How To Feed Your Dog a TRULY Natural Diet

Dr. Randy Aronson, integrative veterinarian, sits down with Maria Ringo—Doctor of Homeopathy, founder of the pioneering Sojourner Farms, and co-creator of Carna4 natural pet food—for a wide-ranging conversation about what it actually means to feed your pet a natural diet. Together they expose why typical kibble and ultra-processed pet food, which makes up a staggering 87% of what our dogs and cats eat, is directly fueling the epidemic of chronic pet illness, dog allergies, skin conditions, pet obesity, and inflammatory disease we're seeing everywhere today.

Using the dramatic real-life transformation of Sullie, a seven-year-old dog who reversed years of severe dog allergies, skin infections, and ear infections through diet alone—no medication—Dr. Randy and Maria break down exactly what to look for in natural dog food and cat food, why pet food ingredients matter more than marketing claims, and how whole foods, sprouted seeds, and a healthy pet microbiome can do what prescription diets and steroids couldn't. They also cover raw pet food and raw feeding, freeze-dried and air-dried dog food options, the truth behind the grain-free debate, and why convenience and clean ingredients don't have to be mutually exclusive. If you're a pet parent wondering where to start, this episode gives you a clear, practical, and science-backed answer. 

#PetNutrition #NaturalPetFood #DogHealth #IntegrativeVet 

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Books
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Transcript

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (00:00)

A natural diet is

Whole foods as much as the processing is limited as possible, right? kibble goes through such a process that there is nothing alive in it. Typical kibble is extruded through high heat and high pressure and it's basically this ash.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (00:06)

Right.

Right. Right.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (00:21)

that they then spray fat onto and they mix in all these synthetic nutrients, the vitamin D, all of it just comes from big dusty bags that they mix in. That is not food,

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (00:36)

so an interesting, another interesting fact that I talk about in one of my seminars is that humans eat about 59 % ultra processed food.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (00:46)

Wow.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (00:46)

Our

pets are at 87 %

Welcome

to Pause, Reflect, and Heal. I'm Dr. Randy here in Tucson, Arizona, and I just had the most amazing conversation with someone you have to listen to as a pet parent, because it will...

make you understand the whole reality of what natural pet food is and how simple it can be. I always get asked, what should I feed my dog? What should I feed my cat? answers are so copious and so prolonged that sometimes people lose it in the translation.

Listen to this episode, you will get it from Maria Ringo who has been in the pet world, food world for 40 some years, who is a doctor of

I want to demonstrate to you the power of healing through food. And the best way I could do that is to introduce you to Sully. Sully is a seven-year-old male dog that came to see me at Paws Veterinary Center here in Tucson, Arizona. The owners have for seven years fought terrible skin allergies, rashes, ear infections, foot infections with three different veterinarians.

Soli basically had been on atopica, ⁓ apiquel, steroids, and histamines, had been through multiple food elimination trials. And, you know, what ends up happening with these dogs, guys, is that people have now spent tens of thousands of dollars, and they were in tears.

seeing me. They were just in tears. They had seen some of the things that we are seeing on pause, reflect and heal, got the feeling that maybe there was an option. They were in Tucson, which was amazing. So I was able to spend an hour with Soli's parents. We talked about all the things that Soli has been through and then initially went into some ideas that would allow us to get Soli's body to heal itself.

You know, the body has an amazing ability to do this if we can get inflammation out of the body. So through a little bit of allergy testing, microbiome work, we landed on a diet called Carna4 and we actually used their supplements, Flora4 ⁓ and their green supplement.

and basically because Sully was not allergic to anything in there but this is an all-natural food. So you will see the first pictures are basically Sully when he came to see me.

Front view, you can see the terrible alopecia around his eyes, which is hair loss, the infection in his mouth. Also, there's a side view that shows the area in his groin was terribly infected and inflamed. And I wanted you to see that because next, what you're going to see is six months later on just what we did, all natural, just supplements, no medication.

So now you see Sully basically with an incredible coat. He has no sores. He has no odor. And these people could not be happier. And as you probably know from me, I could not be happier. So I want to introduce you to a new friend.

somebody that is an old soul, we probably should have been together doing this a long time ago, my friend Maria Ringo from Carnivore. And I'm gonna let you, I'm gonna let Maria tell you her journey. I'm not gonna read a bio because her journey is so incredible that it will just elucidate to you guys where she has been, where she is going and what she has done. But I will still tell you that if she doesn't tell you, she is a doctor of homeopathy.

So she has that in her back pocket. And Maria, welcome to pause, reflect and heal.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (04:47)

Thanks, Randy. I really appreciate being here. I love chatting about nutrition and natural medicine. And you're right, I think you and I are meant to work together. We should have probably been doing this years ago. ⁓ I stumbled into the pet food arena way years ago, 40 years ago, ⁓ when I had dogs and I...

