118. Insect Protein, Cat Evolution & The Future of Pet Wellness

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pets Ad Life, your guide to the latest in Pet Trends products and the joy of the Human Animal Bond with Kristen Levine and me. Chris Bonafide, powered by the American Pet Products Association and Dog tv. Hello and welcome to another episode of Pets Add Life. I'm one of your hosts, Chris Boning. Joining me as always is the inventor of the household sponge, Kristen Levine. Kristen,

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Thank you. Thank you. Such a

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Huge

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Contribution. I try to keep that quiet.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Yeah, I know. It really is such an interesting party, your career that we've never touched on, but without you, where would our scrubbing bubbles be?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
I don't know. I don't know. Well, I am from Tarpon Springs, Florida, which is the home of the Sponge Docks.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
The sponge

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Where they do sponge, they do sponge diving. Yeah, for tourist tourists can come and jump on a sponge diving boat and they take them out and the tourists die for sponges.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
That's a very Florida thing right there. I mean, I'm over here in Connecticut and we've got oyster farming, which I find to be our weird thing that you could go do on a boat. But sponge diving, I mean, listen, people, if you're trying to impress somebody with a good time, you're looking for a great first date activity. There's really nothing that'll get you going, like sponge diving. And speaking of diving, we're going to be diving into an excellent episode of Pets at Life. For all of you listening today, where we will as always bring you two excellent stories, two incredible products. We're going to host two sentimental guests, and at the end we're going to answer two of your burning questions. So don't touch that dial, remote control mouse and keyboard, whatever you use to control the volume, crank it to max it's pets. Add life, not pets. Do it quietly. I don't know. Let's just do stories. Oh, my

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Cut.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Kristen and Chris. Present story time. All right. Kristen, you want to kick us off for this week's story time?

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, sure. Okay. My story is about Bugs Insect protein. To be more specific, I think we've talked about this on the show a few times. About 10 years ago, pet food manufacturers started introducing Black fly larvae into their, well, not introducing it as a novel protein for pet food. And I think it kind of grossed everybody out, but people started getting used to the idea. But what I wanted to share with you is this new story that I read on the underbite yesterday, this guy named Bart, we'll just call him Bart. He was a software engineer, entrepreneur, and his dog, Lita had been sick for a long time, and I guess after talking to multiple veterinarians and doing a lot of tests, she was having some dietary issue. She wasn't getting enough out of the kibble, she was being fed. So instead of just changing her diet, I'm sure he did that too.

(03:24):
But he also introduced a brand new, he left the technology field altogether to do this. He introduced a new insect protein as a food additive, which ultimately completely reversed her health issues that she was having. So that sent him down this path of rethinking Pet Nutrition and this whole insect protein thing, because a lot of the companies that introduced Insect Protein, they didn't really succeed very well because they were trying to replace the traditional proteins with this black fly larvae, which I don't know, it just didn't go over so well, and apparently it's pretty stinky. I haven't tried it or smelled it. I would hazard

Speaker 1 (04:04):
A guess. Yeah,

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah. So anyway, he created this whole new company, it's called Intro Pro, and it's built on Buffalo Mealworm, which apparently improves the texture of pet food and the palatability. It retains moisture. It's great for picky cats, he says, and he says it has a natural umami flavor that is a game changer. So anyway, just kind of an exciting space to watch how it evolves. It started out with this black fly larvae that wasn't really getting picked up, but I think the secret here, at least according to him, is that insect protein isn't really going to replace chicken or beef in your dog's bowl, but it's going to can make it a whole lot better. So be on a lookout for your Buffalo Mealworm on the ingredients package.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
There we go.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
On the little panel.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
Buffalo Mealworm is just a breaded deep fried mealworm served with buffalo sauce.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Oh, there you go.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
I learned that.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
I think that would sell.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, I'd eat it. I'd eat anything coated in buffalo sauce. Don't clip that and put it on the internet run. Hi, I see your mind working. I've got a bit of a serendipitous story because my mind was sort of in the same place because I saw this very interesting article from pet food industry that is sort of about an interesting dichotomy in pet parents where we simultaneously are demanding our products to have less impact on the environment and climate change, but also demand human grade quality and ingredients in our pet food. And that is interesting for two reasons. And the first is they actually are, those are difficult to, I forget the word I'm looking for, so I'm just going to use a different term. Those things have some resonance to them where typically what's fed to our pets are the parts of the animals, mostly organs, organ meat, heart's livers, things like that.

