November 13, 2025 • 36 mins
Here on Ridiculous History, we are avowedly pr-dog. In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max dive into a strange evolution of slave, to companion, to family member, tracing the evolution of dog food as it blossoms into a multi-billion dollar marketing phenomenon (and one heck of a grift).
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. We can't wait to hear
from you on this one. Just off Mike, we were
talking uh with each other, and I asked the question
Noel Brown, super producer Max, have any of us eating
dog food?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Max said, maybe once on a dare.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
No, definitely on a dare.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Definitely on it.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Okay, oh yeah, I know, I've I've done with cat
food also, but like you know, you're you're dumb kid, like, oh,
let's do it, but never for suscedence, never like, oh,
this is my meal for the day.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Okay, Noel, you've got a story as well.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Oh only that back in the day when we used
to get snacks at one of our early offices, our
delightful office manager who we still work with to this day,
but is in a different position, much more on the
content creation side. It's an awesome human being. Tamika shout out.
I think she accidentally put in an order for some
doggy chicken jerky choo sticks that were mixed in with
(01:27):
the you know, human meat stick type things, and I
certainly ate most of one before realizing that something wasn't
quite right. My teeth are healthier than they've ever been, though,
so sharp and clean. So that is dull brown. I
have been bulleted. It was fine, it wasn't. No, something
(01:48):
was wrong. I didn't need the whole thing. I got
about halfway through when I realized, I'm gonna need to
look a little closer at this label.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
And yeah, that's her super producer Max, and we got
super in to the idea of of dog food. Now, look,
not everybody likes dogs, but we are, without apology, a
(02:19):
very pro Kade nine show.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Big time funny story. I think I've maybe mentioned on
this pod before. I've sort of got a co dog
named Apollo, who I get to spend some time with.
Is here right now, And yesterday I realized I didn't
have any dog food left, so I just cut him
some nice tasty little bites of the steak that I
was making for myself, and he loved it. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
The one of the most privileged dogs I have ever
met is my old man's dog. Now, my old man
is kind of a as you know, noal, He's kind
of a Colonel Kurtz character.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
But ever Hitpook quite like that. But I teach to me.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, you cube interact horror so he uh he has
a lovely little shazoo uh named Leo.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Leo eats better than any of us ever, will Well.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I mean a lot of people out there love to
make you know their own blend. They make like almost
like a beef stew sich. I love a blend. I
love we all love a blend. We do love a blend. Because,
of course, early canine domestication did not involve kibbles or
wet food of any kind. It involved like feeding them
(03:36):
either from the table or having them do some hunting
and feeding themselves, or feeding them much more lean proteins
and meats.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Oh and let's also shout out our earlier episode on
the domestication of doggo fascinating.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
It's wild. Also an early episode that we did on
the idea of spit turned dogs.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Oh no, oh, vegetable dogs.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Ah, you're right, the ones that were like little Schnauzers
type that would run on a conveyor belt to turn
the spits of dripping meat that they themselves were not
allowed to partake of for the drunken revelers in the
public houses of days of your What a parable about
economic disparity and capitalism. Research suggests that dogs were domesticated
(04:29):
probably around sixteen thousand years ago, but that was after
they had been hanging out with humans in some version
for more than thirty thousand years. When the cadids, or
when the dogs we call them now, when they moved
to official domesticated status, as you were saying, they no
(04:49):
longer hunt for their food, so their human pals start
feeding them or take responsibility for their diets. If you
look around now, and this one is for the dog lovers, folks,
if you look around now, you'll see any number of
things you can feed your pooch, dry kibble, maybe, a
(05:13):
soft wet food from a.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Pataid can as perhaps, yeah. Or you can even get
some online services to mail you a specific subscription diet
for your pet.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
It's weird.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
This is why it's ridiculous history to us. Until quite recently,
in the grand scheme of things, human owners did not
really think about how to best feed their canine friends. Instead,
it was like, hey, here are the scraps, you know,
go eat this. If you haven't found a rat or
(05:58):
a duck or whatever you eat outside.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Well, the old trope of the dog just getting the
last bits of meat off the bone, which is apparently
an awful thing to do for a dog, as they
can splinters that you know, they ingest and the comprest
real problem exactly, they can cause real digestive problems, if
not outright choking or you know, death. I'm sorry to
hear that, Ben, but it's true. It wasn't really so
much of a front of mine thing, this idea of
(06:25):
like what should we feed the dogs so that they
can flourish. It was literally they were like the the
pig in the flintstones that was under the garbage, that
was acting as the garbage disposal.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah, if we go back to two thousand BCE, we
see the first published or documented recipe for what we
would call dog food. It is a Roman farming manual
during this time. Look, your dogs are not your furry compagons. Instead,
(07:01):
they're sort of like indentured servants. Well, if we're putting
it honestly, they're like slaves. They're meant to herd livestock,
protect the sheep and goats and whatnot from predators. And
the Romans said, hey, we got to feed these pooches
(07:21):
so they can do a good job for protecting our investment.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, pretty relatively for the time. Smart fellow by the
name of Marcus Terentius Varro in his manual Farm Topics,
which sounds like a podcast, Linda Richmond, whatever can we host?
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Can we make farm topics?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I don't know that we're a subject matter experts enough
in the ways of agriculture. But Marcus was at least
to a degree, and he had opinions that some of
which still track to this day. In terms of dog nutrition,
he said, the food of dogs is more like that
of man check than that of sheep. You could or
(08:03):
should rather feed them barley bread, however, not without soaking
it in milk, I guess to soften it up. They're
also fed on a bone soup, and this is the
part that gives me the willies, or even broken bones
as well. And now you know, we do see bone
stand in materials, raw hides, etc. That they do say
(08:24):
are good for the dog's teeth, to make them stronger.
But broken bones is a bad idea, even if it
wouldn't be an immediate issue. It might even be like
something that would you know, it's like eating ground up
glass or something. You might not die right away, but
over time.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
It's not going to be good for your guts and
overtime is a great point here because our pal Marcus
also notes that hungry dogs are not only physically less
capable of protecting the flock, but they are also less trustworthy.
(08:58):
If you have ever traveled to a part of the
world that has a bunch of stray dogs, you've seen this.
A hungry dog does feel cornered, just like a hungry human.
