OUR STORY
Grandma Mae’s Country Naturals was founded in 2007, when a group of independent pet store owners met to discuss what was happening in the pet food industry. They were concerned that many premium pet food brands were being acquired by large corporations or investment groups, and when control of these companies passed from the founders, often the quality of the product declined while prices went up. In many cases, the pressure for increased profits led to taking short-cuts with ingredients and processing as well as to an increase in cost.
To provide their customers with a product of the quality they demanded, these small business owners, who had devoted their lives to selecting the highest quality products for pets, pooled their funds to start Grandma Mae’s Country Naturals–the independent retailer owned pet food.
Today, Grandma Mae’s is still controlled by independent business owners who care about your pets as much as you do. If you haven’t heard of us yet, it is because as a small, privately-owned company, we put all of our profits into providing your pets with the highest quality ingredients and processing, and not into advertising or huge sales forces traveling the country. At Grandma Mae’s, what’s best for pets comes before everything else.
Erika, NJ
I am so happy I found your company! I have a 4 year old German Shepherd who has a severe chicken allergy and can’t eat potatoes. So far, he is doing great on your food and he loves the taste. I think it’s amazing that your company gives dog food to active military families. My husband and my father are both combat veterans so I like to support companies that support the troops. Your food is great and your company is doing something amazing, Trigger and I will continue to be customers for the rest of his life.
WHY GRANDMA MAE'S IS BETTER
QUALITY INGREDIENTS
A pet food is only as good as its ingredients, and ingredients with the same name can be very different from one another. For example, one chicken meal could be 60% protein and another could be 70% protein. While many brands shop around for what is available at the cheapest price at the time they are producing, Grandma Mae’s buys the highest quality ingredients, available only in small quantities, and only on long-term contracts.
ATTENTION TO DETAIL
The protein in our foods is over 70% from animal sources. We also supplement to high levels of Methionine, the key building block of Taurine, to prevent Taurine deficiency. Our foods contain no by-products, artificial colorants, flavors, or preservatives, no corn, soy, wheat, gluten, dairy, or ethoxyquin, and there are never any growth hormones or antibiotics loading in our ingredients.
IT’S NOT EASY TO PLEASE PICKY EUROPEANS
Our facilities are also among the most highly certified in the USA, with certification most large-corporate facilities don’t have. They are EU (European Union) certified, which means all meat must come from animals that pass an additional inspection proving the animal had no illness and thus are human grade. It also means that all our meats must have the spinal column, nervous system and brain removed, so Mad Cow and other diseases cannot be transmitted. Many other premium foods do not meet these standards.
COMMITMENT TO ENVIRONMENT
At Grandma Mae’s we care about the environment too, which is why we created Susta-Pak™, our trademarked system of sustainability in packaging. Susta-Pak™ includes two different types of packaging, one made of post-consumer recycled material, and the other made of a plant-based renewable resource grown according to the highest contemporary standards of agricultural management. These plants also absorb more carbon dioxide than the manufacturing process and transportation emit, giving these bags a carbon footprint of zero.
SLOW COOKING IS BEST
Grandma Mae’s Country Naturals’ kibble is made with a unique low-temperature, slow-cooking process. This process retains higher levels of proteins, vitamins and minerals than the high-temperature fast-cook processes used by large corporate brands. Our equipment has been modified to achieve unusually high standards for nutrition and digestibility, with the percentage of ingredients fully cooked among the highest in the industry. This means that most dogs and cats will get more nutrition from less food and their stools will be smaller.
STRICTEST LEVEL OF TESTING
We are committed to providing the freshest and safest pet foods available anywhere. As a small independent company, we have stricter quality controls and shorter lead times to ensure that the food you give your pets is of the highest quality. Our technicians perform extra tests on all ingredients when they arrive at our facility. These include sampling for protein and fat content, pH samples, and tests of off-gassing which predict whether food will spoil in the future.
Our production facilities are a huge asset. The facility where our kibble is made in upstate New York is run by a family that has been making pet food over three generations. They are well-known in the industry for sending back ingredients that fail our tests, so the suppliers send us only the best. Once completed, every batch of food is tested to be salmonella free and Country Naturals has never had a recall.
A HIGH LEVEL OF EXPERTISE
Grandma Mae’s employs two consultants who are among the most experienced and distinguished pet nutritionists in the world: Dr. David Dzanis and Serge Boutet. Dr. Dzanis has a DVM from Purdue and a PhD in Veterinary nutrition from Cornell, and is a Diplomate and past chair of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition. Serge Boutet is the previous manager of pet foods and nutrition for J.E. Mondou Ltee and Hagen Pet Foods. Serge Boutet is instrumental in formulating our foods, with Dr. Dzanis reviewing them before the formulas are finalized.
