A.N.M.E Podcast

The internet can make you feel informed and completely lost at the same time, especially when you are trying to make the right call for your dog, cat, or horse. Host Ashlie tackles a listener question we hear everywhere: 

"How do pet owners sort fact from fiction online, when anyone can publish advice and AI can generate neat summaries that sound authoritative?".

Ashlie breaks down why pet nutrition is a hotspot for misinformation, from homemade and vegan diet claims to supplement adverts and “prevent or cure” promises that are easy to say, and hard to prove. Ashlie shares a practical, science-minded checklist for all pet owners to follow.

To help you dig deeper, we would like to point you towards trusted resources like the National Research Council guides and regulatory bodies that track safety and recalls, such as the Food and Drug Administration and the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

If you care about evidence-based pet health, subscribe, share this with a fellow pet owner, so more people learn how to fact check before they feed.

Welcome

Goodbye

If you’ve ever wondered why a horse can look “well fed” yet still seem off, the answer often starts in the pasture. Host Leslie takes it back to basics with a clear introduction to pasture for horses, explaining why grazing is not just a lifestyle choice but a biological requirement that supports digestion, immunity, and overall equine wellbeing.

As a hindgut fermenter, pasture plays an important role in the gastro-intestinal tract microbiome. Plant material is wrapped in cellulose, and horses depend on their beneficial bacteria in the caecum and large intestine to unlock this energy on a daily basis. When fibre-rich forage is limited and meals become more concentrated, the gut environment can shift in unhelpful ways, raising the risk of digestive stress and metabolic issues such as acidosis. Fresh pasture, steady trickle-feeding, and natural movement work together to support peristalsis and a healthier microbiome.

If you found this useful, subscribe, share it with a horse owner who’s rethinking feed, and leave a review so more people can find practical, biology-led horse nutrition. 

Welcome

Goodbye

Your dog standing patiently beside you can look like perfect manners, but biologically it can be a slow grind of muscle effort. Host Leslie unpacks a simple idea with big welfare implications: dogs do not have a stay apparatus, so “just standing there” is not a neutral behaviour. When we ask for long waits at markets, during stop-start strolls, while we chat to friends, we may be stacking up fatigue and strain in our dogs without realising it.

Leslie uses a clear equine comparison to make the point stick. Horses and many other herbivore-prey animals evolved a specialised, largely passive system of ligaments and tendons that lets them stand for hours on end with minimal effort, even allowing the animal to sleep standing upright while remaining ready to flee in an instant. 

Dogs, as predator mammals, never needed that evolutionary adaptation. They are designed to “drop and flop”, lie down safely, relax, and conserve energy, and their muscles and joints do not benefit from extended static loading. This means we, as dog owners need to be smarter about rest, comfort, and joint-friendly routines for our dogs.

If you want practical dog handling advice rooted in canine anatomy, biomechanics, and common sense, press play and then try it on your very next outing. Subscribe for more canine, feline, and equine health insights, and share this with a dog-owning friend.

Welcome

Goodbye

Five horse types sit behind an astonishing number of modern breeds and once you understand them, you start seeing horses differently. Come along for the ride as host Leslie walks through the big picture categories that shape equine size, movement, temperament and purpose: draught horses, light horses, warmbloods, gaited horses, ponies and equine hybrids, each bred over time has been shaped to meet very specific human needs. 

If you enjoy practical equine education grounded in biology, subscribe, share the episode with a horse friend.

Welcome

Goodbye

A plant can look like a clue, and for thousands of years that was enough to start a line of medical thinking. Host Ashlie holds a spotlight over the doctrine of signatures, the old herbal idea that shape, colour, texture, scent and even where a plant grows can hint at what it supports in the body. It’s a window into the way people made sense of health long before modern pharmacology.

Ashlie explains why these associations worked so well as a learning tool when knowledge travelled by story and community, and how that same memory framework can help modern herbalists to remember key points of botanical traits. Ashlie covers the main signature categories: habitat, shape, colour, texture, aroma, taste and even sound. Lavender becomes a standout bridge between intuition and evidence, from traditional nervous system affinity to the science of scent molecules acting through the limbic system. If you want a grounded and ancient way to observe plants with more care, more context and better recall, press play, and share the episode.

Welcome

Goodbye

Your dog’s dinner might be doing far more than filling a belly. Host Leslie discusses why modern commercial dog food can look “complete” on the label, yet still fall short biologically, especially once you factor in shelf life, heavy processing, synthetic nutrients, and low-value ingredients. If you’ve ever wondered why a dog can seem fine for years and then develop allergies, skin disease, dental problems, arthritis, diabetes, or other chronic issues, Leslie connects the dots back to long-term nutrition and what happens when the body runs on quiet deficiencies.

