Pawtrero Wins “Best of the Bay” 2010

Comments Off

City Living: Editors Picks: BEST WAG ‘N’ WASH:

Photo by Ben Hopfer

Photo by Ben Hopfer

Take it from Jules Winnfield, Samuel Jackson’s character in Pulp Fiction: “I wouldn’t go so far as to call a dog filthy, but they definitely dirty.” And when it’s bath time, pooches can turn any home into a wet, hairy, muddy nightmare. Avoid this by taking them to Pawtrero Bathhouse and Feed Company. The front of the Potrero Hill location looks like a typical pet store, but the back room is doggie-bath heaven. The floor is concrete, with a drain. Two large stainless steel baths cover one wall. You can walk your doggie up a ramp, close the door, throw on a complimentary rubber smock, and unleash a powerful warm-water hose on your sloppy Snoopy. Pawtrero offers a wide selection of organic, skin-sensitive soaps and shampoos to leave your mutt looking and smelling squeaky clean. Use the free towels to dry the beast off, put the smock back on the hook, and you’re out of there — for just $15.

From the San Francisco Bay Guardian • 2010 Best of the Bay Issue

199 Mississippi, SF. (415) 863-7279 and 199 Brannan, SF. (415) 882-7297, www.pawtrero.com

Pawtrero Party with Muttville Adoption

Comments Off

Pawtrero had a Grand Re-Opening party on Sunday, May 23rd to celebrate our new expansion and name change from South Paw to Pawtrero. Muttville was on hand for doggie adoptions and a great time was had by all who attended. Thanks to Pet Poses for providing these wonderful photos!!!

Muttville is a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization dedicated to improving the lives of senior dogs.

Bay Guardian: “Is BARFing good for your pet?”

Comments Off

PETS ISSUE: The raw food diet has devoted supporters — and harsh critics

Raw-food aficionados Susan Yannes and Shireen Nyden, co-owners of Pawtrero, with Jackson and Soda Pop. GUARDIAN PHOTO BY BEN HOPFER

Raw-food aficionados Susan Yannes and Shireen Nyden, co-owners of Pawtrero, with Jackson and Soda Pop. GUARDIAN PHOTO BY BEN HOPFER

It’s called the BARF diet — and it’s the hottest thing in San Francisco pet stores these days. No, it’s not food that makes your pet throw up; BARF stands for biologically appropriate raw food. And its advocates are passionate about its advantages over old-fashioned commercial pet food.

“Dogs and cats in the wild would eat raw meat,” said Susan Yannes, who co-owns Pawtrero pet store and bathhouse on Mississippi Street. “They didn’t have doggie barbecues.”

The idea is to mimic as closely as possible what your pets would have eaten way back when — in the natural state, before they became so close to humans that they started eating the same sort of processed food (some would say processed crap) many of us eat.

And the trend is growing — fast. Matt Koss, who owns Primal Pet Foods, a supplier of frozen raw animal feed, reports 20 percent annual growth. He cites a massive pet food recall in 2007 as a spur to his business, adding that “there’s more and more consumer awareness about pet food.” Primal Pet supplies food to 2,000 pet stores nationwide, 15 in San Francisco.

But the BARF diet also has its critics — and not just in the multibillion dollar pet food industry.

A BETTER DOG IN JUST WEEKS

Yannes got into the raw food business when one of her dogs developed skin problems. “We were feeding him standard dry dog food, and the vet said it was fine,” she said. “His coat had all these bumps, so they gave him allergy medicine.”

Instead, she tried shifting the dog to an all-natural diet — “and a week later, he was fine.”

That’s a common story among some pet owners, who say that raw meat, combined with raw bones and some specially prepared grain and vegetable matter, makes dogs and cats healthier and happier. “Business is growing,” Yannes said. “People who try this don’t go back.”

The argument is similar to what you hear from people who have given up processed human food in favor of fresh fruits and vegetables and organic, free-range meat. It’s more natural; all that processing (and even heat) destroys essential nutrients.

