We just wanted to give a little insight into CEO Arunas Matacius and what really motivated him to provide fresh foods for dogs.
4 years ago when Arunas’s Pug, Ferdinando, was diagnosed with Syringomyelia [nicknamed neck-scratchers disease], which causes fluid-filled cavities to develop within the spinal cord resulting in abnormal sensations for affected dogs. Upon this diagnosis, the Vet gave Arunas no hope of recovery for Ferdinando, only an expectation of “management” with an unknown quality of life – Syringomyelia will affect every dog differently.
As you can imagine, Arunas was devastated, angry, sad and frustrated all at the same time, well who wouldn’t be?
Arunas started researching this ailment to find out how to support Ferdinando as much as possible in the time he had left. After countless nights online he found that there are 3 common methods used to treat dogs like Ferdinando:
Increase medication (Vets before prescribed Priniselon).
Start treating with cold laser therapy (nowhere close provided this service).
Change the diet.
I’m sure many of you reading this might think that number 3 is a typo but after more research into this ailment, Arunas made the conscious decision to be more proactive with Ferdinando’s diet.
Initially, Arunas was surprised and confused by his research because, for years, like a lot of dog owners he was always following guidance by professionals such as Breeders and Veterinarians, who both make recommendations to feed super premium kibble dry food. However, the more he researched, the more he found that kibble might not resolve or manage the ailment effectively.
This is when like many others, Arunas has found that a raw diet with some additional tweaks (related to management of Syringomyelia) would be the optimum diet for Ferdinando.
An important factor for Ferdinando and other dogs suffering with any ailment is that all foods have to be organic, to eliminate toxins such as pesticides and help support the body on a cellular level.
Arunas also noticed that Ferdinando was a tad overweight because he could not walk properly for some months, so he decided to implement a raw ketogenic diet (this is the inspiration for the brand name Raw+Keto= Rocketo) and help him lose some body fat and take any unnecessary strain from the bones/joints, and especially the spine.
With a change of diet, in just 2 weeks Ferdinando could walk again. Arunas was shocked, the Vet’s were speechless.
After seeing these results, he could not subject him to dry food anymore. Additionally, Arunas had 3 other dogs at that time, so he took them all off the dry foods.
Arunas calculated that he would have to prepare around 60kg of fresh raw organic dog food each month for all dogs. This is where the Arunas started to think there needs to be a more convenient way of feeding a raw diet.
This is when ROCKETO was born!
ARUNAS bio:
- BSc in Mathematics
- Art School
- Former Special Project Leader at MTV Networks Europe
- Co-owned organic bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturing
Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matacius/