Dogs did not develop on uniform, ultra-processed meals; they evolved as scavenging meso-carnivores eating variety, including prey, and decaying plant matter, and environmental inputs that support natural digestion. That matters because the breakdown of real food in the gut is tied to enzyme activity, healthy gut flora, and the ability to absorb vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. When food processing destroys enzymes and microbial content, the digestive system can change with it, and “added vitamins or omega's” do not always equal “usable nutrition”.

If this sparked questions about what you’re feeding and why, subscribe, share the episode with a fellow dog owner.

Welcome

Goodbye

Your horse’s feeding instincts are not a quirky habit; they are a blueprint written by millions of years grazing on tough grasslands. Host Leslie digs into the biological story of equine species-specific feeding, starting with the horse as a trickle-feeding grazer designed to eat fibrous grasses for most of the day, while on the move. That history explains why the horse’s long digestive tract and hindgut fermentation system still relies on steady fibre and a healthy microbial community to turn forage into energy. 

Leslie discusses the evolutionary trail of the horse from forest browsing to open-plain grazing, using fossil tooth wear to show how abrasive grasses reshaped ancient equid survival. The shift from C3 grasses to silica-rich C4 grasses matters because it accelerated tooth wear and rewarded horses with longer teeth, leaving us with modern equids built to graze. 

Thrifty genes and metabolic efficiency helped horses survive low nitrogen habitats, but modern nitrogen-rich pasture and concentrate-heavy diets can push the hindgut in the wrong direction. If you want practical insight grounded in equine biology and horse digestion, press play, then subscribe, share with a horse-owning friend.

Welcome

Goodbye

Essential fatty acids get sold as a cure-all for pet allergies, itchy skin, arthritis, and even heart health, but the real story is more practical and more specific. Host Leslie takes a clear-eyed look at omega-3 and omega-6 for dogs and cats, why carnivores need help getting the right fats, and how the “right product” can still fail if the foundation diet is working against you.

Most commercial diets, even expensive ones, skew heavily towards omega-6 thanks to grain and legume ingredients. Adding fish oil can be supportive, but it cannot fully undo a poor, high-carbohydrate diet that strains a carnivore’s digestion.
Omega-3 fats are light and heat sensitive, prone to oxidation, and can go rancid, especially after processing or long shelf storage. Leslie shares what we should look for when buying omega supplements, why pet owners may wish to avoid linoleic acid heavy blends, why alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) matters, and why cold-pressed oils and refrigeration are non-negotiable. 

If you want a calmer skin barrier, a shinier coat, and a nutrition plan that fits a biological carnivore, this gives you a grounded way to choose. Subscribe, share with a fellow pet owner, and leave a review if you learnt something new about EFA's.

Welcome

Goodbye

The horse supplement industry is loud, confident, and packed with promises but your horse’s body still runs on biology, not branding. We dig into the most important question owners and riders keep circling back to: do horses actually need supplements, or are we paying for hype because it feels reassuring?

Host Leslie talks through why many supplements are unnecessary when the diet is genuinely balanced, and why so many products reach the market without strong horse-specific evidence for safety or effectiveness. 

If you want a clearer, calmer framework for deciding if equine supplementation is needed, press play and then share this with a fellow owner who is drowning in product claims.

Welcome

Goodbye

Your living room does not contain a harmless fluffball. It contains a compact, highly specialised Tiny Tiger that never truly left the wild behind. Your host Ashlie embarks on an entertaining discussion of the domestic cat through a biological perspective: why they move the way they move, sense the world the way they sense it, and act with that unbothered confidence that feels almost prehistoric.

Four humorous claims are the basis for Ashlie's Super Cat theories:

Cats are “built like liquid”, from the floating shoulder and tiny clavicle to the body proportions that let cats slip through gaps like magic. With a gyroscopic spine, we learn why cats always land on their feet. 

Next, Ashlie explores "cat real world superpowers!", from glow-in-the-dark vision, ears that rotate like satellite dishes, ultrasonic hearing that tracks tiny prey, and whiskers that read invisible air currents.

From there, Ashlie drops a bombshell....that cats are “mini tigers” sharing 95.6% of their DNA with wild tigers.

Lastly, Ashlie discusses why the purr may be the secret to their nine lives 😯. 

If you love cat behaviour, animal health, and practical biology you can actually picture in your own home, subscribe, share this with a fellow cat person, so more listeners can find the show.

Welcome

Goodbye