A summary published on Pawblog that Yannes passed on to me sums it up: “When switching your pet to a raw food diet, there are many differences you will notice in a few weeks, including improved breath and white teeth, better digestion resulting in much smaller and firmer stools, less itching, scratching, and allergies, increased energy, healthy skin, and a shiner coat.”

The reason? “Dogs and cats stomachs are designed to digest raw meat and soft bones, utilizing the very strong concentrations of hydrochloric acid as well as the short length of their gastrointestinal tract. Any bacteria are taken care of with this acid.”

But some vets — including those that support and practice non-Western medicine — are more cautious.

“A raw diet is fine,” said Dr. Randy Bowman, a vet at Pets Unlimited. “Dogs were meant to eat raw food in the wild. But we’ve come far beyond that. Their gastrointestinal system has evolved, and they don’t need it.”

Adds Dr. Jeffrey Bryan, a veterinary oncologist who teaches at the University of Washington: “I think highly processed foods are problematic, but I wish we had more scientific evidence on the value of the raw diet.”

NOT FOR ALL

I think it’s safe to say that the raw food diet isn’t for everyone. For one thing, it’s more expensive — but if it winds up keeping our dog out of the vet’s office, it will more than pay for itself over time. More important, it requires a fair amount of work — and a lot of attention.

Raw meat has to be handled carefully. All the preparation surfaces have to be washed, and the pets’ dishes need to be washed with soap and water after every meal. That’s because raw meat — even organic, free-range stuff — contains bacteria that can carry diseases to pets and humans.

And according to Bowman, even the best grade of meat can carry diseases: “Even human-grade meat that’s processed and shipped distances carries bacteria, and it’s not meant for raw consumption.” Bowman suggests that pet owners at least sear the meat first, since the bacteria tend to be on the surface.

Dr. Rebecca Remillard, a veterinarian and pet nutritionist, is one of the harshest critics of the raw diet. “This is not a safe practice,” she writes on her Web site. “Dogs fed raw meat or eggs may develop mild to severe gastrointestinal disease from consuming products contaminated” with disease-causing bacteria.

Koss says that’s just misinformation. “Bacteria and pathogens are a concern in the entire food industry,” he said. “But if the food is handled properly, there is no danger at all to pets.”

Susan Lauten, who has a master’s degree in animal nutrition and a doctorate in biomedical science, runs a veterinary consulting business in Knoxville, Tenn. She agrees that, for the most part, healthy dogs and cats can safely eat raw food. But she’s less enthusiastic about comparisons to the diet these creatures ate in the wild.

“In the wild, dogs didn’t live very long,” she told me. “And one reason was that they got sick from eating contaminated meat.”

Lauten has a different concern about the raw diet. Animals that eat raw meat can release salmonella and other dangerous pathogens in their stool. “You don’t want that around if you have kids or immune-compromised people,” she said. “You can clean up after your dog, but you might not get everything.”

And she raised another issue: economics. “Do you tell people that they can’t have a cat unless they can afford the most expensive kind of food?”

Dr. Hannah Good, who practices holistic veterinary medicine in Santa Cruz, argues that “there’s a lot that can be accomplished by going in a different direction than kibble.” She noted that “a lot of diets are 100 percent garbage.”

But she also said that high-grade kibble diets are balanced to include all the nutrients an animal needs.

And what do the vets feed their pets? Good said her dog “eats whatever I eat”; she prepares a version of her own meals for her canine companion. Lauten’s dog has inflammatory bowel disease “and does very well on a commercial veterinary diet.”

Bryan, who thinks what a dog eats is an important factor in its health, doesn’t do the BARF thing either: “I give my dog Science Diet.”

|San Francisco Bay Guardian


Bay Guardian “Pet Stores We Love”

Comments Off

PET STORES WE LOVE: PAWTRERO HILL BATHHOUSE & FEED

The last time my dog got sick, she really got sick — all sorts of fluids coming out of every orifice, dribbling all over her fur and her bed. Even after I wiped her down with wet towels, she still stunk. Like nasty, I-can’t-be-in-the-room-with-you stunk. The bed and the towels go in the washing machine, but the dog … well, the dog needed a bath — badly. And like most dogs, she wasn’t going to sit still in my bathtub, and I wasn’t looking forward to fighting a smelly wet dog in a shower/tub with glass sides.

