Oh Behave!

Mary Helen Horn is a leader in the pet food industry and serves as President & Executive Director at ZIWI® a leading brand in pet nutrition worldwide. With two decades of industry experience, she is dedicated to educating pet owners about the vital role of nutrition in maintaining pet health. Mary Helen is a staunch advocate for preventative nutrition, stressing the crucial link between diet and pet wellness. Under her leadership, ZIWI has prioritized consumer education and spearheaded innovations to propel the pet nutrition industry forward.

ZIWI® is the global leader and innovator of air-dried pet nutrition, with a mission of providing joy and peace of mind to pets and their guardians. They proudly craft air-dried and canned recipes for dogs and cats, as well as treats and chews for dogs - made and sourced in their home of New Zealand. Their award-winning air-dried recipes combine the nutrition found in raw diets with ready-to-serve convenience through ZIWI’s own proprietary Z-TWINTECH® air-drying process and their newest technology, Z-Microsteam™. ZIWI’s recipes are ethically and sustainably sourced from New Zealand farmers and fishermen who believe in being kaitiaki (guardians of the land and sea), focusing on the well-being and welfare of animals and sustainable farming for generations to come.

Transcript:

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Announcer: This is Pet Life Radio.

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Announcer: Let's talk pets.

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Announcer: It's Oh Behave with Arden Moore.

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Announcer: This show that teaches you how to have harmony in the household with your pets.

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Announcer: Join Arden as she travels coast to coast to help millions better understand why cats and dogs do what they do.

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Announcer: Get the latest scoop on famous faces.

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Announcer: They're perfectly pampered pets in Who's Walking Who in Rin Tin Tinseltown.

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Announcer: From famous pet experts and best selling authors to television and movie stars, you'll get the latest buzz from Wagging Tongues and Tails, garner great pet tips, and have a doggone fur flying fun time.

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Announcer: So get ready for the pause and applause as we unleash your Oh Behave host, America's Pet Edutainer, Arden Moore.

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Arden Moore: Welcome to the Oh Behave show on Pet Life Radio.

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Arden Moore: I'm your host, Arden Moore.

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Arden Moore: Hey, you got a fat cat, you got a finicky cat?

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Arden Moore: Do you wonder if the food you're dishing up is bringing out the healthy best in your feline friend?

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Arden Moore: Well, guess what?

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Arden Moore: You're in luck.

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Arden Moore: Our guest today knows her way around pet nutrition.

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Arden Moore: She's the president of Ziwi, Z-I-W-I, and she's a major pet advocate.

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Arden Moore: Please welcome to our show, Mary Helen Horn.

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Arden Moore: Welcome, welcome, Mary.

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Arden Moore: Yes.

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Mary Helen Horn: Well, thank you for the warm welcome.

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Mary Helen Horn: And hopefully like everyone else, you know, you're here to talk about our beloved pets that we love.

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Mary Helen Horn: I've been in pet a while.

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Mary Helen Horn: I'm not sure I've been in it longer than you.

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Mary Helen Horn: But 2003 was my very first opening to learning that what we feed our pets actually matters for their health.

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Mary Helen Horn: And there are a whole lot of options out there and it's a really overwhelming place to navigate as a pet parent.

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Mary Helen Horn: But most importantly, there's options and these options can like really transform the lives of your pet.

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Mary Helen Horn: So it's really exciting to talk about it.

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Arden Moore: I might be a little bit before you, but that's okay.

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Arden Moore: What were you doing before 2003?

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Arden Moore: Were you the number one washer and dryer salesperson?

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Arden Moore: Did you create a new coffee?

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Arden Moore: What were you doing?

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Mary Helen Horn: I wasn't doing much.

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Mary Helen Horn: I was freshly graduated from college.

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Arden Moore: Tell them, go ahead, brag about your college.

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Mary Helen Horn: I went to the University of Texas.

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Mary Helen Horn: I was going to go in to sales, grew up passionate about pets.

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Mary Helen Horn: I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian.

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Mary Helen Horn: Lots of people do.

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Mary Helen Horn: Decided that was a hard route for me emotionally.

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Mary Helen Horn: Maybe I didn't want to go to that much school, combination of those things.

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Mary Helen Horn: Knew I wanted to be in sales, and then a pet company found me and I was like, well, this is the dream.

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Mary Helen Horn: I love dogs, I love cats, I love animals.

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Mary Helen Horn: I never even thought about having a career in pet food, and it's treated me really well.

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Mary Helen Horn: Here we find ourselves in 2024, and it's just exciting to see how the industry grows and changes.

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Mary Helen Horn: Most important, what I would say is getting back to the way cats should be eating anyway.

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Arden Moore: Well, let's dive into that because for many years, I wrote the nutrition column for Catster and Dogster Magazine.

