What Do I Feed My Pet?? And Why Their Requirements Are More Like Us Than You Think
Are you one of the millions of pet parents struggling with what to feed your dog or cat? There’s so much information out there and much of it is conflicting. So, what’s the best choice…and why? Does bio-individuality matter? Is lightly cooking or raw best? My guest today is Billy Hoekman, a highly respected expert in pet nutrition, self-taught over the years and a wealth of important information for us. Billy is the Vice President of Nutrition and Communication for a brand I love called Green JuJu. He’s involved in formulation, product development and works closely with the farmers. Get ready. You’re about to get a coveted peak behind the curtain of feeding pets and I guarantee you’ll leave this episode having learned some valuable information.
Listen to Episode #26 Now:
BIO:
Billy Hoekman is Vice President of Nutrition and Communication for Green Juju. He is involved in formulation, product development, working with farmers, science education, and sales and marketing. He participates frequently in expert panels and speaks nationally and internationally in venues ranging from universities and conferences to public libraries. He also serves on the board of directors for multiple organizations, attends AAFCO meetings, and has numerous published articles. He is a trusted pet health advocate that specializes in turning hard to understand nutrition concepts into plain English. He lives in Lancaster Pennsylvania with his wife Emily, their daughter Maple, and their dog Huckleberry.
Transcript:
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Announcer: Let's talk pets.
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Jody Teiche: One of the most asked questions I encounter from pet parents is what to feed.
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Jody Teiche: There is so much information out there, it's like drinking from a fire hose, and that much of it is conflicting doesn't help either.
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Jody Teiche: My guest today, Billy Hoekman, is the Vice President of Nutrition and Communication for a brand called Green JuJu.
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Jody Teiche: Billy's involved in the formulation of their food products, their development, and he also works with the farmers.
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Jody Teiche: He knows the science behind why they develop the products they do and behind what he suggests to pet parents to feed.
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Jody Teiche: I'm excited because I've been hearing Billy's name for years, have used both Green JuJu's products for my dogs as well as the company he used to be an integral part of called Answers Pet Food.
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Jody Teiche: So today, we're going to unpack nutrition a bit.
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Jody Teiche: We're going to get some insight into how Billy looks at it and learn a bit about his history before he became a go-to expert panelist and speaker around the world.
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Jody Teiche: I'm Jody L.
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Jody Teiche: Teiche, and you're listening to The Pet Health Coach on Pet Life Radio.
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Jody Teiche: We're going to take a short break from our sponsor here, so grab that healthy beverage, get comfortable, and we'll be right back.
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Jody Teiche: Welcome back.
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Jody Teiche: You're listening to The Pet Health Coach on Pet Life Radio, and I'm Jody Teiche.
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Jody Teiche: Our guest today is Billy Hoekman, an expert speaker on nutrition for dogs and cats, and the VP of nutrition and communication for a brand called Green JuJu.
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Jody Teiche: Let's learn more about how Billy looks at nutrition for pets and why.
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Jody Teiche: Welcome, Billy.
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Billy Hoekman: Thank you for having me.
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Jody Teiche: It's my pleasure.
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Jody Teiche: I'm really glad that you came on the show.
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Jody Teiche: Thank you.
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Jody Teiche: So you've been called the dog nutrition guru, but your beginnings weren't filled with university lectures on pet nutrition and degrees.
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Jody Teiche: Tell us what life was like for you growing up and how you got curious about pet nutrition.
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Billy Hoekman: Well, yeah, it's kind of an interesting thing that I ended up in this career path because growing up, I had no pets whatsoever.
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Billy Hoekman: There might have been like a bird in there randomly for a short period of time, maybe some fish or something, but my brother was allergic to basically all mammals that we could have at any given time.
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Billy Hoekman: And so I never had any pets growing up.
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Billy Hoekman: I was very scared of dogs and didn't really understand why people had them.
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Billy Hoekman: I always thought of them as kind of like a nuisance at the time because I just, I didn't really grow up with it, which is on a side note, something having a dog now and a daughter, watching them come together and become best friends is one of the best things I've ever experienced.
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Billy Hoekman: But it was interesting because I ended up getting a dog in my 20s and this dog's name was Lua and she passed away about two years ago, but there's not a lot of people I know, especially in this industry, that have their first dog when they're in their 20s.
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Billy Hoekman: But the way that my brain sort of works is I think about maybe three or four different subjects and I think about them all the time.
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Billy Hoekman: Most of those are dorky things like Marvel Comics, superhero movies and things like that.
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Billy Hoekman: But one of them happened to be, I got this dog and I brought her to a pet store and I said, what do I feed this dog?
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Billy Hoekman: And that question has never become uninteresting to me.
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Billy Hoekman: It's what I think about 98% of my day and my favorite thing in the past going on, I guess, 20 years is feeding the dog and thinking about new ways to, where my passion comes in is trying to push nutrition forward and not trying to do the same things that have been done or really, you know, just take established knowledge and make products that are within that spectrum.
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Billy Hoekman: But I really try to do new things that people haven't thought up yet and things along those lines.
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Billy Hoekman: So I don't come from, I mean, I worked for free for a company for two years and had no experience going into that and really worked my way up to vice president and now work for Green JuJu as vice president.
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Billy Hoekman: So I'm 100% self-taught and 100% proof that the information that you need is out there for everybody.
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Billy Hoekman: There's no longer like a wall between people who are educated and formally and uneducated.
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Billy Hoekman: You can get that information if you want it.
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Billy Hoekman: And so it's been really my joy to have been able to sort of pursue my passion and I feel very lucky to do what I do for a living.
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Jody Teiche: Yeah, I mean, a few things come up for me with what you just said.
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Jody Teiche: One is after growing up the way you grew up and thinking what you thought about dogs, what prompted you to get Lua in your 20s?
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Jody Teiche: Like what changed?
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Jody Teiche: So get that the first thing.
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Billy Hoekman: Yeah, no, that's a great question.
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Billy Hoekman: So it was funny because, and I'm in no way saying that people should copy this way of getting a dog, because keep in mind, I had no idea what I was, I had no idea how to get a dog, anything like that at the time.
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Billy Hoekman: I was living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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Billy Hoekman: So I got Lua from a pet store.
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Billy Hoekman: I will say, from a karma perspective, I did have a fundraiser against puppy mills, and I raised enough money at the time to, that was more than Lua cost.
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Billy Hoekman: So I felt like I was in a good place when it came to that.
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Jody Teiche: Yeah, you squared away with the universe.
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Billy Hoekman: Yeah, and I wouldn't change it because she was just such a beautiful part of my life.
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Billy Hoekman: But it was really just seeing her, this small pug puppy, and being like, maybe it's because I eventually, becoming a father has been a whole different thing in terms of a kid, a human child, but maybe it was just maybe the next step or just seeing her.
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Billy Hoekman: But I don't know, I just looked at her and thought, that's my dog.
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Jody Teiche: That's beautiful.