No problem.: At the foot of Potrero Hill, there’s a great little pet store with a back room entirely set up for washing your stinky mutt. It’s so perfect it makes a damp and ugly chore fun.

Pawtrero specializes in raw food for your pet, and owners Suzie Yannes and Shireen Nyden have become something of experts on canine and feline dietary needs. But their store is also popular for its self-service doggie bathhouse. The room has two large, stainless steel elevated tubs. You extend a ramp for the dog to walk up, slide the ramp back, lock the side door and slip a short leash attached to the back of the tub around your dog’s neck. Now poochie’s not going anywhere. You put on a large rubber smock, grab the spray hose, and start soaking.

Yannes and Nyden provide a wide selection of organic, skin-sensitive doggie shampoos, treats to get reluctant pups up the ramp, fresh dry towels, blow-driers, brushes, combs, and even nail clippers. You can leave the towels behind, and take your clean, dry pal home with you.

And while you’re waiting, you get to watch all the other dogs get wet, get soapy, shake all over everything and look pathetic while their owners scrub away, chat, and laugh. And it’s just $15, 199 Mississippi St. & 199 Brannan St., (415) 863-7279/(415) 882-7297, www.pawtrero.com (Tim Redmond/San Francisco Bay Guardian)

Holiday Food Drive

Comments Off

Holiday Food Drive for Two Local Charities was a Great Success!

Muttville Senior Dog Rescue & Give Me Shelter Cat Rescue

Suzie Yannes and Ray Nyden of Pawtrero with Holiday Food Drive donations!

Suzie Yannes and Ray Nyden of Pawtrero & South Paw with Holiday Food Drive donations!

 

The Pawtrero family would like to thank all of our customers for their generous donations this holiday season. As you can see from the picture above we were able to get much needed money, food, treats and supplements for two incredible local charities, Muttville Senior Dog Rescue and Give Me Shelter Cat Rescue. To learn more about each of the charities or if you would like to volunteer you can go to http://www.muttville.org or http://www.givemesheltersf.org.

Halloween Pet Party

Comments Off

Pawtrero/South Paw Third Annual Halloween Party was a Huge Success!

The Pawtrero family would like to thank everyone involved with this year’s event. We had a lot of fun and raised over $2,300 for Muttville Senior Dog Rescue!

For those of you who couldn’t make the event this year here is the recap…

First it was exciting to see how fast this event has grown is such a short time. Our first year we started with only 15 dogs in costume, our second year the numbers grew to 70 dogs and this year we had over 200 dogs in costume. Someone asked us how we know we had 200 dogs and that was because we gave out over 200 gift bags with great treats from Primal, Small Batch, Ziwi Peak, Wet Noses, Bark Stix and Grandma Lucy’s.

We also had very generous donations from our local businesses Pet Poses Photography, Java House, Paragon, MoMo’s, Pete’s Tavern, Tres Agaves, The Brick House, The Bagel Bakery, Hennessey’s, High Tail Hotel, Towns End Restaurant, Body Mechanix, Access ATM Enterprise, Perbacco, The Bay Detail, Grasshopper Hair Salon and of course Pawtrero & South Paw.

Special thanks to Pet Poses Photography for donating their time and services. They set a very festive scene with a bale of hay and pumpkins and took over 100 free portraits for anyone who wanted a picture of their four-legged family member in costume.

