Pet owners are treating pets more like family, driving a willingness to invest in their health. With this focus on and growth in the pet supplement space, it’s imperative that pet supplement producers emphasize clear and straightforward communication with their pet owning consumers.
“Pet parents have increasingly become more conscious of what goes into their pet's body,” said Sean Zyer, cofounder of Earth Buddy, a pet wellness company that produces small-batch natural pet supplements using hemp extract and functional mushrooms for dogs and cats. “It mirrors the growing popularity of people wanting to know more about sourcing and quality in their own supplements. Pet supplements should uphold the same standards.”
When dealing with a novel supplement ingredient like hemp or mushrooms, gaining the trust of pet owners is critical. Pets rely on their owners to provide the best option for them, which is why clear communication is important, said Zyer.
“As their guardians, we make the decisions on what goes in their food and why we're using a pet supplement, so it is logical that the companies we choose should have full transparency,” he said.
Engaged education important
Efforts to regulate CBD pet supplements is still a gray area, with two agencies, the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine and the National Animal Supplement Council, exploring how to regulate it. Because of this, Zyer said educating consumers is top of mind for Earth Buddy in an effort to gain consumer trust.
“Pet supplements have little-to-no regulatory standards and can basically list whatever they feel will sell a product,” he said. “It’s extremely important to us that our customers know exactly what they are adding and where it is from.”
Zyer explained his company offers third-party certification and analysis for every batch of products on its website, helping pet owners understand the ingredients in Earth Buddy products. The company also offers detailed information on its Learn, Blogs, and Lab Results pages on its website to help pet owners understand the purpose and formulation of its products.
“Not every natural pet supplement is going to work the same for every pet, as they are all individual beings,” said Zyer. “However, the first step in finding the right products is trusting the company you purchase from.”
With a novel ingredient, education and transparency critical
Clear communication with consumers for any pet supplement is important, but when you have a novel ingredient, like functional mushrooms, it becomes critical.
As functional mushrooms become more popular for dogs and cats due to their immune-boosting and stress-relieving benefits, Zyer said the role of a pet supplement company in educating consumers is imperative, explaining consumers might not understand the ingredient or how the quality of mushroom products can impact the efficacy of the product.
“For dogs and cats, mushrooms, like hemp or CBD, are a bioaccumulator that can absorb toxic chemicals, pollution or heavy metals so understanding quality is extremely important,” he said. “Many mushroom supplements for dogs and cats are sourced outside the U.S. where regulations and testing are nonexistent.”
Functional mushrooms also contain potent compounds like beta-glucans to enhance immune function or triterpenoids that hold a wealth of health benefits for pets, yet most companies promote these in the product without any third-party validation, said Zyer.
“Companies promoting these beneficial compounds found in mushrooms will list levels on their packaging, but rarely share any source to view their testing standards,” Zyer said. “We’re extremely happy that more pet parents are showing interest in functional mushrooms for pets, but like CBD for dogs and cats, we want to ensure they are actually buying what they seek.”
When companies simply list the total volume of specific mushroom species, but do not show active compound levels or resources to see lab results, this can lead to pet parents deciding the category is not effective. To try to combat this, Earth Buddy helps educate consumers on its mushroom extracts by providing QR codes on its packaging showing third-party lab results.
