THIS Could Solve Your Dogs' Eating Issues: Mine Pet Platter | IG Live

0:01 Well, hello, hello, hello. How are we doing today? Instagram trying to I thought I was going to use my microphone and Nope, if I use my microphone, then I can't hear anything. And since Carol is joining us today from my pet flatter Hello, hello. OK, I'm going to invite you. It works. Instagram was working great yesterday so I have all my fingers and toes crossed. Hello. Hello. How are you?

0:41 Can you hear me? I can. Yes, ma'am. My finger coming across or no? Yeah, I can see you. OK, we did it. We did. I know. I'm so excited. I last week Instagram was giving me so many problems, but so far this week I'm doing good. So I'm going to like knock on all the wood and cross all the fingers. So I guess I should press share video, right? Should press. I don't think you have to do anything. It just says share this live video with others so they can watch too. Oh, I mean you can if you I don't think that will kick you out or anything.

1:27 So excited to have you guys join us today. This is going to be so fun. I first of all, Carol, you are the creator of the mine pet platter and I happen to own five of them. So I have one right here, fuel color. I, I want, I want you to tell people a little bit. Thank you so much for letting us know Paleo pet goods. Oh, you're in Texas too. I'm in Texas. So the mine pet platter is it was a long time in making the research that you and your husband, your your late husband did on this, which is so incredibly fascinating to me. I was literally just thinking before I hit live, I was like, this is totally something that I would expect to hear and learn about on like the Joe Rogan podcast. I'd love to go with my daughters in Austin, so maybe I'll get that set up.

2:30 So how did you What? What the research you were doing kind of led you down this path. So tell me a little bit about. That well, the inspiration, like most ideas come from from personal experience and we had a little Havanese named Pip, who was 14 lbs. But packed a punch. He had really good attitude and so she used to eat from and and she would eat her meals so fast in probably under a minute, maybe a minute and 15 seconds. And then she would let most horrendous belt, belt. But think of 500 LB football player. I couldn't have people over for dinner because they would have tears string down there.

3:27 That is just it was just so extreme. So one day I was making her chicken breasts and there were scraps and juices left on the cutting board. And my daughter said, Mom, why don't you get those tip? So I put it down. I put it down for and for the next 15 minutes, my daughter and I sat there going, this isn't our little Pip. What happened to her? She was moving around, she was sniffing and it took her about 1520 minutes and she looked up at me like, mom, this is the best thing that you could have done for me.

4:07 So, So when my husband came home, I had the most amazing thing happened. He said Eureka. So my background was in psychology and I for a very in the food industry, understanding why people made the food selection they did and what their actual feeding habits were eating habits. And so I started down a journey of saying, you know what? The closest living relative to our dogs is the Gray wolf. Let's get into these instinctive feeding behaviors. Let's see what's operating there. So a whole new world emerged for us. We were talking to wildlife specialists. I volunteer at zoo.

5:03 I have observed so many videos of wolves killing, prepping, deconstructing it. And what I realized is we're really not appreciating the wolf within our dog. And even though we'd like to think of them as family members, they are still very instinctive creatures and they just took an evolution from the wolf in the wild feeding off carcasses through domestication where they came closer to settlements and were scatter fed to the point where we've domesticated them.

5:43 So we're the ones that change their feeding. In college, we took them from a carcass all the way to a bowl, and through the work that we did and studying how animals actually feed, we sort of put them in a difficult position because eating from a bowl is one of the most challenging things. Yeah. Oh goodness. Oh. There you. Are so I just find this absolutely fascinating from the idea of, you know, a wolf eating off of a carcass and you know, a wolf, a coyote.

6:29 I felt like there are so many animals that eat this way. Obviously wolves being the closest relatives to our dogs, but even for our cats, like thinking about how lions and tigers. So I think tigers are the closest to to our domestic cat or what we consider our domestic cats. And even some animals, I don't remember exactly which ones. I don't remember if it's a tiger or a Jaguar. Or state at the North African and Wildcat about 30,000 years ago. That's the closest ancestor. So and some of them will actually take their food, their prey like up into trees.