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (05:11)

You don't look old enough to

say that Maria. Yeah.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (05:14)

⁓ I am. ⁓

And 40 years ago, ⁓ a friend of mine and I were trying to feed our dogs and there was nothing decent on the market. I mean, back in those days, this is 1986. ⁓

you eucanuba was the new thing, right? So it was kind of, you know, just a lot of mass market food and we created our own dog food. It was granola for dogs and everybody laughed at us. We are feeding our own animals and then we decided, ⁓ hey, let's take it to the health food store. Long story short, that company was called Sojourner Farms and I ran that for 10 years and learned so much. My husband says, Maria, you got an MBA the hard way. Just, we had no money.

but we learned from the masters of nutrition and we read the books and we refined and refined. And it was just, it was oats and grains and nuts and seeds mixed together and then you added water and meat. So it was the first commercial raw diet available. And I started taking it to different pet industry trade shows and everyone, as I said, laughed at my granola for dogs and cats, but it taught me.

the power of nutrition in our animals and that has never left me. Fast forward a couple of years, I sold Sojourner to a group of people that renamed it Sojo's and Sojo's then refined it further and did different processing with it and...

Then I went to the homeopathic medical school because I fell in love with homeopathy when I was 25, when I was an office manager for a group of homeopathic docs. And I saw, just like you and Soli, I saw the power of homeopathy in everyday people. People would come in with a condition and they would go out with a remedy and a month later they'd come in and they were better.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (06:57)

Right?

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (07:13)

And so I just, I fell in love with it. I started studying. And after I sold Sojourner, ⁓

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (07:13)

Yeah.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (07:20)

I went to school. It was a three-year program here in Canada and I opened a practice and I absolutely loved working with people and their chronic conditions and their acute conditions and their kids and everything and people's animals. I'm not a veterinarian. I didn't open a veterinary practice but when my patients would come to see me and they would feel better they would say, can you have a look at my dog?

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (07:21)

you

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (07:47)

I have put the two together in my world, right? Homeopathic medicine and all forms of alternative medicine, absolutely complimentary, and nutrition. And then 15 years ago, my husband said, hey, let's start a dog food company. And I'm like, are you out of your mind?

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (07:56)

Sure. Sure.

Right. Been there, done that. Yeah.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (08:09)

That's so hard, it's so hard.

But you know what, he's pretty headstrong as well and he started this company, Carnivore, and we worked together on it. The one thing I said, because I had my practice, like I was a doc, I've been there, done that.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (08:22)

Sure, Yeah.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (08:26)

I said, it has to be better than sojourner. It has to be just as clean. So if you can do it, go for it. I didn't think he could do it, but he did it. So I've been working with him on that. I've since retired from private practice. ⁓ I still teach homeopathic medicine for at home care of your pets, at home care of your kids. I still love it. I'm always going to be a homeopath for the rest of my life. ⁓ But my focus now is this amazing

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (08:34)

Right, right.

Sure, of course.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (08:55)

process and these amazing nutrients that we have created in the form of Carna4 and I'm delighted to see the change in that one beautiful animal because this is what I have been saying for 40 years. Guys

take care of your body, take care of your animals through natural nutrition, no synthetics, no food fractions, nothing your grandmother would not recognize as food. And then when you become ill, work with your body first. Thank God for antibiotics, thank God for all of that. But in our culture, we put that first and we turn to that instead of going, well, hang on, before we go there, let's try to coax the body

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (09:23)

Right.

Of course.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (09:42)

into health so it can heal itself. And then if you can't, then you can turn to whatever you need. Thank God we have all that. That's me in a nutshell. It's been the focus of my life for most of my life.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (09:47)

Yep. Yep.

It's

so impressive. you know, I have to tell you, I just was at an integrative medicine, you know, the real docs, the MD Medicine Conference here in Tucson, hosted by Dr. Andrew Wiles Integrative Medical Center, his new ⁓ CEO of the center, who is a doc. He's got five different boards and, you know, behind him. And he was talking to a room of, I would say there were 100 doctors and me, right?

I mean, I am a doctor too, but 100 MDs and a veterinarian. So he throws up a slide, which was just incredible. And he said, you know, we just looked at this number, but 94 % of all family practice, internal medicine, consults with a patient end up in a prescription. He said, you know,

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (10:43)

Wow.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (10:45)

This is what we have to turn around. You we spend so much money as humans in the last, you know, six months of our life when we should be spending this money proactively to allow the body to heal. And you know, you and I have both...

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (10:48)

Wow.

Yep.

Yep. Yep.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (11:01)

We know this and we understand this, but getting this out to our ⁓ pet parents and our listeners, this is why we want to do this. So one of the things I want to ask you is, what does it mean to feed a natural diet? Introduce us to that concept because there is and there isn't. So tell me about, you know, what you see with that world.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (11:03)

Yep.

Yep. Yep. Yep. Sure.

Yep. Excellent question. Yes.

So first of all, the word natural is so overused. I almost don't even like to use it, but right when we're introducing the topic, people will come to me all the time. How do I feed a natural diet? To David and I, so what we decided to do with Carna4 is it's about ingredients and processing. Okay. No synthetics. A natural diet is

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (11:29)

I know.

Right.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (11:46)

Whole foods as much as possible, the processing is limited as possible, right? For example, typical kibble is, it goes through such a process that there is nothing alive in it. Typical kibble is extruded through high heat and high pressure and it's basically this ash.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (11:52)

Right.

Right. Right.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (12:09)

that they then spray fat onto and they mix in all these synthetic nutrients, the vitamin D, all of it just comes from big dusty bags that they mix in. That is not food, right? That is not food. And that is what's going to...