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Jody Teiche: And very oftentimes, dogs are the bridge to being fathers and mothers of human kids.
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Jody Teiche: So they're good practice, actually.
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Jody Teiche: The other thing that came up for me, Billy, is what's so exciting, and I know that you'll totally feel this too, is everything that we're learning and have learned over the past few years about human nutrition and foods you can eat to feel better emotionally, to combat depression, to just be more vibrantly healthy.
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Jody Teiche: A lot of that, not everything, but a lot of that translates to our pets.
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Jody Teiche: And what's so exciting and what you're smack in the middle of and pushing forward is taking those beautiful whole foods that may not have been put together in a way that you're doing it at Green JuJu and offering that to our pets for optimal health.
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Jody Teiche: And I want to talk more about that and get, you know, sort of unpack the products.
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Jody Teiche: But I first would love to talk about how you and Answers came together.
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Jody Teiche: Maybe a lot of people listening will recognize Answers Pet Food or Pet Company.
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Jody Teiche: They were also a front runner when they came out and grew in space of optimal health for animals and, you know, the beautiful products that they did.
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Jody Teiche: How did you guys come together and what was that trajectory like?
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Billy Hoekman: Well, when I started there, I really identified with what they were doing at the time.
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Billy Hoekman: I was actually working in many other aspects of the, just the pet space in general.
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Billy Hoekman: I was living in Seattle and had my own pet sitting business and worked in a daycare slash retail store.
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Billy Hoekman: And actually, it was funny because I really got my start.
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Billy Hoekman: I begged my way to get one shift in the retail store from the manager at the time who became a good friend of mine.
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Billy Hoekman: And I was like, I know a lot about nutrition, I swear.
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Billy Hoekman: Let me have one shift.
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Billy Hoekman: But I saw it at the time and I said, this is the people who were involved, who I didn't know at the time, my mentor at the time, Jacqueline and her sister Roxanne.
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Billy Hoekman: And I said, this is who I want to work for.
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Billy Hoekman: And so I sent out a very long email to Jacqueline about who I was.
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Billy Hoekman: And my love of science and nutrition in general.
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Billy Hoekman: And said, I want to work with you, so you have to hire me.
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Billy Hoekman: And she did for free.
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Billy Hoekman: So she hired me, but for free, as I mentioned.
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Billy Hoekman: And had to have the other jobs and do this one.
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Billy Hoekman: But I think that that's where the drive comes in.
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Billy Hoekman: I feel a lot of, I think from your inner perspective, you're the only one that's really going to change your life or make it better.
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Billy Hoekman: And so I knew I wanted to do that.
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Billy Hoekman: And so working for free for that time wasn't really a problem for me.
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Billy Hoekman: And it was a really cool thing because of me and those two.
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Billy Hoekman: And unfortunately, Jacqueline passed away last year.
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Billy Hoekman: And Roxanne is, they were both, they both are still the godmothers to my daughter.
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Billy Hoekman: So we remain very close in that sense.
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Billy Hoekman: But it was a really neat collaboration because we kind of all came from a different perspective and taught each other and, you know, really started to kind of push things forward at the time from there.
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Jody Teiche: Yeah, yeah.
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Jody Teiche: It was, it was a fantastic journey from what I've learned about it.
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Jody Teiche: There's also a cool story about how you connected with Green JuJu.
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Jody Teiche: Tell us about that.
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Billy Hoekman: Well, a lot of people may not know this, but I was actually the first Green JuJu customer of all time because...
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Jody Teiche: Wow...
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Billy Hoekman: .
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Billy Hoekman: Kelly had brought a sample into a store in Seattle locally, Kelly marrying the owner in like 2014, I want to say.
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Billy Hoekman: And she told the employee to give it to the owner so that she could try it.
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Billy Hoekman: And obviously they weren't, you know, don't, she told, she said, don't sell this.
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Billy Hoekman: We don't have a price point or anything.
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Billy Hoekman: And she laughed at about an hour later.
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Billy Hoekman: So I walked in and they sold it to me.
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Billy Hoekman: So I was actually the first Green JuJu customer, which, you know, is, is I don't think a coincidence.
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Jody Teiche: Yeah, there are none.
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Billy Hoekman: And I knew when I was leaving my last job that, you know, the things I valued, so, you know, the, the integrity, the sourcing, the thing, the type of formulation, the ingredients, and also just Kelly is a person, you know, having been friends with her for about 10 years, I knew I wanted to work with her.
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Billy Hoekman: So good news for me, I flew out there and met with her and she wanted to work with me.
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Billy Hoekman: And since then, it's really been an incredible experience on my end, just in terms of, we're one of the, one of the few fast growing companies in the pet food industry that doesn't have outside investment, like an investment group or a board of, you know, a board that we'd have to go to.
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Billy Hoekman: So for me, the freedom for us to be able to make decisions and especially make decisions about what we're formulating and why, it's really just comes down to whatever me and Kelly think is cool.
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Billy Hoekman: And then we just do it.
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Billy Hoekman: And R&D, a lot of it happens in my kitchen and, you know, gets sized up from there, you know, into production and that kind of thing.
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Billy Hoekman: And so I never thought I could like a job as much, but I like this one the best.
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Jody Teiche: That is wonderful.
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Jody Teiche: And it's so pure and like unfettered to not have to answer to a board or investors and to really just be able to go with your gut.
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Jody Teiche: No pun intended, but to go with it.
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Jody Teiche: So that's really very cool.
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Jody Teiche: Let's talk a bit about the products.
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Jody Teiche: So tell us something about the core products, what's in them, why, and we can expand from there.
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Billy Hoekman: Yeah, so the core products were developed.
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Billy Hoekman: I guess I kind of contributed to one of them, but are the vegetable blends, which were the core of the company, which were was what in the beginning it was just the vegetable blends.
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Billy Hoekman: And I was just talking today about this, that the more and more I invest time in working with animals and my own dog, I just think that what Kelly developed back then in terms of those vegetable blends, we have just Green's, Bailey's blend, and now the Golden blend, is as much a part of nutrition as the animal-based ingredients.
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Billy Hoekman: Just because something doesn't make up a majority of a diet calorically doesn't mean it doesn't make a huge difference.
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Billy Hoekman: I know for my own dog personally, fiber and large amounts of fiber is integral to his health specifically.
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Billy Hoekman: So those products are, we have two Green blends that basically are, they have the same purpose but work in different ways.
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Billy Hoekman: So they are both Green blends, but they have different ingredients because in nature, every food is going to be basically full of different vitamins, phytochemicals, different nutrients and you want to get as big of a base as possible.
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Billy Hoekman: So if you're looking for broccoli, you could use one.
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Billy Hoekman: If you're looking for dandelion greens, you could use another one.
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Billy Hoekman: And I think the biggest role that they play, and this is like not understating antioxidants and vitamins and minerals and phytonutrients, but a lot of people aren't considering that there's two types of bacteria groups in my opinion to feed.