7:17 When we think of on the feline side, which kind of gives us a little bit of insight as to why so many of our cats like to eat up. Hi, I think, but so before I learned about the mind Pet platter, which was 2:00-ish a little over two years ago, I think when I met you at Super Zoo for the first time, I, I did feed out of bowls sometimes, but I had just recently transitioned to feeding off of like wooden cutting boards. So that's what I had been doing for like a little while when I met you and you were telling me because I did have you on the podcast, but it was like forever ago. Little things like this, like licky mats and different like this is actually harmful to their noses. Can you tell me a little bit about like why that is? Because the whole point of the pet platter was to look at feeding from a dog's perspective, because everything that's sort of available in the market these days is designed from a human perspective.

8:31 So what you just showed is one of those type man. And what happens with those is it's designed to blow your pets feeding by making sure the food gets caught in corners and ridges and everything else. Well, here's the problem. Dogs as well as cats see the world through their noses. They have over 100 million cent sites. So when you're feeding from a lick type man, they're smelling the food, but they can't get it up because it's not designed for them to get to the food, which is why everything pep platter is designed to go downward. So is designed to go downward.

9:25 I, I apologize, is designed downward, so there's no frustration with that at all. So you have to take into consideration if they're smelling the food and then they can't get to it, the tongues aren't designed to get to it. This highly repetitive licking which leads to obsessive compulsive behavior and then can even lead to aggressive behavior. So I've heard from a lot of pet parents who have reported back that they've actually they had to take the leg mat away because the animal is trying to tear it apart because they can't get to the food.

10:11 So what are they actually do to deconstruct it to get to that food, which is very instinctive behavior. The same thing with the the slow feeders that have projectiles coming out. The problem with that is it hits into their noses. This is for both cats and dogs. And when you hit into the animal's nose, they have mucous membrane on the inside of their nasal cavity, and that begins to swell. And if food actually gets caught up there trying to work around to get the food, it actually dries the nasal cavity out. And then they can't smell.

10:58 And if they can't smell, they can't eat because they don't know what's in front of them. So it's another case in point. Somebody came up with the idea. Well, let's just put a projectile there. You know, it's like us sitting at our dinner table and lo and behold, if somebody was sitting there with a spoon hitting us in the face, I don't think we'd be very happy about that either. Very true, very true. I did want to go through a couple of these comments. So Paleo Pet Goods is saying they need to order some more platters. Wendy 7051 loves your platters and was also asking about so and I wanted to get to this, but we'll just go ahead and talk about it.

11:51 The the materials that you're using to create these platters is very different. Because I know for those of us like myself who try to be very aware of the products we're bringing into our home, I try to minimize plastics for various reasons. One of which that Wendy brought up is that it can, you know, it's porous. So it's like absorbing all of the toxins, the chemicals from any cleaning products that we're using on it. So I know you, you, you don't, this is not plastic. So do you want to explain that a little bit? It's a cellulose fiber composite which is actually non porous.

12:33 So especially if you feed raw, you don't have to worry about that going in at all. And the cellulose fiber is sustainable. So we use trees and when pine trees are cut down, we replant 5 pint, 5 feet apart. So get into sustainable forestry as well. But another thing we do is third party independent to ensure that it is absolutely non-toxic and there are no chemicals. One of the things that we learned a lot about and here's another benefit of our product, why our product is more expensive, is it's 100% USA, all materials, all manufacturing or manufacturing is in Northwest Johnson.

13:32 Everybody who manufacturers the product actually uses it. They're my second family. But the reason for that is so many different countries and manufacturers are coming in right now and they're saying, well, for example, a lot of balls are now being manufactured in India. I don't think people realize that currently about 65 to 70% of their stainless steel comes from China. And that stain, that steel can be from toxic places, nuclear processing, all those sorts of things.

14:17 So while you may think oh India and it's not China, the sourcing of materials is so so critical and many. I have a chemist friend who does analysis and was working on a project at a bunch of different stainless steel bowls in from China. Over 60% of them were radioactive. So it's not to panic people, but it's just to say sourcing of material be a product day that's more expensive. It's really probably because the sourcing of the material is in the is in the US and it it just a lot more and manufacturing. I could manufacture for 1/4 of the cost if I did this in China. So my husband and I always believe we've asked for our pads and people are spending so much money on food. You want to make sure that the way you're serving is as well. So that's just a little background. Oh, yeah, I know.

