The Spirit of Clear Conscience Pet®

We started our family-owned company after over 20 years working on the inside of the pet food and treats industry. Our name reflects not only a strict commitment to pursuing the physical aspects of nutrition, but a core spiritual belief. We believe that our mission is not just to “make products,” it is to use nutrition as a canvas upon which to actively project the energy and spirit of loving intentfulness towards our animal companions. We don’t make warmed-over “me-too” copycat products, and we don’t buy into the tired cliches in our industry and the media about “pampering pets” and “the humanization of animals.” Animals are a wonderful break from humanity and human interaction, so the last thing we want is to ruin that by making them more like people!

Can Nutrition Create JOY and HAPPINESS for Dogs?

Why is how and what we feed our dogs so pivotal? It’s because feeding our animals is the quintessential physical expression of the “deal” that we as a species have made with them. We have “asked” them to forego wildness and independence in exchange for domesticity. In exchange, we OWE them health care and freedom from the constant hunger that dominates the lives of wild animals. But if we are to reach a higher level of awareness and a deeper bond with animals, it’s not enough to insure that they survive.

Feeding our companion animals is the daily deposit that we make into the spiritualbank account of our relationships with them. So with that awareness in mind, the best relationships with animals will happen when we form positive intent and put positive thought and study into how they are fed.

JOY and Nutrition for Dogs

We believe that to make a truly great food, treat, or gravy for dogs requires not just the impeccable purity and physical quality of the food, but the level of positive intentinfused into its creation and provision. If, on the other hand, the only intent that goes into making something for dogs to eat is to make huge profits without regard to contributing to the spiritual bank account, the result will be mediocre, poorly conceived, and poorly functioning dog food and treats. Sadly, this is all too common as evidenced by thousands of mediocre products filling the shelves of grocery and pet store shelves.

Now of course our company wants to be profitable, since profitablility is the same thing as sustainability. Of course we are committed to sustaining our mission and advancing the movement towards CleanLabel™ pet nutrition. But we have proven that we can make a living while not wavering from our pledge to make CleanLabel™ treats, chews, and gravy into healthy products that are PURE, PRONOUNCEABLE, and PURPOSEFUL.

What is the easiest and most obvious way to make our dogs happier that we might be missing?

Is it possible that we humans are denying our dogs something that they deeply crave and NEED? Something so simple that they would love to TELL us they want it- if they could only speak to us for one minute? And actually, I believe that COUNTLESS dogs are trying to tell us this- every day! I’m talking about the picky eaters out there. Instead of seeing them as frustrating “pains in the tail,” we at Clear Conscience Pet see them as the vanguard of dogdom! They are the advocates of common sense trying to speak not only for themselves but their entire species.

So what are picky-eating dogs trying to tell us?

Are you one of the millions out there with picky eating dogs? Yes, there ARE millions of you, we know this from statistics and 23 years of experience in pet nutrition. If so, you feel the frustration as you switch from kibble to kibble, “surf” your fridge for people food to add to the bowl, or HAND FEED your dogs (yes, as crazy as it sounds, I hear this all too often!).

We believe that there is something we have forgotten all too often, and that is giving our dogs hydrated food helps to satisfy their natural prey instincts. Moist HYDRATED food made with CleanLabel™ principles is more digestible and more enjoyable for dogs than dry kibble could ever be. There is NO INSTANCE in the world of canines such as wolves, coyotes, foxes, etc. in the wild where any significant percentage of their diet is provided by something totally dry and hard. The concept of combining all of the essential nutrients a dog needs into a hard dry chunk and believing that this is somehow a “natural” diet is nonsensical, yet an estimated 50 million dogs are fed this way EVERY DAY with no hydration except for a bowl of water sitting next to their bowl of hard and dry kibble.

HYDRATED food: the single most important change you can make for your dog!

How do we move to a hydrated diet after years of feeding dry kibble alone? It’s really remarkably simple- start HYDRATING your dog’s dry kibble, or replace it completely with fresh and natural moist foods. One can argue ad infinitum over raw versus cooked, what protein sources are best, whether to use grains as any part of a dog’s diet, and so much more. In fact, in my twenty-three years working in dog nutrition, these debates have deteriorated into “fads” and like all fads, they are ephemeral by definition and yesterday’s “hot button” pet food issues are all but forgotten as the next fad comes along.

These fads have no sway over the undeniable truth: the core diet of canines is muscle meat, organ meat, and connective tissue from freshly killed prey. In the wild, this is the diet for all canine and feline species, and our canines and felines are biological analogs of these wild “dogs and cats.”

Freshly killed prey is full of natural moisture and the furthest thing possible from “dry food!” Thus, if one strives to even approach replicating the natural diet for these animals that we love so much, the basic concept of hydrated food is a MUST. Conversely, feeding dry kibble and nothing else, no matter how high quality the kibble may be, is a denial of the canine and feline identity and birthright. Yes, I know that is a strong statement, but it’s my sincere opinion.