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (12:24)

Right. Right. Right.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (12:29)

turn into chronic illness, especially like you mentioned, inflammation. Inflammation is the killer. And inflammation begins in the gut when you're just putting crap in and then all the other assaults to our immune system. Pollution, stress, it all adds up. Natural diets, for me, you're asking me, and a lot of people have different opinions, but in my opinion, my experience in 40 years, whole foods.

foods your grandmother would recognize as food. Not fractions, not synthetics, nothing from a lab.

There's no reason for any of that. It's far more expensive to put that into a pet food bag than it is to put in synthetics, chemicals, and lab food stuffs, right? And then process it as little as possible. So Carna4 is quick baked for four minutes because we have to kill the pathogens. A lot of people would love to feed raw. Personally, I feel that it's the best way to do it. But what Dave and I realized is so many people just can't or won't, and there's no judgment.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (13:13)

Yeah.

Of

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (13:31)

Let's get you into a whole foods, minimally processed diet. That's better than the stuff you buy at the grocery store that is shit and sawdust mixed in a bag. I shouldn't say that, I know, but like, come on. It is.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (13:42)

Yep. No, it's, but you're, it's, it is what it is. And people don't

understand, what people don't understand is we've been dealing with, I don't know, is it 40 years or even more of this stuff in our genetic pool of our dogs and cats. And people, oh my God, you know, so an interesting, another interesting fact that I talk about in my, one of my seminars is that humans eat about 59 % ultra processed food.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (13:57)

Yes, and it's affecting them. Yeah.

Wow.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (14:11)

Our

pets are at 87 % because of just what you alluded to. The heat extrusion, the pressure extrusion, the spraying on of synthetics. So people have to realize we got to get away from that because people like me who are dealing with these animals with these terrible inflammatory conditions, ⁓ they're not going to get well unless we give them the foundation which is what you're doing. Of course not.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (14:18)

Yep. Right. Yep. Yeah.

Yep.

And Randy, it's no different with people because as a homeopath,

I had people coming to me with chronic conditions. I was, you know, I'm the witch doctor. So I'm the last person they come to. They've tried every drug. They've tried every treatment. They come to me. And what we do with homeopathy is we coax the body to heal itself using its own energy. I would often say to people who are very, very sick, listen, if you have no...

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (14:46)

Yep. Yep.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (15:01)

internal energy left. I can't do anything because we need that. So how do you get that internal energy? Through diet, through stress relief, right? Through these natural therapies. It's not rocket science. I love to say that to people because it can be intimidating. How do you start? You've got a dog like solely like, you know, these poor people try everything. Like, where do you start with the natural? Well, with the diet!

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (15:05)

Right.

Yep. Yep.

Sure.

my God, yeah. Right.

Right. And then, you know, I know that ⁓ many of these people before they come to see me, and I love the fact that I now have to call myself the witch doctor because I like that because I am the last step. I mean, I can't tell you in the last 10 years how many people have sat in my exam rooms and said, if you can't help my dog or cat, I'm done.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (15:41)

Yes. Yep.

Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (15:54)

because I've tried everything and they have. mean, they really have, God bless them.

And then the question for me a lot of times is, well, why doesn't my veterinarian do this or do that? And I said, here's what you have to understand. ⁓ 90 % of all pet parents want a conversation about food. Do you know what the percentage of what they get? 5 % get that from their... Yeah, it's five.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (16:14)

Mm-hmm.

I thought it was 10, so five is, oh my

gosh. Yeah.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (16:23)

It's 5 % and

what they get is the prescription diets which are just exactly what you and I are talking about. And I always tell people at some point in my life I'm probably going to get sued by one of these companies because I lamblast them so bad. And you know, it's just that, you know, my feeling is that, you know, you and I know the definition of insanity. Let's keep on doing the same things and expecting different results and that's not going to happen. So, it's so nice. Yeah.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (16:27)

Yep.

Yes.

Yep. Yep. Yep. Well, this is one of the big things. This is why

we created Carnivore. Because what people hear is you got to feed a natural diet. But then they look, if you go online, there's a lot of information about raw feeding and all great. I got four kids at home.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (16:54)

Yep.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (17:09)

⁓ I have a job, my husband has a job, we're trying to scrape together a life with two incomes. I'm gonna cook and feed for my dog. Most people will tell you, I just can't do that. And so they quit. They stop where they don't go down the road. And my goal...

is to get people going down the road. And I'll bet you do the same with your pets, with your pet parents too, because you have to start somewhere. try this convenient whole food. See the difference in your animal within just a few weeks. That dog's gonna smell better and look better. And then with chronic conditions, a whole foods diet is gonna actually cure them and then make your decision. Now, is it worth your time and money?

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (17:32)

Yep. Yep.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (17:51)

to do the same, to make it a step further and maybe go educate yourself. Take a seminar with someone that can teach you about how do you do raw feeding.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (17:56)

Yeah, yeah. Well, you have,

even on your site, you have courses and you have

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (18:01)

Yeah.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (18:02)

lots of education that people can have.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (18:03)

Yeah. Yeah.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (18:04)

know, and I, you know, the other thing that I'll comment on when you talk about that person that has the four kids and we're talking about cheese, they're told now that they should be raw fed. You know, I've been doing this 43 years. I've studied a lot of information on food and supplements. I made it, I'm making my life work to look at all these things. My office looks like a product sales place because every day I get sent stuff to me. Try this and what do you think about that?