It might bite its the things it treats as friends.
It also might betray its one north star it's guiding principle,
(09:25):
which is to protect the flock of sheep or goats.
It might just eat one because it's hungry.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
This is where the old expression don't bite the hand
that feeds you has to have come from. Varro did
advise against feeding dogs the meat of sheep lest they
get a taste for it. You know, definitely don't want them.
I don't know. You know, a hungry dog is going
to probably go for a sheep, as you know, a
hungry cat will eat the eyes of its owner left
(09:53):
without food for long enough.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yeah, and Romans still were human, right, despite being great
plagiarist of the Greeks. They understood that the way you
win affection with your doggo is to give them a
little treat. So our buddy Marcus describes a good old
(10:19):
fashioned bone as kind of like a frozen peanut butter
kong toy. You know, let them chew it and then
get the marrow Inside's.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Right, Yeah, that's it's for sure. It's nature's cong toy.
Their jaws, he said, are spread with greater force, and
the savor of the marrow makes them more keen.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
So where does the shift from employee nonhuman to pet
companion occur? We know that by the fourteenth century CE,
really rich people started having great romance with their hunting
and hawking dogs. If we're talking about you know, greyhounds, pointers,
(11:05):
English setters. If you go to folks like and I
can't believe this is still the real guy's name. If
you go to folks like the French Aristo, Count Guston
the Third, then you see he wrote a hunting guide
that says dogs have to get a little bit of
(11:28):
brand bread and meat from a hunt, and if they're sick,
you have to take care of them.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Cool check. He also says they should have more nutritious
foods like bean broth, buttered eggs, on goat's milk.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
I'm super into all three of them.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Bullish on buttered eggs and goat's milk for sure. Meanwhile,
in the medieval Islamic world, they also were starting to
get some ideas around dog nutrition. Medievalist Nat pointed out
that the Islamic world had this concept of dogs being
considered unclean animals and therefore that they should not be
(12:07):
kept as pets. However, people with financial means still had
them around for hunting, for safety and for animal hurting.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yeah, according to the Arab boffins at the time, during
the fall and winter months, dogs should only be fed
once a day around sunset. Otherwise the dogs will not
be fit enough when the hunt begins the next morning.
So the idea is that you can't feed them too
(12:38):
much because they'll get lazy if it is. However, the
hotter time of the year spring and summer, dogs have
to get fed little snacks, small portions several times a day,
usually meat soaked in beef soup.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Maybe a little bread and milk, meat soaked in beef soup.
That's kind of putting a hat on a hat. There,
isn't it very much?
Speaker 1 (13:05):
So yeah, and it would also need to be served
not piping hot. It's got to be tepid or cold,
because otherwise, according again to the boffins of the time,
if you feed them hot stuff, they're gonna throw it up.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Okay jack. So unfortunately, though, back in Europe, some dog
owners were folks with very little means. They weren't able to,
you know, treat the nutrition of their dogs with much priority.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Am I gonna feed my human children? Or am I
gonna feed the dogs?
Speaker 2 (13:47):
So we had all kinds of gnarly things happening around
this time, including plagues, famine, or goot poisoning, just to
name a few. So we are talking about at the
very very most dogs getting fed table scraps, bits of bone,
leftover trimmings of cabbages and beans, and you know, the
(14:08):
most discarded bits like crusts of bread. I love a
crust of bread, by the way, you love a crust.
I know that about you. I know you will never
ever would I have a crust cut off of my
PBNJ No.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
I mean, just think of the time, so edihow we
know that if we fast forward from the ancient eras
to eighteen sixty, we meet a businessman named James Spratt.
Spr Att he introduces the first dogg o snack dog biscuit.
(14:45):
It's the Industrial Revolution, which as we know, began in
England coincided with the reign of Queen Victoria. Right before
the Industrial Revolution, to your earlier point, England was mainly divided,
right in a cartoonish a cartoonish study of wealth disparity.
(15:11):
There was a society of lower class farmers most of
the people, and then a very tiny easy bit of
upper class aristos.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Of the one percent, of the one percent, of the
one percent of the one percent, the percent of no
middle class to speak of, not really until modern businesses factories, right,
they create a mercantile middle class. Now you got secretaries,
you got accountants, middle managers, middle managers, you have artisans.
(15:48):
This is a new rank of consumers and they come
with a little bit of disposable income, so maybe they
can feed their pooches a bit better. And of course
it opened up a whole new market in terms of
more bespoke numb numbs for our furry children. I love
(16:12):
numb numbsies. I love the name that we're about to
reveal to you, folks. Economists.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
This is real name though, n f R Craft, how
many how many initials should a person be allowed to
have in their name?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
I'm gonna say three. Cool, well just made it, n
f R.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
This guy is right at your threshold.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I know, I know, I was gonna say two, but
I don't know. N f nfr Craft, he just won
you over. He did win me over. He also went
over the British crown with his with his stats.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah, he found that British income as a result of
the Industrial Revolution rose per per from about four hundred
dollars adjusted for inflation in seventeen sixty to four hundred
and thirty dollars in eighteen hundred. So people are making
(17:13):
something like thirty more actual dollars. And then if you
go to eighteen thirty, our pal Nfrcraft finds that this
income has risen to five hundred dollars equivalent in eighteen thirty,
and then by eighteen sixty, buddy, it jumps to eight
(17:34):
hundred dollars actual income. We're not gonna we're not going
to do the inflation calculator, Shenanigan, because Georgetown Law already
did it for us.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
They sure did. Yeah, and this is a big deal
for doggos because all of that disposable income and their
owners could afford to feed them, you know a little
bit more. And like I was saying earlier bespokenly, which
created a demand. So another win for dogs that this
new middle class brought around would be the fact that
(18:07):
it didn't necessarily specialize in manual labor, so that they
didn't need the dogs anymore to herd the animals to
you know, turn the meat spits. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Now they're just hanging out and they're saying, where's my
slice of Rabbi? And this is where our pal James
Spratt enters the stage. He is Spratt enters the chat
Spratt in the chat Chat Spratt, Spratt chat a.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Fat that is a fact.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
He is based in Cincinnati, Ohio in the sense, and
he is traveling often across the pond to England for work.