(06:15):
I mean, one of Tiger's favorite meals was a chicken liver wet food. And I don't think I've ever eaten a chicken liver in my entire life. And that creates less wastefulness because at the butchers and the places where they process these animals, the cuts of meat are separated into what is going to go into people food and what's going to go into pet food. And that's a great system because it creates a lot less waste. But now there's this strong demand for human grade, which is creating more waste. And in fact, if you've ever seen Apocalypse or any of those documentaries talking about the beef industry and its impact on water and the environment and just how difficult it is to create and meet the demand for meat substances in the United States, it's crazy. So I just thought it was really interesting because that's not something I considered.

(07:09):
I always thought, can't we get the best of both worlds? We create a better food and a better for the environment. So I think our work that we do at APO with the pet Sustainability Coalition looks a lot at sustainable ingredients. And one of them is those bloat, fly larvae and other things since they aren't typically being used in other foods, but also things like packaging and distribution networks. So making sure that those are efficient and not just being done and that people are actually recycling their pet food containers. I know that we always tried to pick food that came in tin cans because those cans are very easy to recycle. But a lot of the bags of food in kibble, those products are seeing arise in. I mean, I even saw the other day a big bag of dog food that was basically in grocery store, brown paper bag, Foley recycle paper, which I thought was really interesting.

(08:10):
I didn't catch the brand, but that's an interesting package in change. So check out this article. It'll be in the show notes. It kind of covers how people who are keen on this in the professional industry are trying to approach both sustainability and quality in the pet industry. It's a lot more of an interesting problem than you'd think, and it's good to read that we've got some smart cookies on the case beyond the leash, exploring the untold stories of pet passion and professionals. It's my honor to introduce Dr. Jonathan Losis, an evolutionary biologist. Now that is a cool sounding job and professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis, where he studies how animals evolve and adapt to their environments. He's widely known for his groundbreaking research on anolis lizards in the Caribbean, which has helped scientists understand how evolution works in real time and how species adapt to new habits. Sounds a lot like another researcher I know Mr. Darwin. Dr. Losis is also the author of several popular science books, including Improbable Destin's, fake Chance and the Future of Evolution. And My favorite, the Cats Meow, how Cats Evolve From the Savannah to Your Sofa. There was research in writing. He explores the science behind evolution, biodiversity and how animals including our pets, develop the traits that shape their behavior and survival. Dr. Law says, thank you so much for taking the time today to hop on the show.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
Well, thank you for having me. I'm delighted to be here.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Of course. So I want to jump right into some of your research, particularly in how it's explored, how animals evolve and adapt over time, which we call evolution. So what first sparked your interest in evolutionary biology? What set you down this path?

Speaker 3 (10:00):
Well, like many, many people, it was dinosaurs. Back when I was a little boy, I was fascinated by dinosaurs. I had a basket full of plastic animals. I could pronounce all their names and so on. And then as I grew up, I transferred to living reptiles. I had pet reptiles as a child. I had something called a Cayman, which is a small alligator, which turned out to be fascinating if nasty little animals. But they really got my interest in where diversity comes from, how life evolves, how species are adapted. And so I've ended up spending my career, as you said, studying a particular type of lizard that's very common and diverse in the southeastern US and throughout the Americas.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Wow, awesome. Well, let's talk a little bit about that. A lot of your scientific work has focused on the Anolis lizard. Is that the way to pronounce it?

Speaker 3 (10:53):
That is correct, yes.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
Okay. What have these lizards taught us about how evolution happens?

Speaker 3 (11:00):
Well, the reason that I've spent my career studying them as have many other people, is two things. One is they are remarkably diverse. There are 400 species of them found throughout their range, and as many as 15 species can occur in one place. So they're a great evolutionary success story. And there's particularly interesting aspects of how species have adapted to the environment multiple times in the same way. For example, you have species on Cuba, Jamaica, Espanola, and Puerto Rico all using the same type of habitat, and they've evolved the same adaptations to do that. Now, that's a phenomenon called convergent evolution. Same environment leads to the same evolutionary solution. Also, these lizards are very easy to study. You can go out into nature and you can see them and wash them and see how they spend their lives. You can bring them back to the lab to study them there. And so they're very good organisms to study this biology and relate it to their evolution. And so I've ended up spending my entire career studying them.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
That's actually incredibly fascinating. But as the certified cat dad on this show, I have to ask about you studying the evolutionary story of domestic cats. And I love the title from Savannah to Sofa. So cats, they went from these wild predators and the Middle East and Africa, and now they're one of the world's most popular pets. So I want to ask what happened,

Speaker 3 (12:38):
What happened to me or to the cats?