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (18:32)

Yep.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (18:32)

But

the reality is that I couldn't balance my dog's diet. If I was home cooking, ⁓ you have to worry about calcium levels and D3 levels and protein and carb and fat levels. it's just not... People can't go there. That's not the place to start. And I love the fact... Yeah? Yeah?

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (18:41)

Yep. Yep.

Yep. And there's a good number of people that can and more power to them, but you

and I both know convenience and is everything nowadays. Yep.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (18:59)

Yep. Yep. Yep. And you

know, like you said, even ⁓ if they're doing Carna4 and they want to add freeze-dried raw to what they're doing or frozen raw, ⁓ yeah, absolutely. I mean, no one's going to say no to that situation, but we need to get them started. And that's the beauty of what you guys have done. You know, so thank you for that because it's really a wonderful starting point for people, you know, and... Yep.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (19:09)

Absolutely great. Yep.

Absolutely.

Yeah, thank you. Sure.

It's just common sense, Randy. Like it's just,

it's common sense. Start where you can. Start where you can. Let's just start where you are. You open the bag, you pour it in, you put some Flora4 on it or some Greens Plus like you used with Soli. Fabulous. I eat the Greens Plus myself. It's all human grade organic. Dave and I put it in our smoothies every day, which is why I look so young. ⁓

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (19:30)

Yep. Yep.

Yep.

Yep. Yes. There you go. I love

it. Yeah. Just celebrating your 21st birthday. I think that's amazing. I love it. I love it. So let me ask you a question. People always ask about the types of food for our pets. So basically there's fresh, there's lightly cooked, there's air dried, there's freeze dried. Can you comment a little bit about the classifications and kind of your thoughts?

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (19:52)

There you go, exactly, you're a smart man.

Yeah,

think, first of all, I think...

that I have on all of this stuff is like no judgment, okay? Where are you comfortable? Where are you comfortable? So the less processing the better in my opinion. So if you are comfortable, ⁓ freeze dried is one way of doing it. ⁓ Air dried like Carna4 quick baked four minutes and then long air dried I think is ideal for convenience and safety. ⁓

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (20:24)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.

Yep.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (20:46)

I've been through a plant recently that does kettle cooked, which is a very interesting thing, but then you've got a fresh product and you have to refrigerate it. So, you know, as my daughter would say, what's your carbon footprint? What do you, you know, what are you comfortable with? Are you traveling a lot? I'm a nomad, as you know, I travel all the time. So I couldn't do a fresh diet.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (20:53)

Sure.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (21:07)

That's just not doesn't fit my lifestyle, but does it fit yours? Perhaps it doesn't. That would make you comfortable. The key to me is what's in it. You know, the different processing, how does it affect what's in it? You can have this lovely ingredients list, but then if it's ⁓ completely cooked all the way through with extrusion, what's the point, right? So what is it you're looking for?

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (21:30)

Yep. Yep. Right. Right. mean, yeah.

Yeah. And I want to, you know, I want to, I teach my clients to be label readers. You know, look at the label. You know, when you see a bag that has 32 vitamins added back to it, you know, there's a reason.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (21:41)

Yep. Yep.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (21:50)

They do that because they're not in there because they cook them all out if it was there to start with, even if it was there to start with. So, so yeah, I think it's it's really important. And unfortunately, our people, your people, my people don't have the opportunity to see what goes on in these processing plants and whatnot. You know, it's like it's like when I first went to vet school and they took us to a meat processing plant. And, know, this was just before the light bulb was invented. And I'm looking at and they go, you know, here's

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (21:53)

That's right. Yep. Yep. Yep.

Yeah. Yep. Yeah.

You

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (22:19)

A quality, ⁓ you know, human food and here's B and C quality. and on the floor, that's kind of what we're doing for our pet food, you know, and there's, you know, organs with tumors in them and, you know, euthanasia solution and, know, we won't go there. But...

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (22:26)

Yeah. Yep.

Yep. Yep. Yep.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (22:36)

So thank God we have this nailed down. Another question that comes up a lot, so I'll ask this to you is, you know, I am dealing with ⁓ terrible obesity problems in these pets too. And you know, the thing is, is that when there are so many, ⁓ you know, simple carbs that can be inflammatory, you know, ⁓ how do you get around that piece as far as when people ask you about Carna4 and weight control?

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (22:46)

Mmm.

simple carbs. Yep. Yep.

Yeah,

we don't put simple carbs in. First of all, they're complex carbs because all the carbs that we add, like the only grains that we add in our foods that have grain is whole brown rice. And you said it, it's the simple carbs, it's the sugars that really are creating this obesity epidemic. we've tried to balance it out because carbs provide energy.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (23:06)

Thank you.

Yep. Yep.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (23:29)

So if you're going to provide that energy, make it a whole food, a whole grain rice, a whole, it's organic brown rice, right? It's as good as it gets. There's so many minerals in that fiber, everything. It's very important. The quality of the carb makes as much of a difference as the amount of the carbs. If you're eating a food that's high carb with a lot of

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (23:29)

Sure.

