Disclosure: Budget Earth is excited to announce that we were a Mars Petcare Ambassador for BlogPaws 2015. This means that they paid for us to attend the conference since we love their brands so much! That being said, we loved their brands before the conference. This means that my opinions below are 100% honest and my own, and Mars Petcare is not responsible for said opinion.
I don’t know about you guys, but I love watching shows that take you behind the scenes at different businesses. Yes, I am that crazy girl who loves watching the Food Network just to see what really goes into creating and making some of my favorite foods. Of course, the same applies to Reya’s own food and treats. I love when companies are transparent and allow you to see what happens behind the scenes. To say the least, I felt like a little kid when I was invited to take a tour of Mars Petcare‘s brand new, $110 million Global Innovation Center in Thompson’s Station, Tennessee. Who wouldn’t love to take a peek at how a global leader in pet care and nutrition takes care of our beloved furry friends?
Since this took place right before the BlogPaws Conference, all of us who were invited were up bright and early to take a bus from Nashville to Thompson’s Station. As you can see, all of us were perky and excited to take a sneak peak at some of our favorite brands! While we were on our way, we learned a bit more about the center, which has over 140 employed associates and focuses on creating a better world for pets. focuses mostly on creating cat and dog food that is both natural and mainstream.
One of the things that is heavily stressed at the Global Innovation Center are the 5 principles that their company is built around. These principles include:
- Quality
- Responsibility
- Mutuality
- Efficiency
- Freedom
All of these principles are used when creating all of their products during each step. For example, there are actually dogs and cats that live the Global Innovation Center. Like the humans that work there, each pet has their own badge and are actually associates that work at the center.While they obviously are valuable taste testers for the Research and Development team, their health, wellbeing, and nutrition is of prime importance. They want each animal there to thrive, so they have a schedule filled with lots of playtime, socialization with other animals and humans, and of course, lots of love.
For me personally, this was a breath of fresh air since I often worry about how animals are treated. Over 80% of the dogs and cats that are there come from local shelters, while others were gifts from other Mars Petcare facilities. As well, all the dogs and cats that live there will eventually go to forever homes with people who work at Mars Petcare or eventually be adopted out to the public (right now, it is only internal since everyone LOVES these animals!) Both the dogs and cats featured in these articles are real rescue animals that live in the facility, and are quite happy to be making their online debut!
Next, we talked to Dr Tiffany Bierer, the Pet Nutritionist for Mars Petcare. She makes sure that every line of food there is as nutritious as possible for our pets. Probably my favorite foods that she talked to us about were Nutro’s Farm Harvest, and Greenies. As a matter of fact, she even ate some of the Nutro Farm Harvest Food in front of us, showing us just how safe these foods are for our pets.
At the end of day, I walked out of the Mars Global Innovation Center feeling more confident and enthusiastic about their brands. Honesty, I can’t remember the last time I heard so many bloggers excited and talking about a trip, with all of us being positive about the experience (some of us were even wishing we were some of the dogs and cats that lived there!) After the experience, I have to say I am proud to feed Reya her nightly Greenies and can’t wait for her to try more Mars Petcare brands.
So, what do you think? Any questions you would like me to ask the Mars Petcare staff?
Disclosure: Budget Earth received financial compensation for this post in the form of sponsorship for the BlogPaws Pet Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. All opinions on this product are my own honest assessment, and may differ from our readers’ opinions.
Would you like to have your products featured in a giveaway event? Want to increase your social media exposure? Contact susan.l.bewley@gmail.com to see how I can help YOUR company today!
About Susan Bewley
Susan Bewley is a professional writer who has been writing content online & in print format for over 10 years. As well, she is an alumni of the University of Louisville with a Masters Degree in Special Education. When not working as an online business consultant or ghost writing, she can be found writing on Budget Earth, on her own novel, or working with various entities in the pet industry.
Very cool. What a great experience. Hope you got a lot out of it.
Thanks for the inside look at MARS petcare. I feel like I know more now about the company and its products. Too many feed food and treats to their pets without having any idea how they are made and just what goes into them.
Interesting trip! Woof!
Our pets are so important to us. They are part of the family and we want the best for them. Thank you so much for sharing this informatio
I have never use mars brand of cat food but sure will give it a try
this is a great page
Wow! That is an experience that most would love to have. I am always happy to see rescue pets taken well care of.
sounds like a cool place.i really like that they take in rescue dogs and cats and give them a place to live and eventually a forever home
What a wonderful place. Nice to see something like this exists
Sounds like a great organization. I can’t stand to think about anything being abused.
I wish we had the same service here where I live. I’d love to bring my dog there for a visit.
What a great day! Thanks for sharing.