Speaker 1 (12:41):
Maybe a little bit of both.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
Alright, well lemme start with me. I've always loved cats ever since I was a little boy. And we adopted a rescue cat when I was five, but it never occurred to me to do anything professionally with them. And then about 10 years ago, I had an idea to teach a class to incoming college students called the Science of Cats. And the idea was that I would lure the students into the class because they like cats and then you teach them how we study nature, what scientists do, just using research with cats as the vehicle for that. And it worked really well. It was a really fun class and students really got into it. And I was doing this just at the time that my first book for the general audience, the one you mentioned, improbable destinies was coming out. So it wasn't much of a leap to have the idea why not write another book on the same topic of how we know what we know about cats and how science works to study organisms.

(13:39):
And so I did that and that led to the cat meow. But something unexpected happened as I was writing the book. Since this book was focused on scientific knowledge about cats, I really had to dig into the literature to understand what we know about cats and how we know it. And as I was reading this literature, I started having ideas. I would think, well, I study lizards by using this approach, but no one seems to have done that with cats, or why not look at this question? And so now I've become a cat researcher as well, which is a blast.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
I love it. That's great. So let me ask you this, Dr. Wallace cats are often described as having domesticated themselves, whereas dogs were domesticated by us humans thousands of years ago. What does that mean from an evolutionary perspective when we hear that cats domesticated themselves?

Speaker 3 (14:32):
So one thing I want to say before answering that is domestication is a type of evolution. People often don't think of it that way, but it's a type of evolution driven by species adapting to being around us, often with us choosing who breeds and thus what genes get passed to the next generation. But it is a type of evolution. It's just a little bit different from what goes on in nature. The idea that cats domesticated themselves is very simple. The idea is that when people first settled down into villages in the area, we now call them Middle East, they started raising crops and storing those crops in little grain areas. Well, that attracted a lot of rodents and that occurred in an area where a wild species called the North African wildcat lives. And it's important to know this is a specific type of cat, even though it's called a wildcat.

(15:28):
It's not just any old wild cat. It is a species, the North African wildcat. And so the idea is that some of these wildcats were bold enough to come into a village full of people to take advantage of all the rodents. And so they would get more to eat, and so they would have more babies and they would pass on those traits to their offspring. And so in that way, the cats evolved to be willing to be around people. And then we could imagine that people saw the cats doing that and said, Hey, this is great. They're controlling the rodents. And so they were nice to them. They let them come into their huts where it's warm and dry, maybe they put out a little food. And then again, the boldest cats, the ones willing to be around people took advantage and went back and forth.

(16:12):
And voila, we have the domestic cat, which isn't actually all that different from a wild cat. Now actually the same idea applies to dogs. So people debate how dogs became domesticated, but one common idea is that wolves started hanging around again, villages earlier in time, perhaps getting scraps of mammoth meat or whatever. And again, the wolves that would do that did better. And so at least the start of dog domestication may have occurred in the same way. But the difference is that then for tens of thousands of years, humans have helped select which dogs breed in the next generation and so have selected for particular traits. And so that has greatly exaggerated the initial domestication process leading to the vast array of breeds of dogs we see today.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
Well, Dr. Losis, we're coming up on time, but I have a final question for you. And this is more along the lines of wildlife. So with so many species that are facing environmental pressures today, what lessons from evolutionary science can help us better protect wildlife and biodiversity?

Speaker 3 (17:27):
Well, the answer is pretty simple, although easy to say, harder to do, and that is to keep cats inside that cats do go out. They are wonderful predators, as we all know, and they can really devastate local populations. The reason is you have such a high density of cats because we're feeding them. They don't have to live on what they catch, at least our pets. And so you can have a huge density. They go out and supplement their food and catch a few birds or so on, that can have a very negative effect on populations. On the other hand, sorry, I just lost my train of thought. It's okay.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Protecting,

Speaker 3 (18:09):
Yes. Oh yes. On the other hand, it's bad for the cats too. They're at great risk outside being run over by a car, being eaten by a coyote getting disease. So it's really better to keep them inside. Now cats, however, often don't agree with that. And having that cat that wants to go out and you won't let the cat out can be difficult down the line. One thing that would be really useful that I think would work would be for breeders to try to select for a breed of cats that doesn't want to go outside. And no one has really tried to do that, but given that we've been able to breed for so many other traits, I think we could do that. And that would be a win-win. The cats would be happier, they'd be healthier, and the environment would be better.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
That's fascinating stuff, Dr. Losis. Well, we're coming up on time here, so I want to give our pet parents at home the opportunity to learn more or maybe where they could go find their books or find your books or follow you. So where can we go find some more information if we're interested in learning more?