Another big lie: the myth that dry food is best for a dog’s teeth

Thanks to self-serving pet food companies and too many conventional veterinarians, for decades Americans have been feeding dry kibble to their dogs and being fed a big lie along with it. That lie is that feeding dry kibble (unhydrated) will keep a dogs teeth clean. This is preposterous. First, a vast majority of kibble doesn’t even GET chewed! It’s virtually inhaled by your ravenous dog. And even if your dog is a more dainty eater, it’s still just a crunch or two of kibble before it all goes down the hatch in a big lump. Wild canines chew bones as a way of satisfying their chewing instincts and this is natures way of keeping a carnivoire’s teeth and gums healthy. Otherwise, wolves would never live past a few years old, since their teeth would rot and they would be unable to eat their prey.

Keeping dogs teeth and gums healthy

So since we now know that kibble doesn’t do the job, how can you keep your dogs teeth gleaming and gums healthy? Well, there’s daily or frequent tooth brushing, which many have tried to no avail with strong jawed and stubborn dogs! Then there’s veterinary dental care, expoensive and often done under general anestheisa, a risk in itself. For natural canine dental health, you should consider using real bones at least weekly, always under supervision. Other alternatives that can be used are “rugged” chews from beef trachea, pizzle, and cartilage. These are digestible, unlike bones or rawhide, they’re safer than bones since they don’t “splinter,” and are a great choice for almost any dog.

One approach to this is to just choose a high quality dry food and moisten it thoroughly. To make good food choices, you’ll have to do some homework. Start here to learn more about pet food industry secrets and learn what to look for, and what to avoid.

A Simple Plan for Kibble Hydration: SuperGravy® to the Rescue

When we started Clear Conscience Pet, we knew about this problem of picky eaters. We believed that the use of dry foods without hydration by an estimated 50 million loving but unaware pet parents is the number one contributor to picky eating pets. But we were realistic about the busy life of today’s family, and realized that it’s not practical for most to commit to the time and expense of creating homemade hydrated food for their dogs every day.

We invented SuperGravy® to solve picky eating in a healthy and economical way, and to make it simple for families to feed hydrated pet foods as a daily way of life. SuperGravy® bridges the gap between dry kibble and expensive home-made, canned and frozen pet foods.

SuperGravy® is not just a delicious addition to every meal for your pet. When it combines with water, it creates an “interface” between water molecules and kibble, and this action allows the kibble to be hydrated much more effectively than water alone could ever do.

Why is that? Well, think about it logically for a second. If kibble is designed to last up to 2 years in a bag in dry form, what does it need to do to gain that shelf life? It needs to RESIST AIR and MOISTURE! Therefore, when you add water alone to kibble, it tends to just lie there and it certainly doesn’t make the food TASTE any better to your dog. It’s just wet kibble now, not something NEW.

SuperGravy® makes ALL of the difference. The completely natural ingredients are chosen for not only their healthy nutritional profiles, but with a deeper design in mind: getting water and kibble to form a bond, and helping the kibble to break down more easily into useful nutrients for your dog. The result is a HAPPY and healthier dog.

With SuperGravy®, EVERYONE wins. You make your dog’s meals exponentially more enjoyable than dry kibble alone could ever be- for less than 50 cents a day. Your dog experiences the JOY of a daily moist and hydrated meal that satisfies their basic biological need for moist food.

Dogs in Distress

We have personally seen and been told about remarkable things happening with dogs given SuperGravy.® In some cases the dogs involved have faced trauma or emotional pain; in other cases, the dogs were battling with illnesses, some very serious like cancer, some more chronic such as recurring stomach issues, skin and coat conditions, and other physical challenges. Some of these situations were so difficult that for the dogs that just reading or talking about them that broke our hearts.

We don’t claim that simply giving a traumatized animal something special and lovingly created to EAT is all it takes to heal the pain and lingering effects of trauma, neglect, abuse, or other causes of lost JOY in an animal’s heart. But we can’t ignore the power of feeding a dog food that satisfies all the way down to the instinctive level.

Comparing dry kibble to hydrated food

If one is attuned to animals and compares their response to plain dry kibble versus deliciously hydrated healthy food, there really is NO comparison. In one case, you are watrching a “prisoner” gulping down the “survival ration” that he needs to live another day. But in the case of healthy hydrated food, you are seeing the way an animal expresses JOY! They wiggle, shimmy, and dance with delight. Don’t take our word for it, your DOG is telling you what you need to know if you’ll just listen.

Making it Matter

We are grateful when people tell us that their animals react with more excitement and JOY than they have ever seen when they eat our treats, chew our chews, or dive into food enhanced with SuperGravy®. This used to mystify us, since although we knew that we had been fanatical in our drive to create original, innovative, and above all, PURE products, the reaction was beyond anything we had hoped for or dreamed of. But we are humbled by a maturing realization that Clear Conscience Pet isn’t really ours at all. We’ve merely been given the mantle of stewardship and the obligation to nurture the spirit that is behind the company and the products. Call us crazy, and we know that some if you will! But we have come to believe that something far greater than us is behind Clear Conscience Pet, and we hope that every animal that becomes a part of our business family will feel this JOY. This, to us, is the definition of success.