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Arden Moore: I work with a lot of veterinary nutritionists, and there's always more questions and answers.

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Arden Moore: But the bottom line, let's just start basic.

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Arden Moore: Food is fuel, and cats are carnivores, so can you help us?

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Arden Moore: They're not us.

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Arden Moore: They don't really want to have this, sit around the dining room table and say pass the peas.

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Arden Moore: Cats are more solitary.

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Arden Moore: They want to eat their own food in their own bowl without a lot of chit chat.

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Arden Moore: Would you agree?

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Arden Moore: Yeah.

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Mary Helen Horn: They're also natural hunters.

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Arden Moore: There you go.

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Mary Helen Horn: And you know, you talk a lot about what it's a cat need.

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Mary Helen Horn: Well, cat's an obligate carnivore, which means it has to have meat and it has to have fat.

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Mary Helen Horn: And that's really what its body can digest.

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Mary Helen Horn: So anytime you're feeding our feline friends, anything that's not meat, animal protein, and not fat from animal protein, it's really, really hard for them to digest and their bodies kind of don't know what to do with it.

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Mary Helen Horn: And it leads to all kinds of tummy challenges and other issues.

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Mary Helen Horn: And so sometimes what happens is a pet food company or brands may try to work around that.

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Mary Helen Horn: They may say, okay, well, animal protein is expensive and carbohydrates don't cost a lot.

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Mary Helen Horn: And so they may put other ingredients in, like the magical word peas or carbohydrates or things like that.

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Mary Helen Horn: And it's always just a trade off because you're putting these ingredients in the food that your cat doesn't really want to eat and then your cat is actually made to digest them because their body cannot digest carbohydrates and they can't make certain essential amino acids like chlorine, really, really critical.

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Arden Moore: I know your company has a good rep, Ziwi, and you travel away from the United States to make these foods.

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Arden Moore: Tell us a little bit the backstory of Ziwi, which is cool.

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Arden Moore: I've never been to that country.

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Arden Moore: It's on my bucket list.

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Mary Helen Horn: New Zealand should be on everyone's bucket list because it's spectacular.

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Mary Helen Horn: We do say though, if you live in New Zealand and you have a cat, try to keep them inside because it is the country of birds and a lot of their birds are endangered.

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Mary Helen Horn: So would you like to protect those there?

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Mary Helen Horn: But we come from the home of New Zealand and what's great is our founders said, you know, hey, we've got cats, we've got dogs, we are interested in feeding raw food, but it might not be for our lifestyle.

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Mary Helen Horn: You know, we're a little bit more into convenience, we're a little bit more into scoop and serve, but safety is important to us.

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Mary Helen Horn: We want it to feel safe, we want it to feel good about keeping it in our household.

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Mary Helen Horn: And that's kind of how we started creating a pet food.

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Mary Helen Horn: But the gift of New Zealand is that so far removed, I mean, like it's just literally almost as far away as you can go, but it doesn't have 365 animal diseases.

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Mary Helen Horn: So you pretty much have free range animals living year round there.

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Arden Moore: Which is healthy for the cat and dog foods, right?

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Mary Helen Horn: Yeah.

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Mary Helen Horn: And so it just makes it happy and healthy.

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Mary Helen Horn: And it's also quite a temperate climate.

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Mary Helen Horn: And I always call it like the weather of San Diego and that.

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Arden Moore: I used to live there.

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Arden Moore: Yeah.

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Mary Helen Horn: It's a beautiful place.

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Mary Helen Horn: And I mean, not only is it just beautiful countryside and they film like Lord of the Rings there and do all these like amazing things there.

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Arden Moore: A cat should be in Lord of the Rings.

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Arden Moore: I mean, come on.

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Arden Moore: Really?

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Mary Helen Horn: A cat should be probably everywhere, you know, which we don't disagree with at all.

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Mary Helen Horn: And most importantly, you know, they should be healthy enough to have the energy to want to go do all that fun stuff and live their great lives.

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Arden Moore: Well, you mentioned a temperate climate.

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Arden Moore: There's not a lot of chemicals around, but your company is also serving people in the United States.

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Arden Moore: So there's a lot of transportation nightmares, I guess.

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Arden Moore: But you're committed to making sure the food is coming from there, right?

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Arden Moore: Yeah.

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Mary Helen Horn: Well, we're committed to making sure food comes from there.

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Mary Helen Horn: And we make it in all of our own facilities.

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Mary Helen Horn: And that's really for us to have full control, like kind of like farms of all in that whole piece of the universe.

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Mary Helen Horn: And also you just can't beat the quality from New Zealand.

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Mary Helen Horn: So when we're saying, okay, hey, put high meat in the food, our cat foods are anywhere from like 85 to 96 percent meat.

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Mary Helen Horn: I mean, when you're saying meat, there is meat in that food.