The donations from these businesses helped us have a successful and fun raffle that raised over $2,300 for Muttville Senior Dog Rescue. For those of you that may not be familiar with Muttville, they help older dogs find a loving home and make the last few years of their life enjoyable. To date, Sherri and the folks at Muttville have saved over 500 senior dogs. In talking with Sherri the day of the event she told us that she had rescued 4 senior dogs the previous Friday from Kern County. Two of the dogs were in bad shape and needed expensive surgery. Due to everyone’s participation at the event, both dogs were able to have their surgery the next day!

We hope everyone had a great time and hope to watch this event grow over the next several years!

Halloween Pet Photos

Comments Off

Photos taken by Pet Poses at the
South Paw/Pawtrero Halloween Pet Party!

The Raw Food Diet

Comments Off

Understanding the Raw Food Diet

Often called B.A.R.F. (Bones And Raw Food or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food), the raw food diet is a species appropriate diet that mimics what our cats and dogs would have eaten in the wild. Cats are carnivores and dogs are omnivores, they are both true hunters and their systems are designed to eat the meat, bones and innards as well as any predigested matter such as fruits, grasses, etc. of their prey. They would have eaten these foods raw because as we like to say here at Pawtrero “cats and dogs would not have had a barbeque in the wild”. Heat destroys vitamins, trace elements and amino acids. Proteins and enzymes are deformed by heat and the molecular structure of fat is changed. So what does this say about the nutritional benefits of commercially processed pet foods that have to be heated to extreme temperatures? Nutrients are more bioavailable in fresh food and our companion animals are able to assimilate and digest the vitamins, minerals and enzymes in raw food much easier than any kibble or canned food diet.

Dogs and cats stomachs are designed to digest raw meat and soft bones (chicken necks and backs) utilizing the very strong concentration of HCI (hydrochloric acid) as well as the short length of their gastrointestinal tract. Any bacteria are taken care of with this acid and food passes through their system in hours rather than days.

The Benefits of Feeding a Raw Diet

When switching your pet to a raw food diet there are many differences you will notice within a few weeks including improved breath and whiter teeth, better digestion resulting in much smaller and firmer stools, less itching, scratching and allergies, increased energy, healthy skin and a shinier coat. Your pet will also benefit from a boosted immune system with stronger disease and parasite resistance. You may think that feeding raw food is more expensive, but in the end you will spend a lot less money on vet bills and your pet will live a long and most importantly a healthy life.

One of the most highly regarded studies on raw food and a great resource for further information is Dr. Pottenger’s experiment with cats and raw food. You can locate it online at http://www.ppnf.org/catalog/ppnf/Articles/PottsCats.htm.

Safety of a Raw Diet

One of the most important things to keep in mind when feeding raw is to always make sure that your pets diet is balanced with the correct proportions of protein, calcium, organ meat, vegetables, vitamins and minerals. You must also maintain a balance of phosphorous and calcium; meat without the bone has a lot of phosphorous and no calcium (just as an egg without the shell provides phosphorous without calcium), nature provides the correct balance. There are many different options available to make this way of feeding your pet convenient and uncomplicated, including pre-made raw diets as well as dehydrated pre-mix bases that just need the addition of a raw meat mix to complete the meal. There are also many different supplements available to aid in balancing any raw diet. Variety is the key to building your pets’ immune system, we always recommend switching between brands and types of raw foods to keep your pets health at optimum levels and to prevent them from developing allergies later in life.

As discussed earlier, your pets’ bodies are set up to process raw food using the acid in their stomachs and their short digestive tract to prevent any bacteria contamination. The handling of raw meat for your pets is no different than for you and your family. Common sense must be used when handling all raw meat products to eliminate any risk of illness, which includes washing all work surfaces, utensils, hands and food bowls with hot, soapy water after handling the raw meat. Raw meat should be kept frozen until almost ready to use and after defrosting it should be immediately refrigerated and used within 3-5 days for freshness. The raw meats should be kept separate from other foods. We recommend using a stainless steel or non-porous bowl for feeding raw food to prevent bacteria contamination. We would also like to point out that a properly handled raw food diet has much less bacteria than many commercial dry foods and won’t have the possibility of dangerous mold toxins from grain that can occur in a commercial dry food.

