A Dog's Dinner: What Should We Really Be Feeding Our Pets?

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Arts, Science, History, Food

4.7 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In millions of homes, humans aren’t the only creatures sitting down to dinner. So what's on the menu for pets—and what impact does it have on their health, as well as the environment? This episode, we go back thousands of years to figure out what our first furry friends ate, how that's changed over the years, and why. Is serving your dog raw meat and bones more ancestrally appropriate? Can cats be vegetarian? What goes into that dry, brown, extruded industrial kibble? This episode, Gastropod is getting tails wagging with a look at the what our four-legged friends should really be eating to stay healthy and happy. You'll have to sit, stay, and listen to find out what the best options are, for our pets and the planet! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	So it is just about 7 o'clock, which means that Una is starting to give me some looks as if she's never been fed before.
0:11.3	Hey, Una, do you want to have dinner?
0:16.2	That was her nose hitting the microphone.
0:19.3	If there's one topic, we've heard many requests for over the years, it is for a pet food episode.
0:25.2	It's probably our most requested episode.
0:27.3	You, dear listeners, have been looking at us with those big, sad eyes and wagging your tails,
0:33.4	honestly pretty much begging us for it, and we just can't deny you any longer.
0:38.1	We, of course, are gastropod, the podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and
0:41.7	history, and I am Nicola Twilly.
0:43.4	I'm Cynthia Graber, and our producer is Claudia Gaibe, and her dog is named Una.
0:48.4	Okay, so Una Eats, Purina Proplan, performance 3020, chicken and rice.
0:59.0	And because she is a gastropod dog, she gets some of the vegetables left from whatever we've made for dinner.
1:05.0	So tonight she gets some cauliflower and some kale stems.
1:10.0	Yum! Or at least, that's what Una's thinking. Okay. She gets some cauliflower and some kale steps.
1:11.0	Yum.
1:11.8	Or at least, that's what Una's thinking.
1:13.9	OK, sit.
1:16.6	Down.
1:17.9	Up.
1:19.4	Little song and dance.
1:20.9	Wait.
1:22.3	Wait.
	...

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