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Billy Hoekman: So the first one you have is the probiotic bacteria, which you're going to get from diet, typically, and those last about one to three days in the digestive tract.
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Billy Hoekman: So the blends, which are going to be all this diversified fiber from all these different plants, are going to feed those.
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Billy Hoekman: And that's as important as getting them.
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Billy Hoekman: You have to feed those things.
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Billy Hoekman: Now, these are low carb blends.
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Billy Hoekman: So what you get there is not very many calories, or I'm sorry, not very many carbohydrates, but with high fiber.
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Billy Hoekman: So it's kind of the best of both worlds.
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Billy Hoekman: But then you also have the second grouping, which companies like Animal Biomeasure, which are the innate bacteria that always live in your gut, that are there from your dog's mother and environment.
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Billy Hoekman: And you want to be able to feed both of those, because we know that those are directly related to digesting protein, to immunity, to producing vitamins in the gut, a lot of different functions.
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Billy Hoekman: And so I think that generally when it comes to raw fed dogs around the country, they're not really getting enough plants and or diversity in plants.
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Billy Hoekman: And so I think that the blends are, should be used by basically every dog owner, even if they're feeding a raw diet.
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Jody Teiche: Yeah, we are learning more and more that balancing with plants is super important.
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Jody Teiche: How do you feel about, because I know there was some Green JuJu products that go beyond the greens.
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Jody Teiche: How do you feel about eating the rainbow for dogs?
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Billy Hoekman: Yeah, we actually, when stores bring in our products, we have something as an initial stocking order called Treat the Rainbow.
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Billy Hoekman: Because we have throughout all of our products, we have these very vibrant vegetable colors and fruit, berry colors in some instances.
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Billy Hoekman: And that's because we are primarily a plant company.
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Billy Hoekman: And so we have a treat line that is basically color based, because in every color in nature is a different antioxidant subtype, and you want to vary those subtypes just generally.
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Billy Hoekman: So we have beef red, we have bison green, we have salmon blue, duck orange, and pork pink.
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Billy Hoekman: And all of those things are organ meats and or obviously the salmon, but otherwise than that, organ meats, which are the most nutrient dense form of meat, mixed with those deep kind of plant antioxidant colors.
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Billy Hoekman: And so that I think that's a very important way to do it.
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Billy Hoekman: I think everyone should feed their animals many different nutrient dense whole foods as possible, especially given the nature of the flawed nature of nutrient testing in food.
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Jody Teiche: Yeah, absolutely.
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Jody Teiche: Okay, that's great to hear.
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Jody Teiche: So what about your thoughts on bio individuality when it comes to pets and what works best for each individual animal?
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Jody Teiche: What have you found over the years about that?
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Billy Hoekman: I think that's as relevant as it is in human nutrition.
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Billy Hoekman: So everyone in the human world knows like, oh, this diet generally works for me or this diet works for someone else.
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Billy Hoekman: I can tell you me and Kelly both focus on nutrition in our own lives to a huge degree, and our diets are very different from each other.
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Billy Hoekman: Most people aren't like me and eating raw egg yolks and drinking raw milk and things like that, and she's definitely not, but she's found a diet that works best for her body.
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Billy Hoekman: And I am in the exact same boat.
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Billy Hoekman: And so I think it is the same exact thing with dogs.
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Billy Hoekman: And I think this is where people get too stuck on, well, this is what the fat to protein ratio needs to be.
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Billy Hoekman: This is how many plants or how many carbohydrates or what is the diet makeup.
00:17:59.580 --> 00:18:03.580
Billy Hoekman: And the cool thing is you get to figure out with your own dog what works best for them.
00:18:04.480 --> 00:18:13.220
Billy Hoekman: I think I'm finally in a place where I figured my dog's a year and a half and I finally figured out like, okay, this is what works for him on a daily basis.
00:18:13.600 --> 00:18:17.860
Billy Hoekman: And that includes the foods we give him when we're cooking.
00:18:18.340 --> 00:18:23.680
Billy Hoekman: That includes the food that my daughter loves to give him when she's eating in her high chair.
00:18:23.800 --> 00:18:26.980
Billy Hoekman: So, you know, that's all a part of diet.
00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:39.800
Billy Hoekman: And I think you can look at ranges of nutrients and things like that, but figure out what works for your dog and there's always going to be people who tell you like, especially on the internet and stuff like, you should be doing this or you should be doing that.
00:18:40.320 --> 00:18:42.580
Billy Hoekman: Find what works for your dog and just be confident in it.
00:18:43.160 --> 00:18:43.900
Jody Teiche: Exactly.
00:18:43.960 --> 00:18:45.580
Jody Teiche: And that can change over time.
00:18:45.920 --> 00:18:55.720
Jody Teiche: You know, as dogs get older, sometimes their tolerance or tastes change when it comes to diets that they ate even for years when they were younger.
00:18:55.820 --> 00:19:02.540
Jody Teiche: So, yeah, I think it's always like experimenting, tweaking, finding what works.
00:19:03.080 --> 00:19:06.920
Jody Teiche: And yeah, just, you know, kind of sticking with that as long as it's working.
00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:10.140
Jody Teiche: And then more experimentation and tweaking if it's not.
00:19:10.920 --> 00:19:12.400
Jody Teiche: So, yeah, fermentation.
00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:18.220
Jody Teiche: So important for gut health, for humans, and we've learned now for pets, too.
00:19:18.760 --> 00:19:21.620
Jody Teiche: I know that's a topic near and dear to your heart.
00:19:21.620 --> 00:19:27.440
Jody Teiche: Talk a bit about what you've learned about it and what it does, why it's so important, and how you incorporate it.
00:19:27.540 --> 00:19:36.020
Billy Hoekman: So, you know, I think people who have any familiarity with me at all know I love fermentation and do a lot at home for myself personally.
00:19:36.040 --> 00:19:42.520
Billy Hoekman: I always have a bunch of different projects, be it even if they're like, even if they're, say, you know, for...
00:19:42.800 --> 00:19:51.460
Billy Hoekman: It's always funny because I take pictures of food and put them on Instagram of my pets' food, and a lot of times I can't include things because they're future products for Green JuJu.
00:19:51.520 --> 00:19:58.480
Billy Hoekman: So at any given time, I'm feeding huckleberry, other fermented things that just, you know, maybe haven't been put out yet.
00:19:58.560 --> 00:20:05.600
Billy Hoekman: Or I would encourage anyone listening, you know, brew your own kombucha, make your own yogurt, do all these things because you'll be healthier.
00:20:05.620 --> 00:20:06.900
Billy Hoekman: And I think it's fun.
00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:10.220
Billy Hoekman: I'm a huge nerd, but there's that.
00:20:10.300 --> 00:20:16.520
Billy Hoekman: So fermentation is kind of just another grouping of food products.
00:20:16.540 --> 00:20:21.040
Billy Hoekman: So it's really just taking fresh food, which has its own nutrition profile.