15:30 I mean, I think that's a lot of that is so important. And I see Doctor Kosher joined us. Do you use the Mind Pat platter, Dr. Kosher? I'd love to know. And there were so many things that you brought up there. I get so many e-mail solicitations for, you know, promote our product, promote our product, promote our product. And I have never, ever, ever said yes to any stainless steel product because nine times out of 10, it is a company in China. But I know that like there is so much I don't know about stainless steel.

16:12 I tend to not even use it with my pets. I use not that it you know, if you have a good quality stainless steel food grade it made in the USA, you know that that's wonderful and you know, hygienic and all the things. But I tend to do even like, you know, porcelain and stuff for my water dishes just because there's so much I don't know about steel. And it's just one of those things that I haven't gone down that rabbit hole. And I don't feel comfortable promoting products like that because I haven't gone down that rabbit hole. But yeah, China and India I think are like the two most polluted countries on Earth, if I, if I have that correct.

16:59 I I think that's the case. And I think, you know, if you noticed on, on a lot of labels, they say where it's manufactured there, there's not an obligation for manufacturers to do that. But I think a sure sign of that if a product is really, really, you know, that in all likelihood it's, it's not being manufactured in the US at all. So I, I just the pep platter to us is sort of the foundation of health eating. If you're allowing your dog to eat the way that they're too, then with all of these wonderful fruit food products that are becoming available for pets today, it's how you feed and what you feed coming together basically.

17:52 And that's a good match. That's a really good match. It is. Hi, Diane, by the way, thank you so much for jumping in and saying hi. So. There's one other thing I'd like to talk about and this this has become more and more apparent because fast eating is such a huge problem today. One of the most Oh, somebody's around. She's like, yes, fast eating is a problem. What is the most common problems and I I saw some statistic like over half of pet parents talk to their vets about their pet eating too fast and how to slow them down.

18:35 And the one good thing about the pet platter is that this territory it's their own personal feeding territory, which is why we call it the mine pet platter. It's their personal territory. But by spreading the food around into the rib pure and into the scoops, which resemble the ends of bones, you're actually naturally slowing down the feeding process, which actually improves digestion. But you also get to a point of allowing better nutrient absorption. Because when the pet is eating so fast and either choking or developing food bloat or whatever other problems emerge, you want to make sure that the digestive process is a smooth flowing one.

19:30 And a lot of pets today are getting food bloat, not GDV, but just building up all that air in their stomach and and causing a real problem. So I think that's why there's so many variations of slow feeders today that are poking jabbing balls in the middle of the bowl, you know, all these other things. Whereas if we give them that territory resembling more of a carcass, then you're letting it's naturally slowing them down without any of those artificial things taking place because we want to protect those. It's it's one of my mantras now, I said.

20:12 Honor thy nose. Honor thy nose. I love that. So how I, you've kind of talked a little bit about this already, but like, how is this? Because it to me does not look like a carcass, right? But you've talked about the crevices and the, the Ridge here, which I love to catch all the liquids because I am huge on moisture. Like I don't care what it is you're feeding. I always want more moisture. And even if you're feeding like the best, you know, raw food diet, I'm always adding moisture to it, whether that's like a bone broth or a goat's milk or whatever.

20:53 So I love the the Ridge for that reason. And my dog really loves going in there and like looking all the way around. So how how is can you be a little bit more specific on how this is designed to be a little bit more like carcass feeding? Number one is this is sort of the what would be considered a stomach area, a prime area where they deconstruct the carcasses. And the interesting thing is that the pet parents can become involved in putting organ meat and various aspects of what would be opened up in a carcass, muscle meat and all the other things and pushing it in to resemble the actual carcass. And we have some pet parents who have sent great pictures of the creativity is absolutely unbelievable. Then the Ridge is here.