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Mary Helen Horn: And as you would know, being around so long.

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Mary Helen Horn: I've got that all.

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Mary Helen Horn: I'm in pet, right?

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Mary Helen Horn: You've been in pet, you've been talking about pet for a long time.

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Mary Helen Horn: You only have to be 3 percent meat to be a cat food, right?

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Mary Helen Horn: So which is crazy.

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Arden Moore: Yeah.

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Arden Moore: So you're up in the 80s as a percentage.

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Arden Moore: And when I teach behavior classes and I teach pet for state classes, you know, I always say when we get to the food section, because we're trying to make sure portion control, making the meal time safe and not a fight and all that.

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Arden Moore: But reading the label.

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Arden Moore: So can you give us a few tips on how to read a cat label to make sure you're really doing a good job of getting a high protein source for your kitty cat?

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Arden Moore: Yeah.

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Mary Helen Horn: So if it was me reading the label, I always say the first eight ingredients matter the most.

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Arden Moore: Okay.

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Mary Helen Horn: There's rules of thumb somewhere that say somewhere between the first five and eight ingredients make up 80% of the weight of the food.

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Mary Helen Horn: So if it was me, I'd say just look at that first line or maybe the first line and second line of the ingredient deck.

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Mary Helen Horn: And what I'd be looking for is meat, right?

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Mary Helen Horn: So does it say chicken and does it say chicken liver and does it say chicken hearts or different organs or different parts of the animal, right?

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Mary Helen Horn: What you would maybe want to not look for in that deck is things that mimic protein or where protein can come from that's not meat.

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Arden Moore: Give me an example.

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Mary Helen Horn: Potatoes.

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Arden Moore: Potatoes.

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Mary Helen Horn: Potatoes could be one.

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Mary Helen Horn: Keys could be a form of protein in there.

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Mary Helen Horn: And other grains could be forms of protein in there.

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Arden Moore: Ah, but cats are the meat, meat, meat species.

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Mary Helen Horn: Yeah, they crave meat.

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Mary Helen Horn: You know, I would say they don't have thumbs.

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Mary Helen Horn: They can't light lighters.

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Mary Helen Horn: They're not cooking their food.

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Arden Moore: I know some cats that know how to get into cabinets, though.

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Arden Moore: They're pretty...

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Mary Helen Horn: This is true.

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Mary Helen Horn: And they're always looking for live prey.

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Mary Helen Horn: They like their live prey.

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Mary Helen Horn: And it's also the issue why they have so many hydration issues is because they haven't of all the pots, getting their hydration from their food that they eat in the wild, just from their meat source.

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Arden Moore: So I understand you have a kitty cat named George that lives at your home.

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Arden Moore: What's George like and what's his eating habits?

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Mary Helen Horn: We are lucky because George is an adopted male cat and he did pretty well transitioning the food.

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Mary Helen Horn: Sometimes you don't know what they were eating before.

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Mary Helen Horn: George likes a variety of different things to eat, which is really nice.

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Arden Moore: Does he even know who he's living with?

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Arden Moore: Does he realize he hit the kitty lotto?

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Mary Helen Horn: He might not even know he's a cat because he'll eat treats and eat out of your hand.

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Mary Helen Horn: He's a very, very, very easy to feed, which is quite nice.

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Mary Helen Horn: Before we had George, we had a lovely cat named Lily and she was great.

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Mary Helen Horn: A little bit different.

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Mary Helen Horn: Lily did not eat out of your hand.

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Mary Helen Horn: No way.

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Mary Helen Horn: Lily didn't like treats.

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Mary Helen Horn: She liked to play with toys.

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Mary Helen Horn: Lily constantly changed her mind on what she may or may not want to eat.

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Mary Helen Horn: You've got a finicky eater.

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Mary Helen Horn: It had quite a bit of stool consistency issues and constipation issues.

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Mary Helen Horn: She was one where we were chasing our universe.

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Mary Helen Horn: It had some overweight issues as well.

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Mary Helen Horn: Lily was a bit of more of an example where it took a lot longer to transition her to a food that we wanted her to eat.

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Mary Helen Horn: Sometimes they can find something really palatable, but it might not be like it might be iCarbs or sugars or palatins.

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Mary Helen Horn: So she was a little bit more of a journey for us to get there.

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Mary Helen Horn: We got lucky with George because he just came in right away and said, I like food with a lot of meat.

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Mary Helen Horn: We're good folks.

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Mary Helen Horn: We're good, you know.

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Arden Moore: Well, yeah, before we take a break, the thing is we don't want a fat cat and we don't want our cat waddling looking like a furry Ottoman.

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Arden Moore: How dangerous is obesity in cats?

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Mary Helen Horn: Well, I think they say 60-63 percent of cats are obese and overweight, so it would be a true epidemic.