00:20:21.600 --> 00:20:29.040
Billy Hoekman: And pre-digesting it with bacteria to get new elements and to get a different nutrition profile, which again, that's what we're trying to do.
00:20:29.060 --> 00:20:35.640
Billy Hoekman: And also, it's the number one way to get probiotics into the diet because those probiotics are going to be in a food matrix.
00:20:36.280 --> 00:20:42.420
Billy Hoekman: And that's how dogs, cats, people, that's how we all evolved getting our probiotics was from food itself.
00:20:42.760 --> 00:20:44.700
Billy Hoekman: So they just stand up better in the gut.
00:20:45.040 --> 00:20:48.520
Billy Hoekman: And so there's a whole host of reasons to add fermented products.
00:20:48.820 --> 00:20:51.720
Billy Hoekman: Like we have Bam's Beets and Lua's Fermented Golden Paste.
00:20:52.240 --> 00:20:55.800
Billy Hoekman: Those are two really great fermented products on the vegetable side of things.
00:20:55.820 --> 00:21:03.300
Billy Hoekman: We have a video on our website where you can ferment our raw milk that we have and kind of rotate between different probiotic sources.
00:21:03.320 --> 00:21:08.220
Billy Hoekman: But it's really, I think there's more of it in the pet industry now.
00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:13.720
Billy Hoekman: But I think that's kind of the future, you know, of probiotics in a sense.
00:21:13.980 --> 00:21:22.520
Jody Teiche: Yeah, and we've learned that a lot of the probiotics that are on the market don't ever even make it to the colon.
00:21:22.700 --> 00:21:27.560
Jody Teiche: You know, the athetid in a dog's stomach just decimates the bacteria.
00:21:27.720 --> 00:21:40.840
Jody Teiche: So it really takes, well, whole foods is great and best, but it takes knowing that and creating something that is going to get through the whole digestive tract too, right?
00:21:41.800 --> 00:21:49.600
Billy Hoekman: Yeah, I mean, I think some of that is slightly overblown in terms of like, oh, the dog's stomach destroys everything.
00:21:49.620 --> 00:21:52.420
Billy Hoekman: I mean, I've even heard that when it comes to like antioxidants.
00:21:52.440 --> 00:21:56.180
Billy Hoekman: And, you know, there's always gray areas in nutrition.
00:21:56.200 --> 00:22:06.920
Billy Hoekman: But I mean, I do think some of that is I don't think you have to feed, you know, I've seen people say online, you have to feed probiotics before you feed food because of the stomach acid.
00:22:06.940 --> 00:22:10.580
Billy Hoekman: But obviously, when you're food-based, you don't have to do things like that.
00:22:10.800 --> 00:22:16.420
Billy Hoekman: There were no probiotics when dogs were evolving and everybody needs, you know, good bacteria, especially from environment.
00:22:16.640 --> 00:22:19.580
Billy Hoekman: But food and Mother Nature still know best.
00:22:19.700 --> 00:22:24.420
Billy Hoekman: And I don't mean that in a very woo-woo sense, but just a very like evolutionary sense.
00:22:24.440 --> 00:22:50.160
Billy Hoekman: And so, you know, if I'm feeding my dog, you know, our freeze-dried food with some other ingredients and then getting a couple different fermented products in there, or even just say goat's milk, which has a neat good bacteria, over 200 species without doing any fermentation, that's where I'm going to put, you know, that's where I'm going to hedge my bet is hundreds of, you know, different species and then doing those soil-based probiotics.
00:22:50.700 --> 00:22:54.640
Billy Hoekman: I do think on a side note that Adored Beasts is doing some really interesting stuff.
00:22:55.040 --> 00:22:57.080
Jody Teiche: I was just thinking about Julianne.
00:22:57.560 --> 00:23:03.200
Billy Hoekman: Yeah, I'm using their Soil and Sea right now, along with the other stuff that I do.
00:23:03.640 --> 00:23:07.280
Billy Hoekman: So there's always, you know, room for what you can do there.
00:23:07.300 --> 00:23:15.740
Billy Hoekman: The other one I like to on the supplementary aspect is Saccharomyces boulardii, which is healthy yeast, which supports good bacteria.
00:23:15.760 --> 00:23:18.120
Billy Hoekman: So that's another interesting one.
00:23:18.140 --> 00:23:22.580
Billy Hoekman: But aside from that, but it's also still just about the combination.
00:23:22.600 --> 00:23:30.080
Billy Hoekman: So I'm using the Soil and Sea, but I'm also using raw milk fermented into something like called special yogurt that I make for myself.
00:23:30.880 --> 00:23:33.880
Billy Hoekman: And I'm also doing other fermented foods.
00:23:33.880 --> 00:23:36.000
Billy Hoekman: And so I think it's about that variety.
00:23:36.200 --> 00:23:52.300
Jody Teiche: And in terms of the fermented foods, outside of the two products you mentioned from Green JuJu, and the milk that you, the raw milk that you ferment as well, is there anything else that you would recommend to pet parents who are ambitious enough to do this stuff and have the time?
00:23:52.760 --> 00:23:57.620
Billy Hoekman: I can't say some of them because they almost certainly are going to be products.
00:23:58.160 --> 00:23:59.320
Billy Hoekman: They'll be available though.
00:23:59.340 --> 00:24:01.040
Billy Hoekman: So, that's the good news.
00:24:01.260 --> 00:24:05.800
Billy Hoekman: But I will say, I will give you one though that I can think of right off hand is Kombucha.
00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:07.180
Billy Hoekman: So, that's a really easy one.
00:24:07.640 --> 00:24:08.780
Billy Hoekman: You can buy it at the store.
00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:11.320
Billy Hoekman: You can buy it, you can brew it yourself.
00:24:11.760 --> 00:24:18.880
Billy Hoekman: Two things, number one, Kombucha is great for healthy yeast, for antioxidants and healthy bacteria.
00:24:18.920 --> 00:24:27.340
Billy Hoekman: And that, the serving size on that, that I typically recommend is about one teaspoon per 10 to 20 pounds, probably per 20 pounds, let's say.
00:24:28.420 --> 00:24:32.200
Billy Hoekman: It's just food, so it's kind of hard to overdo it, but that's usually what I recommend.
00:24:32.680 --> 00:24:42.100
Billy Hoekman: And then also, if you head on over to Judy Morgan's media, like her YouTube, I did a little live there on how to kind of ferment some berries with Kombucha.
00:24:42.120 --> 00:24:43.740
Billy Hoekman: It's a super easy process.
00:24:44.100 --> 00:24:46.620
Billy Hoekman: And then there, you can get berries that are...
00:24:46.640 --> 00:24:55.180
Billy Hoekman: You get the health benefit of the berries, but then you also pre-break down all of the sugars, or most of the sugars in the berries as well with fermentation.