I would like to go and watch the food being made. I want to see the ingredients and condition of the food as it becomes processed. I only feed my dog real food because I am not convinced about dog food being good for them. Dog food is bits of processed pieces which you do not find dog food in nature.
I’m happy to hear how much they actually care about the foods our pets eat and feel better knowing I’m feeding my babies the best food for them.
I love Mars Petcare products and love the fact that some of the dogs and cats actually live at the Global Innovation Center and are very content! I love their principles that they apply to their products and animals that live there!
I’m not really an animal person. I’m glad that you got to go, learned something and enjoyed yourself. It’s just not my thing.
Interesting, must have learned a lot!
Very interesting. I like that she ate some of the dog food.
What a great idea! I did not know that these courses existed.Thank you
I really appreciated all this useful information. I enjoyed it
We recently switched to IAMS…..my kitty is pretty content 🙂
I did not know of the existence of the Mars Petcare Global Innovation Center in Thompson’s Station, Tennessee before reading about it here. This sounds like a wonderful place for people to learn about pet food and nutrition. Thank you for sharing this review.
very cool! wow! i’ve never eaten pet food! good read.
Wow! How cool is that! I would of love going on a trip like that. It is nice to see what actually is going on behind the scenes. We feed our dogs Iams just for the fact its all about quality. My dogs love it!
It really was a very fun and interesting experience! It was great that they were also very open and really did answer all of our questions!
That looks like a lovely place to tour – was it really clean?
M
I would love to go it sound like a lot of fun.
I love the five principles that they follow. You don’t always see this in companies. Thank you so much for sharing this
Loved the video of the cat 🙂
That sounds great!
I really like that the Pet Nutritionist Dr Tiffany Bierer, ate some of the Nutro Farm Harvest Food to show how safe the Nutro Farm Harvest Food is for pets.
I was amazed when she said every food that goes out to pets she actually eats first!
I didn’t know there was a BlogPaws Conference, but I am glad that there is! I feel better giving my pets Greenies now too. I already use some of Mars Petcare brands for both of my pets.
BlogPaws is a fun conference and also allows us pet bloggers to let our opinions be known and ask questions about what goes in our pets food and treats. While I don’t know much about some of their brands, I do love their natural brands and Greenies. 🙂
I would have been a holy terror there. Half the brands are bad for our pets, most of them have so many recalls you never know, and the kicker…the gov’t is NOT regulating what goes in the foods. They won’t tell you that dead carcass, rats, and other by products are in there. 2 petitions up right now to ask the gov’t to make pet food companies state and tell us what is in the food…cause trust me, if you knew what was in there, you would not be eating the food like that woman did.
Jennifer, that is actually a myth. The government has recently started regulating pet food and advertising due to all the issues in China. You can read about the current regulations and such on the FDA’s pet food regulation page. I actually thought the same until this trip and I was amazed at everything I learned, as well as the cleanliness and quality of ingredients in the facility.
I know IAMS, Eukanuba and Natura had a bad reputation when they were owned by Proctor and Gamble. They were actually purchased in mid 2014 by Mars Petcare and from what I had seen, the quality of the food has drastically improved.
It looks like you had a great experience over there. Love your photos. Thank you for posting this.
Glad u had a great time & learned a lot! 🙂
I currently don’t have any pets, but when I do, I will be researching the best foods/products. My son lost 2 dogs recently to another brand of dog food linked to thousands of pet deaths, so I now understand how important it is to choose wisely.
I didn’t know that Mars made Iams – interesting!
M
What a cool trip, I would have enjoyed hearing about the cat food since i have 3 cats.
I am glad they were so open about their product and research, after having a couple of companions that had food allergies and digestive problems we are very careful what we feed our large family of 2 dogs and 27 cats.
very interesting. what a great learning experience
Thanks for this valuable information on pet food education, a lot of people take this for grant-it.
We use Pedigree for our dog & Temptations cat treats. I didn’t know that these were Mars Petcare Products. I am glad they are so they can keep being monitored.
this sounds really great
Thanks for the Wonderful Review on Pet Food Education at the Mars Petcare Global Innovation Center! It appears that everyone had a terrific time while touring Mars Petcare Global Innovation Center! I love how the house shelter dogs and cats as the taste testers for now! I’m so glad to hear that they are well taken care of and are happy and healthy! I feed the girls Little Cesar’s from Mars Company! Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful giveaway, all the pictures, and your personal and professional opinions on Pet Food Education at the Mars Petcare Global Innovation Center with all of us! I Truly do appreciate it very much! Thanks again! Michele 🙂
It’s nice to know that the animals the work at the Mars Petcare facility are treated so well. Thank you for sharing this review, it does sound like a wonderful place.