Speaker 3 (19:12):
Well, certainly the Cat's meow. You can find it online pretty much anywhere. And in many bookstores there are of course many other websites and books on cats. I do want to give a plug for a book I just participated in

Speaker 1 (19:24):
Absolutely

Speaker 3 (19:25):
A fabulous photography book by the photographer Tim Flatch called Feline. And his photos are just spectacular. And I had the great honor to write the text for that book. And so it was quite a experience to write the text to go along with these fabulous photos.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
Amazing, amazing stuff. So be sure to check it out. Check out the catch. Meow. I think that's going to be a really interesting read for all of you out there. I'm certainly going to pick up a copy for, I have a couple of long flights coming up, so I think it'll be perfect. Dr. Losis, thank you so much for taking some time out of your busy schedule to join us today. This was a real treat.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
Well, thank you. This has been a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
I found it really interesting that he mentioned he was like a dinosaur kid. And I was recently talking to one of hope's very young cousins, I think he's six years old, and we asked what he wants to be when he grows up and he said, I want to study history, this, that or another. And his mom was like, yeah, he just went to the museum recently and he saw the cool stuff. And I think it's really cool that some people go through an entire career and retain that childlike wonder for science. I think it's really inspiring, and I think Dr. Losses embodies a lot of that.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
He sure does. You could hear it in his voice.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
Yeah,

Speaker 2 (20:48):
Chris, you'll like this. We did that interview at VMX at the veterinary conference back in January, and Dr. Henry Yu was not on the list of people to interview, but he was hanging out chatting with the folks at Doc tv. And so Ron said, let's interview Dr. Henry Yu and me, who likes to be so prepared. I had to do that whole interview, just you had to do Spot Chris

Speaker 1 (21:10):
Special and

Speaker 2 (21:11):
What I had to do a Chris,

Speaker 1 (21:12):
You did a great job. You did a great job.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
Well, he was a great guest. He's a fascinating guy and really fun to talk to. Alright, today's guest is Dr. Henry Yu. He's a veterinarian and he's got a lot of other really impressive degrees. We're going to talk to him about his knowledge here. He's an executive consultant at Infinity Medical Consulting. Dr. U brings a rare blend of hands-on veterinary expertise and high level business strategy, helping veterinary organizations navigate their growth, their innovation, and the evolving landscape of animal healthcare. Dr. Woo, you thank you so much for joining us.

Speaker 4 (21:52):
Nice meeting you, Christian.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
I know you're a big friend of dog tv, so I've heard lots about you

Speaker 4 (21:58):
About three years,

Speaker 2 (21:59):
I guess. Yeah, about three years. So we're happy to have you on the Pet's Head Live podcast today. Thank you. Thank you. So there's a few things we want to talk about today. Number one, usually on the show we're talking about hats and healthcare as it relates to the United States where most of our listeners are. But we have listeners all over the globe

Speaker 4 (22:16):
And

Speaker 2 (22:16):
There are some really growing economies across the globe that you're very knowledgeable about where pets are very popular. So tell us a little bit about that.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
Yeah, I came to the United States to go to Ohio State University and I did my work on through infectious disease and preventive medicine, and I really had a good interest in how we can maintain the best health for the pets as well. So after study was done and I finished my all academic work, I was teaching at the university as well, but I had an opportunity to go to China, I think it is in 1997, so about 30 years ago. And I was really appalled to the fact that the level of veterinary medicine was so basic, really rudimentary. So I decided to come back to China because I was born in Harbin, which is mainly in China. So I had kind of my self attached to that. So I've been going there ever since about 30 years, at least once a year or when I went there many times, maybe almost once a month actually. So I had a chance to go into veterinary medicine field. The care level at that time was very rudimentary. I mean, so

Speaker 2 (23:37):
Give an example of what you mean by rudimentary.

Speaker 4 (23:41):
Well, how should I say? The pets were not considered the pot of family member. They were backyard, but we had the same issue here maybe many years ago. Pets were not coming into the living room. So when I saw that, and also it's a financial issue, they don't have money to take care of it. University is not ready to supply the good student level of education. So I decided to get into some academic field to give them more strength to get involved. Come back a long story story. China is developing very rapidly. And the good thing about China now they have a 100 veterinary school.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
100?

Speaker 4 (24:27):
Yes. Oh my

Speaker 2 (24:28):
Goodness.