21:53 This is to resemble sort of the area of the rib cage of the where where they would go in and sort of lick or pull meat from. And then the if it's here do resemble the ends of bones. And part of why we have these multiple ones in is because we wanted more licking in which releases the positive endorphins and causes more relaxation and more rewarding behavior. So this actually. But notice the size of the divots on large and small are different.

22:33 They were actually designed to fit the size of the tongue of the animal. OK. So, so everything on the pet platter, even within the bridge, there's no area where they cannot get to the food. And that's why it never leaves a passive compulsive licking be able to get to the aptitude. And believe me, most, most pet parents say I can't believe they lick every single speck of food. And it was designed especially that my late husband and I, when we started this journey, because he was product design, we went through about 13 different variations of this.

23:17 And I know it looks simple now, but where we started was quite contorted to get to where you need to be. But simplicity is the best way a good product comes about because it's easy for the dog to maneuver. The other thing that's important, and I'm sure some people who have been here have heard me say this before, the worst place you can feed your pet is in the corner of the kitchen. And the reason for that is when they kill their prey in the wild, they will stop and actually circle the animal to make sure no other animal can come and get it. And I've observed so many videos and even at the zoo where sometimes we'll give the wolves like a rabbit inside a paper bag or some sort of bag and they'll play with it, roll in it. And because it's a prized possession, but another wolf can come in and in under a second that rabbit will be gone just so, so they, their core sensory elements are designed to protect their prey.

24:40 And so by giving them control, the pep platter, they circle, you never want to push them in a corner because their eyes are at a 20° angle. They're hearing, they hear at much higher frequency than we do and at much further distances. So if they can't see periphery vision and they're hearing all of these noises behind them, it becomes a highly anxious feeding situation, which is why they'll dump food out of their bowl, relocate it to another area. Something of that effect. Did I? Oh, no, you're good.

25:23 You're good. It's so interesting because even with my dog, who she is an only dog and she doesn't like, we don't push her up against a wall. But yes, Diane, it is for cats as well. And I'm glad to hear that you're your cat is I'm sorry. Diego's blood test came back better today. So but like there is a wall kind of next to the area where she eats and some of the items that we will put on her platter to eat, she will grab them and take them somewhere else. Like some of the more like she I mean loves chicken hearts.

26:06 So like that's her at one of her absolute favorite things. She will grab it and take it somewhere else to eat at and I'm wondering if it is because of that Wall is like right there. Like she's not facing it, but it's right. There it could be because they typically position themselves in a way that if a threatening situation comes about, they can leap out and above the pup platter. So the way they position the platter is most comfortable to them to protect their people, but also if somebody comes in threatening to them, they can get away.

26:48 So with a bowl, they don't have any decision to make. They're stuck with what that position is. So you're literally opening up their world where they have more control. And in the wild, it is about control. With animals, it's all about control. Yeah, for sure. One of the things, since we're talking about like an eating experience, which I think this is definitely for our animals, one of the things I like to do when it's like really nice outside is I will literally take my dog into like the middle of the backyard. So there's like nothing that was just trees and grass and put her platter down and just let her walk around and do her thing and eat and just enjoy being out in nature. And like, that's one of my favorite things to do with her. Great.

27:45 Well, another thing that's fun to do is especially with cat is we've had different pet parents send in videos where they'll put a pet platter in a different room and the cat will be up on the bookcase and then you see him and he'll come down, pounce near the pet platter and then dash off. And they play with it, you know, for hours. And it's almost like it's their prey in the wild. And, and we know how they love to play with their actual prey when they kill it. It's, it's that same variation. It's it's their feeding territory. And the other thing I should mention is the reason we have different colors, I don't know if we've covered this before, is that both cats and dogs have a different color spectrum than we do. They have more rods than cones.

28:39 So they can actually see and differentiate between yellow, blue and Reds come off more as a tan or a brown. So if you have more than one pet, a cat and a dog, 2 cats or whatever your your case may be, the platter the color you first serve your pet on is the color they adopt on their own and they'll respect the color of the other pet. And it eliminates food stealing and food aggression as well. So that was part of the reason we call it the pine pet platter. It really is their personal feeding territory.