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Mary Helen Horn: You're not going to walk the cat likely.

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Mary Helen Horn: It's not that easy to get your cat to exercise.

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Mary Helen Horn: If your cat's not playful, it's not going to be playful.

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Mary Helen Horn: Obesity can lead to lots of things, right?

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Mary Helen Horn: It can lead to diabetes for our cat.

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Mary Helen Horn: It can lead to lots of other glucose challenges for them and other health issues.

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Mary Helen Horn: I think one of the number one ways you can help your cat maintain a healthy weight is to feed them high meat diets and low in carbohydrates.

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Mary Helen Horn: It's like the number one thing to do because oftentimes, you can easily go out there and find a cat food that says, hey, I'm a diet cat food or I'm going to help your cat lose weight.

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Mary Helen Horn: But just turn around, read those first ingredients and say, are those first ingredients meat?

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Mary Helen Horn: I think that's what you should ask yourself when you're saying, will it really help change the weights around their belly?

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Arden Moore: Hey, everyone.

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Arden Moore: We're speaking with Mary Helen Horn.

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Arden Moore: She's the big cheese, the top cat at Ziwi and she knows a thing or two about pet nutrition and she's dedicated her life to that.

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Arden Moore: We're going to dive in a little bit more about what we can do at the food bowl.

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Arden Moore: After we take this break, you all know what to do.

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Arden Moore: You got to sit, her, we'll be right back.

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Announcer: Time for a paws.

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Announcer: For furry ones actually, sit and stay.

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Announcer: Oh Behave, we'll be right back.

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Arden Moore: Paws up, Pet Pals.

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Arden Moore: Arden Moore here, your host of the Oh Behave Show.

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Arden Moore: Me-

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Arden Moore: Wow.

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Arden Moore: Did you know there's up to 100 million free roaming cats in the United States?

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Arden Moore: Without spay or neuter, that number is only going to keep growing.

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Arden Moore: Not only does spay, neuter, humanely reduce the community cat population, it keeps cats healthy.

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Arden Moore: Scooter, the neuter cat, is on a mission to give cats an extra life by making it hip to be snipped.

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Arden Moore: Hey, check them out.

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Arden Moore: Go to GiveThemTen.org.

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Arden Moore: That's give them T-E-N dot org, and help us make this a better world for cats.

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Announcer: Let's Talk Pets.

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Announcer: Let's Talk Pets.

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Announcer: On Pet Life Radio.

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Announcer: Pet Life Radio.

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Announcer: petliferadio.com.

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Jim Davis: Hi, this is Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield, urging you to listen to the Oh Behave Show with Arden Moore on Pet Life Radio.

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Garfield: Oh yeah?

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Garfield: We'll see about that.

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Announcer: Oh Behave is back with more tail wagging ways to achieve harmony of a household with your pets.

00:13:38.260 --> 00:13:43.340
Announcer: Now, back to your fetching host, America's Pet Edutainer, Arden Moore.

00:13:43.340 --> 00:13:45.940
Arden Moore: Welcome back to the Oh Behave Show on Pet Life Radio.

00:13:45.940 --> 00:13:47.380
Arden Moore: I'm your host, Arden Moore.

00:13:47.380 --> 00:13:48.360
Arden Moore: I love this gal.

00:13:48.360 --> 00:13:54.840
Arden Moore: She is a crusader for cats and dogs, and she is focusing on the food, the food bowl.

00:13:54.840 --> 00:13:59.280
Arden Moore: And we talked a little bit about the importance because cats are obligate carnivores.

00:13:59.280 --> 00:14:01.360
Arden Moore: They really need the protein and the meat.

00:14:01.360 --> 00:14:04.960
Arden Moore: Reading the label, and we talked a little bit about the obesity.

00:14:05.640 --> 00:14:12.540
Arden Moore: So, I'm not really good at this, but portion control tips, I'm trying to practice on myself.

00:14:12.540 --> 00:14:16.000
Arden Moore: But what's the value of portion control?

00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:18.240
Arden Moore: And you got some tips to share, Mary?

00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:22.280
Mary Helen Horn: I feel like with our cats, it's really important, and probably with ourselves too.

00:14:22.280 --> 00:14:25.820
Mary Helen Horn: But you know, I can be like, Oh, my jeans are tight today.

00:14:25.820 --> 00:14:27.900
Mary Helen Horn: You know, I'm going to change a little bit.

00:14:27.900 --> 00:14:29.600
Mary Helen Horn: You know, I don't feel good when I wake up.

00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:30.700
Mary Helen Horn: I modify.

00:14:30.700 --> 00:14:33.620
Mary Helen Horn: You know, our cats don't get to make that modification, right?

00:14:33.680 --> 00:14:35.400
Mary Helen Horn: They're not telling us all those cues.