Speaker 4 (24:28):
And how

Speaker 2 (24:28):
Many

Speaker 4 (24:29):
Are

Speaker 2 (24:29):
In the us?

Speaker 4 (24:30):
About 33, 34 is getting bigger, but the problem is there's a two years veterinary school up to five years veterinary school. There's so much variety of qualities, and I'm the one who set up the veterinary license examination and called the government two years and three years, four years is not qualified to a veterinary school. They should be a veterinary technical school. But government said no, because they're all helping animals. They're all helping agricultural product. I mean the livestocks, they have to stay the way it is. So it is not an easy system. So through that, after we establish the veterinary veterinary medical license so they can go out and practice, the level of expertise was going very higher. And that we can see qualified, a student qualified applicants become better prepared. So to make a long story short, now if I say one to 10, 10 being the USA situation, maybe seven or eight in average, but still 20% of the veterinary industry are very close to USA right now.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (25:47):
So

Speaker 2 (25:47):
They

Speaker 4 (25:47):
Come a long way. Very much. And

Speaker 2 (25:49):
You played a big role in that.

Speaker 4 (25:51):
I tried it too. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
That's fantastic.

Speaker 4 (25:54):
What

Speaker 2 (25:54):
Else might we be surprised to learn about pet care in other countries that you have experienced it?

Speaker 4 (26:02):
In terms of, let me give a good good example. About 10 years ago, 2010, 2015, in between the Tibetan Mastiff little puppy was costing about quarter million dollars. If ever adult Tibetan mastiff, it is one half a million dollars saved. So I see a lot of people carrying two dogs on their hand. You're carrying almost a million dollars in. And it is kind of, people say, wow, he's a rich man there. So

Speaker 2 (26:35):
Oh my

Speaker 4 (26:35):
Goodness, there's a lot of nostalgic situation, but it is very interesting to see that.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
So it's a status symbol,

Speaker 4 (26:41):
It's a status symbol, and people love to have that. And so of course for the wealthy people, but it is not money issue because they are making a lot financial resources now through all the internet and the AI drones. If you go to Shenzhen, it probably surpassed the degree of our Silicon Valley, really. And if people can order coffee, order anything they want to drink, call drone brings it up, put on the chimney, comes down. I can it it

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Right to

Speaker 4 (27:20):
You.

Speaker 2 (27:21):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (27:21):
Yeah. So science is so much improved. I was there only two months ago with about 30 veterinary school professors. I was in Shenzhen. So advancement is there, which you will turn into financial resources. So I see the development of veterinary medicine is going to be skyrocketing for the next, what, five years, 10 years, and they'll catch up very fast.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
And speaking of that, you have a lot of expertise in preventative medicine and you maybe even part of the kind of created the concept or certainly spearheaded it. How does preventative medicine compare here in the United States to some of these other countries?

Speaker 4 (28:06):
Thank you for asking that question. When I was teaching at Ohio State early 19 75, 6 7, I was teaching what we call herd animal health. I go to the farm, look at the 30, 50 to 3000 horses and cows in the farm. It's called the herd animal health. And that's how I got into full preventive medicine. As I studied that I did made a lot of principle five steps of preventing medicine. Then I thought, why we don't use that in small animals for the larger animal is costing. If one cow is sick, then it can spread the disease, how we prevent that. So

Speaker 2 (28:47):
It was very important in herd animals,

Speaker 4 (28:48):
It is. So rather than treating one animal, which is important, but we look at the whole population as one patient. So how we can prevent it. So we get into nutrition, pastology behavior as well, and what kind of testing we need to do before they get sick and events. So this is what we call preventive medicine. So I moved that knowledge into small animal. So when I created five steps over preventative medicine, I hear from our profession, we don't need it. We do the parasite control, we do the vaccination. We don't need the preventive medicine. Actually, preventive medicine affect every aspect of veterinary medicine, surgery, pathology, neurology, and all preventive medicine can go in. So also another thing that I found that even in the United States we made, we were very slow in accepting that when I suggested let's go ahead and make a plan to visit the veterinarian twice a year, every six months I hear from a physician, I mean veterinarian, say, I didn't go to doctor more than once a month or once a year. Why should I bring my dog? Even veterinarians. I said, look, their one year is like our seven years

