Some of the most meaningful things in life don’t start as a business. They start as a need. A deep, heartfelt need. And this one began with my daughter, Karen.
Karen graduated from veterinary school knowing she probably would not finish her career as the go-to exotic, wildlife, and integrative medicine referral doctor at the large, conventional hospital where she worked, with appointments being booked every fifteen minutes. She had a different vision for how animals should be cared for, so she began meticulously planning a hospital of her own. What she created became the first of its kind in the Midwest: a proactive, functional medicine animal hospital. And if I’m being honest, back in 1999, it was arguably the first of its kind in the world.
First of its kind Veterinary Hospital
Over the next year, she planned every detail. Human pediatric inhalant gas anesthesia was hard to source for veterinarians at that time, but she made it happen. She knew she would not be offering “prescription,” feed-grade, ultra-processed pet foods, and instead became the first veterinarian in North America to install freezers in her ‘Apawthecary’ and sell commercially available raw food diets (her thirty-year friendship with Steve Brown, who created that pet food category in the U.S., is a story I will save for another blog).
Karen and Steve Brown
At that time, there were no single-ingredient, human-grade treats on the market. None. So, Karen came to me with a request I will never forget.
“Mom,” she said, “I need you to create an all-meat treat that even the most finicky animals will eat.”
These were not just any patients. These were the pets who had run out of options, the ones whose families had been told, “There’s nothing more we can do” by other veterinarians. Many of them had stopped eating. They were tired, medically fragile, and felt awful. Most had already been to several veterinarians before finding Karen, which often meant more confusion, more stress, and more poking and prodding than any animal should have to endure. They arrived trembling; something she was hellbent on fixing.
Karen’s goals were very clear. She needed a delicious “peace offering” she could use during appointments, something sick animals would actually want to eat, but that was also nutritionally safe for allergy patients and those with profound gastrointestinal disease. She needed something that could be broken into tiny pieces, so a dozen little pea-sized rewards could be given without upsetting a tender stomach. Above all, she needed something these debilitated animals could not refuse, but that she could also feel good about giving.
She searched everywhere for what she wanted, but it simply did not exist.
“Go to the meat counter,” she said, “and buy the same liver you and Dad eat. Slice it, chop it, grind it, and see if you can make something paper-thin, crispy, and delicious.” She thought we might need some sort of binder to hold it together, but ideally, she hoped we would not have to use flour at all.
So, a friend and I went to work. We tried everything. We sliced. We chopped. We ground. We mixed. We tested. We failed. We tried again. For a full year, we experimented in my kitchen, convinced we needed to add something else to make it work. But one day we stopped adding. We used just liver. And that was the moment everything changed.
We realized we did not need anything else. No fillers. No grains. No sweet potato. Just one beautiful, nourishing ingredient: human-grade beef liver from a local Iowa farm.
About that same time, my son John came home needing a place to land and something meaningful to do. Like any mother, I said yes. In return, he gave us his time, his creativity, and his belief in what we were building. John helped us figure out how to turn our little kitchen experiment into something we could produce consistently, and once we had a process, we started sending bags of treats to Karen.
Mama B working in her basement on her laundry table
Then something incredible happened. Not a single sick patient turned them down. Not even the ones refusing their regular meals. That was all we needed to know.
John immediately saw what this could become. Not just a solution for Karen’s clinic, but something much bigger. My friend, who had helped me from the beginning, preferred to keep it as a hobby, and I understood that completely. But it meant we would go in different directions. She decided it was time for her to be done with our little hobby, and I decided it was time for me to become a small business owner at sixty years of age.
We needed a name, and that part felt easy. This whole thing started because of Karen: her patients, her vision, her refusal to accept “nothing more can be done,” and her desire to create a treat even the sickest animals could enjoy. So, Dr. Becker’s Bites was born.
Karen’s clients kept asking for more of her mom’s treats because, for many of her sickest patients, they were the only thing those animals would eat. Once their appetite for these homemade treats began to grow, Karen told her clients to break them up and use them as meal toppers to entice their pets to eat their regular food. Her clients begged her for more bags to take home so they could keep using them as a whole-food appetite stimulant.
Then came the need for real packaging. I remember spotting a simple brown paper tin-tie bag with a little clear window, and I could immediately picture curious noses pressing right up against it, dogs and cats peeking in. It felt perfect, so I bought rubber animal stamps and ink pads and sat at my table hand-stamping every single bag. Those were our very first packages.
Our Flagship bag...27 years ago
We sent them to Karen, and she sold out immediately. The next week we made more and stamped more bags. She sold out again. Then John and I increased production even more. Before long, one of Karen’s clients, who happened to own a small independent pet boutique, asked if she could carry them in her store. And just like that, this little idea started to grow.