00:14:35.400 --> 00:14:40.420
Mary Helen Horn: And most of the time, they're eating the same thing twice a day or at different intervals.

00:14:40.420 --> 00:14:49.760
Mary Helen Horn: So I would say if it was me and I was trying to help portion control my cat, I would say, you know, feeding it set times of the day.

00:14:49.760 --> 00:14:56.100
Arden Moore: And I swear, Mary, some cats, I swear, have invisible watches.

00:14:56.100 --> 00:15:02.640
Arden Moore: So if you wake up at 7 and you immediately feed your cat, they're going to make sure they wake you up at 645.

00:15:02.980 --> 00:15:03.680
Mary Helen Horn: And they're going to learn.

00:15:03.680 --> 00:15:05.540
Mary Helen Horn: And they don't care if it's Saturday or Sunday.

00:15:05.540 --> 00:15:06.800
Mary Helen Horn: Yeah, that's right.

00:15:06.800 --> 00:15:07.820
Mary Helen Horn: Sorry, Mom, I don't care.

00:15:07.820 --> 00:15:08.940
Mary Helen Horn: I don't care if it's raining either.

00:15:08.940 --> 00:15:11.900
Mary Helen Horn: Like I have, I don't care, but it's food time.

00:15:11.900 --> 00:15:16.360
Mary Helen Horn: But that's actually a really, really good way to help get your cats in a better spot.

00:15:16.360 --> 00:15:25.920
Mary Helen Horn: Because if your cat is struggling with weight, a free feeder or feeding too often or having too much accessibility to food would be a big challenge for them.

00:15:25.920 --> 00:15:28.520
Mary Helen Horn: There are some, maybe you can regulate, but not many.

00:15:28.520 --> 00:15:30.780
Arden Moore: I have a very smart orange tabby named Casey.

00:15:31.140 --> 00:15:33.960
Arden Moore: And we teach Pet First Aid with my dog Kona.

00:15:33.960 --> 00:15:40.080
Arden Moore: And we went to, it's like a house-like setting to teach a group of pet sitters Pet First Aid.

00:15:40.080 --> 00:15:48.860
Arden Moore: And they had sequestered all the cats that were in that house, office, to out of the way, but they left the portion control food out there.

00:15:48.860 --> 00:15:50.760
Arden Moore: And they said it was all turned off.

00:15:50.760 --> 00:15:54.100
Arden Moore: My cat Casey figured out how to get into the food.

00:15:54.100 --> 00:15:55.260
Mary Helen Horn: Well, they're pretty smart.

00:15:55.260 --> 00:15:58.540
Arden Moore: Yeah, they're like feline food Houdini's, right?

00:15:58.540 --> 00:15:59.640
Mary Helen Horn: Especially if it smells good.

00:15:59.640 --> 00:16:00.080
Mary Helen Horn: They like it.

00:16:00.380 --> 00:16:01.560
Mary Helen Horn: You know, they're really into it.

00:16:01.560 --> 00:16:03.500
Arden Moore: So portion control is good.

00:16:03.500 --> 00:16:04.480
Arden Moore: Yeah, I agree with you.

00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:08.520
Arden Moore: The feeding bowls, they sound like we're being lazy a little bit.

00:16:08.520 --> 00:16:11.320
Arden Moore: You know, I always measure my food.

00:16:11.320 --> 00:16:16.340
Mary Helen Horn: I think that would be a second thing I would say, is measure your food and follow the feeding guides.

00:16:16.340 --> 00:16:23.860
Mary Helen Horn: And I would say, if you're looking for your cat to be a healthy weight, you should feed them at the way you want them to be.

00:16:23.860 --> 00:16:32.460
Mary Helen Horn: So if your cat is 16 pounds and you want your cat to be, let's say, 13 pounds, you should feed them the amount for a 13 pound cat.

00:16:32.460 --> 00:16:39.580
Mary Helen Horn: Like that is almost the number one way to help get them there, is to feed them at the way that you want to be and measure it.

00:16:39.580 --> 00:16:46.360
Mary Helen Horn: It can sound a little bit over the top for feeding our cats, but it would be like the key way to do that.

00:16:46.360 --> 00:16:47.880
Mary Helen Horn: And then read the ingredient deck.

00:16:47.880 --> 00:16:49.060
Mary Helen Horn: I mean, that's really your key.

00:16:49.060 --> 00:16:56.700
Mary Helen Horn: And then the other thing I would say is if you do have a cat that you treat or you reward, those calories do add up too.

00:16:56.700 --> 00:17:02.940
Arden Moore: So what percentage roughly would you think would be treats versus canned or kibble to help them keep better weight?

00:17:02.940 --> 00:17:09.920
Mary Helen Horn: If I was, for me, I think having a cat that has a variety in their diet is a good thing, right?

00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:10.840
Mary Helen Horn: Good, yeah.