Most cats and dogs do exceptionally well on a raw diet, but if your pet has a poor immune system you may want to add cooked meat until they improve and then slowly transition into raw food. Cats definitely do better without grain, but some dogs may need some grain in their diet. It is usually best to avoid soy, wheat and corn in your pets’ diet, as these are the top three ingredients that may cause allergies. It is usually helpful to add a digestive enzyme and probiotic supplement to their food to aid with the transition and help digestion, although no matter what your pet is eating we find that these supplements are beneficial.

Raw Food for Puppies & Kittens

One of the most important reasons to start a healthy puppy or kitten on a raw food diet is that it provides proper nutrition and helps them maintain an adequate growth rate therefore the quick growth spurts are avoided (especially for large breed dogs). It is not chemically processed and trying to imitate real food, it is real food using whole food ingredients. Puppies and kittens will remain lean as they should be and won’t develop the food allergies that commercially fed pets tend to contract. Providing a proper diet is especially important in the growing months and will help them maintain good health throughout their lives.

Making the Transition to a Raw Food Diet

Every animal is different and there are many different ways to transition your pet to a raw diet. It is usually best to start by offering small amounts of raw food separate from their regular meal while decreasing the amount of kibble or canned food. It is best not to feed raw food and kibble at the same time as this can upset their digestive system. They digest the raw food more efficiently and at a faster rate than dry kibble because it is not processed. For finicky eaters it may be easier to fast your pet for a day and then move right into feeding the raw food when they are hungry, but don’t starve them as this could cause other problems. Most dogs make the transition quickly and even the pickiest eaters tend to prefer the raw food over canned or kibble diets.

Cats are sometimes more difficult to transition and might need their food brought to room temperature or warmed by placing it in a bag within a bowl of warm water before feeding. You can also try adding something stinky to the food to help the smell, raw food tends to have a very faint odor compared to commercial canned or kibble diets and they may not recognize it as food. Although cats may take more time to transition, the benefits to their health are astounding! Their systems were designed to consume food with moisture, many feline health problems are attributed to dry kibble diets, such as urinary tract problems, feline diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease. So, while it may take a little more patience and perseverance to transition your cat it is well worth it in the end. Kittens on the other hand tend to transition easily as they instinctively know what their bodies need and have not yet become accustomed to the commercial diets.

When initially feeding raw chicken necks and backs it is helpful to chop them into smaller pieces until your pet gets used to chewing rather than gobbling them down in whole pieces.

Options on Feeding a Raw Food Diet

As discussed earlier, there are many different options to consider when feeding a raw diet. We have people come into our stores and say, “I don’t even cook for myself” or “I don’t have enough time”, for convenience there are complete pre-made raw diets available. They come in tubs, nuggets and patties and we carry a wide variety of these at Pawtrero; including Primal Pet Foods, Nature’s Variety, Rad Cat and Small Batch. All that is required for feeding is to defrost the food and place it in your dog or cat’s bowl.

For people that want to keep the cost down or don’t mind taking more time for preparation there are freeze dried pre-mixes, such as The Honest Kitchen, Dr. Harveys and Sojourner Farms Europa, that are combined with raw meat mixes to complete the meal. The raw meat mixes have a combination of ground meat and bone; some also contain organ meat and/or vegetables. Raw meat mixes carried at Pawtrero include Oma’s Pride, Small Batch and Primal Pet Foods and a wide variety of protein sources are available including buffalo, rabbit, beef, lamb, turkey, duck, chicken and tripe.

In addition, adding raw chicken necks and backs to your pets’ diet will provide the perfect ratio of meat to bone while also providing a foolproof proportion of minerals needed for your pet. NEVER feed your pet cooked bones as they are prone to splintering and can be dangerous, the raw chicken bones are soft and flexible and easily digested. We like to also think of the raw meaty chicken bones as nature’s toothbrush, helping to remove plaque and tartar from your dogs and cats teeth!