And because he's traveling all the time, he's similar to
folks like us. He always finds himself in his version
(19:03):
of an airport and he sits around and he people
watches and the dwarf at the wharf, and while he
is at the fourth shout out to star Trek, he
sees sailors hanging out with stray dogs, and they're feeding
these dogs something we would call pemmican or hard attack.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Ship biscuits, ship biscuits, stuff that wouldn't rot because it
was basically like borderline, not even food, you know, I
mean the level of density that these things were about pure,
just like get some calories. There is no flavor to
speak of. Dude.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Also for all of us, why does it sound like
a perfect British insult to call someone a ship biscuit?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Ship you ship biscuit? I love that.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
I think it's kind of good. Melfeelike it even.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
More of the way it's actually printed in the research
It was a ship's biscuit, like a you know, the
biscuit of the ship.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
You shut your mouth, you're a ship's biscuit.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Ship's biscuit. I don't give a ship's biscuit about that.
I won't ship a biscuit.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
So James Spratt says, oh my gosh, look at these
adorable stray dogs. They're loving this stuff. Also, I should
make some money from it, and this is where he
comes up with his banger idea. One of the first
commercialized dog o treats. The name didn't age. Well, the
(20:40):
name is Sprat's patent meal fabrine dog Cakes.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I think you needed to take that one back to
the wood shop a little bit.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yeah, a little briefer, but you know, we do a
show called stuff they don't want you to know, so
that's true.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
But I think that is objectively better than Spratt's patent
meal fabric. I can't even say it out loud, s
pm FDC. It was the recipe. We do love a blend,
and it was a blend.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, it's a mix of sweet meals, vegetables, beetroot and
beef blood.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Hell yeah, nice go sign from Nola that one. I
do love some beef blood. They were super popular with
the English who fed them to their hunting dogs.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
And by eighteen eighty one, our pwell Sprat patents his
product here in the United States.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
So he goes with a bit of a name change.
He did. He took our advice in the past. Yeah,
I took it to the wood shop and came up
with Sprat's Dogcakes and Puppy Biscuits. Oh beautiful. Yes.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
He also takes advantage of the boom in the printing press, right,
so he takes out magazine ads and he starts to right,
directly to dog lover institutions like the American Kennel Club.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Right. He's also doing direct mail work because at the
bottom of this handbill and or magazine, you know, advert,
it says here we shall be pleased to send free
samples of foods suitable for your dog. All you gotta
do is state the breed. Sprat's Patent limited twenty four
to twenty five Finchurch Street, London, ec.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
I think it's a little bit to eugenic friendly to
me to say, state the breed.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
State your breed. Can you give us a little bit
more of the promised or the important points that he's
trying to use to sell the public on his miraculous
dog feed.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Perfect nourishmental frame and body because they are made from
our pure meat, fibrines, selected wheat meals and etc.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
It's made up word or I don't know, I don't
know about fibrine. Oh I love this, and a lot
of these are still used to this day. Ben the
idea of a full and glossy coat because.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
The blood is fully nourished and renewed stamina. And then
because good wholesome food gives good health and vigor spoon
your way to health, vitim meter, vegimin for dogs, perfect
cleansing of the teeth because they are well back baked,
excuse me, and compel the dog to gnaw love a gnaw. Yeah,
(23:31):
they're talking about the biscuits, not the dog's teeth.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
And again a lot of these things very much the
same kind of things you see today. With these dog
biscuits that are all about they're a little bit on
the tough side because the dog doesn't just you know,
munch them down in one go. They got to chew
on them.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah, you gotta put the work in for the reward. Also,
I think our mutual favorite thing in all capital letters
is freedom from all objectionable odors.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Now, and I little bs on or should I say ds.
They get a specific smell though, well for sure, and
I don't know man. Dog poop is dog poop no
matter what kind of food they eat. If you feed
your dog, they say, with sprats, meat fibrine, dog cakes,
you give the very best biscuit procurable, You do the
very best thing for your dog, and you get the
(24:20):
very best value for your money.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Insist on sprats, only sprats, nothing but spratt dog cakes.
For your dog's sake and for your own.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Insist on sprats. Insist on sprats. Nothing but sprats. There
will only be sprats fun.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
I know, like I'm picturing I'm picturing someone at a
general store, like the thing that inspired Cracker Barrel, and
someone's like, oh, we've got these other dog biscuits, and
they slap it into the air. I'm a dapper dan man,
I'm a dapper dan man. Are you using my hair treatment?
Are you asking me not to give my dog sprats?
(25:08):
So the public loves this, and now they're primed to
buy specialized dog food, which launches a thousand ships of industry.
We gotta talk about nineteen twenty two NL someone saw
the biscuit and then someone said, let's get in on
(25:30):
this and make some coin.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
We're quickly approaching the moment we get to in all
of these stories about a thing that is now ubiquitous,
where we hear about when the big one kind of
enters on the ground floor. Right, Yeah, nobody really hears
about sprats anymore, unfortunately. But before we get to that one,
we do have maybe one more lesser known hit with
a fabulous name. Oh Zullus, Oh it's ken l ration,
(25:55):
I believe, and maybe I'm mistaken, but I don't know
about this one still being on pet store shelves to
this day. But maybe it's a specialty. It was, in
fact at the time, though made with only the highest
quality of horse meat. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
By the mid nineteen thirties, fifty thousand horses per year
are slaughtered to make the product, and by the way,
their hoofs ended up being glue. It's nineteen forty one.
If we fast forward, can dog food dominates the fancy
doggo market. But Uncle Sam, as a result of World
(26:32):
War Two, starts rationing tin and meat, and this means
that dry dog food takes that King of the Hill
spot and ken El rations kind of go the way
of the Dodo. It's tough to make quality dog food
(26:52):
consistently at this time.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
A lot of.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Dog owners are really po about the texture, the appearance,
and the inconsistency of dry dog food, the stuff we
would call kibble.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Until this is what I was teasing. Sorry I did
it a little prematurely, But in nineteen fifty we have
the big dogs entering the chats, the ones that are
still around this day. And if I'm not mistaken, like
they sponsor all kinds of dog shows and things like that.