29:23 And we even have pictures with dogs sleeping by it, visiting it, all sorts of things. So they they do bond with it and we help a lot of rescues as they transition and they take their pet platter with them. So coming into a new home, it reduces anxiety and gives them that familiarity. So we try to work with a lot of rescues to allow them to to have something to take with them into the new homes as well. I love that because, yeah, it, it is definitely something that as humans, like we especially in the US, so many of us, most of us, we don't have that like food scarcity issue.

30:12 So we don't think about that with our pets, even though we know that we know that their next meal and the meal after that and the meal after that is coming. They don't like this just part of being an animal that you don't ever know when your next meal is coming. Well, and. And that's one of the things when, when people, you know, sometimes we have people say, well, you know, dogs are domesticated, Cats are cats are, are a unique breed because they will go into a feral existence and survive just fine. And they're predatory hunters and they do fine. But even with dogs, people often say, well, my dog is really domesticated.

30:57 And I love bringing up the example of a case where a one year old German Shepherd Husky mix fell off of a fishing boat in Southern California and the owner didn't realize it. And they did. They searched for 8 hours, could not find the animal. Coast Guard was looking for it and they really thought that the dog had perished. And then lo and behold, on some island that was not inhabited more for cell sites or whatever, there was a maintenance crew out there and all of a sudden this dog came charging at them and jumped into the truck. Like I'm ready to go home now.

31:44 That dog survived 5 weeks and went through one of the worst storms ever recorded in that area and was absolutely fine and survived on rodents and on fish. So here is a domesticated dog. Never existed wild at all and did just fine on his own. So we we always have to remember to bring that in, that there's that little bit of wild in them and I forgot where I was going to go. What was I talking about? No, it's, it's totally, I mean, we're just kind of going all around anyway. So, well, Diane is asking.

32:31 I don't know. Do you ship outside of the US? We we will be in the UK. We are planning next year to do that. But if you can't site, we'll be able to direct you to somebody who can get it sent to you. OK, because I know there are like other retailers I don't know like Doctor Judy because I think I actually bought all of mine from Doctor Judy's website originally. So I, I kind of want to just reiterate one thing that you said, because we talked about it in two different areas, that licking is a very calming behavior for animals, but you don't want them licking to frustration.

33:22 Right. So there's that differentiation there between. There is. Calm plus licking I just. Want I, I'm, I'm sure everybody's experienced with some pet or or heard about this where a dog or a cat will lick a part of their body to the point where the fur is gone and it starts to irritate the flesh actually. And also licking parts of furniture. That is the sort of thing that you get operation or there's a problem with the dog, that sort of thing. But relaxed, evenly paced licking does release positive endorphins and can have a very calming act. One veterinarian that I with in Chicago got a rescue dog who had such severe separation anxiety that when she left, the dog would tear down the curtains, the blinds, the screen, I mean just the would lose all control.

34:30 So she got AI told her get a nut, but spread it all across the surface of the pet platter, put it in the middle room that he usually, you know, tear us apart and I promise you when you get everything will be OK. So she said you're going to have to pay for new curtains if it doesn't work. And I said that's a deal, you got it. So she came back three hours later as as she was leaving, the dog was looking at her. A little panic was setting. Came back, the nut butter was off the pet platter and the dog was asleep by the. And so again, it's bonding with her feeding territory. It's the act of licking.

35:20 So you know, there's, there's positive and negative to everything in life. All behaviors have positive and negative in psychology and principles you know basically apply to pets as well. So just a couple of other things. One, I did want to bring up the fact that, you know, we both have kind of talked a little bit about the, you know, wonderful raw food diets, but this is good for it doesn't matter what you're feeding. Exactly. You can actually feed on this. There's no problem with that. On our website. We try to help people who have all different feeding types and try to help direct them to places to learn more and more about the types of diets that will benefit our pets most.