Speaker 2 (30:06):
They

Speaker 4 (30:06):
Live on

Speaker 2 (30:07):
A lot can happen in seven years

Speaker 4 (30:08):
For humans also, even when they live 15 to 20 years, they bring every disease we have in human, they put it in 20 years, 15 years, period. They are so busy picking up all the problems as with Alzheimer's and Lou Gehrig disease, spinal issue. So by having it corrected every six month examination, it's becoming gold the standard right now. So I kind of changed it to that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
Yes. Well, you are an innovator and

Speaker 4 (30:39):
I tried to,

Speaker 2 (30:40):
You were speaking here at the VMX, at the veterinary conference. What did you talk to? Were you talking to veterinarians or were you talking to

Speaker 4 (30:49):
Business owners? Veterinarians and the industry, and I speak a lot on ai, telemedicine, how to maximize the technology in the preventive area, not only preventive medicine and what we call predictive medicine once we prevent that. But what's the prediction for the disease for this particular dog? Let give you another good example. The I've seen a patient some time ago had a small tumor and that I really needed to find out what the tumor dog is about seven, eight years old, about getting into geriatric patients. The clients are saying is, oh, I want to wait until my husband come back from Europe. So when he is going to be back about three, four months later, that means by the time we do the testing, it's going to be six months later, which means inhuman three years later. Wow, that's a long time. We are checking. In the meantime, tumor can continue to grow metastasized. So when I did, I explained the lady that significance of timing. So we did it. We found it's cancerous, we feel let it go. Three months probably spread throughout the part of the body. Absolutely. That's one of the good example. Preventive medicine is such an important part. That's

Speaker 2 (32:02):
A great story.

Speaker 4 (32:03):
The veterinary medicine.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
Absolutely. Well, what's one thing you could leave our pet parent audience with today about what you see is one of the biggest trends coming to pet care here in the us?

Speaker 4 (32:19):
Probably in technical field, ai, telemedicine can tell a lot of things. In other advance, we created a platform, telemedicine platform we call Seamless. When the clients have a hesitation to call the veterinarian because of time expenses, it's too far away to go. They're delaying it. We have ai, they can call the ai. So immediately AI will go through all the questions and answers, but they don't have to engage with veterinarian. It comes to our space. We go ahead and look at it and click that. If I want to call it Ms. Jones, I just read what you was communicating with my ai, I think that this is something you can do at home. You don't have to come, but if you don't come, don't do anything. You might go into another problem. This kind of preliminary medicine prediction thing. Then she said, okay, what should I do?

(33:13):
We send the app to the ladies and clients and she can take a picture through the app if there's an eye issue, app will tell what's the possible diagnosis. They don't make a diagnosis, but it comes to us. It gives a tool for me to make a diagnosis 50 miles away, even though I'm not at the clinic, I'm in London, I can still see the app. It comes to me. That's incredible. As a result, there a treatment plan and once it is done, preventive medicine plan, predictable medicine. So it is going to be much easier for us to deal, even though we are not at the same hospital together. That's very exciting. So get involved in the early stage of ai, what we call front end AI to have initial communication. That's one of the good things developing now.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
Excellent. Well, I want to thank you, Dr. Yu, for all the contributions you've made to veterinary care, veterinary medicine, and to helping our pets and people live happier, healthier lives together.

Speaker 4 (34:15):
Happy to be part of it. Thank you very much, Kristen here. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
Alright, it is time for the product of the week, and I've got one for all our cat parents out there, especially multi cat homes, multi cat family homes. I don't know, people with more than one cat, preferably two. This is the perfect product. If you have two cats, this is the first auto feeder I've seen that comes flush full of features and is made for two cats rather than one. So these auto feeders can get expensive upwards of a hundred dollars. So if you have two cats, buying two copies of it can be a lot. And now you got to control both feeders. So this does it in one big old tower, two different bowls on separate sides, and there's a couple of features. I realize it's got all the bells and whistles, it's got the wifi, the app, emergency battery backup, all that kind of stuff.

(35:17):
But what I really like is the way it stores the food, which is kind of unique. It's got this unique vacuum seal because dry food does go stale and as the food oxidizes, it loses its nutritional value. So there's kind of two things that you do with this tub. The first is the vacuum seal keeps it nice and airtight. So as long as you're not opening and closing it constantly, you're just opening to refill when it gets empty, that food's going to remain fresh for it says up to 30 days. And they also use these silicon gel inserts that you sort of put into a little slit. It's going to keep the moisture out, which I think is just a really unique idea. I see it in the things like the litter robots, the litter Genie. Also, they make the diaper genie, which I've recently gotten to use, which also uses silica gel to keep the moisture out.

