go instead of necessarily looking at the ingredients list, you were saying, look instead first to make sure it's complete and balanced, and then you were gonna say some more things.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (24:58.475)
Yes.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (25:01.91)
that you've worked with your veterinarian to make sure that you're looking at a good calorie range. Again, I am a nutritionist, so body condition score, I know how important that is. Hopefully, it's talked about even in human health, that being overweight has a lot of risk to developing other health concerns, very similar into pets. And we have a little bit more influence of that.
for our pets because we're the ones feeding them, whether it's a diet or treats or table scraps or all those things, which that could be a whole other podcast episode. So calories is going to be something that, again, working with your vet to kind of know where you're aiming because you can find calories ranging all sorts. So that's something to also look for. What do we say?
Stephen (25:38.418)
Mm-hmm.
Stephen (25:41.699)
Right?
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (26:00.782)
your pet meets your some calorie goals that you're working with your vet. And then, you know, just the bonus aspect of this, because there are so many diets, pets are unique, is do you have other concerns about your pet? You mentioned hair and coat, right? If you have a very long-haired pet, then maybe you want to look for a skin and coat formula.
So those are the things where it starts to get a little bit more detailed that you can kind of work with. And also just to let people know, because I think sometimes people even get very stressed about this decision is that sometimes this is a, it's a trial and error. I mean, I have tried several different diets on my dogs before to try to find the right one that makes it a little bit easier to keep their, their body weight at the right amount or that they.
Stephen (26:29.089)
Right.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (26:55.514)
you know, excitedly because I know some of that is for us because we want to see our pet get excited about what we're feeding them. And so some dogs are going to have some preferences. And so it can take, you know, a couple of tries to find the right one. I don't want anyone to feel badly about that. So I think that's also very important.
Stephen (27:15.881)
I think we have done a good job of laying the groundwork. We haven't offended anyone. No, we've been very diplomatic. Like I said, we do make recommendations. Our doctors and medical team do make recommendations here when appropriate, but when somebody's just like, this is what I'm feeding my pet, we don't be like, try to shame anybody or say anything. We just say, we just take that into consideration as we...
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (27:22.958)
I hope not.
Stephen (27:44.013)
plan and take care of their pets' health. This episode was not to tell you what to feed, but to tell you how to make sure that you're making the best informed decision, how to read a pet food label. And I learned some new information. Well, I learned, I didn't, I knew that, cause I've taught reading labels to my students in our animal science classes about the, you know, the first ingredient is the one that's the most in there, but I didn't know.
That it was pre-cooked. Pre-cooked, right. Because I think that factors more into dog and cat food than it did hog feed. Which is what I was teaching. But I mean, I'm sure it's still in there the same way, but at any rate. But then the biggest thing, and this is episode after episode after episode after episode, the big takeaway is consult your veterinarian for advice, counsel, direction and feedback.
consult your veterinarian. I'm biting my tongue. Yeah, so yeah, that's right. This is a veterinary podcast. So of course we're gonna say that, but our people have the training and the resources to help you make those decisions. So do that for sure. Dr. Sprinkle, was there something that we should have asked you for this episode that we did not?
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (29:04.414)
Like I said, I could talk about nutrition for a very long time. So, so I would love to hear what questions you get from your audience from this episode. I am very happy to come back and talk more about it and get even more specific on those questions. So I think this is a great place to start again, know that you're not alone on the, on the decision. It's okay. If you need to switch diets, you know, transition over time, that's one tip there. But, um, yeah.
Stephen (29:19.25)
Excellent.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (29:34.628)
There can be a lot that goes into this that you know people don't think about and so when you spend your career In this field you have been no a few tips So absolutely let people send in their questions and I'd be excited to see what they what they have to they want to know
Stephen (29:52.445)
Are there any resources online? A lot of our curious pet parents like me will get chasing rabbit trails at midnight or something. If they wanted to look for resources online, would you point them in any specific direction?
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (30:08.026)
Yes, the Avco for Consumers, that website, I think is one of the best. They've done very well in explaining it, and they are the people that make the guidelines. So you know, they've got to be right because they are the ones that make the guidelines. So I think they've actually done very well to provide some resources. So that's the place that I would start.
Stephen (30:18.365)
Okay. Good.
Stephen (30:27.253)
hit the M there on the, we can mark that. That's 30 minute, 30 second mark. The AI is listening to us. It's marking right now. All right, well that means that it is time in our show where we ask you as the expert, our guest, to bring a fun fact for our curious pet parents. This is something that's gonna help them win trivia night or at least impress their friends and family as they start the new year. So Dr. Sprinkle, what fun fact do you have for our curious pet parents?
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (30:56.342)
Well, it goes along with something that you mentioned before, and that was how all these celebrities and all sorts of people are interested in getting into the pet food industry or the pet industry in general. And so this number just came out December of 2023. In the year 2023, the pet food industry alone in the United States reached over $58 billion in sales.
Stephen (31:25.205)
Billion with a B.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (31:26.938)
B, yes, billion with a B. And
Stephen (31:28.865)
Billion. So I'm trying to think how much I contributed to that with Maverick's food.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (31:36.07)
Yes, so it's a huge industry. So it is definitely okay to ask questions and be curious and to look things up because it is a big industry. It's a big decision for pet owners. So I thought that might be an interesting fun fact for everyone.
Stephen (31:51.489)
That is a very interesting... $58 billion in pet food. Hey, at least they're feeding them. Oh, just in the United States. That's a lot of food. It's a lot of money being moved around. Well, we love our pets. I mean, that's what it boils down to is people are trying to make the best decision for their pets because they love them and they're part of the family. And that's why we have this podcast.
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (31:57.174)
Just in the United States.
Stephen (32:18.185)
And we hope that you've enjoyed this episode of the Family Pet Podcast that we are helping you. What did we say last time? Helping you help your pets, right? And help others. That's what I said. We're just helping pets. We're helping pets. Well, we hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Family Pet Podcast. Dr. Sprinkle, how can people find you? I know that you have your own podcast for veterinary industry. So if any of our listeners are interested in learning more about veterinary careers, what's...
How can they find out more about you?
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (32:49.094)
Yes. So I started Vet Life Reimagined. It's a podcast and a YouTube channel. So whether you like to watch or you like to listen, you can find it. We bring on different people to tell their stories of their career path in veterinary medicine. So if you are interested in dolphin doctors, we've got them. We've got all sorts of careers. Veterinarians are everywhere. And so we talk about career paths, but also just things that people have learned being in the
Megan Sprinkle, DVM (33:19.608)
episode that we talk about what's going on in the industry and also just to inspire our colleagues. So it's one of my favorite things I do and so absolutely if you want to listen in a little bit to the veterinary industry and hear about career journeys you can find me at VetLife Reimagined.
Stephen (33:36.413)
Excellent. We will be sure to link that in the show notes. And if you ever need, you know, the husband of the vet as a guest, let me know. I'd be happy to do that. All right, listeners, we hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Family Pet Podcast. And until next time, stay curious.
Stephen (33:56.829)
All right, excellent.