503-528-1800
4327 NE Fremont St.
Tues - Fri 10am - 6pm | Sat & Sun 10am - 5pm | Closed Mondays

Category: Specific Ingredients

When Vets Tell You To Switch from Grain Free Kibble to Grains

You may have heard something online or from your vet about the issue of dogs eating grain free foods sometimes showing low levels of taurine in their bloodwork. Since then, we’ve had a number of customers that come saying their vet told them to switch to a food containing grains. One local vet in our area just sent out an email about Heart Disease and grain free foods, and also advocating for the use of  “Meat By-Products” in pet foods, and we’d like to address both of these topics to

Products We Love: Silver Vine for Cats

Many people know that catnip can create a euphoric and playful feelings in many cats, but other cats don’t seem to be affected. There are actually several other plants that could create this same effect, especially one called silver vine, which is in the kiwi family. Interestingly, a recent study shows that more cats reacted to silver vine than to catnip, and moreover, almost 75 percent of the catnip non-responders responded to silver vine. If your cat hasn’t enjoyed catnip, or even if he loves catnip, you should really give

Attention Kibble Feeders: New Health Problem Reported

Note: This was the article we posted when the first news of the alleged link between grain free foods and heart disease. It has since been proven that there is no link between grain free foods and cardiomyopathy. That being said, we still feel this article has valuable and important information about processed foods such as kibble, and how they are in fact still compromised nutritionally when it comes to the fragile amino acids that dogs and cats rely on for a healthy body. Educate yourself about how some companies “cheat”

Some tips for Chronic Yeast Overgrowth

Chronic overgrowth of yeast can result in a bad smell from a dog’s skin and chronically infected ears causing terrible discomfort and hair loss, as well as digestive issues. Unfortunately it can be very challenging to treat. Healing from yeast takes time and a whole body approach. Two key parts of the solution are to remove what’s feeding the overgrowth of yeast and to heal and support the lining of the gut, as this is where 80% of their immune system lives. Antibiotics, immunosuppressive drugs like prednisone, and anti inflammatory

Jiminy Crickets!

As our world’s population grows, our demand for resources becomes more difficult to sustain. This especially goes for meat production, which requires significant land use, incredible amounts of water and food needed to raise the animals, creates conflict with wildlife concerns, and is responsible for so much pollution, especially surrounding large-scale Confined Animal Feeding Operations. Better known as Factory Farming, these CAFOs also force animals to live in inhumane conditions by anyone’s standards, and are also responsible for contributing to problems with antibiotic resistance for us humans.   Consider cutting

A few Myths about Senior Dogs and Nutrition

We all want to make sure we’re supporting our senior pets as they get older, but there are a few myths that persist about what is nutritionally appropriate for senior dogs. Myth #1: Seniors need lower protein diets It’s true that we used to be instructed to lower protein when dogs get older, but current research shows that older dogs actually need significantly higher protein than their younger counterparts. Their bodies become less efficient at metabolizing proteins as they age, so increasing the amount (and the digestibility) of proteins is

Products We Love: Medicinal Mushrooms

by Christine Mallar   In each of our newsletters I’ve started to write a little piece called “Amazing Things You’re Not Buying”, featuring a product that we love. We have a number of products that are truly amazing, and that we wish so many more pets could have access to, due to their ability to support their good health, or ability to help with common chronic health issues. But, too many customers buzz in and out of the store to pick up their bag of food without taking the time

Green Tip – Why You Should Avoid Farmed Salmon

When we are evaluating a pet food or treat to sell at the store, there is an (ever-expanding) list of ingredients that we will not carry, and farmed salmon is definitely one of them. Some items we don’t like because the ingredients are harmful to the environment, some because practices are inhumane or these animals are fed things that might remain in the meat, and some because they are harmful to the animals that consume them. Farmed salmon has the special distinction as being all of these things. Farming salmon

Bone Broth – Part Two in Our Toppers Are Important Series

Bone Broth photo from https://www.canva.com/ This is the second segment in a series covering the benefits of whole food toppers.  We try to source the very best dry pet foods on the market, but the truth is that all kibble diets are highly processed foods.  Multiple heat processing steps during production damage valuable nutrients like amino acids, enzymes and vitamins, and can create chemicals like acrylamide .  Adding small amounts of  whole foods to your dry food as toppers can provide valuable nutrients that can help to support their health. 

Pet Friendly Ice Melting Products are Still Problematic

This time of year in Portland we seem to be prone to ice storms, which are not only an inconvenience to everyone, they pose a risk to dogs when de-icing products are used on slippery sidewalks and roads. The trouble is, even the products that say eco-safe or pet friendly may not be entirely safe for your pets to interact with. Here are some common ingredients and their concerns: Salts (any ingredient that contains the word “Chloride”) are very important to avoid. Products like Earth Friendly brand of Ice Melt