(36:11):
And I think as far as rot and decay and any bacteria or mold, they love moisture. So getting rid of that, I think just keys in on how design-centric this is. So this is being offered from one is all and one is all makes a full line of products for cats and dogs from grooming products to feeders to water. So I think they really have a good option here and get this right now, you can save 22% on this product that normally retails for $90. So that's a smart feeder for two cats for $90 on sale right now for 70, it's

Speaker 2 (36:54):
A bargain.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
I think that's a really good bargain for a smart feeder, programmable, all the bells and whistles. But I really, really what keep me in are those storage features because a lot of people forget when you do these big tower feeders that you got to keep that food fresh for that long. So I thought that they have a really good take on that kind of product. So be sure to check 'em out. And I think there's even an option to bundle together a stainless steel water fountain. And to go on my soapbox for a bit, as you all know, I talked on the show a lot about how Tiger only drank from the sink. So I went through a gazillion different water bowls to try and get her to drink. And one thing I found is it's got to be stainless steel folks. Anything with plastic with water, it's going to get moldy and gross so quickly. Stainless steel is going to stay fresher longer and it's easier to clean. So there's my little aside soap,

Speaker 2 (37:42):
Your little PSA,

Speaker 1 (37:43):
My little PSA.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
It's true. Okay, so my product is one that I saw at Global Surprise Surprise. It's called Barkley. It was created by a veterinarian, a female veterinarian, and she created a retractable dog leash with an integrated personal safety alarm. So this thing has an alarm that's 130 decibels. They have a little video on the website where you can play it and hear how loud it is. And trust me, it's going to get somebody's attention. It also has a high visibility LED strobe light designed to help women feel safer on their dog walks. I have not seen this before, so I think it might be first of its kind. It's a crossover between pet care and personal safety. And it's really beautiful too. The one I saw was purple, like a lavender color. So ladies love lavender for the most part, and it looks like a very sturdy, durable, retractable leash. So there you go. Safety built into your leash.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
I love that. I love that. Smart. That sounds, yeah, I was driving in the dark the other day and I saw somebody walking their dog in all black in my unlit neighborhood. We don't have streetlights or anything like that. And the first thing I thought was, what an idiot. So don't be that person. These little steps are really important

Speaker 2 (39:06):
Q and as.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
Okay folks. It is time for our favorite part of the show. We are going to answer two critical questions from our amazing audience. And I know what you're thinking. How do I get my question answered by Chris and Kristen? Well, you're going to head on over to pets at life.org/podcast. Scroll on down to the bottom of that page and you'll see a form to submit your question. Or if you are feeling as brave as the first wildcat to venture into a human settlement and sign up for rodent control, you can record a voice memo and you may hear your question played live on the show. So without further ado, Kristen Levine, I've got a burning question

Speaker 2 (39:45):
For you. Okay, it's on fire.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
It's on fire. Let's put it out's. Put it out. I'm struggling to douse it. I need your help. It comes from Mark in Columbus, Ohio. Thanks, mark for your question. He asks, hi, my dog seems incredibly smart. She learns tricks quickly and even seems to understand certain words. How do scientists or experts actually measure how smart a dog is? That's a great question, mark.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
That is a good question Mark and I actually, I had to look this one up a little bit because I wanted to give a good answer and I wasn't exactly sure how scientists measure it, but this is what I learned. First of all, I will say that dogs are genuinely one of the smartest animals on the planet. And just like some kids are really great at math like Chris when he was in school, but others are amazing artists like our producer Ron. Dogs have different kinds of smart, so it depends on your dog's breed or their breed makeup, their environment. But some dogs are really great problem solvers. They're good at figuring out how to open a gate or open a storage food container like Chris mentioned earlier, or even to find a hidden treat in a box, which tulip, by the way, is really good at finding a little hidden treat in a box.

(41:04):
And then some dogs are really good at reading people knowing when you're sad or even picking up on your mood. So it just really depends on the type of dog, their environment, their breed and that sort of thing. But as far as how does scientists actually test it, they usually just do it by playing games and they have very special games that are designed to measure intelligence like the hide a treat under a cup and shuffle it around. Scientists call that object permanence. Can the dog follow the treat as you're moving it around their ability to understand that something still exists if they can't see it? By the way, Chris babies learn that around eight months of age object permanence.

(41:57):
You could point at something across the room, does the dog look where you're pointing? This is called social queuing. And again, back to how it just depends on what your dog's abilities are. I have my dog now tulips, she will look when I point at something, but my previous dog chili, I could point all day long and he never followed where my finger was going. So those are just some of the ways that scientists measure intelligence in a dog. And just little tidbit before my tail end tidbit, a border collie named chaser once learned over 1000 words.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
So some dogs are really, really smart, but always in different ways. I

Speaker 1 (42:37):
Know, I know a thousand words.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Well, maybe you can come up with some words to answer Laura's question from San Diego.