Right. Yep. Yep. Yep.

Sure. Sure.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (23:55)

corn, processed corn, processed wheat, this stuff that really we know that causes a ton of inflammation. So I am also I'm constantly talking to people about read the label, what's in it. It kind of it's kind of a weird thing to for me. And this is a little side thing about the whole no grain grain, you know, thing that blew up a couple of years ago, and it still comes back, I still get questions about it. And

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (24:02)

Sure.

Right, right.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (24:25)

Really, my answer to the whole carb question is similar. It's like, well, you know, grains provide energy. you, you know, your brain needs it, your body needs it. You don't want all fats. Like, how do you, you know, you gotta balance it out a lot. And so choose a complex carb. What's a complex carb? Well, a whole grain, you know. There's a, it's an interesting issue.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (24:44)

Sure, sure.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the body takes time to process

that versus the simple carbs, which is just like you said, turn to sugar, which are totally inflammatory. And you know, that whole thing with, you know, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, you know, they actually did two or three studies after all that broke. I'm a suspect that that came from one of the big food companies or two of them. ⁓ But, you know, they did a whole study after that. There was more...

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (24:57)

Yep. Totally.

Yep.

Yep. yes.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (25:18)

hypertrophic cardiomyopathy after everybody switched off of that, you know, and then found out that they were, you know, they were, you know, no grain and you know, basically, you know, we're back in a much more stable situation. Thank God. you know, Sure, sure.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (25:31)

Yeah, because it's all about a lack of taurine. Like you need meat. So if you're gonna

make a cheap food or a food cheaper, you're gonna take the meat out and you're gonna add in pea protein or whatever. It's not like, it's all about taurine. Where do you get taurine? From meat. So feed a food that the first five ingredients are meats. Like...

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (25:37)

Yep.

Yep. Yeah. Yep.

Yep,

absolutely.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (25:54)

It goes

right back to ingredients and are those ingredients foods or are they food fractions or are they from a lab? Because if you feed enough meat your animal will get natural taurine and here's another thing I love talking about this too and I have a whole ⁓ I have a whole presentation on this that has never failed to amaze people. We talk about synergy between the nutrients and if you are feeding a fraction

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (26:02)

Yeah. No, that's right. Yep.

Yep.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (26:25)

that family of co-nutrients around that vitamin is gone. But what does it take to metabolize that nutrient in your animal's body? That whole family of co-nutrients. That's the synergy amongst all the co-nutrients in that nutrient. There are co-nutrients that we haven't even named yet.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (26:36)

Yep. Yep.

absolutely. Yeah.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (26:50)

We don't even know what they are, but we do know

when you combine olive oil with fresh tomatoes, you get a better quality of food metabolism than if you eat them apart, right? There's so much great research that could be done if it were in the interest of big food, so.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (27:04)

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, but it's not. I think the thing that I'm so excited about is that thank God in our world, every, know, the, you know.

food has moved into this realm where this is the biggest segment of people looking and buying new food is exactly what we're talking about. So ⁓ it's very, very exciting to me. ⁓ Talk a little bit about your sprouted grain product. Now, is that in Carna4 too? So the Flora4 is also, yeah.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (27:23)

Yes.

Yeah.

⁓ yeah. Yep, yep, Sprouted seeds, sprouted

seeds are a super food. And when we discovered them, cause this is, remember I tasked Dave, said.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (27:49)

Okay.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (27:54)

this new project of yours, has to be as clean as sojourner and it has to be better. How are you gonna do that? Well, sprouted seeds are, once we started researching the power, so a seed has this whole hard shell and it's got phytic acid that protects all the nutrients in it. And if you think about an acorn grows into an oak tree, that's a tiny little acorn grows into this huge tree. How? Where does it get its,

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (28:19)

Yeah.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (28:24)

nutrients and its information. It's all underneath that phytic acid shell. When you soak a seed, just soak it in water a little bit, that phytic acid shell breaks and all the nutrients that are going to build that tree or build that plant are released by the billions and they are bioavailable to our guts.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (28:45)

Yeah.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (28:48)

Now what happens when you take a probiotic, perfectly good, not harmful at all, that you buy in the store for 60 or $70 a bottle and you put that capsule in your animal's body, the heat and acidity of the gut will kill most of those probiotics, if not all of them, right? But if you eat...

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (29:07)

Absolutely, absolutely.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (29:11)

that probiotic contained in the food it was born with, remember the idea of synergy and all the co-nutrients, that probiotic has fought to survive. It's hardier. It is going to, not all of them, but most of them.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (29:15)

Yep. Yep.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (29:27)

will survive the heat and acidity of the gut and actually be metabolized in the system. So sprouted seeds, and we have a variety of sprouted seeds in Carna4, and then we package them separately in our two, the Flora4 product and the Greens Plus product. So you can eat Carna4 and get the sprouted seeds if your animal is perfectly healthy. But if your animal has any issues like soli,

feed the Carna4 with the Greens Plus or with the Flora4, most of our customers kind of rotate them all. You will see an amazing difference in your animal within weeks. Like I can't tell you how many customers have written to me and said, wow, my animal used to smell bad. It's gone. What happened there? It's just nutrition. It's just metabolizable nutrition that their bodies can absorb.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (29:58)

Just rotate them, yeah.

