Entrepeneur opens ‘herbal’ dog food store

A Pen highway building has a new tenant — a herbal dog-food kitchen and retail outlet that aims to become a social middle for Santa Fe's many dog lovers.

Marty's meals got begun in October 2010 when Sandra Bosben, a carpenter who misplaced her job during the recession, started experimenting in her Galisteo home kitchen with do-it-yourself pet food for her dog, Marty.

Bosben had adopted Marty from a rescue neighborhood in Oakland, Calif., some 15 years in the past when the dog became 6 months historical. He soon grew to be lame from degenerative joint ailment and had two surgeries to relevant his knees.

"i was thinking I'm going to must put him down," she mentioned. "Then I beginning making this meals for him, and it alterations his lifestyles. … He's now not lame. He's a distinct dog. He grew to become right into a a must have dog that went on horseback rides with me."

As be aware of mouth unfold among her friends, Bosben started to get so many requests for the domestic-made pet food that she rented a small industrial kitchen in Eldorado and commenced turning out dog and cat meals for sale.

She noted she quickly started to get raves from valued clientele about improvements of their pets' fitness — from dermis and joint issues to melanoma. soon, she referred to, she became making deliveries to dozens of buildings in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, and selling to seven native pet boutiques (Critters & Me, Eldorado country Pet, fortunate Dawg Day Care, Paws Plaza, Pooch Pantry, Tullivers natural Pet meals and Teca Tu).

Marty's food' business signal went up late closing week when the metropolis gave her the allow to delivery working within the constructing at 1107 Pen road, at the beginning built in the early 1900s as Slades Dairy next to the ancient Territorial reformatory.

In contemporary years, the building has been break up between the Barkin' Boutique, a thrift store operated with the aid of the Española Humane Society; Piñon Press; metropolis Boot & Shoe restoration; and an old furniture store. Marty's nutrition' main entrance and retail house is in the former area of the Barkin' Boutique, which moved to 510 N. Guadalupe St. in 2011, and its kitchen is within the space once occupied via the furniture shop.

The larger kitchen will allow Bosben's workforce of six to show out 1,000 to 1,400 kilos of dog food every week. That includes 10 styles of dog meals selling from $5 to $7 per pound. That may translate to $10 to $70 every week, depending on the dog's dimension. The business offers discounts for greater purchases and rescue agencies. Deliveries are made on Wednesdays, someday after the food is ready, packaged and frozen.

The dog meals include single-source proteins — biological, grass-fed, usually in the neighborhood raised, raw or "gently cooked" beef, bison, lamb, chook, egg and wild-caught salmon (no horse meat) — blended with biological, locally grown vegetables, like sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, bok choy, parsley, fennel, carrots, dill and chicory, plus fish oil and different fit additives.

one of the pet food has biological grain and a few is grain-free. Some is made with effortlessly digestible oat grains for young pups. Marty's meals also contains meaty bones for canines dental fitness and a line of biological, gluten-free dog biscuits.

Bosben is also working with Dee Blanco, a Santa Fe homeopathic veterinarian, to enhance six various kinds of cat meals that combine raw beef, comparable to red meat or rabbit, with fish.

"Cats are very choosy. They're our toughest purchasers," Bosben noted. "We put the fish in there so the cats can scent that. They're very delicate to the odor. They like very clean meals, unlike canines."

Bosben mentioned that after she all started feeding her cats the selfmade product, she seen that she not may odor their litter field.

however the massive competencies, she noted, is in the accelerated vitality and health advancements in comparison to that of an animal raised on processed pet food.

commercial pet food is "cooked below severe situations and then put via an extrusion process, which well-nigh takes the vitamins and minerals out, which is why you see a list of materials that are very lengthy on a package of pet food," Bosben spoke of. "They need to put these artificial nutrients again into the meals because they had been lost within the manner."

Bosben plans a grand opening for the end of June and appears forward to increasing into Boulder, Colo., in the next year or two. however the most unique suggestion, she referred to, become to create a group academic middle on animal fitness care.

"Our biggest element is to deliver americans in each different week … to americans about all distinct facets of animal fitness," she referred to. "ultimately, we're going to have cooking courses in our kitchen, where we teach individuals how to make their personal suit dog food. …

"Dr. Blanco will consult and design specific menus for dogs which have certain concerns. So if you've received a in poor health dog that's got allergic reactions, who's obtained certain illnesses … we will make that food special for that animal — dog or cat."