00:24:55.600 --> 00:25:05.160
Billy Hoekman: So, I'd say if someone's listening, that would be the easiest thing to start with, because it's literally just putting berries in Kombucha and then leaving it for three days in your...
00:25:06.500 --> 00:25:07.900
Billy Hoekman: And then just keeping it in the fridge.
00:25:08.040 --> 00:25:09.420
Jody Teiche: Yeah, I'm totally going to try that.
00:25:09.780 --> 00:25:11.980
Jody Teiche: You had mentioned freeze-dried food.
00:25:12.260 --> 00:25:16.260
Jody Teiche: Can you tell us a little bit about what Green JuJu offers in that?
00:25:16.640 --> 00:25:19.020
Billy Hoekman: Yeah, we currently do freeze-dried food.
00:25:19.040 --> 00:25:21.520
Billy Hoekman: We are going to be doing frozen food as well.
00:25:21.540 --> 00:25:24.860
Billy Hoekman: We just, you know, have to take some time to figure out the sourcing aspects.
00:25:24.920 --> 00:25:26.240
Billy Hoekman: The sourcing aspects of that, et cetera.
00:25:26.260 --> 00:25:28.220
Billy Hoekman: Because it's a little bit different market.
00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:33.160
Billy Hoekman: Because with freeze-dried, you kind of deal in small dogs, and then it's used as a topper most of the time.
00:25:33.220 --> 00:25:37.020
Billy Hoekman: But we do something that's very different on the food side.
00:25:37.040 --> 00:25:41.840
Billy Hoekman: So we have bison, beef, pork, and then we have rabbit with duck liver.
00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:48.480
Billy Hoekman: And the bison, beef, and pork are only three ingredients from an allergy perspective.
00:25:48.900 --> 00:25:52.380
Billy Hoekman: And the rabbit with duck liver is only four.
00:25:52.640 --> 00:25:56.500
Billy Hoekman: So it's an extremely efficient and limited ingredient panel.
00:25:56.920 --> 00:25:58.640
Billy Hoekman: And there's no synthetic vitamins in it.
00:25:59.780 --> 00:26:09.440
Billy Hoekman: Most people who formulate food is relatively easy because if you're using synthetic vitamins, you can pretty much do anything and then just add those vitamins to meet that nutrition profile.
00:26:09.920 --> 00:26:11.560
Billy Hoekman: But we wanted to do it through food.
00:26:11.580 --> 00:26:17.180
Billy Hoekman: And so we replaced most or all of the muscle meat with heart, which is way more nutrient dense.
00:26:17.280 --> 00:26:22.980
Billy Hoekman: And then we use more kidney and liver really than any other brand to meet those nutrition profiles.
00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:25.880
Billy Hoekman: So aside from that, we just had to put a dark leafy green and kelp.
00:26:26.140 --> 00:26:27.400
Billy Hoekman: And that was pretty much it.
00:26:27.440 --> 00:26:33.940
Billy Hoekman: And so at Green JuJu, one of the big premises of our company is to really formulate for sensitive animals.
00:26:34.400 --> 00:26:41.360
Billy Hoekman: And so we formulated this where people could find one of those foods and it is complete and balanced.
00:26:41.380 --> 00:26:42.820
Billy Hoekman: That's the only thing they can do.
00:26:43.340 --> 00:26:46.680
Billy Hoekman: But then beyond that, they can mix and match with other products.
00:26:47.060 --> 00:26:50.400
Billy Hoekman: And figure out what works for their animal and kind of go from there.
00:26:50.420 --> 00:26:52.460
Billy Hoekman: So it's sourcing is always very important to me.
00:26:52.480 --> 00:26:59.360
Billy Hoekman: So we're second to none in terms of where animals come from and the quality of those animals in their lives.
00:26:59.720 --> 00:27:00.260
Jody Teiche: Yeah.
00:27:00.340 --> 00:27:01.840
Jody Teiche: Yeah, that sounds beautiful.
00:27:01.940 --> 00:27:02.880
Jody Teiche: I'm going to check that out.
00:27:03.400 --> 00:27:08.800
Jody Teiche: I use the Just Greens, freeze dried Just Greens for my guys.
00:27:09.440 --> 00:27:13.300
Jody Teiche: And I've absolutely noticed a difference since I've been using it.
00:27:14.560 --> 00:27:15.080
Billy Hoekman: Oh, great.
00:27:15.100 --> 00:27:16.680
Billy Hoekman: Yeah, that's why we're here.
00:27:17.060 --> 00:27:17.440
Jody Teiche: Yes.
00:27:17.600 --> 00:27:18.800
Jody Teiche: Yes, absolutely.
00:27:18.800 --> 00:27:36.500
Jody Teiche: And I'm always looking for products that are pure, limited ingredients, words that I can understand to check out for my animals and also for clients, because there are so many sensitive pets out there.
00:27:36.520 --> 00:27:43.180
Jody Teiche: We live in a very toxic world and our bodies and our pets' bodies are constantly being challenged.
00:27:43.380 --> 00:27:51.540
Jody Teiche: With the toxicity and everything from the air and the water and certain foods and the grass and et cetera and so forth.
00:27:51.560 --> 00:28:01.260
Jody Teiche: So yeah, beautiful things that we can get into their bodies to help continue to build them up and strengthen their immune systems and their gut microbiome is key.
00:28:01.540 --> 00:28:02.380
Jody Teiche: This is great.
00:28:02.860 --> 00:28:05.840
Jody Teiche: So I talk a lot about emotional contagion.
00:28:05.860 --> 00:28:07.040
Jody Teiche: That's what I call it.
00:28:07.340 --> 00:28:15.300
Jody Teiche: But this kind of interconnectedness of how we feel with how our pets feel and vice versa because they are so intuitive.
00:28:15.600 --> 00:28:20.660
Jody Teiche: And you've talked about the interconnectedness of our pets health and our own health and nutrition.
00:28:21.020 --> 00:28:23.680
Jody Teiche: Talk to us a little bit about your view on that.
00:28:24.420 --> 00:28:35.320
Billy Hoekman: Yeah, I mean, I think the jury's not out on, you know, I have a daughter and I am lucky to have an amazing dog that, you know, they're actually about the same age.
00:28:35.340 --> 00:28:38.260
Billy Hoekman: So Maples, too, and Huckleberry, the dog is about one and a half.
00:28:38.280 --> 00:28:41.920
Billy Hoekman: And so not only on the emotional side, but the jury's not out.
00:28:42.080 --> 00:28:52.600
Billy Hoekman: I mean, we know that kids who are raised with dogs and cats have less allergies, less asthma, and are just exposed to more, you know, good bacteria.
00:28:52.620 --> 00:28:56.800
Billy Hoekman: And especially, you know, as a family, we all share bacteria.
00:28:57.100 --> 00:29:03.840
Billy Hoekman: And so anything I can do for Huckleberry or if you can imagine, I'm obviously as crazy about Maples nutrition as well.
