Kibble vs. Whole Foods with Maria Ringo
In this week’s episode of “It’s A Dog’s Life,” Angela Ardolino and Maria Ringo cover one of the most common questions asked.
“What kibble do you recommend?”
Angela’s answer almost 100% of the time will be, none.
Kibble is convenient and cheap, just like fast food for humans. So it’s understandable when life gets hard – it’s easier to just grab that bag of kibble or that fast-food burger on the way home and eat it to keep going on with your day.
Keeping this in mind, Angela found something very similar to “kibble.” It’s fast, convenient, but also has fresh humane raised ingredients.
The women behind this food for our pets is Maria Ringo DHMHS, CCH, HOM, licensed homeopathic practitioner, and Co-Founder of Carna4.
About Maria Ringo
Maria Ringo started in the pet industry over 35 years ago. Very similar to Angela, Maria went on the hunt for a good and natural food product for her dogs and couldn’t find one.
Along with her business partner, Maria ended up creating the dog food she wanted for her own pets.
When they couldn’t find something they would feed their own dogs – they created their own. Filled with oats, herbs, groundnuts, and more, Maria and her business partner would sell bags for pet parents.
“Everyone thought we were crazy.” – Maria Ringo
But still, over 35 years later, Maria continues to educate, sell, and push natural whole foods for our pets and ourselves.
Even though she sold that company with her partner, Maria moved back to Canada to become a Homeopathic Physician in her private practice.
Maria graduated from Ontario College of Homeopathy Medicine with honors in both Homeopathy and Science. She is a member of the Faculty of the Ontario College of Homeopathic Medicine and a licensed member of the College of Homeopaths Ontario, a past-President of the Ontario Homeopath Association, and is also the Co-Founder and Director of Healthcare for Carna4.
The Next Generation of Convenient Food
Later in life, Maria’s husband, David Stauble, had the idea to start this brand new company alongside Maria.
Combining both of their knowledge, they created the next generation of convenient food – Carna4.
Even though a raw diet is best for our pets, Maria and David wanted to create something that was both healthy and easy for pet parents just like them. When you feed raw, it’s a process. Carna4 was created to make healthy eating for pets easy.
“It’s pulling people into raw.” – Maria Ringo
Learn more about Carna4 products >>
Defining “Kibble”
Maria let us in on her definition of “kibble.”
“I would describe it as extruded, over-processed food made with cheap ingredients with hardly any real nutrition left when you extrude a food. It’s like making breakfast cereal, high heat high acidity turns whatever that food product originally was into literal mush. And it’s there’s no nutrition in it which is why pet food manufacturers and cereal manufacturers have to add all these synthetic vitamin minerals because they literally processed the nutrition out of it.” – Maria Ringo
Angela and Maria both agree they don’t recommend kibble, but they both understand the easiness about it in our crazy world.
That’s why there are options like Carna4, the second best thing to a raw diet.
Sprouted Organic Ground Seeds
On top of the dog food, Carna4 provides food toppers with tons of nutrition for our pets. One of those being spouted organic ground seeds.
There is a crazy amount of nutrition in sprouted seeds! But there is a difference when they’re sprouted.
Maria explained it starting with a tree. A tree can be huge, but it started as an acorn buried in the earth. Later watered by the rain, it will sprout into an entire oak tree. This is the way to think about sprouts. Sprouts contain all the features to grow an entire tree. Probiotics, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, they’re all in that one seed.
So, when you take that seed, sprout it, dry it to just the right amount so the nutrients are now available for your pet and us.
Learn more about Carna4 Sprouted Seeds >>
The “Grain-Free” Marketing Term
The pet industry displays different things that are good and bad for our pets – but people need to still do their research.
For example, we see it everywhere – the “Grain-Free” diet. This marketing term has now caused fear in pet parents against grains. In other words, a fear against DCM (Dilated cardiomyopathy).
What a lot of people don’t know is, if you look at the actual FDA reports for DCM, you’ll find that the dogs that suffered were eating diets low in taurine.
Taurine comes from meats, organ meats, fish as well. So without enough meat or taurine in the diet, the dog is at a higher risk of DCM.
Reports even showed the dogs that were suffering from DCM, improved after adding taurine to their diet.
TIP: When you buy your next bag of dog food, look at the first 5 ingredients.If you see things like pea protein isolate, corn, or wheat or corn gluten meal. This is not going to have taurine. Your dog needs meat!
Educate yourself about ingredients.
The Process
“It’s a long process and it’s not easy. I’ll tell you.” – Maria Ringo
Maria and David made sure they knew their sources!
For example, when they were first sourcing their apples, they actually visited the farmer in Ontario, Canada, and learned about his whole farm and the whole process of simply growing the apple.
Maria and David continued this check-in with all their sources to make sure they understood, approved, and just knew the process of how their ingredients were being made.
It’s a constant job, but Maria and David do it because it’s right.
To learn more about Carna4 and Maria Ringo, visit http://carna4.com
About Angela Ardolino
Angela Ardolino is passionate about animals and has dedicated her life to providing all-natural relief to pets of all ages and breeds. Ardolino has worked with animals for over 20 years and operates Fire Flake Farm, a rescue farm in Lutz, FL. A medical cannabis expert, Ardolino holds a degree in the therapeutic uses of cannabis from the University of Vermont School of Medicine and is the founder of CBD Dog Health. Combining her background in broadcast journalism and her passion for pets, Ardolino is the host of a pet-centric podcast, “It’s a Dog’s Life” on Cannabis Radio. Additionally, she is the owner of Beautify the Beast, a natural pet salon and spa. Ardolino cares for anywhere from 5 to 20 dogs, 9 geese, 12 chickens, 12 ducks, 2 rabbits, and 1 pig at any given time on her farm. Visit www.AngelaArdolino.com and www.CBDDogHealth.com to learn more.
About Maria Ringo
Maria Ringo started in the pet industry over 35 years ago. Very similar to Angela, Maria went on the hunt for a good and natural food product for her dogs and couldn’t find one. Along with her business partner at the time, Maria ended up creating the dog food she wanted for her own pets. Even though she sold that company, over 35 years later, Maria continues to educate, sell, and push natural whole foods for our pets and ourselves. Maria then moved back to Canada to become a Homeopathic Physician in her private practice. Maria graduated from Ontario College of Homeopathy Medicine with honors in both Homeopathy and Science. She is a member of the Faculty of the Ontario College of Homeopathic Medicine and a licensed member of the College of Homeopaths Ontario, a past-President of the Ontario Homeopath Association, and is also the Co-Founder and Director of Healthcare for Carna4.