00:17:10.840 --> 00:17:19.460
Mary Helen Horn: I think a dry base is not a bad idea, and a wet topper is always something that you can do to add that hydration to.

00:17:19.460 --> 00:17:31.520
Mary Helen Horn: So if it was me, I'd be picking a base that's got high protein, low carbohydrate, so I'm feeling pretty good about that, using a can or a hydrator to help entice them to want to eat it.

00:17:31.520 --> 00:17:32.140
Arden Moore: Oh, okay.

00:17:32.140 --> 00:17:41.220
Mary Helen Horn: That around, try different things on it, and then treats for me would be lower calorie, smaller things that are special.

00:17:41.220 --> 00:17:48.320
Arden Moore: Sometimes they don't know it, but I've sneaked out a few pieces of kibble and use that as a treat, but it's still part of their daily portion.

00:17:48.320 --> 00:17:51.580
Mary Helen Horn: If you have a food that's palatable enough, that can happen.

00:17:51.960 --> 00:17:56.000
Mary Helen Horn: There is no doubt about it, that more so in dogs than in cats.

00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:06.480
Mary Helen Horn: But if you find something that's incredibly palatable, the dream is that you're actually feeding and treating with the same thing, and you can actually control your calories way easier that way.

00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:12.180
Arden Moore: So where do you see the pet food industry five years from now, 10 years?

00:18:12.180 --> 00:18:20.380
Arden Moore: Where are some good things, good news that you can share that we're trying to head toward as far as nutrition for cats and dogs?

00:18:20.840 --> 00:18:21.480
Mary Helen Horn: Yeah.

00:18:21.500 --> 00:18:37.300
Mary Helen Horn: I think one of the most exciting things that's going to be happening, besides the humanization of pets and that we treat them like family members, we'll set that aside, is one, they are looking to bring on carbohydrates onto our labels.

00:18:37.300 --> 00:18:41.160
Mary Helen Horn: So when we talk about our label, like it's your GA on your bag of food.

00:18:41.160 --> 00:18:48.300
Mary Helen Horn: In human food, we look at our GAs and it gives us all kinds of stuff, fat, protein, carbohydrates, fiber.

00:18:48.980 --> 00:18:54.000
Mary Helen Horn: Well, in pet food, you actually do not list carbohydrates.

00:18:54.000 --> 00:19:02.740
Mary Helen Horn: So you actually cannot easily find the percent carbohydrates on the package, which is an old school way of doing things.

00:19:02.740 --> 00:19:08.200
Mary Helen Horn: So I am most looking forward to carbohydrates being required on the GA panel.

00:19:08.200 --> 00:19:12.580
Mary Helen Horn: To me, it's a game changer for the pet industry.

00:19:12.580 --> 00:19:22.880
Mary Helen Horn: And then there is also a lot of work going on in pet to kind of change the way pet food is deregulated in the way we market or advertise our food.

00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:33.240
Mary Helen Horn: And so if some of those would kind of come to fruition, it would be a lot easier for a pet parent to navigate because all brands tell you how much meat is in their food.

00:19:33.240 --> 00:19:36.700
Mary Helen Horn: All brands tell you how much carbohydrates in their food.

00:19:36.700 --> 00:19:40.120
Mary Helen Horn: So to me, I think advancements in labeling.

00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:43.160
Arden Moore: Yeah, because some can be marketing, you know.

00:19:43.160 --> 00:19:49.840
Mary Helen Horn: It's a huge unlock for a pet parent to figure out like, hey, I know my cat's an obligate carnivore.

00:19:49.840 --> 00:19:50.960
Mary Helen Horn: Okay, they need meat.

00:19:50.960 --> 00:19:51.980
Mary Helen Horn: How do I bind it?

00:19:51.980 --> 00:19:55.400
Mary Helen Horn: You know, because everybody's telling me this is made for cats.

00:19:55.400 --> 00:19:58.260
Arden Moore: Well, you do have some good information on the Ziwi site, right?

00:19:58.260 --> 00:20:00.660
Arden Moore: You do give some guidance to pet parents.

00:20:00.660 --> 00:20:01.140
Mary Helen Horn: Yep.

00:20:01.140 --> 00:20:04.000
Mary Helen Horn: And we're always trying to find easier ways to feed cats.

00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:06.560
Mary Helen Horn: You know, they're finicky and a bit more particular.

00:20:06.560 --> 00:20:11.500
Mary Helen Horn: You know, we have a product that's called SteamDried, and I would say for us, it's like optimized for cats.

00:20:11.500 --> 00:20:13.160
Arden Moore: What does that mean, SteamDried?

00:20:13.160 --> 00:20:21.760
Mary Helen Horn: So what that means is we take raw meat and ingredients, and for us, it's between 85 and 90 percent raw meat and organs.