00:29:04.220 --> 00:29:10.240
Billy Hoekman: Anything we can do for each other is going to highly benefit anything that, you know, each other.
00:29:10.420 --> 00:29:16.940
Billy Hoekman: And so I think that that's important, but also just being able to watch from an emotional perspective.
00:29:17.320 --> 00:29:22.960
Billy Hoekman: I think all of our dogs sort of have a different place in our life at different stages of our life.
00:29:22.980 --> 00:29:31.020
Billy Hoekman: You know, when I had Lua, I had her alone for a long time, and it was just me and her and then I met my wife, and they had their own sort of distinct relationship.
00:29:31.460 --> 00:29:37.460
Billy Hoekman: And then we got Huckleberry after Mabel was born, and he is really the family dog.
00:29:37.480 --> 00:29:39.820
Billy Hoekman: And it's just a different experience.
00:29:39.840 --> 00:29:42.520
Billy Hoekman: He's all of our dog, and he's my daughter's best friend.
00:29:42.780 --> 00:29:50.440
Billy Hoekman: And it's a new motivation to keep him alive forever because, you know, she's so tied to him in that way.
00:29:50.460 --> 00:30:01.200
Billy Hoekman: And I just, you know, I've lived in both experiences, and this is all obviously from my own just personal experience, but I've lived in both experiences with and without dogs.
00:30:01.220 --> 00:30:06.300
Billy Hoekman: And I just think that they add, you know, and cats would be in the same regard.
00:30:06.320 --> 00:30:12.860
Billy Hoekman: They just add such an element, both from an emotional standpoint and but also from that physical standpoint.
00:30:13.180 --> 00:30:15.580
Billy Hoekman: And I think they can kind of drive us to do better as well.
00:30:16.200 --> 00:30:16.980
Jody Teiche: Absolutely.
00:30:17.000 --> 00:30:21.080
Jody Teiche: They add such a richness to our lives and depth to our lives.
00:30:21.800 --> 00:30:42.480
Jody Teiche: Regarding cats, mentioning cats, before we take a quick break, outside of the vegetable, the plant products, the meat products, are they good for cats as well, if there are cat parents listening out there who don't have dogs and who are interested in this kind of high quality nutrition?
00:30:42.820 --> 00:30:54.120
Billy Hoekman: Yeah, basically everything we make, because we have duck and bison bone broth, we have the raw goat's milk, we have all of our full treat line, which is mainly animal.
00:30:54.140 --> 00:30:57.960
Billy Hoekman: Our food is actually complete and balanced for both dogs and cats as well.
00:30:58.420 --> 00:31:01.360
Billy Hoekman: So everything we make is really great for cats.
00:31:01.380 --> 00:31:05.940
Billy Hoekman: And also cats can be very particular and picky about what they eat.
00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:10.600
Billy Hoekman: And we have extremely good palatability on our food and also our treats.
00:31:10.620 --> 00:31:13.100
Billy Hoekman: And I think that comes from the high organ meat content.
00:31:13.240 --> 00:31:31.900
Billy Hoekman: And also the other thing too is our food, because it's so nutritionally dense, when you rehydrate it, it absorbs all the moisture, but it stays in its shape, like most foods, because I think it's because they're really high in plants, they break down as they hydrate, but ours stays in its form.
00:31:31.920 --> 00:31:34.120
Billy Hoekman: And I think cats tend to prefer that.
00:31:34.560 --> 00:31:44.640
Billy Hoekman: So for those listening with cats, I would encourage highly to, if you're feeding a, let's say, processed diet without much moisture, our goat's milk and bone broth would be a must.
00:31:45.200 --> 00:31:47.980
Billy Hoekman: And then beyond that, cats love treats too.
00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:51.280
Billy Hoekman: And so you can kind of just see what in our line your cat would like.
00:31:51.420 --> 00:31:52.820
Jody Teiche: Beautiful, beautiful.
00:31:53.060 --> 00:31:54.340
Jody Teiche: We're going to take a short break.
00:31:54.700 --> 00:31:57.620
Jody Teiche: So let's hold these thoughts.
00:31:58.240 --> 00:32:16.760
Jody Teiche: When we come back, we're going to talk with Billy about some key misconceptions pet parents might have about nutrition, what his diet is like, and also about one thing that is so very important to research to find out before you buy your pet's food.
00:32:23.800 --> 00:32:25.820
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00:33:01.690 --> 00:33:02.370
Jody Teiche: Welcome back.
00:33:02.390 --> 00:33:06.250
Jody Teiche: If you've just joined, you're listening to The Pet Health Coach on Pet Life Radio.
00:33:06.280 --> 00:33:07.820
Jody Teiche: And I'm Jody Teiche, your host.
00:33:08.320 --> 00:33:11.140
Jody Teiche: We're here today with pet nutrition expert, Billy Hoekman.
00:33:11.920 --> 00:33:19.800
Jody Teiche: Billy, what are some key misconceptions pet parents might have about nutrition that you've heard over the years?
00:33:20.360 --> 00:33:21.280
Billy Hoekman: A couple things.
00:33:21.400 --> 00:33:29.460
Billy Hoekman: I think, well, one of the things is we should always be, you know, on a side note, we should always be reevaluating what is a misconception or not a misconception.
00:33:30.140 --> 00:33:39.260
Billy Hoekman: Your idea of what's true now is going to be different in five years or could be the same in some categories, but we should always be willing to reevaluate information generally.
00:33:40.400 --> 00:33:41.760
Billy Hoekman: That's what science is.
00:33:41.840 --> 00:33:57.020
Billy Hoekman: I think one of the misconceptions of the industry is once you hold a position, you have to hold that position forever, but that's counter to both your pet's well-being and also just how your brain works just in general.
00:33:57.040 --> 00:33:58.980
Billy Hoekman: So that's one of the things.
00:33:59.080 --> 00:34:18.500
Billy Hoekman: I think one of the main things is that we swung so far away from plants because so many companies were using things like corn and soy and some of the plants we don't want to see in food that there's still people to this day, even though we have good evidence and science to show this is not true, that talk about dogs don't eat plants.
00:34:19.600 --> 00:34:27.200
Billy Hoekman: But in nutrition need is dogs don't, you need nutrients that come from unprocessed food.
00:34:27.740 --> 00:34:33.900
Billy Hoekman: And it doesn't matter if those nutrients are from plants or eggs or milk or meat.
00:34:34.460 --> 00:34:43.580
Billy Hoekman: So I think when people use the word need, they need to talk more about what nutrient profiles we're talking about versus, you know, those specific foods.
00:34:43.820 --> 00:34:44.540
Billy Hoekman: That makes sense.
00:34:44.940 --> 00:34:45.960
Jody Teiche: Yeah, it does.
00:34:46.000 --> 00:34:48.180
Jody Teiche: I mean, if you listen to Dr.
00:34:48.200 --> 00:34:54.500
Jody Teiche: Richard Pitcairn, he feeds his animals, and I think that's cats as well, a plant based diet.