36:12 It's great for canned, it's great for raw. And the thing that I love too is we're big proponents of goat's milk and bone broth. And so you can easily use it and some pet parents will actually put little, they'll make little pools where you can pour a little goat's milk or bone broth in there, or you can even pour it on and fit. And it's great during the summer or if you live in warmer climates, it just acts like one big popsicle and dogs and cats just love licking it. So you can put it in the freezer. There's no problem with that at all. It's good for for virtually anything. And because it's non porous it you can put it in the dishwasher.

37:09 There's no problem with that and hand cleaning, whatever you want to do. But I think one of the other things that we enjoy hearing about from our pet parents is that they tell us that it helps them to be more creative and kind of create more. So what we're trying to do with a lot of the food companies today is for them to help generate different ideas. And we're also asking veterinarians to put your favorite menu together. And we're sharing more and more of that with people because my idea it's, it's a great way that you can start trying that at home as well. I love that and I I love that it doesn't matter what you feel that this can be beneficial.

38:00 So kind of selfishly, I would love to just hear a story or two about animals that you have observed in the wild. I want to hear like how they actually go about eating a carcass is that you described. No, Well, it's how do I, I will try to say this in a positive way. One of the things that all wolves will do it it it sort of depends on the size of the animal that they go after as well. If they go after smaller animal animals, that is not usually done in a pact, it'll be done on their own and when they go into the carcass.

38:50 And by the way, you can go to zoos and they have days where they show carcass feeding and and they will actually put a whole animal out there, again depending on what's available and you can watch the animal deconstruct. It's usually more of a herd pack mentality and you can see them ripping various parts of the animal down and if it's a very large animal the they do go for the limbs but they know instinctively they go at organ meat.

39:35 That is the prized possession. And I've even observed some animals who will pull out the key organ parts and line it up in the snow and you know, selectively eat or the other members of the pack will eat. It's fascinating. Just like there's no single way of eating but the the organ meat is nutrient dense so they instinctively know to go after that first. And they do pull the muscle meat from the bones, and they even eat the fur for fiber, which is a big component of that. So really it is the skeleton is literally left. They they use pretty much everything that that's there. And depending on the animals, a lot of times when they go after like Buffalo, those animals, it takes five to six to seven hours to kill.

40:52 They they're not capable of killing a large animal just simply by attacking, usually by wearing them out, getting them to go into areas where they'll sink in the mud or walk. And so they will circle, keep the animal off to the side away from the rest of their herd and basically wear it down to a point of exhaustion. And the way they usually do is to go for the neck to break and suffocate.

41:36 But for larger animals, the wolf will also sometimes put their mouth over the nose of the animal to basically facilitate it passing. So it depends on, you know, Africa versus in really cold weather out in Wyoming. It it's different all the time, but Oregon meat goes first than the meat. It's sort of like a hierarchy of what is most, most prized. But also they know instinctively what nutrients their body needs. And that's why you see them going after different elements, 1st and 2nd.

42:19 And what's really large animals, if they can't eat it all, they will go and bury the meat. And if they become hungry during the winter months, they will go back to that. Most likely the IT will be, you know, with maggots and things of that sort, but they'll eat it. 5 So I'm sorry, did I? No, I think it's fascinating. I like to go into too much detail because I know we'll get a little. You know, for a number of reasons because, you know, if we really do pay attention, if that is part of the education of feeding our animals, then I think it, you know, it just makes so much more sense to play with them, take them on a walk, do the thing, you know, a hike, whatever it is that you're doing that activity with your dog for that day.

43:21 And then them because we are again, not just using a special platter that's going to mimic a carcass, but we're also giving them the full experience or as much as we can with, you know, how we Live Today with getting them kind of worn out with that and where they would normally be hunting their prey and then eating. You brought up a real important point. Basically they spent 95% of their time in the wild hunting, tracking, killing, deconstructing. Their whole life revolved around that single event. And that's why the one thing I tried to tell appearances feeding from a bowl.

44:10 We have taken a lifetime, the majority of the a day involved in the meal time and reduced it to a couple of minutes. And that's that's the tragedy when you feed from a bowl. And the best analogy I can give is when you feed your your pet from a bowl, it's like you're feeding yourself from a fast food container. When you do that, you eat very fast. You don't really appreciate what you're eating and you're probably hungry 5 to 10 minutes later, which is why most dogs will inhale their food, lay down right by the bowl. It's over and we've taken the excitement away. So I I think you're absolutely right. Make sure they get enough exercise. Make sure we make up for that time where they would spend 10 to 12 hours a day, you know, hunting a Buffalo and running and run up to 50 miles an hour.

