Some students’ hobbies include basketball or playing an instrument, but senior Payton Hurlburt spends his free time doing something a little different. Hurlburt and family started their own dog food business about six months ago. Tender Tummies Pet Food has been a passion of Payton’s since he started making his own dog’s food from home.

Tender Tummies provides healthy dog food options in pound increments and treats along with custom orders. They even will deliver the dog food to your door for you.

The idea to make homemade food for dogs began when Hurlburt’s dogs were growing old and they wanted to feed them a healthier option than what was sold in stores.

“We did a lot of research into regular dog food and found that it actually can be really bad for dog’s health,” Hurlburt said. “Since [my] dogs were getting older, we started feeding them homemade food.”

After the death of their own dog, the Hurlburt’s decided to sell their food to other dog owners. Instead of retiring the recipies, they began to produce and sell them to help other dog owners who prefered it. A big customer of theirs is owners of older dogs who can’t easily digest food, their food is made to be soft on the dog’s stomachs.

“I started [the business] because of my dog, a long time ago. We started making them real food instead of kibble. At first it consisted of rice and hamburger, then we expanded recipes to much more,” Hurlburt said.

To make the pet food Hurlburt cooks ingredients all together, then blends and adds vitamins for health. Tender Tummies uses a freezing process to store the treats, then the pet owner can simply thaw the food.

So far, the business has been doing well, Payton has a website in addition to social media pages such as Twitter and Instagram for Tender Tummies.