Yep.

Yep.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (30:19)

because

it has all of its co-family of nutrients. Sprouted seeds are amazing. they're, again, I mean, this is my rephrase, it's not rocket science, guys, it's just nutrition. It's just common sense nutrition. And like I said, it's all human-grade organic, so we eat it every day. At the trade shows, you'll see me making smoothies because that's, it's all I eat when I'm at the trade shows. Yes, that's right. Chocolate or strawberry, which do you want? No?

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (30:24)

Yeah.

No.

I had one, what are you talking about? You turned me on, it was delicious. I know, I love that. So

a question that I have is, we're talking about this situation ⁓ with the sprout of seeds and the greens. ⁓ What about things like, you know, what...

you usually tell people like, see in Arizona, we're so dry here that I have to harp on Omega threes because ⁓ we just don't, we don't get enough. ⁓ You know, I.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (31:05)

Yes, yes.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (31:10)

I don't know, one time was taking five or six grams of, you know, ⁓ of DHA and EPA. And I did that Omega-Quant test, which is very expensive, found out that I still wasn't getting enough, which is interesting, you know. ⁓ But in our pets, ⁓ I also see that's a great synergy, like you said, with what you're doing, because it really helps boost that it decreases the non-essential shedding. really helps boost, you know, it's an anti-inflammatory.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (31:16)

Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (31:40)

It's moistening, that type of thing.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (31:40)

Yeah. Yeah.

Omega-3s in the sprouted seed material are huge. They reproduce by the billions when we sprout that seed. And so we've selected a selection of seeds. It's not just one seed we sprout. We actually have five to eight that we sprout so that we mix it. And we've tested this for years. We've shelf tested this since the beginning. And our research lab that has just kept things going and every once in a we'll pull a bag off the shelf from 10 years ago and look at that.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (31:46)

Yep. Okay. Yep.

Sure. Sure.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (32:13)

probiotics in there my god you know so the omegas are super important and what I would suggest is if you're taking a supplement a fish oil supplement which is a very common way to get your omegas fish oil goes rancid pretty quickly it's been removed from its natural environment you're missing some of the cofactors not saying it's harmful but this could be why you religiously take the amount you think you need and then you get tested

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (32:15)

Yeah, yeah.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (32:43)

and it's still short versus.

taking omega-3s in your food within their natural source, which is the sprouted seeds, which is throughout Carna4, then allowing those omega-3s to be metabolized, fully metabolized with all the co-nutrients around them, they actually go to the cells to do the restoration work that they're meant to do. I've seen this time and time again. Again, goes back to, you know, that's raw, like the Flora4 and the greens plus,

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (32:52)

Yep. Yep.

Wow. Yep.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (33:15)

There's no processing whatsoever. We sprout it, we dry it, we grind it into a powder so that you can scoop it and that's it. And it's funny because ⁓ we put so many sprouted seeds in the Carna4 bags that they look like they're vacuum packed because the probiotics are still alive after our quick bake and they suck the oxygen out of the bag and people think, are you vacuum packing? No, we're not. It's just live probiotics. Yeah.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (33:18)

Sure, sure.

Yep. Yep.

Yeah, you know, that's amazing. I'm glad you mentioned that because

yeah, mean, the last couple of bags that I've gotten have looked like that and I didn't know why now. I know why. Amazing.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (33:47)

Yep, that's why. And it just depends

where in their life cycle you're buying that particular package. Some of them are loose, but as time goes on, they absorb the oxygen in the bag naturally. I know it's funny.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (33:56)

Of course. Of course.

Sure,

Yeah, so, you know, on my end, ⁓ microbiome has become this huge piece for me. ⁓ I am convinced, honestly, from what I have seen and where it's gone in human medicine. You know, I feel like, honestly, in veterinary medicine for 10 years, we've kind of led...

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (34:09)

Yep, yep.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (34:21)

the charge on this, know, those of us who are looking at it, very few, but have led the charge on this. And now the human medicine stuff is just taken off. And, you know, they actually have found, you know, bacteria that can be the cause of psoriasis and, and, and lupus and, whatever. But it's interesting what I would love to do. Maybe you and I need to talk about this at some point, because I think that microbiome should be a part of a wellness exam. I honestly do because and

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (34:21)

Yes. Yes, I agree.

Good.

Yep.

Yep. Yep.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (34:51)

And maybe if my patients were all eating Carna4, I wouldn't have to worry about this as much. you know, it's interesting. I would love to see what happens on an animal that comes to us and then we change to Carna4 and Flora4 and the greens product and then look at their microbiome six months later. Because I would say...

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (34:55)

Hahaha

I would

love to do that. Done. Let's do it. Look, we'll do it. Yep. That's right.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (35:13)

Yeah, I'm telling you the proof, well, we'll do it because the proof is gonna be in there. We'll get maybe

like Randy from VDI Labs or somebody to kind of get on board with this. But ⁓ I really believe ⁓ that that microbiome stuff will be part of a wellness thing, especially with an animal first coming to you or me, I should say. And ⁓ because we've had such great success.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (35:21)

Yep. Yep.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (35:37)

on rebalancing and doing in the bad cases doing fecal microbiome transfer doing you know, and it's just worked out incredibly well, so ⁓ Yeah, yeah, I mean people say to me this is what this is good poop in a capsule and I go Yeah, and I go, you know, well, do they have this for us? I said, yeah, they just released the first prescription FMT It's seventeen thousand five hundred dollars for one time treatment. It's for poop

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (35:46)

Isn't that amazing, the fecal microbiome transfer? mean, amazing to me.