45:18 I mean, they, they were incredible creatures. And our dogs, even though they're smaller, they retain those same things. They don't have a survival instinct. If the dog feels threatened, he's going to turn no matter how much you've domesticated them. There's feast and famine. Some people will say my dog got into a bag of dog food, a large one ate the whole thing. How could they do that? Easter famine, Nature has programmed them you better eat everything you can because you don't know when your next meal is going to be. And then the whole hunt, prey instinct.

45:59 I even though my little Havanese was only £14.00, if she saw a rabbit she was off and running, you know, and nothing was going to stop her, not even me. So there are three core instincts that we can immediately identify with within our own dogs that is associated with their ancestors. Their jaws are smaller, their teeth are not exactly the same as the Gray wolf, but they're still designed for meat eating to tear things apart and, and to go after fairly large animals. So when you look at the overall Physiology, the resemblance between the Gray wolf and the dog is the same.

46:46 And for cats, cats are even more homogeneous. Their genome is almost identical. The major trait that is different is what is on their coats. If it's striped, they came from more grassland, if it's a solid color, it was more open terrain and if it's spotted it, they were in the forest. But their coats are the main difference for cats. That's about it. And that's why they can go into a feral existence almost instantaneously.

47:28 So, so, so cats in particular, think about them being predatory animals. They haunted alone. They're designed to be able, well, they're whiskers in particular. And that's another benefit. With the pet platter, you don't have whisker fatigue, and whiskers are embedded three times deeper into their skin. And so when things are pushing on to those whiskers, they feel that deep down inside. And I've even talked to some pet parents who say that when their pets were eating, they'd actually see like, tears coming down because the overstimulation was so severe it became painful to that cat.

48:22 All cats don't experience the same whisper fatigue. It can be different across the board. So. So by allowing them to let their whiskers, you know, operate and they have proprioceptors at the tips of their whispers that is always looking, gauging for prey and threats. They're very sensitive. It can look at air temperature, air current directions of wind, all those certain things. So even for cats, you got to look at your cat and say nature design do your sensory circuit is designed for survival and to kill prey.

49:07 Yeah, and they do, they hunt like all day long. They they will hunt mice or rabbit or birds or whatever. Like literally they're in anytime they're awake. They're. Hunting Well, cats. Domestic cats basically kill 20% more prey than any other animal if they are to be outdoors, 20% more. Which and there was a really fascinating study, I forgot what scientific journal it was in, but they allowed, they tested a number of different foods with cats and they found out what food or it was chicken or salmon or or whatever the case was.

50:01 So they had the cat at in this maze like situation with a bowl of that food. Then they would put a live mouse at another part of the maze and the cat, they stop eating the food, go and kill the mouse, bring the mouse back, put the mouse next to the bowl and would continue eating its food then and again. It's that predatory nature. It's opportunistic hunting. If it's available, they're going to go and kill it. But by golly, they brought it back and continued on with their meal.

50:44 Fascinating creatures. It really they are my cats. Will I? I I try to just let nature be nature and not intervene as much as possible. When I lived in Escondido, CA, I had never experienced scorpions before, but my cats killed a ton of them. And here I'm in north of Austin right now. We get, I, I swear we have cricket season. We, there are just so many crickets around and they will get into my cat room and I will just see my cats like jumping up to like these crickets are jumping and my cats are jumping up and I'm like, you go right ahead.

51:31 Like, I am sorry Mr. Cricket. But apparently this was the This is your destiny. That's fabulous. That's fabulous. They're such interesting creatures. They are, and I encourage everybody to go to the zoo and observe them. And you know, zookeepers love it when people are really interested in learning more about these animals. And you know, they'll let you know when feeding times are going to be, when they're going to do special events with them, whatever. But go to your local zoos.