It's huge dynasty of pet food, the Ralston Purina company,
which I did not know this ben because I associate
(27:30):
this with another brand entirely. I believe Kellogg's the maker
of checks Cereal, which was made Yeah I love a
Check's mix. I do love a check Cereal, which was
made using an extruder.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Yeah, yeah, cooking extruder. They started using this to make
their checks cereal. And honestly, folks, we're big Cereal fans.
Max's dad loves Cereal in particular, but we can all
admit I think here in twenty twenty five that Cereal
(28:05):
is kind of like dry dog food for humans. In
its commercial version, they would push these ingredients or this
mixture through a tube, cook it under high pressure, puff
it up with air. This is what allows Checks to
stay crispy in milk. And so this company has already
(28:27):
figured out the technology, right, and that informs them or
inspires them to launch Purina dog Chow in.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Nineteen fifty six. I still think it's so weird. To
this day, it still seems relatively normal and even to
me kind of yummy to put dried cereal checks in milk.
It's a weird thing that was sold to us by
an industry that we just kind of come to accept.
You know, it's unusual. I can't think of anything else
you'd eat floating in a vat of milk.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Yeah, I mean maybe noodles, depending on where people are from.
But also I love that you're pointing this out, because
let us remember, not too too long ago, the Romans
said you gotta soak the bread and the milk.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
That's true to feed the dogs. Yeah, in the same
food pyramid column as bread. Yeah, I'm mistaken. It's no
longer a pyramid, I believe. I believe now it's a plate. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah, and the food pyramid was definitely a grift.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
The main ingredient in Purina dog child's first iteration is corn,
and dog owners dog friends don't love it. This is
why we see stuff in the nineteen seventies like Hills
and Neutro too, brands that purport to feed your canine
(29:57):
family member a more nutritious fair.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Okay, yeah, I guess that. Why didn't they like corn?
Do you think? I don't know?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
I don't know why they didn't like corn? Corn's not
that bad. I don't know, it's just it doesn't have
the meat.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
I could jump in here. Traditionally, dogs can't really digest corn.
I mean, I know cats can't. It's a filler.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Mostly people can't really digest corn.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Yeah, that's a good point. Also, Oh yeah, we do
see the little nibblets in the never mind, we don't
have to go there. We're talking about. So by this
point it was absolutely, you know, passe or unpopular. It
was not considered to be good etiquette with your pets
to feed them table scraps. It was no longer considered
a good option. So brands like this continued to sort
(30:46):
of further that notion.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Right, Yeah, The idea here is that if you really
love your pooch, you are going to go a step beyond.
You are not going to go the grocery store and
pick up whatever is on the bottom shelf of aisle eleven.
You are going to pay extra for things like neutro.
(31:10):
They are recommended by veterinarians, dog groomers, et cetera, et cetera.
There is a calculated scarcity to this, and as our
research associate Ren points out here, the main grift of
dog food as we know it today is a culmination
(31:32):
of ridiculous history. It's a marketing ploy for centuries and
centuries and centuries, it was totally fine to feed your
dog table scraps well.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
And not to mention, I mean a lot of the
even the most persnickety dog owners make their own food
for their rugs, like your pops you were talking about, Ben.
I mean, I've fed Apollo some little pieces of steak
and he absolutely loved it, and it was didn't go
down weird. He you know, used the bathroom just like normally.
(32:07):
And a lot of folks that make these mixes they'll
put vegetables in there, they'll put different herbs in barley
and a lot of the things they were talking about
back in the earliest days. So but it doesn't really
behoove the industry if you're not out there buying the
fifty pound bags of kibble, right, just probably is more
affordable in the long run if you're taking the things
(32:27):
that you eat at home and not feeding them scraps,
but using bits of it to maybe make your own
dog food.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
I mean, look, there are some rules, right, no bone shards,
no chocolate, you know, but your dog is a pack animal.
So if it sees what you're eating, it wants to participate, right, And.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
I know it's certainly possible that we'll have some dog
parents out there that might disagree with that. We'd love
to hear from you and what your thoughts are around
the dog food industry and what do you feed your doggoes,
I think we all like to know.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
And we also want pictures of your dogs as unreservedly,
unapologetically we are fans of man's best friend, Humanity's best friend.
Better put big big thanks to our research associate Red
and Fest big big thanks to the legendary super producer
(33:24):
mister Max Williams. Max, while we got you here, do
you like dogs? You like Dax and I just watched
Snatch again?
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Sorry? I do love dogs.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
I mean I am primarily a cat personal cat star
like generally the animals always have, but I've had some
dogs in my life and I absolutely love them.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
If you, if you were a dog, Max, what kind
of dog would you be?
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Are you?
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Are you asking me as if like, based on personality,
which one I would choose to be?
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Yes, then the answer is the golden Streamer. Nice. That's
a good one. What about you nol. I don't know.
I want to, in the last handful of years truly
become a dog person. And now I really very much
am I think I would. I think I would want
to be one of those little little cuties. Oh, it
just gets to like be in someone's lap all day
and you know, eating eating delightful cubes of steak. Oh
(34:16):
that's sweet. It doesn't sound so bad. Me and me
and Apaula could kick it. That's awesome. You.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Oh well, I would want to be a different dog,
but I'm I'm probably a bruiser unfortunately, probably an Anatolian shepherd. Okay, yeah, well,
you know we work with the army we have, and
we can't wait to brag to you about the army
we do have, starting with a J. Bahamas Jacobs.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yes, of course that would be the puzzler. And uh
Jonathan Strickland, the e quistorn.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Oh what kind of dog would he be?
Speaker 2 (34:52):
I don't know. There's no negative spin we could put
on any dogs, so I don't know how to proceed.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Yeah, okay, what kind of animal?
Speaker 2 (35:00):
We love them all?
Speaker 1 (35:01):
We do love the ball all right, all right, Quister,
you got away in the credits on this one.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Some sort of gullum, perhaps some sort of dragon hoarding
his gold in a volcano.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Would be a middle aged man who is very bald.