Speaker 1 (42:46):
Okay, let's see.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Alright, Laura says, hi, my son recently got a beta fish. Is it beta or beta?

Speaker 1 (42:53):
It's beta.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
It's beta. Okay. A beta. Beta, okay. Her son recently got a beta fish and she says we want to make sure we're taking good care of it. What size tank and type of environment does a beta fish really need to stay healthy and happy?

Speaker 1 (43:08):
This is a great question and I believe I have the proper words. Let's find out.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
Okay,

Speaker 1 (43:14):
So fun fact beta fish is one of the few species of fish that I did actually own, but I was a child and I knew none of the things that I know today. And I realize now that I would've done things much differently if I was older than eight and much more intelligent to these things. So first, let's talk tank size. I think that's really the one that everybody gets hung up on and it's for good reason. There's different needs for different species of fish. And betas are a notoriously aggressive fish and are typically tanked in isolation because they're known as fighting fish. They will attack and attempt to dominate other fish there around and it's just dangerous to keep them with other fish. So I'm going to say a number here that's going to sound big compared to what they're probably going to tell you at the pet store, but I sure you have my reasons.

(44:06):
I would go as high as a 10 gallon tank. And that sounds really big for a single fish, but there's a few reasons. So you want that tank long and not deep. Beta fish are shallow swimmers. They don't really want a lot of depth to their tank. They love to explore and they love to hide. So the reason you want a bigger tank, I'd say you could go down to five and nobody's going to call you a bad person any less than that. And you're starting to get into unethical fishbowl status for this kind of breed. And now the reason you want a bigger tank is you really want to fill it with plants. And when I say plants, they can be plastic, but really actual aquatic plants are going to a, it's going to be easier on their fins. Beta fish have very sensitive feathery fins and you don't want anything sharp or plastic.

(44:53):
So when they're swimming and smack into things, you don't want that damage to happen. You want to be able to attribute any damage or imperfections in their fins to health. And you don't want to think, oh, we probably just knocked it on the corner of that little treasure chest we put in. You really want to use that indication of their thinness to when they might need a specialist to come in and look at them. And those plants also act as hiding spaces, which they really appreciate. And it's going to improve the quality of the water just the way, the same way the trees around us improve the quality of our air. These plants can improve the quality of their water. So I looked up some stats too, and these come from the internet and not me, just to get them out there. On some of the more numerical aspects, you're looking at water between 75 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, a pH level between six and eight, and you want a low flow filter.

(45:51):
These are fish that are pond or lake fish. They don't want a strong flow. So a low flow filter and when you're doing your water changes, your weekly water changes, you want to be changing out at least 25% of the water and refreshing it. So they are, I would say they are pleasantly nestled in the area of starter fish, but I would say they are advanced starter fish because they do require a particular type of care. But you're doing a great job by asking these questions before getting the fish. And if you stay on top of it, you could get into a routine. And once you have everything down pat, their actual maintenance is very simple and they're beautiful to look at. I think they're a great pet.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
Yeah. Now Laura, now your son can take beta care of his beta.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
Well, on that note, we're going to go ahead and end this funny edition of Pets at Life. We hope you had as much fun as we did doing this episode. We'll be back as always, every Tuesday, watch this on YouTube, the socials. I believe my good friend Kristen as a talented, for all I do,

Speaker 2 (46:58):
I should have stopped at beta. The beta for the tail end. But

Speaker 1 (47:00):
Mo Beto,

Speaker 2 (47:01):
We talked earlier about dogs understanding words today, but did you know that scientists discovered that dogs don't just learn words by sound? They actually can recognize written words on screen. And this is a study that was out of a university in Hungary. This was the first time ever documented that a non-human animal learned to recognize the word by its spelling. So next time you spell the word WALK, thinking that you're going to avoid exciting your dog, don't be so sure that you're fooling her.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
There we go. You heard it here first. Your dogs can read and so can you go read a book? Stop listening to podcasts. Just kidding. Listen to us again next Tuesday. We'll be here waiting for you all. See you then. Pets, add life, your guide to the latest in Pet Trends products and the joy of the human animal Bond with Kristen Levine and me. Chris Bonti, powered by the American Pet Products Association and Dog tv. I not say dog tv, I say it weird.