Yeah

Yeah, it'll hopefully get cheaper. Yeah.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (36:07)

It's so crazy. So yeah, I think it will. I mean, I think

that's a matter of time. So question.

Talk a little bit about where Carnivore is going. mean, what's new on the horizon? I know according to this website that I've been looking at, there's a new product coming. I don't know if you can spill the beans or just give us an idea, but what are you looking at doing? Like, you know, what's your goal at this point? Because you know, you've, you know, I mean, honestly, you've kind of done it at this point. ⁓

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (36:26)

Yeah.

Well.

Yep.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (36:40)

But knowing you and you're like me, there's no moss that gathers under your feet. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (36:46)

We're curious. We're curious, Randy. That's the thing, you

know, we're always learning. That's what I really appreciate about you is that you're always asking questions. You're always learning. And then you put that into practice and you go, wow, that's a great idea. I think I could do something with that. And of course, my brain never stops. So one of the things that I can't spill all the beans because, you know, I am in a competitive environment, but I would really like to improve our cat food offerings. So I have an idea.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (37:07)

Sure, Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Good.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (37:16)

that

because cats are famously finicky and I have an idea for how I can better entice the cats to take on the natural food diet because it's a hard thing to do unless you get them when they're brand new babies ⁓ and they have not had exposure to all of just the addictive ingredients that are purposely put into most cat foods to get them to eat. ⁓

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (37:31)

Yep. Yep.

Yep. Yep.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (37:44)

Obviously, I'm never gonna do that. So how can I get the cat to eat it? You know, a ⁓ four-year-old, let's say a four-year-old healthy cat, right? You're just your average house cat. How can I get this cat moved into a more natural diet that is convenient for their owners so that they don't have to cook? That is my current research study right now, and I do have an idea, and hopefully I'll have some data.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (37:52)

Yep. Yep.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (38:12)

within the next three months that I can then test and then you know what I what I might do is call on you and your clinic to test it with a couple of your patients like right that would be great.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (38:21)

Of course. Yep, of course. Yeah, we do that all the time. You know, it's interesting.

I'll tell you, in my travels and whatnot,

I, last year seemed to be my cat year. I was at a conference called CMEAL in Seattle, 6,000 cat owners. I went to the Cat Writers Conference, which, you know, they meet, they reach millions of people. And it was really apparent to me by meeting the social influencers, you know, there and what that, that, ⁓ you know,

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (38:38)

Wow.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (38:52)

Cat people want to make sure that you and I understand that cats aren't dogs, first of all. You know, I know that sounds really crazy, but that's the truth. ⁓ And, you know, they don't want a dog labeled product. They want a cat product and they want cat information. And, ⁓ you know, the talks that I've done, I do this pneumonic called cats, which is C is for complete nutrition and microbiome. A is for activity. T is for teeth because it's so important in cats and S is for stress.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (38:57)

Right, that's right. Yep. Yep.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (39:22)

talking about the phthalates and and the glyphosate and all of that stuff that's involved nowadays ⁓ and they loved it I mean it's just being eaten up and so I'm excited about that because I know that we can work together get to get that established sure sure

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (39:25)

Yes. Yes.

Yep, and we're always expanding our recipes.

We have

a new pork recipe coming. We've had a lot of calls for that. As you know, lot of pet owners will cycle through a protein source. Their animal won't do well on that particular protein, so they'll switch to the next protein. Then their animal will do well for the first six months or eight months, and then of course you know what's really going on. It's not that their cat or dog is allergic to that particular meat source. It's the process.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (39:44)

Yep.

Yep.

Yep.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (40:09)

and all the other stuff around it that's usually causing the problem. And I've had so many people come to me and say, oh, my dog can't be on your chicken formula. And I say, well, try it. And they'll try it. And they'll come back six months later and go, for some reason, it's OK. I'm like, because it's not ultra-processed crap. It's just about the ingredients and the processing. So we'll get there with people.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (40:12)

Sure. Sure.

Right.

Of course. Of course. Of course.

Yeah.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (40:39)

I agree with you and it's going from from the pet the pet population to the human population I'm so excited about that. I just want to see people making common-sense decisions, you know

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (40:52)

Yeah. And it's you know, I love you had mentioned this early on when we were talking. I can't tell you how many clients sit in these rooms and I'm talking to them about their pets and they're like, can you like take care of me? And I go, no. I mean,

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (41:06)

No.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (41:09)

I could tell you what I do if you want. don't mind relaying that journey because it all got to where I am right now. but ⁓ yeah, it's just ⁓ I wish again in our world that we would see more proactive stuff in human world. And I think with the way things are going with insurance and this, I think we're going to see it. I just think it's going to take a time. It's going to be a big revamping. We're so far ahead in that world in veterinary medicine where I don't have to rely on thank God all the insurance

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (41:36)

Yep.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (41:39)

Insurances and all that that you know that are involved. It's getting there I mean unfortunately it's getting so expensive to do the testing that we need to do and the things that we you know that we get but as I tell people and I think this is a great you know segue out of out of what we're talking about if You'd spend a little bit more money on your food. You'd spend a lot less money with me, you know, please

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (41:41)

Oof.