00:20:21.760 --> 00:20:27.240
Mary Helen Horn: So the first eight ingredients and sometimes the first 12 ingredients are meat in these recipes.

00:20:27.240 --> 00:20:27.560
Arden Moore: Wow.

00:20:27.560 --> 00:20:29.140
Arden Moore: I want to come back as a cat.

00:20:29.140 --> 00:20:29.440
Mary Helen Horn: Yeah.

00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:37.640
Mary Helen Horn: So we mix them together and then we run it through a short steam and what the steam actually does is it kind of like hydrates and aerates the food.

00:20:37.960 --> 00:20:41.940
Mary Helen Horn: So sometimes you have a hard time getting high meat into a kibble.

00:20:41.940 --> 00:20:43.540
Mary Helen Horn: Like it's almost impossible to do.

00:20:43.540 --> 00:20:46.520
Mary Helen Horn: You can only go lunch meat in a piece of kibble, right?

00:20:46.520 --> 00:20:53.280
Mary Helen Horn: So this allows this high meat food to kind of aerate and it creates this like light crisp texture for a cat.

00:20:53.280 --> 00:20:54.960
Mary Helen Horn: So I'd say it's like an optimized.

00:20:54.960 --> 00:20:55.460
Arden Moore: Oh yeah.

00:20:55.460 --> 00:20:56.740
Mary Helen Horn: They like the cat seat.

00:20:56.740 --> 00:20:58.440
Mary Helen Horn: They eat off texture.

00:20:58.440 --> 00:21:00.900
Mary Helen Horn: You know, it's a number one driver for them.

00:21:00.900 --> 00:21:05.700
Mary Helen Horn: And then it goes through an air dryer, which is how we've always made most of our product.

00:21:05.700 --> 00:21:05.920
Arden Moore: Yeah.

00:21:05.920 --> 00:21:07.240
Arden Moore: I saw that on your site.

00:21:07.560 --> 00:21:08.400
Arden Moore: I like that.

00:21:08.740 --> 00:21:09.980
Mary Helen Horn: It's slow and gentle.

00:21:09.980 --> 00:21:13.320
Mary Helen Horn: And it's like, I would say, it's like how you cook your food at home, right?

00:21:13.320 --> 00:21:15.760
Mary Helen Horn: You could microwave your food and irradiate it.

00:21:15.760 --> 00:21:18.960
Mary Helen Horn: You could cook it at high temperature and fast in an oven.

00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:19.880
Mary Helen Horn: You could steam it.

00:21:19.880 --> 00:21:21.780
Mary Helen Horn: You have lots of choices, right?

00:21:21.780 --> 00:21:29.580
Mary Helen Horn: So it's a way of processing the food with the, as least nutrient degradation as possible.

00:21:29.580 --> 00:21:30.800
Arden Moore: I like that phrase, women.

00:21:30.800 --> 00:21:31.460
Arden Moore: That's awesome.

00:21:31.760 --> 00:21:33.740
Arden Moore: Nutrition Degradation.

00:21:33.740 --> 00:21:34.400
Mary Helen Horn: Degradation.

00:21:34.400 --> 00:21:36.080
Arden Moore: I'm going to get a t-shirt that says that.

00:21:36.080 --> 00:21:36.660
Arden Moore: But you're right.

00:21:36.660 --> 00:21:38.300
Arden Moore: You don't want to zap out the good.

00:21:38.300 --> 00:21:39.880
Mary Helen Horn: You don't want to irradiate it in the microwave.

00:21:39.880 --> 00:21:45.760
Mary Helen Horn: I mean, listen, I use a microwave personally, but I also don't eat microwave food all day every day.

00:21:45.760 --> 00:21:46.460
Mary Helen Horn: It's not the only thing.

00:21:46.500 --> 00:21:47.900
Mary Helen Horn: That's right.

00:21:47.900 --> 00:21:49.980
Mary Helen Horn: That's the difference with these cats.

00:21:49.980 --> 00:21:52.460
Mary Helen Horn: They generally eat pretty similar stuff.

00:21:52.460 --> 00:21:57.100
Arden Moore: Well, I think you have that whatever it's called, the twin tech air all drying process.

00:21:57.100 --> 00:21:58.200
Arden Moore: Did I do my homework?

00:21:58.200 --> 00:21:58.380
Mary Helen Horn: Yeah.

00:21:58.380 --> 00:22:00.720
Mary Helen Horn: The twin tech air drying.

00:22:01.060 --> 00:22:02.680
Mary Helen Horn: It's a complex word for it.

00:22:03.020 --> 00:22:04.920
Mary Helen Horn: It really means we have two stages.

00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:19.860
Mary Helen Horn: One removes pathogenic bacteria for safe feeding, and the other one helps get it to a moisture level, where it would be safe to package and feed, and it would never grow mold, or it has a long shelf life.