00:34:54.920 --> 00:35:14.380
Jody Teiche: He does not believe that meat is good for our animals anymore because of the toxicity in the muscle meat from specially factory farming, you know, and eating off of pesticide, herbicide, you know, grasses or the kinds of things that factory farmed animals are fed.
00:35:14.400 --> 00:35:17.820
Jody Teiche: So there's a lot of different schools of thought out there.
00:35:18.020 --> 00:35:18.980
Jody Teiche: What's your diet like?
00:35:19.100 --> 00:35:21.900
Billy Hoekman: Well, my diet is the opposite of that.
00:35:23.480 --> 00:35:33.340
Billy Hoekman: Just in general, I don't prescribe to a specific, like people say, like, I'm keto or I'm paleo or I'm vegan or I don't prescribe to a particular diet.
00:35:33.340 --> 00:35:36.240
Billy Hoekman: I just try to eat as many nutrient dense foods as possible.
00:35:36.260 --> 00:35:39.380
Billy Hoekman: But I eat a lot of well-sourced animal products.
00:35:39.600 --> 00:35:51.860
Billy Hoekman: You know, my breakfast every morning is 16 ounces of raw or raw fermented dairy and then three raw egg yolks and some various, you know, whole food supplements.
00:35:52.120 --> 00:35:55.560
Billy Hoekman: Even on the road, I do that in hotel rooms, et cetera.
00:35:56.020 --> 00:35:57.680
Billy Hoekman: But I also look at the value.
00:35:57.700 --> 00:36:03.360
Billy Hoekman: For instance, me and my wife have been eating a lot of salads lately, typically have a banana in the afternoon.
00:36:03.380 --> 00:36:05.300
Billy Hoekman: I'm pretty regimented when it comes to this stuff.
00:36:05.740 --> 00:36:14.420
Billy Hoekman: But I'm also trying to teach my daughter a 90-10 rule because I think people drive themselves a little too crazy if they don't eat things they don't like sometimes.
00:36:15.060 --> 00:36:21.820
Billy Hoekman: And so, you know, it's the same thing with my daughter's been on a raw milk formula, you know, for the first year of her life.
00:36:21.840 --> 00:36:26.460
Billy Hoekman: She, her, oddly enough, her favorite food is raw milk with raw cod liver oil in it.
00:36:27.580 --> 00:36:30.740
Billy Hoekman: Yeah, she's like a baby from the 1920s or something.
00:36:31.460 --> 00:36:35.440
Billy Hoekman: But you know, she also loves cookies and ice cream.
00:36:35.620 --> 00:36:40.380
Billy Hoekman: And I think that that stuff for humans plays a role because, you know, you have to enjoy yourself as well.
00:36:40.400 --> 00:36:45.480
Billy Hoekman: So, you know, that's kind of kind of where I'm at where I was talking about earlier with Kelly and me's diet.
00:36:45.500 --> 00:36:57.300
Billy Hoekman: It's kind of like my diet is is pretty animal based and her diet is not, you know, she's she does eat meat and other things, but plants are a very high proportion of her diet.
00:36:57.320 --> 00:37:01.360
Billy Hoekman: So that's where again, where I think we can kind of get into the variants in diet.
00:37:01.380 --> 00:37:15.140
Billy Hoekman: But I also live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where I can get just, you know, amazing animal foods, avoiding those things that you were just talking about, you know, in terms of the in terms of factory farming and pesticides and herbicides and things.
00:37:15.400 --> 00:37:21.740
Jody Teiche: Yeah, yeah, you know, I didn't eat meat for about 12 to 15 years because of animals.
00:37:22.200 --> 00:37:31.860
Jody Teiche: And I learned that certain vitamins were in greater quantity and more bioavailable in meat, especially beef.
00:37:32.480 --> 00:37:33.980
Jody Teiche: And I did an experiment.
00:37:34.180 --> 00:37:41.660
Jody Teiche: It was tough because I had to get over my the reason why I stopped eating meat.
00:37:41.900 --> 00:37:43.060
Jody Teiche: But I felt better.
00:37:43.380 --> 00:37:43.980
Jody Teiche: I felt better.
00:37:44.340 --> 00:37:50.360
Jody Teiche: And for me now, including responsibly sourced meat is a part of my diet.
00:37:50.420 --> 00:38:04.280
Jody Teiche: And I'm lucky in Texas because in Austin, because we do have farms and ranches where there are organic farms, their pasture, you know, raised, they're humanely slaughtered.
00:38:04.440 --> 00:38:11.380
Jody Teiche: And so their lives are more like lives as opposed to, you know, death sentences.
00:38:12.120 --> 00:38:14.120
Jody Teiche: So, yes, that's huge.
00:38:14.400 --> 00:38:17.160
Jody Teiche: Lancaster, is that near the Amish country?
00:38:17.320 --> 00:38:17.720
Billy Hoekman: It is.
00:38:17.740 --> 00:38:20.920
Billy Hoekman: Yeah, it's the it's the particular epicenter.
00:38:20.940 --> 00:38:21.940
Billy Hoekman: It's kind of where they started.
00:38:22.180 --> 00:38:23.040
Jody Teiche: Oh, wow.
00:38:23.480 --> 00:38:27.040
Billy Hoekman: So there's a lot, a lot of really interesting cultural things here.
00:38:27.340 --> 00:38:27.920
Jody Teiche: Right.
00:38:28.100 --> 00:38:33.720
Jody Teiche: So is that where you source from for your, you know, meats and various other things?
00:38:34.100 --> 00:38:40.240
Billy Hoekman: We source primarily our goat's milk, you know, and I personally inspect all of those.
00:38:40.640 --> 00:38:43.500
Billy Hoekman: I know the farmers that we get our milk from here in Pennsylvania.
00:38:43.520 --> 00:38:46.320
Billy Hoekman: And then we also make our fermented products here.
00:38:46.340 --> 00:38:51.200
Billy Hoekman: But our meat actually comes primarily from when you source to a particular standard.
00:38:51.620 --> 00:38:54.180
Billy Hoekman: The three products I just mentioned are produced here in Pennsylvania.
00:38:54.260 --> 00:38:56.460
Billy Hoekman: All the other products are produced in Oregon.
00:38:56.840 --> 00:39:02.180
Billy Hoekman: So like our our beef is from the Pacific Northwest, you know, our bison is from Colorado and Wyoming.
00:39:02.200 --> 00:39:03.480
Billy Hoekman: Our ducks are from California.
00:39:03.500 --> 00:39:05.140
Billy Hoekman: So it really depends on where it is.
00:39:05.160 --> 00:39:11.900
Billy Hoekman: But we source, you know, the best raw goats milk in the world from our Amish farmers here.
00:39:12.080 --> 00:39:24.740
Jody Teiche: This is exactly what I wanted to talk with you about, because it's so important for pet parents to understand that sourcing, knowing something about where your pets and your food is coming from is so critical.
