I Feed My Dog The Best Season – Cricket Food. He loved it so much.

I became a mom for the first time this year — a dog mother, then. In January, I picked up my first dog, a 1-year-old black dog / dachshund called T-Rex. (He has a big head, a long body, and short, curved legs; he and perfect, thank you.)

As any new parent, pet or whatever, can prove, I immediately got into a lot of new and confusing questions, allowing a lot of TV advertisers telling me to buy one thing or another. One of the hardest hits seems to be, at first glance, simple: What am I feeding this baby?

Turning one of the answers can be bugs. Cruelty to the ground, to be honest. Not only is it good for Rex – it can be one of the best in the world.

Like most people, I entered 2021 with the intention of eating less meat, so it was amazing to make veggie burgers to try and alleviate my distraction at the same time and give this new opponent a lifetime in support of the wild animal. My opinion was correct; Pet food is found to be a bigger problem than the environment than most people think. There are about 163 million cats and dogs in the US, and their diet is increasing. One UCLA study it is estimated that animal feed accounts for 25% to 30% of all animal processing problems in the US, including water and land use, and emits 64 million tons of greenhouse gases annually.

And all of the cute dog food I started receiving on Instagram ads — which promises “human” food, “healthy” meat cuts, or even food-supply equipment — could be even worse. Dogs are omnivores and can get their protein from a variety of sources. Some theories think that wolves have tolerant of dry starch who could have had human pieces were the parents of our modern friends. However selling “original” animal feed With high protein it has been dominating the industry for the past 10 years. This practice is so dangerous that a UCLA researcher fiction the dramatic increase in the number of beautiful animals is over reduction climate and land use on other dietary changes that humans are making in order to reduce the need for poultry and cattle production.

That’s when crickets come in. Insects around the world have been biting bedbugs like crickets, worworms, and grubs. Crickets ali protein filling, oils, and other nutrients, and use less than animal husbandry. According to the World Health Organization, insects “great potential”To reduce global food shortages in the coming decades. Whites are still dragging their feet on the idea of eating bugs. I hate to say it, but I seem to have understood it. Although I love to eat, I’m not sure if I would like to get my high protein from crickets. But my dog ​​eats the same thing every day and doesn’t know his donkey from the elbows — why not eat a balanced and healthy diet?

This philosophy is what inspired Anne Carlson, founder and CEO of Jiminy’s, Which causes dogs to eat cricket food, to start looking at feeding dogs.

“If you think about a person, even if you make a meal that they love, they only eat it once in a while because we eat different foods,” he said. “But if you think of a dog, they get food, and if they’re lucky, they get help.”

Making small changes in the same diet over and over again, he explained, could lead to significant changes. Build the past Peer-reviewed research which showed that crickets could be a good source of dogs, Carlson began working with the Association of American Feed Control Officials, an organization that helps the FDA establish animal feed standards, to ensure crickets were safe for food poisoning and make several education. All the protein of black snakes and black flies called “grubs” – was approved earlier this year. The result is a diet with Jiminy foods, which are made by insects as their main food. According to the company “eco-computers, ”Switching an 18-pound[18 kg]dog like Rex from his chicken diet to Jiminy can save 383,883 gallons of water a year and the same air capacity of more than 805 miles (805 km).

It’s good for nature and good for my dog ​​- but would they like? I was curious to know how Rexie’s life could be affected (or not) by the virus, and Jiminy was kind enough to send me a box of jokes to test.

I’ll come here and let you know that Rex doesn’t have a very sensible lip. I know there are pets out there that love to eat, but Rex is his opponent – he’ll happily drop anything his little brain thinks is “food.” Like his respectable cat parents who lived near human settlements in the past, their favorite thing about Rex is eating garbage along the way.

However, I tried to see how the cricket jumps — which, apart from being twisted and purple, looks like dog food — also grabs his latest Purina chicken and dried rice meal. To test the more scientific taste, I put a little cricket in my right hand and eat its old food on the left. Although his typical diet consists of large pieces of dried chicken, Rexie ate cricket first – Jiminy’s success! – then Purina. (Then he ate something from the kitchen.)

With the first test left, I began to follow my vet’s instructions to switch Rex to a new diet by mixing Jiminy with his addictive ingredients for a few days. After a few days at a whole cricket dinner, Rex is still happy to eat breakfast and dinner without any hassle, digestion (you know what I mean) or not.

The program of for real The winners from our Jiminy box, in our opinion, were the coaches. As new dog owners know, it is very important with trained dogs to always leave the house with the best treats in order to attract the attention of the fool when you are in a big, confusing world. The things that work best are fresh, soft, fragrant, and not the strange foods they get during a meal; Before Jiminy sent their samples, I used to use chicken or small cheese cheesecakes.

To my surprise I opened a bag of Jiminy peas and a potato training. They have compost, garlic, and rosemary inside them, so they can smell … beautiful meat, which is strange and comforting. Carlson said his scent was more human than a dog’s.

“Since our protein is so unusual, we want people to be able to recognize it, ‘oh, it looks like ordinary food, food looks like ordinary food, it smells good, I’m not afraid of this,” he said. “Even if the buyer is a dog, you should give it to the person to buy it.”

Not that bad smells are lost on dogs: Rex came out when I opened the bag. It became clear that they were just doing everything to get to one of the best. One week, they still go a long way when I find out I have a potato or a bite of pumpkins – something they have never done with other types of animal training. The price is too high for the competition and so on, so I keep buying them.

That last point is the only reason I am not a full-fledged cricketer. When it comes to Rexie’s healthy ecosystems – Jiminy lives on the edge of the most expensive. The 3.5-pound (1.6-pound) bag just dropped off after a week, and it was over $ 20. Her old Purina diet was about $ 1 per pound (0.45 kg). I may want to redesign my budget to save the world, but is the cost too high to distract users from making a difference?

Carlson said cricket powder is the most expensive in Jiminy’s sales, especially since we are still young trying to figure out how to grow crickets on the market. (“And, of course, it’s not as useful as meat, which, ugh, drives me nuts,” he said.) Carlson hopes the industry will do better in the near future, especially when more farms are opened and skills are developed. Other protein sources, such as worms, is also starting to come on the market, which will help companies grow and make money.

It seems that the larger products also use the concept of differentiating their proteins. Purina already has her own one company who use cricket protein (as well as carp predators) to make dog food began to produce another line of cat and dog food under the name Purina which uses black war worms in Switzerland last November. In April, meanwhile, Mars Petcare launched Insect food cats in the UK. According to Carlson’s estimates, most of the animals that migrate to the diet, are inclusive.

“We hope there will be more [competitors] Over time, and most importantly, I have everything, ”said Carlson. “As long as we can make a difference here, I think there’s a lot of room to get involved.”