00:22:19.860 --> 00:22:27.300
Mary Helen Horn: But air-dried and steam-dried, which is fascinating, has a fairly high moisture in it for dry food.

00:22:27.300 --> 00:22:31.700
Mary Helen Horn: A kibble would probably max out at seven, and our products are more like 13 and 14%.

00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:43.460
Mary Helen Horn: So there's nothing like a pan hydrator, which we talked about, you could put a Ziwi can on top, or just milk, there's all types of things that you're hydrating with, which are great.

00:22:43.460 --> 00:22:49.400
Mary Helen Horn: But it's higher moisture than a dry food, but obviously not all the way there.

00:22:49.400 --> 00:22:54.500
Mary Helen Horn: And that's part of what that process does, by not overcooking or removing nutrients.

00:22:54.580 --> 00:22:57.900
Mary Helen Horn: And why, sorry, would you thought such good ingredients and then take all the good stuff out of it?

00:22:57.900 --> 00:22:58.700
Arden Moore: Yeah, exactly.

00:22:58.700 --> 00:23:00.200
Arden Moore: You guys know what you're doing.

00:23:00.200 --> 00:23:08.540
Arden Moore: Hey, before we let you go, what's something you really, really love about cats or wish a superpower cats have that you wish you had?

00:23:08.540 --> 00:23:13.460
Mary Helen Horn: I wish, well, 12 lives would be great, nine lives, or nine lives, I wish I had nine lives.

00:23:13.500 --> 00:23:18.060
Mary Helen Horn: I think cats, what would I say about it?

00:23:18.060 --> 00:23:23.340
Mary Helen Horn: I think it's super cool that they can fall from any position and land on their feet, but I don't even know that that's the coolest thing.

00:23:23.780 --> 00:23:35.820
Mary Helen Horn: Probably that they're all different personalities, and they're just truly themselves, like where a dog more will adapt to its parent, its family, your cat is just a cat.

00:23:35.820 --> 00:23:38.480
Mary Helen Horn: They're just like, they're like, you live with me now.

00:23:38.480 --> 00:23:39.720
Mary Helen Horn: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:46.220
Mary Helen Horn: I'm dictating the universe, but the fact that they can fall from anywhere and their spine so flexible and they land on their feet, that's pretty cool.

00:23:46.220 --> 00:23:48.820
Arden Moore: Well, I have thoroughly enjoyed having you on our show.

00:23:48.820 --> 00:23:50.820
Arden Moore: We're talking with Mary Helen Horn.

00:23:51.320 --> 00:24:03.660
Arden Moore: She is the president at Ziwi, Z-I-W-I, and she's really on a mission to have good food and good portions and good proteins, so we don't have a bunch of Garfields running around, right?

00:24:03.660 --> 00:24:04.880
Mary Helen Horn: I do not disagree.

00:24:04.880 --> 00:24:06.260
Mary Helen Horn: I really appreciate the time.

00:24:06.260 --> 00:24:12.420
Mary Helen Horn: Thanks for having me and congratulations on being the number one pet podcast in 2023.

00:24:14.160 --> 00:24:18.000
Arden Moore: I also want to give a shout out to my producer, Mark Winter.

00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:20.360
Arden Moore: He is the executive producer of Pet Life Radio.

00:24:20.560 --> 00:24:22.960
Arden Moore: We are the largest pet radio network on the planet.

00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:25.060
Arden Moore: We should get to moon sometime.

00:24:25.060 --> 00:24:26.600
Arden Moore: You can check me out, Arden moore.com.

00:24:27.540 --> 00:24:30.780
Arden Moore: Check out, I am a Pet First Aid instructor.

00:24:30.780 --> 00:24:38.160
Arden Moore: I am the founder of Pet First Aid for You and I actually teach with my dog and my cat, Kona and Casey in our veterinary approved class.

00:24:38.160 --> 00:24:39.540
Arden Moore: That's kind of my big passion.

00:24:40.240 --> 00:24:51.300
Arden Moore: So everybody, until next time, this is your free host, Arden Moore, delivering just two words to all you two, three and four leggers out there, Oh Behave.

00:24:51.300 --> 00:24:55.640
Announcer: Coast to coast and around the world, it's Oh Behave with Arden Moore.

00:24:55.640 --> 00:25:03.360
Announcer: Find out why cats and dogs do the things they do, and get the latest buzz from Wagging Tongues and Tails in Rin Tin Tinsel Town.

00:25:03.360 --> 00:25:11.400
Announcer: From famous pet experts and bestselling authors, to television and movie stars, you'll get great tail wagging pet tips and have a fur-flying fun time.

00:25:11.400 --> 00:25:19.740
Announcer: All behave with America's Pet Edutainer, Arden Moore, every week on demand, only on petliferadio.com.