Outside of dog blogging, I work as a freelance writer and marketing consultant. I love learning about and talking to companies that were born out of a passion for the business. One such business is K9Cuisine.com. Although I was at BlogPaws in April, I didn’t get a chance to meet Anthony Holloway, the founder, but I was excited when his PR peeps reached out to me (more posts forthcoming about the awesome samples they so kindly sent to Emmett and Lucas). Below is the Q&A I conducted with Anthony via email. One quick heads-up: The questions may seem a bit random, but they were all things I was personally curious about! For more info, check out his site, blog, or Twitter feed!
What inspired you to create K9Cuisine?
K9Cuisine was created out of our own need to source quality nutrition for our pet, Daisy. With allergies to grain-based foods, Daisy’s diet was very limited. Living in a rural community, we had a hard time maintaining a consistent supply of her grain-free food. Attempts to order from online companies left us frustrated. They charged exorbitant fees for shipping. Delivery times were inconsistent. And customer service was non-existent.
At the same time, an increasing number of smaller companies in the pet food industry were producing higher nutrition alternatives to the foods found in grocery stores. We believed that many consumers, like ourselves, would feed our pets healthier diets if these foods were more readily available. So we created K9Cuisine.com, offering only the highest quality nutrition combined with the highest possible level of customer service, and free shipping.
As consumers, we felt like such a company would have been the answer to our own needs. And I think we must have been at least partially right. K9Cuisine has celebrated record growth and even in this tough economic climate, continues to grow each month.
Your site tagline is Premium & Organic Dog Food and Dog Treats. How do “Premium” and “Organic” differ? Are they mutually exclusive terms?
Premium foods contain high-quality ingredients. There is no specific definition of the term premium. Organic food meet the technical definition of “organic” and, by doing so, are allowed to put an organic seal on the bag.
What is your favorite part about running your unique business?
I have owned other businesses over the years, primarily in the manufacturing industry. K9Cuisine.com was founded out of my own desire to feed our pet a healthier diet. I was and still am very passionate about this business. Helping others make better nutrition choices for their k9 pals has been very rewarding to me on many levels. Providing this service on the internet has blessed us with a much wider and more diverse market. Offering phone, email and live chat based customer service, we are fortunate to interact and share ideas with many people throughout the United States. Every exchange is unique and interesting. Our slogan at K9cuisine.com is “Delivering love one bag at a time!” Perhaps the most rewarding part of my job is that I do believe we are doing just that.
What advice would you give a first-time dog owner about the feeding and nutrition of his or her new buddy?
There are many healthy food choices on the market today. Finding a quality source of protein with choice grains is optimum. A good rule of thumb is to look at the first five ingredients listed on the bag. Within those first five ingredients a “quality” food will have at least two named proteins and should not contain corn, wheat, soy, by-products or glutens of any form.
Dogs need animal protein. Their bodies do not metabolize plant proteins as efficiently as animal proteins.
Manufacturers began adding corn and soy as fillers to reduce their manufacturing costs. There is no nutritional value to these ingredients. While these foods may be cheaper to purchase per pound, they lack nutritional value and may contribute to costly long-term health problems (obesity, diabetes, kidney disease, and allergies).
How (and why) do you give back to the animal welfare community?
In life we seek opportunities to give back in ways where we feel we may be able to make a difference. I have always been a big proponent of animal rescue. We are pleased to provide quality nutrition for rescue animals, hurricane or other natural disaster victims, or “pet food pantries” established to enable families to keep their pets in times of financial crisis. These are only a few of many great causes. We feel blessed to be able to help make a difference for pets and their people in need.
Thanks, Anthony, for taking the time to answer my questions! I enjoyed learning more about your business!
