Got a question? Ask Barbara!
Barbara is Amoré’s president and she has decades of experience going back to when she ran Vancouver’s Animal Control program to over a decade of making premium, wholesome raw cat and dog food and treats. So if you have any questions about our food, your furkids, the pet food industry, pet nutrition or any topic you can think of, ask here and she will personally answer. And if she doesn’t know the answer, she’ll do her best to find out or will tell you she doesn’t know! Think of her as your BarbaraGPT.
Click on each to see answers or use the search. Can’t find an answer – ask Barbara by submitting a question with the form on this page. (Include a photo of your furkid if you’d like us to be able to include it when we post your question and Baraba’s answer.)
No. Salmon poisoning is a yearly occurrence in the Pacific northwest when dogs eat the decomposed salmon that have spawned in the river or are lying on the banks. The organism, Neorickettsia helminthoeca, is a parasite found in the entrails of the fish. A dog would have to eat or lick the guts to become sick. Symptoms are fever and bloody diarrhea 5 to 7 days after exposure, and these are easily treated with oral antibiotics. If left untreated, it can be fatal. Some cats love the raw food right away but many will just sniff it and look at you as though you must be out of your mind. “What! You expect me to eat this?” And then you get the look! Don’t worry! Perseverance is needed and you may have to be more stubborn than your cat, but you can make the switch. Try mixing a little of the raw food with whatever your cat is eating now, gradually increasing until you get rid of the dry or canned component altogether. At the same time, start giving your cat a raw chicken wing-tip to chew on. If they don’t take to it right away, try sprinkling a little kelp or dried bonito tuna flakes on it. Most bad breath and teeth problems will start to disappear within a week. PS’s Full Question: This last time I ordered love bites for my cat you were out of chicken so I ordered beef love bites. The bag says for dogs so I’m wondering if my cat can have these? Barbara’s answer: Yes, the LoveBites are for cats & dogs. For cats we recommend breaking them into small pieces. Reply from PS: Sophie likes me to put a couple of small pieces on top of her food at each meal. I forgot this morning and she wouldn’t eat her food until I put some love bites on top. LOL Ingrid’s full question is: I have 3 cats one is 6 mos, and the other two are 13 + 16 yrs. Can the older cats handle this food at this stage in their life? What is the recommend serving size? Barbara’s answer: Hi Ingrid, thanks for your email. Yes, your kitten and your older cats can all eat our food. Our foods are meant to be fed to all life stages and contain everything your kitten will need to grow to its potential while doing the same for your older cats. How much you feed depends on how heavy the cats are, if they are over or under-weight, active, or couch potatoes. We have recommended feeding guidelines on the label of every bag. You can see each of our labels on our website. A few recommendations for changing cats over to a new diet, because it might require some effort. It’s not the food, it’s the cats!! Make sure to rehydrate the food, by adding an equal amount of warm water, then mix it in with what they are currently eating. Taper off the amount of their current food until you are feeding only ours. You can also use the food as treats. If your cats drink a lot of water, you don’t need to rehydrate. I’ve found that rehydrating is usually the best option, it only takes a few minutes. Check it out. You know how important a healthy, natural diet is for you and your family. Imagine what shape a child would be in who ate nothing but canned meat and dry cereals? There are many interesting sites on the internet where you can find information regarding raw food. As our site is still in the construction stage we are not posting links until we can check them out, but search and you will find! Full disclosure, I posted this FAQ myself, not as an answer to a visitor’s question as I learned of an article Susan Thixton wrote on www.truthaboutpetfood.com where she looked at the past 3 years of recalls and found that raw was by far the least problematic and that dry (kibble) was the leader in recalls with almost 70 million pounds recalled over a three year period ending Oct. 2023. I thought this was worth sharing on my Ask Barbara. I am constantly told that raw pet food is dangerous and full of bacteria and pathogens, at least that’s what people told me their vet told them. I have always maintained that if you start with good ingredients and handle them properly, these problems rarely exist. Read the article here! It might change your mind about a few things! You might want to share with your vet! Happy reading! Cheers, Pam’s full question: After 6 months I have finally transitioned my cat to your food. She eats 1/4 cup a day plus I add 1/4 cup of water. I’m concerned because other than the water I use to rehydrate she doesn’t drink any other water even though I offer it. Is she getting enough water? Barbara’s Answer: Congratulations on transitioning your cat, they can be tough as they can be finicky. Have you noticed any changes in your cat since you starting feeding our food? Did you have any challenges transitioning your cat? Cats are naturally not big water drinkers. This is why our instructions are to rehydrate, add water, to our cat foods. When rehydrating our food will flavor the water! If you’re concerned about not getting enough fluids, try adding extra water to the food. I would still have a bowl of water available at all times. You never know if they’re sneaking a slurp when you’re not looking! We’ve been saying it since 2005, heat and processing destroys the nutritional value of ingredients. We’ve finally been proven right!! In a recent study conducted by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers conducted an experiment to determine the amino acid digestibilities and true metabolizable energy values of four different pet food formats (raw frozen, freeze-dried, fresh and kibble). The scientists published their results in the Journal of Animal Science. A little bit of background regarding Amino Acids. Results of the study found that: If that’s what they say about raw and freeze-dried, what would they say about MEGA morsels®? MEGA morsels ®, are our air-dried raw dog and cat foods. Using a proprietary process, high quality ingredients are air-dried without using heat. The result is a high-quality food that retains the integrity of the ingredients, INCLUDING the amino acids! At the same time, it is a shelf-stable product that does not require freezing or special handling. Benefits of raw, convenience of kibble!© Best of all, DUSTY/RUBY/ROVER/FIDO and MORRIS/PUSS/FIFI love it! Amoré Pet Foods, we feed the pickiest pets! The title of this question was edited for space. The original question in full was: “I adopted a 4 year old cat who has been on kibble. I tried giving her just a tsp. Of your chicken morsels and she threw up. Is this unusual and what is a good way to transition her?” Barbara’s answer: I think this is happening because of the newness of the food and how different it is from her kibble diet. But good for you for caring enough to change to raw 🙂 I would suggest adding water and letting it sit for a few minutes then stirring it in with her regular food. It will set better as its more familiar! Cats have that wonderful ability to throw things up when they’re not familiar with them. This transition should help her make the change and you can gradually reduce the kibble until you’re full raw. Let me know how it goes! And I’d live a photo of your girl to add to this FAQ *we post these online). Can you send one? Barbara If you notice a sudden change in our products, please notify us immediately. There are many steps between the factory and the retailer, and we want to make sure that you’re getting the very best quality products when you take them home! So email us with any questions or concerns you may have about our foods. We used to have 40% meat in our dog food and 60% meat in our cat food because we encouraged people to feed their companion animals raw bones every day. Unfortunately, not everyone feeds bones so, as of September 2003, our dog food now contains 60% meat and our cat food contains 75% meat. This corresponds to the guaranteed analysis on our website and printed on our labels. We continue to encourage the feeding of raw meaty bones to cats and dogs as this helps promote healthy teeth and gums and prevents anal sac problems. Any excess Calcium in this raw form will just be pooped out! Actually, when my cats started eating raw food and bones, they STOPPED bringing half-dead birds into the house. As far as I can tell, they have completely stopped hunting and killing. Bird song can now actually be heard in my backyard! I haven’t yet heard from anybody that hunting and killing have increased or started after the introduction of a raw food diet.
Barbara and DustyYes! And it’s not just my opinion (and the opinion of the many thousands that swear by raw food from their experience with it) now that it’s been proven by science.