That's the animal he would be.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
That's the only.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Cares Let's not hurt his feelings because he does listen
to this show only at the end to hear us
talk trash about him. Big, big thanks as well to
Christopher Hasiotis, Eve's Jeff goat here in Spirit and uh
our pals at Ridiculous Crime and nol. If I could
say it, I love when you bring Apollo on the show.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Well you know what he's He's on the bathroom floor,
curled up, taking a little napperor I would have, but
thanks Ben. Hopefully he'll be around next time. We'll see
you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
(36:07):
your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. We can't wait to hear
from you on this one. Just off Mike, we were
talking uh with each other, and I asked the question
Noel Brown, super producer Max, have any of us eating
dog food?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Max said, maybe once on a dare.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
No, definitely on a dare.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Definitely on it.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Okay, oh yeah, I know, I've I've done with cat
food also, but like you know, you're you're dumb kid, like, oh,
let's do it, but never for suscedence, never like, oh,
this is my meal for the day.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Okay, Noel, you've got a story as well.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Oh only that back in the day when we used
to get snacks at one of our early offices, our
delightful office manager who we still work with to this day,
but is in a different position, much more on the
content creation side. It's an awesome human being. Tamika shout out.
I think she accidentally put in an order for some
doggy chicken jerky choo sticks that were mixed in with
(01:27):
the you know, human meat stick type things, and I
certainly ate most of one before realizing that something wasn't
quite right. My teeth are healthier than they've ever been, though,
so sharp and clean. So that is dull brown. I
have been bulleted. It was fine, it wasn't. No, something
(01:48):
was wrong. I didn't need the whole thing. I got
about halfway through when I realized, I'm gonna need to
look a little closer at this label.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
And yeah, that's her super producer Max, and we got
super in to the idea of of dog food. Now, look,
not everybody likes dogs, but we are, without apology, a
(02:19):
very pro Kade nine show.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Big time funny story. I think I've maybe mentioned on
this pod before. I've sort of got a co dog
named Apollo, who I get to spend some time with.
Is here right now, And yesterday I realized I didn't
have any dog food left, so I just cut him
some nice tasty little bites of the steak that I
was making for myself, and he loved it. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
The one of the most privileged dogs I have ever
met is my old man's dog. Now, my old man
is kind of a as you know, noal, He's kind
of a Colonel Kurtz character.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
But ever Hitpook quite like that. But I teach to me.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, you cube interact horror so he uh he has
a lovely little shazoo uh named Leo.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Leo eats better than any of us ever, will Well.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I mean a lot of people out there love to
make you know their own blend. They make like almost
like a beef stew sich. I love a blend. I
love we all love a blend. We do love a blend. Because,
of course, early canine domestication did not involve kibbles or
wet food of any kind. It involved like feeding them
(03:36):
either from the table or having them do some hunting
and feeding themselves, or feeding them much more lean proteins
and meats.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Oh and let's also shout out our earlier episode on
the domestication of doggo fascinating.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
It's wild. Also an early episode that we did on
the idea of spit turned dogs.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Oh no, oh, vegetable dogs.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Ah, you're right, the ones that were like little Schnauzers
type that would run on a conveyor belt to turn
the spits of dripping meat that they themselves were not
allowed to partake of for the drunken revelers in the
public houses of days of your What a parable about
economic disparity and capitalism. Research suggests that dogs were domesticated
(04:29):
probably around sixteen thousand years ago, but that was after
they had been hanging out with humans in some version
for more than thirty thousand years. When the cadids, or
when the dogs we call them now, when they moved
to official domesticated status, as you were saying, they no
(04:49):
longer hunt for their food, so their human pals start
feeding them or take responsibility for their diets. If you
look around now, and this one is for the dog lovers, folks,
if you look around now, you'll see any number of
things you can feed your pooch, dry kibble, maybe, a
(05:13):
soft wet food from a.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Pataid can as perhaps, yeah. Or you can even get
some online services to mail you a specific subscription diet
for your pet.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
It's weird.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
This is why it's ridiculous history to us. Until quite recently,
in the grand scheme of things, human owners did not
really think about how to best feed their canine friends. Instead,
it was like, hey, here are the scraps, you know,
go eat this. If you haven't found a rat or
(05:58):
a duck or whatever you eat outside.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Well, the old trope of the dog just getting the
last bits of meat off the bone, which is apparently
an awful thing to do for a dog, as they
can splinters that you know, they ingest and the comprest
real problem exactly, they can cause real digestive problems, if
not outright choking or you know, death. I'm sorry to
hear that, Ben, but it's true. It wasn't really so
much of a front of mine thing, this idea of
(06:25):
like what should we feed the dogs so that they
can flourish. It was literally they were like the the
pig in the flintstones that was under the garbage, that
was acting as the garbage disposal.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah, if we go back to two thousand BCE, we
see the first published or documented recipe for what we
would call dog food. It is a Roman farming manual
during this time. Look, your dogs are not your furry compagons. Instead,
(07:01):
they're sort of like indentured servants. Well, if we're putting
it honestly, they're like slaves. They're meant to herd livestock,
protect the sheep and goats and whatnot from predators. And
the Romans said, hey, we got to feed these pooches
(07:21):
so they can do a good job for protecting our investment.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, pretty relatively for the time. Smart fellow by the
name of Marcus Terentius Varro in his manual Farm Topics,
which sounds like a podcast, Linda Richmond, whatever can we host?
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Can we make farm topics?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I don't know that we're a subject matter experts enough
in the ways of agriculture. But Marcus was at least
to a degree, and he had opinions that some of
which still track to this day. In terms of dog nutrition,
he said, the food of dogs is more like that
of man check than that of sheep. You could or
(08:03):
should rather feed them barley bread, however, not without soaking
it in milk, I guess to soften it up. They're
also fed on a bone soup, and this is the
part that gives me the willies, or even broken bones
as well. And now you know, we do see bone
stand in materials, raw hides, etc. That they do say
(08:24):
are good for the dog's teeth, to make them stronger.
But broken bones is a bad idea, even if it
wouldn't be an immediate issue. It might even be like
something that would you know, it's like eating ground up
glass or something. You might not die right away, but
over time.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
It's not going to be good for your guts and
overtime is a great point here because our pal Marcus
also notes that hungry dogs are not only physically less
capable of protecting the flock, but they are also less trustworthy.
(08:58):
If you have ever traveled to a part of the
world that has a bunch of stray dogs, you've seen this.
A hungry dog does feel cornered, just like a hungry human.
It might bite its the things it treats as friends.
It also might betray its one north star it's guiding principle,
(09:25):
which is to protect the flock of sheep or goats.