Prevention is

right. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (42:05)

Yep.

Yep. ⁓ Anything you can think of, you know, as we're leaving this conversation? I know we talked about a lot of different things. Was there anything you wanted to cover, ⁓ you know, that we didn't get to or you'd like to let our listeners know about?

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (42:21)

No, you know, I'm not here to plug my products. I just love having conversations with smart, curious people like yourself. And I love introducing these concepts to as many people as possible. My heart is, I want people to find the peace and the health that they deserve, right? It's all about a long health span, not a long lifespan. And what I hope my life's work

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (42:26)

Sure.

Sure.

Yep. Correct.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (42:50)

will do for people and their families, which includes our pets, is increase the health span of everyone involved. And I love working with integrative docs like yourself to enlighten the whole family. ⁓ Everything that affects us affects our animals. So if we can just have that same sense of curiosity and common sense to feeding our animals that we are starting to get for ourselves as well, I think the world will be a better place.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (42:58)

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (43:20)

and that would make me happy if I could help to just make the world a better place.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (43:23)

Well,

and you have. So God bless you for that. you know, hopefully I've spent a little made a little part of that myself in my lifetime. You know, my legacy, I'm hoping, is that we've got, you know, Dr. Weil here in Tucson who really started integrative medicine for the MDs. And, you know, he went from a little building that cost him a couple thousand dollars a month in rent to now a multi-million dollar facility on the medical campus at the University of Arizona. We have a vet school and I am

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (43:26)

Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (43:53)

really plugging to get an integrated veterinary track put in that school. Kids do not get any exposure. You know, have, I have, I have people that come to me from vet schools and want a shadow and they go, well, where did you learn that? Or where did you get this? And I have to tell them that I had to go all over to find it. And, and it's still not a readily easily sourced kind of thing. So, it's hard. I feel it sometimes. Yep.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (43:56)

⁓ yes.

Yeah, yep.

So you are now an elder, Randy. You are an elder and that's a very, very special role.

You're an elder. ⁓ You owe it to these kids. You owe it to these kids to make yourself available whether they want to hear it or not.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (44:23)

Yeah. Yeah.

Yep.

Yep.

Yep.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (44:33)

You

make yourself available with that wealth of experience that you've gathered over these 40 years and steer them and hopefully, you know, enough of them hear you and enough of them are interested that they can then make the world a better place like you have in your path. Like that's a very special thing you're doing. You have a vet school there, wow.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (44:40)

Yeah.

Yep.

Yep.

No, I know. I'm

excited. I have a lot of clients to come in and say, well, you you're...

in nice terms. You're not getting any younger. Like when are you going to retire? And I go, you know what? My wife is my boss here ⁓ in my practice. She's also 20 some years younger than I am. God bless her. She's an old soul. but you know, she, ⁓ you know, I told her in no uncertain terms, there's so much more to learn and there's so much more that I'm growing with every day that you're going to find me passed out on the floor one day at work, which is just where I want to be. You know, I don't, you know, I'd love to go travel and see the world and stuff like that.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (45:02)

You

Yeah.

Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (45:30)

but I love what I do and I know you do too and it shows it shows so yeah I want to say in no uncertain terms thank you for today and I you know I really could see at some point you and I being up at a big dog conference talking just doing this exact same conversation it need it needs to happen it needs to happen yeah

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (45:32)

Yep. It's so interesting.

Thank you for having me.

Yep. I think, you know what? Absolutely, it needs to happen. And we could

put that marriage of nutrition and homeopathy and just common sense health care to people, right? Let's do it, Randy. Yeah, let's do it.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (45:55)

Yep.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. think I think

We will. We will. You know, there's some big

cat conferences coming up. Maybe we can bring Carna4's cat product there when it's there and talk about that. But you and I will stay in touch as you know. We're going to move down this road. And I want to let everybody know that you can pick up a lot of information on the Carnivore website. It's C-A-R-N-A the number four. ⁓ Also, at Dr. Randy Petfet. We're on YouTube. And subscribe, follow us because it really helps us get this out to a lot more people.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (46:10)

Yep.

for sure.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (46:33)

And Maria, I can't thank you enough. You just did a great job. Not that I had any trouble. You know, we're sitting here thinking about our outlines and stuff like that. don't need a freaking outline. I mean, we're gonna do this. So anyway, it's exactly what I thought it would be. So thank you.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (46:36)

Thanks, Randy. Grateful. No, no, no, no. Yeah, there are so

many conversations I would love to have with you one at a time. Yes. Thank you, thank you.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (46:53)

We will have them. Best of luck with all your family and hopefully Canada

will not secede its friendship from the United States completely because most of us are so troubled by that. But thanks again and we'll be talking soon.

Maria Ringo, Carna4 (47:00)

No.

I know.

You bet, bye.

Randy Aronson, VMD, CCRT, CVA (47:23)

seventeen thousand five hundred dollars for one time

poop