(FORTUNE Small Business) – Fancy lunches, luxe sweaters, regular day spa visits: Dogs and cats have it pretty good these days. "We are seeing more people pamper their pets the way they would pamper themselves," says Lee Avarado of the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, noting that last year Americans spent over $29 billion on their pets. "And with food, health-conscious people are demanding the same for their cats and dogs."

Scott Reisfield and Rich Marino founded Active Life Pet Products in 1998 to tap into that trend, offering the nation's some 64 million pet owners what they say is a healthier line of cat and dog food. "If you compare us to conventional pet-food companies," says Reisfield, "then we're delivering the organic version." Active Life is basically human food sold for animals: It's one of only two pet-food brands (the other is Halo's Spot's Stew) that can technically be labeled as fit for people because of how it's made.

The idea was Marino's. After a career in the food business, including pet food, he had an epiphany in two waves while running a consultancy in the mid-1990s. He saw health foods grow while working with all-natural cereal maker U.S. Mills, and he saw canning machines sitting largely unused at a Chicken of the Sea tuna facility. "And it hit me: Why couldn't we can whole chicken--naturally--for pets during the machines' downtime?"

Marino approached Reisfield, whom he had first met 20 years ago when both were at Heinz revitalizing 9Lives cat food, about the idea in 1998. They paired up, raised startup money through their families, and within a year had their product. Reisfield, the marketing guy, decided to educate independent pet-shop owners and their distributors, since many shop owners act as health and food advisors for pet owners. "Most proprietors opened stores because they cared about animal nutrition and health," he says. Active Life will never be sold at conventional supermarkets, says Reisfield, because he can't ensure they'll have knowledgeable salespeople evangelizing for its products. So far the evangelists have made the Boulder-based company profitable, according to Marino, on $4 million in annual revenues.

But as with other all-natural companies, the big question lingers: Is organic really better or just marketing hype? "There's no scientific support yet that people should be concerned about preservatives in pet foods," says Dr. Nancy Irlbeck, an animal-science professor at Colorado State University. "Consumers should be careful about paying more for the same- or lower-quality product." (Active Life is about 50 cents a can more expensive than conventional high-end pet food.) But as Dr. Irlbeck ticks off what makes ideal pet nutrition, many items are things that Active Life says it's already figured out: a meat quality fit for humans, and cat foods without grain. "We're offering customers confidence when they open one of our cans," says Marino. And Reisfield and Marino hope that cooks up a rich stew for their business.