It might just eat one because it's hungry.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
This is where the old expression don't bite the hand
that feeds you has to have come from. Varro did
advise against feeding dogs the meat of sheep lest they
get a taste for it. You know, definitely don't want them.
I don't know. You know, a hungry dog is going
to probably go for a sheep, as you know, a
hungry cat will eat the eyes of its owner left
(09:53):
without food for long enough.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yeah, and Romans still were human, right, despite being great
plagiarist of the Greeks. They understood that the way you
win affection with your doggo is to give them a
little treat. So our buddy Marcus describes a good old
(10:19):
fashioned bone as kind of like a frozen peanut butter
kong toy. You know, let them chew it and then
get the marrow Inside's.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Right, Yeah, that's it's for sure. It's nature's cong toy.
Their jaws, he said, are spread with greater force, and
the savor of the marrow makes them more keen.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
So where does the shift from employee nonhuman to pet
companion occur? We know that by the fourteenth century CE,
really rich people started having great romance with their hunting
and hawking dogs. If we're talking about you know, greyhounds, pointers,
(11:05):
English setters. If you go to folks like and I
can't believe this is still the real guy's name. If
you go to folks like the French Aristo, Count Guston
the Third, then you see he wrote a hunting guide
that says dogs have to get a little bit of
(11:28):
brand bread and meat from a hunt, and if they're sick,
you have to take care of them.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Cool check. He also says they should have more nutritious
foods like bean broth, buttered eggs, on goat's milk.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
I'm super into all three of them.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Bullish on buttered eggs and goat's milk for sure. Meanwhile,
in the medieval Islamic world, they also were starting to
get some ideas around dog nutrition. Medievalist Nat pointed out
that the Islamic world had this concept of dogs being
considered unclean animals and therefore that they should not be
(12:07):
kept as pets. However, people with financial means still had
them around for hunting, for safety and for animal hurting.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yeah, according to the Arab boffins at the time, during
the fall and winter months, dogs should only be fed
once a day around sunset. Otherwise the dogs will not
be fit enough when the hunt begins the next morning.
So the idea is that you can't feed them too
(12:38):
much because they'll get lazy if it is. However, the
hotter time of the year spring and summer, dogs have
to get fed little snacks, small portions several times a day,
usually meat soaked in beef soup.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Maybe a little bread and milk, meat soaked in beef soup.
That's kind of putting a hat on a hat. There,
isn't it very much?
Speaker 1 (13:05):
So yeah, and it would also need to be served
not piping hot. It's got to be tepid or cold,
because otherwise, according again to the boffins of the time,
if you feed them hot stuff, they're gonna throw it up.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Okay jack. So unfortunately, though, back in Europe, some dog
owners were folks with very little means. They weren't able to,
you know, treat the nutrition of their dogs with much priority.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Am I gonna feed my human children? Or am I
gonna feed the dogs?
Speaker 2 (13:47):
So we had all kinds of gnarly things happening around
this time, including plagues, famine, or goot poisoning, just to
name a few. So we are talking about at the
very very most dogs getting fed table scraps, bits of bone,
leftover trimmings of cabbages and beans, and you know, the
(14:08):
most discarded bits like crusts of bread. I love a
crust of bread, by the way, you love a crust.
I know that about you. I know you will never
ever would I have a crust cut off of my
PBNJ No.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
I mean, just think of the time, so edihow we
know that if we fast forward from the ancient eras
to eighteen sixty, we meet a businessman named James Spratt.
Spr Att he introduces the first dogg o snack dog biscuit.
(14:45):
It's the Industrial Revolution, which as we know, began in
England coincided with the reign of Queen Victoria. Right before
the Industrial Revolution, to your earlier point, England was mainly divided,
right in a cartoonish a cartoonish study of wealth disparity.
(15:11):
There was a society of lower class farmers most of
the people, and then a very tiny easy bit of
upper class aristos.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Of the one percent, of the one percent, of the
one percent of the one percent, the percent of no
middle class to speak of, not really until modern businesses factories, right,
they create a mercantile middle class. Now you got secretaries,
you got accountants, middle managers, middle managers, you have artisans.
(15:48):
This is a new rank of consumers and they come
with a little bit of disposable income, so maybe they
can feed their pooches a bit better. And of course
it opened up a whole new market in terms of
more bespoke numb numbs for our furry children. I love
(16:12):
numb numbsies. I love the name that we're about to
reveal to you, folks. Economists.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
This is real name though, n f R Craft, how
many how many initials should a person be allowed to
have in their name?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
I'm gonna say three. Cool, well just made it, n
f R.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
This guy is right at your threshold.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I know, I know, I was gonna say two, but
I don't know. N f nfr Craft, he just won
you over. He did win me over. He also went
over the British crown with his with his stats.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah, he found that British income as a result of
the Industrial Revolution rose per per from about four hundred
dollars adjusted for inflation in seventeen sixty to four hundred
and thirty dollars in eighteen hundred. So people are making
(17:13):
something like thirty more actual dollars. And then if you
go to eighteen thirty, our pal Nfrcraft finds that this
income has risen to five hundred dollars equivalent in eighteen thirty,
and then by eighteen sixty, buddy, it jumps to eight
(17:34):
hundred dollars actual income. We're not gonna we're not going
to do the inflation calculator, Shenanigan, because Georgetown Law already
did it for us.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
They sure did. Yeah, and this is a big deal
for doggos because all of that disposable income and their
owners could afford to feed them, you know a little
bit more. And like I was saying earlier bespokenly, which
created a demand. So another win for dogs that this
new middle class brought around would be the fact that
(18:07):
it didn't necessarily specialize in manual labor, so that they
didn't need the dogs anymore to herd the animals to
you know, turn the meat spits. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Now they're just hanging out and they're saying, where's my
slice of Rabbi? And this is where our pal James
Spratt enters the stage. He is Spratt enters the chat
Spratt in the chat Chat Spratt, Spratt chat a.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Fat that is a fact.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
He is based in Cincinnati, Ohio in the sense, and
he is traveling often across the pond to England for work.