My husband Jim was grinding liver on his workbench. John and I were working off my big laundry table. Equipment was squeezed into every available corner of our basement. And the smell, oh my goodness, the smell. If you love beef jerky, you would have loved the smell of our house. Let’s just say I was very grateful for kind and understanding neighbors. Every dog in the neighborhood slowed down and drooled when they walked past our house…it was clearly an attractive hub for all meat-eating mammals.
Sam and Rachel loved to help bag treats
Eventually, we outgrew our basement and moved into a small building in St. Anne, Illinois, closer to Karen. It gave us room to breathe and room to grow, though that extra elbow room did not last very long. Soon Dr. Becker’s Bites was selling in stores from New York to California.
Dr. Becker’s Bites new home!
Jim grinding liver in our new bakery
John, in our new bakery
John expanded the line to include bison, lamb, venison, and even veggie and berry blends. He sourced beautiful ingredients, including free-range lamb and venison liver from New Zealand. We hired local help, became part of that tiny town, and that tiny town became part of us.
We were growing!
Then Karen asked for something more. Not just healthy treats but treats with a functional purpose. So, working with Karen, John created our Solutions line. They took that original liver base and added nutraceuticals and targeted supplements to support real health needs, including digestion, joints, stress, detoxification, and microbiome balance.
Four of nine Solutions Bites
And here is the truth that still amazes me: when we began, there was not a one-ingredient pet treat on the market, anywhere. This was the first. Creating the first commercially available all-meat treat in the U.S. is something I still take quiet pride in, especially as someone whose life’s work had been centered around home and family.
Years passed, and thanks to Karen and other vocal pet advocates, pet parents began asking better questions, such as, “What is the difference between human-grade and feed-grade ingredients?” The demand for better-quality foods and treats started to grow. People wanted to be able to pronounce every ingredient their pets were consuming. They began looking for foods and treats without artificial dyes, preservatives, unnecessary fillers, or high-glycemic starches.
Our first trade show was the Backer Show in Chicago in 2000, where we were the only company offering a single-ingredient, all-meat treat. People were intrigued because they had never seen anything like it. Then we attended our first Super Zoo Industry Tradeshow, again showcasing the first all-meat treats on the market. These days, when our family attends trade shows, we often laugh because limited-ingredient, meat-based treats are now the most popular products on the market, with hundreds of brands to choose from, but nearly 30 years ago, that simply wasn’t the case.
The HH Backer show, our first trade show
But the heart of this story is not just about creating a treat. It is about family.
Blair, John’s daughter, joined the business and learned every detail. She made the business stronger. She brought organization, efficiency, and helped create our beloved Warrior Project.
Bea kitty, breaking into a bag of Warrior Bites, our family’s “give back” program
Danielle, Karen’s daughter, came to visit Blair a few years ago and never left. Together, Blair and Danielle built something even deeper into this business: a shared purpose to reach people far beyond the Midwest, and to stay connected with pet parents online.
Blair and Danielle at the bakery with unplanned matching outfits
Working the Kankakee Farmers Market
Frank, Blair's bulldog, spending a day at work
John and I have had the privilege of watching it all unfold. The third generation of our family has carried all of us forward with their hard work and persistence. We listened, we supported, we offered wisdom and listening ears, and we stepped in with advice and help whenever it was needed.
So why am I sharing this now?
Because some stories deserve to be told, even if they are told a little late. Because this is not just a business. It is a piece of the heart and soul of our family. And it all started with a young veterinarian who was determined to change the world for animals and refused to accept anything less.
Karen, you did more than ask for a pure, clean treat. You sparked the demand for single-ingredient pet treats in the United States. I am so proud that I was able to make the first one for you, but even prouder to be your mom.
And to the rest of my family, each of you strong, kind, and uniquely you, I am equally proud to be your mom and grandma.
Our 2024 SuperZoo trade show event
This story exists because we all believe animals deserve to be nourished well. I would not change a single step of the journey. I love my family, I love my little business, and I am so very proud of what we are doing: helping pet parents ‘treat their animals better’.
To the pet parents who have supported us since the very beginning, and to the new families discovering Dr. Becker’s Bites along the way, thank you. We know there are countless treat options available these days, and we are deeply grateful that you’ve chosen to trust ours.
So much love,
Special Offer
Every big idea starts small, and for us, it started with one simple, powerful treat. As we celebrate the story behind Dr. Becker’s Bites, we’re offering 15% off our Original Beef Bites, the very first treat that changed everything.
Here’s to where we began, and to all the pets we’ve helped along the way. Offer ends Sunday, April 26th at midnight (no code needed).