52:13 It's a wealth of information and I strongly recommend everybody observing at least one carcass feeding. It will give you a whole new appreciation on how they're really programmed to survive in the wild. And if we just take more time to observe our dogs eating, I mean, I think everybody first thing should observe how your dog or cat eats for the next few meals. Just take some time. Look at what they're doing. Are they moving around? Do they seem anxious? Are they enjoying their meal?

52:56 Because the one thing we can give back to them is that enjoying that factor and allowing them to experience things. And another factor I should bring up, which a lot of people don't know is that dogs and cats have very few taste buds. Cats have I think 473, dogs have 1700, we have 9000. We're driven by our taste buds. So the problem is when you're putting food down, if you're putting it in a bowl that is hiding all the different smells that could be coming out, especially if you're doing raw feeding and pudding, organ meat and everything else.

53:48 Because the dog is the food is is held hostage in the bowl. They can't really get to it by allowing them to sniff out the food on the pep platter. That's the way our dogs taste their food is through the sense of smell, and with cats in particular, cats have a more sensitive nose than dogs do. They have V1R receptors which help differentiate between smells. They have 30, dogs have around 9, we have 3. Something like that.

54:29 It explains why cats like really aromatic foods because they're able to taste the food basically. And going back to honor thy nose, this is another reason. If you want your dog and cat to enjoy their meal, make sure you spread out the food and the different elements so they can actually smell what's in front of them. And importantly, they'll tell you what they like. First, second and third. Yeah, food.

55:09 Selection. Yeah, I was a couple of years ago, I think for Kim's birthday, my dog's birthday. I did like a little like, like a charcuterie board almost, where I put all these different things on. It was very interesting to see what she went for and what she didn't and like the order she went in it. It was absolutely fascinating. I already knew, like she's not big into vegetables or fruits or anything like that. She wouldn't blueberries at all. She's like, no, yeah, I which, you know, I try so many different things because I, the dogs I had before her would eat blueberries, but only if I cut them open. Like if I had to hand them one hole. No, thank you.

55:55 But if I cut it open then OK, they were good. Oh my. Goodness, it is. It's really interesting, I think. I mean, it's just something fun for you as a human to do, but you gain so much insight into what your animal likes that you can make their food choices moving forward like that much more enjoyable for them. Right. So where? Where can people find you? Where can people get their hands on their own pet platters? OK, we're we sell them online. Doctor Judy sells them.

56:38 We have a list of retailers also on website and you could also get it directly from us. You can go to mine MINE pet platter.com and order directly and we will have some exciting news. We will be coming out with some additional products and just to go we're you're going to be one of the 1st that we're going to notify about those products and it pertains to a water device as well as some other things.

57:22 So I'll just leave it there. We want it to be a big surprise. I love that and I love surprises and I will post the link in my stories. We can just click and go over and I think you told me that people can get a little extra discount. Yes. Yes. So is the coupon Jessica something right? Jessica Penn and we know how much information you bring to the pet world. We so appreciate everything you do and all the time you invest in that. So because Jessica is so special to us, if you put in Jessica 10 at our checkout online, you'll get 10% off. You're so sweet.

58:11 Thank you so much. I'll put that in my stories as well, so people can just click and go over there and check it out. I, I think it's, it's great. I think it's great for dogs. I think it's great for cats. I love like you gave us so much, so many tips, so much great information. Especially like every animal having their own feeding territory. That is so crucial, especially if you have you know, if you have a multi pet household, you want all of your pets to know that like they don't have to be fighting each other for food, like that's a thing and. Remember, honor thy nose, right?

58:53 Honor thy nose. I love that. That needs to be like on AT shirt or something. Honor thy nose. All right, Carol. To do that. I appreciate everything that you do, everything that you have done, all of the incredible research that went into this product. I love all the behind the scenes of like the why of everything so. Well, thank you. I so appreciate being on your show and look forward to seeing you soon. I'll be coming to Texas to visit my daughter, so we'll definitely. I love that. All right guys, please check out mine pet platter.com. I will put it in my stories.

59:34 Go follow Carol as well. And until next time. Thanks everybody.