And because he's traveling all the time, he's similar to
folks like us. He always finds himself in his version
(19:03):
of an airport and he sits around and he people
watches and the dwarf at the wharf, and while he
is at the fourth shout out to star Trek, he
sees sailors hanging out with stray dogs, and they're feeding
these dogs something we would call pemmican or hard attack.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Ship biscuits, ship biscuits, stuff that wouldn't rot because it
was basically like borderline, not even food, you know, I
mean the level of density that these things were about pure,
just like get some calories. There is no flavor to
speak of. Dude.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Also for all of us, why does it sound like
a perfect British insult to call someone a ship biscuit?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Ship you ship biscuit? I love that.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
I think it's kind of good. Melfeelike it even.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
More of the way it's actually printed in the research
It was a ship's biscuit, like a you know, the
biscuit of the ship.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
You shut your mouth, you're a ship's biscuit.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Ship's biscuit. I don't give a ship's biscuit about that.
I won't ship a biscuit.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
So James Spratt says, oh my gosh, look at these
adorable stray dogs. They're loving this stuff. Also, I should
make some money from it, and this is where he
comes up with his banger idea. One of the first
commercialized dog o treats. The name didn't age. Well, the
(20:40):
name is Sprat's patent meal fabrine dog Cakes.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I think you needed to take that one back to
the wood shop a little bit.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yeah, a little briefer, but you know, we do a
show called stuff they don't want you to know, so
that's true.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
But I think that is objectively better than Spratt's patent
meal fabric. I can't even say it out loud, s
pm FDC. It was the recipe. We do love a blend,
and it was a blend.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, it's a mix of sweet meals, vegetables, beetroot and
beef blood.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Hell yeah, nice go sign from Nola that one. I
do love some beef blood. They were super popular with
the English who fed them to their hunting dogs.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
And by eighteen eighty one, our pwell Sprat patents his
product here in the United States.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
So he goes with a bit of a name change.
He did. He took our advice in the past. Yeah,
I took it to the wood shop and came up
with Sprat's Dogcakes and Puppy Biscuits. Oh beautiful. Yes.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
He also takes advantage of the boom in the printing press, right,
so he takes out magazine ads and he starts to right,
directly to dog lover institutions like the American Kennel Club.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Right. He's also doing direct mail work because at the
bottom of this handbill and or magazine, you know, advert,
it says here we shall be pleased to send free
samples of foods suitable for your dog. All you gotta
do is state the breed. Sprat's Patent limited twenty four
to twenty five Finchurch Street, London, ec.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
I think it's a little bit to eugenic friendly to
me to say, state the breed.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
State your breed. Can you give us a little bit
more of the promised or the important points that he's
trying to use to sell the public on his miraculous
dog feed.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Perfect nourishmental frame and body because they are made from
our pure meat, fibrines, selected wheat meals and etc.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
It's made up word or I don't know, I don't
know about fibrine. Oh I love this, and a lot
of these are still used to this day. Ben the
idea of a full and glossy coat because.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
The blood is fully nourished and renewed stamina. And then
because good wholesome food gives good health and vigor spoon
your way to health, vitim meter, vegimin for dogs, perfect
cleansing of the teeth because they are well back baked,
excuse me, and compel the dog to gnaw love a gnaw. Yeah,
(23:31):
they're talking about the biscuits, not the dog's teeth.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
And again a lot of these things very much the
same kind of things you see today. With these dog
biscuits that are all about they're a little bit on
the tough side because the dog doesn't just you know,
munch them down in one go. They got to chew
on them.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah, you gotta put the work in for the reward. Also,
I think our mutual favorite thing in all capital letters
is freedom from all objectionable odors.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Now, and I little bs on or should I say ds.
They get a specific smell though, well for sure, and
I don't know man. Dog poop is dog poop no
matter what kind of food they eat. If you feed
your dog, they say, with sprats, meat fibrine, dog cakes,
you give the very best biscuit procurable, You do the
very best thing for your dog, and you get the
(24:20):
very best value for your money.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Insist on sprats, only sprats, nothing but spratt dog cakes.
For your dog's sake and for your own.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Insist on sprats. Insist on sprats. Nothing but sprats. There
will only be sprats fun.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
I know, like I'm picturing I'm picturing someone at a
general store, like the thing that inspired Cracker Barrel, and
someone's like, oh, we've got these other dog biscuits, and
they slap it into the air. I'm a dapper dan man,
I'm a dapper dan man. Are you using my hair treatment?
Are you asking me not to give my dog sprats?
(25:08):
So the public loves this, and now they're primed to
buy specialized dog food, which launches a thousand ships of industry.
We gotta talk about nineteen twenty two NL someone saw
the biscuit and then someone said, let's get in on
(25:30):
this and make some coin.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
We're quickly approaching the moment we get to in all
of these stories about a thing that is now ubiquitous,
where we hear about when the big one kind of
enters on the ground floor. Right, Yeah, nobody really hears
about sprats anymore, unfortunately. But before we get to that one,
we do have maybe one more lesser known hit with
a fabulous name. Oh Zullus, Oh it's ken l ration,
(25:55):
I believe, and maybe I'm mistaken, but I don't know
about this one still being on pet store shelves to
this day. But maybe it's a specialty. It was, in
fact at the time, though made with only the highest
quality of horse meat. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
By the mid nineteen thirties, fifty thousand horses per year
are slaughtered to make the product, and by the way,
their hoofs ended up being glue. It's nineteen forty one.
If we fast forward, can dog food dominates the fancy
doggo market. But Uncle Sam, as a result of World
(26:32):
War Two, starts rationing tin and meat, and this means
that dry dog food takes that King of the Hill
spot and ken El rations kind of go the way
of the Dodo. It's tough to make quality dog food
(26:52):
consistently at this time.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
A lot of.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Dog owners are really po about the texture, the appearance,
and the inconsistency of dry dog food, the stuff we
would call kibble.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Until this is what I was teasing. Sorry I did
it a little prematurely, But in nineteen fifty we have
the big dogs entering the chats, the ones that are
still around this day. And if I'm not mistaken, like
they sponsor all kinds of dog shows and things like that.
It's huge dynasty of pet food, the Ralston Purina company,
which I did not know this ben because I associate
(27:30):
this with another brand entirely. I believe Kellogg's the maker
of checks Cereal, which was made Yeah I love a
Check's mix. I do love a check Cereal, which was
made using an extruder.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Yeah, yeah, cooking extruder. They started using this to make
their checks cereal. And honestly, folks, we're big Cereal fans.