00:39:25.200 --> 00:39:39.980
Jody Teiche: If you had to give pet parents a short list of the questions that they should ask or what they should look for or avoid when buying food for their animals, what would that be?
00:39:40.420 --> 00:39:49.260
Billy Hoekman: I mean, I would say you want to ascertain as much information as you can about the life that the animal lived, because that's what's going to make it either healthy or not healthy.
00:39:49.560 --> 00:39:54.640
Billy Hoekman: A good example of that would be in our food, we don't have any omega-3 supplements.
00:39:54.660 --> 00:40:08.920
Billy Hoekman: We rely on the natural ratio of omega-3 to 6, which you only get a good ratio if that animal was ethically fed, because they're eating their diet that pertains to their particular species.
00:40:08.940 --> 00:40:24.560
Billy Hoekman: A good example of that would be our bison is a 3 to 1 ratio, and our beef is a 4 to 1 ratio, which means you don't have to take our word for it that the animal was grass-fed, because if they weren't, that ratio of omega-6 would be much higher.
00:40:26.020 --> 00:40:43.400
Billy Hoekman: And so the more you can, you know, obviously on the seafood realm, you want to be in, obviously, the wild-caught side of things, but you want to ascertain about what was that animal's life like, and what did that animal eat, and that will tell you a lot about how healthy the food is going to be or not.
00:40:43.680 --> 00:40:44.460
Jody Teiche: Great advice.
00:40:44.500 --> 00:40:45.120
Jody Teiche: Great advice.
00:40:45.600 --> 00:40:56.640
Jody Teiche: So I'd like to end with what impact you've seen through the nutrition and products you've been involved with and share with pet parents over the years.
00:40:57.000 --> 00:40:57.380
Billy Hoekman: Oh, yeah.
00:40:57.400 --> 00:40:58.740
Billy Hoekman: I mean, it's absolutely incredible.
00:40:58.860 --> 00:41:31.760
Billy Hoekman: I give so much credit to all of our retail partners who have independent pet stores across the country because, you know, I'm in a position where I'm making these products and we're doing the legwork before they come out, but I get to visit stores, and the stories that I hear in terms of that's why these, in an otherwise shrinking retail market, that's why these stores are thriving so much, is because of the fact that people come in with sick animals and they make simple changes to Whole Foods and they're seeing a lot of these changes in their own animals.
00:41:32.500 --> 00:41:52.000
Billy Hoekman: One that comes to mind in my own life was there was a woman in Florida who came to me and was in a pretty dismal kidney disease state, and essentially her numbers were going down, and I was like, okay, so I want you to, you know, one of the big things about kidney disease is bioavailability, is moisture.
00:41:52.020 --> 00:42:04.060
Billy Hoekman: So she went on, you know, a 50% food, 50% raw goat's milk diet with bone broth, and we were able to get those numbers pretty quickly back into normal range.
00:42:04.560 --> 00:42:11.860
Billy Hoekman: And I would say it was like three to five years of normal range, but then the body started to not be able to really keep up.
00:42:12.100 --> 00:42:17.100
Billy Hoekman: And I said, all right, well, now we're gonna just switch to raw goat's milk and bone broth, and that's it.
00:42:17.400 --> 00:42:21.200
Billy Hoekman: And she was able to get into normal range for another couple of years.
00:42:21.220 --> 00:42:28.000
Billy Hoekman: And so that woman really got a lot more years with her dog than she would have got if she wouldn't have made those drastic changes.
00:42:28.080 --> 00:42:33.540
Billy Hoekman: And I think on even micro scales across the country right now, that's happening.
00:42:33.860 --> 00:42:41.840
Billy Hoekman: Whether it's less itchiness, whether it's my dog doesn't limp anymore, whether it's they're digestively where they need to be and they're comfortable.
00:42:42.400 --> 00:42:44.160
Billy Hoekman: People are seeing that every single day.
00:42:44.180 --> 00:42:49.960
Billy Hoekman: And I used to do more individual consults and, you know, work directly.
00:42:49.980 --> 00:42:54.180
Billy Hoekman: Now I'm in more of a, you know, I don't unfortunately have the time to do those.
00:42:54.760 --> 00:43:06.400
Billy Hoekman: But it's kind of cool for me because like I was in Wisconsin and Illinois last week, visiting stores with a new employee of ours, and you get to hear those stories and you know, you're still making the impact.
00:43:06.420 --> 00:43:07.680
Billy Hoekman: So those mean a lot to me.
00:43:07.980 --> 00:43:09.880
Jody Teiche: Yeah, that is a beautiful thing.
00:43:09.900 --> 00:43:12.920
Jody Teiche: The power of food, the power of good nutrition.
00:43:13.820 --> 00:43:16.100
Jody Teiche: Anything else you'd like to share with my listeners?
00:43:16.440 --> 00:43:17.920
Billy Hoekman: If you like our products, stay tuned.
00:43:17.940 --> 00:43:19.160
Billy Hoekman: We're always in development.
00:43:19.180 --> 00:43:24.680
Billy Hoekman: We got a bunch of new stuff coming out maybe even later this year and then also next year.
00:43:24.800 --> 00:43:28.560
Billy Hoekman: So if you like Green JuJu, you're in for more fun stuff.
00:43:28.680 --> 00:43:29.160
Jody Teiche: Perfect.
00:43:29.180 --> 00:43:30.300
Jody Teiche: And where can people find you?
00:43:30.520 --> 00:43:35.640
Billy Hoekman: greenjuju.com and or we're on Instagram, Facebook, and all that kind of stuff.
00:43:35.880 --> 00:43:36.560
Jody Teiche: Amazing.
00:43:36.580 --> 00:43:39.580
Jody Teiche: Thank you so much, Billy, for taking the time to do this.
00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:45.340
Jody Teiche: This is important information and the products sound beautiful.
00:43:45.500 --> 00:43:47.000
Jody Teiche: I love the ones that I use.
00:43:47.440 --> 00:43:49.520
Jody Teiche: So I'm going to talk to you more about that.
00:43:49.680 --> 00:43:51.540
Jody Teiche: But thanks for coming on to the show.
00:43:51.760 --> 00:43:52.340
Billy Hoekman: No problem.
00:43:52.420 --> 00:43:53.800
Jody Teiche: And thank you all for listening.
00:43:54.080 --> 00:44:01.780
Jody Teiche: As a pet health coach, my mission is to share holistic healing options for pets and their parents, seeking a natural approach to wellness.
00:44:02.320 --> 00:44:11.100
Jody Teiche: So tune in next time for information, expert interviews and tips to give the animals we love the longest and most vibrant life we can.
00:44:11.880 --> 00:44:12.600
Jody Teiche: I'm Jody L.
00:44:12.620 --> 00:44:14.960
Jody Teiche: Teiche and this is The Pet Health Coach.
00:44:16.340 --> 00:44:17.460
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00:44:17.820 --> 00:44:19.220
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