Max's dad loves Cereal in particular, but we can all
admit I think here in twenty twenty five that Cereal
(28:05):
is kind of like dry dog food for humans. In
its commercial version, they would push these ingredients or this
mixture through a tube, cook it under high pressure, puff
it up with air. This is what allows Checks to
stay crispy in milk. And so this company has already
(28:27):
figured out the technology, right, and that informs them or
inspires them to launch Purina dog Chow in.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Nineteen fifty six. I still think it's so weird. To
this day, it still seems relatively normal and even to
me kind of yummy to put dried cereal checks in milk.
It's a weird thing that was sold to us by
an industry that we just kind of come to accept.
You know, it's unusual. I can't think of anything else
you'd eat floating in a vat of milk.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Yeah, I mean maybe noodles, depending on where people are from.
But also I love that you're pointing this out, because
let us remember, not too too long ago, the Romans
said you gotta soak the bread and the milk.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
That's true to feed the dogs. Yeah, in the same
food pyramid column as bread. Yeah, I'm mistaken. It's no
longer a pyramid, I believe. I believe now it's a plate. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah, and the food pyramid was definitely a grift.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
The main ingredient in Purina dog child's first iteration is corn,
and dog owners dog friends don't love it. This is
why we see stuff in the nineteen seventies like Hills
and Neutro too, brands that purport to feed your canine
(29:57):
family member a more nutritious fair.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Okay, yeah, I guess that. Why didn't they like corn?
Do you think? I don't know?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
I don't know why they didn't like corn? Corn's not
that bad. I don't know, it's just it doesn't have
the meat.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
I could jump in here. Traditionally, dogs can't really digest corn.
I mean, I know cats can't. It's a filler.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Mostly people can't really digest corn.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Yeah, that's a good point. Also, Oh yeah, we do
see the little nibblets in the never mind, we don't
have to go there. We're talking about. So by this
point it was absolutely, you know, passe or unpopular. It
was not considered to be good etiquette with your pets
to feed them table scraps. It was no longer considered
a good option. So brands like this continued to sort
(30:46):
of further that notion.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Right, Yeah, The idea here is that if you really
love your pooch, you are going to go a step beyond.
You are not going to go the grocery store and
pick up whatever is on the bottom shelf of aisle eleven.
You are going to pay extra for things like neutro.
(31:10):
They are recommended by veterinarians, dog groomers, et cetera, et cetera.
There is a calculated scarcity to this, and as our
research associate Ren points out here, the main grift of
dog food as we know it today is a culmination
(31:32):
of ridiculous history. It's a marketing ploy for centuries and
centuries and centuries, it was totally fine to feed your
dog table scraps well.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
And not to mention, I mean a lot of the
even the most persnickety dog owners make their own food
for their rugs, like your pops you were talking about, Ben.
I mean, I've fed Apollo some little pieces of steak
and he absolutely loved it, and it was didn't go
down weird. He you know, used the bathroom just like normally.
(32:07):
And a lot of folks that make these mixes they'll
put vegetables in there, they'll put different herbs in barley
and a lot of the things they were talking about
back in the earliest days. So but it doesn't really
behoove the industry if you're not out there buying the
fifty pound bags of kibble, right, just probably is more
affordable in the long run if you're taking the things
(32:27):
that you eat at home and not feeding them scraps,
but using bits of it to maybe make your own
dog food.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
I mean, look, there are some rules, right, no bone shards,
no chocolate, you know, but your dog is a pack animal.
So if it sees what you're eating, it wants to participate, right, And.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
I know it's certainly possible that we'll have some dog
parents out there that might disagree with that. We'd love
to hear from you and what your thoughts are around
the dog food industry and what do you feed your doggoes,
I think we all like to know.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
And we also want pictures of your dogs as unreservedly,
unapologetically we are fans of man's best friend, Humanity's best friend.
Better put big big thanks to our research associate Red
and Fest big big thanks to the legendary super producer
(33:24):
mister Max Williams. Max, while we got you here, do
you like dogs? You like Dax and I just watched
Snatch again?
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Sorry? I do love dogs.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
I mean I am primarily a cat personal cat star
like generally the animals always have, but I've had some
dogs in my life and I absolutely love them.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
If you, if you were a dog, Max, what kind
of dog would you be?
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Are you?
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Are you asking me as if like, based on personality,
which one I would choose to be?
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Yes, then the answer is the golden Streamer. Nice. That's
a good one. What about you nol. I don't know.
I want to, in the last handful of years truly
become a dog person. And now I really very much
am I think I would. I think I would want
to be one of those little little cuties. Oh, it
just gets to like be in someone's lap all day
and you know, eating eating delightful cubes of steak. Oh
(34:16):
that's sweet. It doesn't sound so bad. Me and me
and Apaula could kick it. That's awesome. You.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Oh well, I would want to be a different dog,
but I'm I'm probably a bruiser unfortunately, probably an Anatolian shepherd. Okay, yeah, well,
you know we work with the army we have, and
we can't wait to brag to you about the army
we do have, starting with a J. Bahamas Jacobs.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yes, of course that would be the puzzler. And uh
Jonathan Strickland, the e quistorn.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Oh what kind of dog would he be?
Speaker 2 (34:52):
I don't know. There's no negative spin we could put
on any dogs, so I don't know how to proceed.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Yeah, okay, what kind of animal?
Speaker 2 (35:00):
We love them all?
Speaker 1 (35:01):
We do love the ball all right, all right, Quister,
you got away in the credits on this one.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Some sort of gullum, perhaps some sort of dragon hoarding
his gold in a volcano.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Would be a middle aged man who is very bald.
That's the animal he would be.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
That's the only.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Cares Let's not hurt his feelings because he does listen
to this show only at the end to hear us
talk trash about him. Big, big thanks as well to
Christopher Hasiotis, Eve's Jeff goat here in Spirit and uh
our pals at Ridiculous Crime and nol. If I could
say it, I love when you bring Apollo on the show.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Well you know what he's He's on the bathroom floor,
curled up, taking a little napperor I would have, but
thanks Ben. Hopefully he'll be around next time. We'll see
you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
(36:07):
your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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