Nutrient Deficiency

Nutritional requirements 07/3/2018
Today, we still don’t know what our nutritional needs are, our food pyramid gets flipped upside down, “don’t eat carbs”, “eat fat and protein”, etc. Dogs and cats are very similar but the edge we have here is that we can still watch what they or it’s cousins eat without any human intervention in the wild. Now ask the questions (my bias):

1. Does it eat the same thing every day?
2. Does it get the same nutrients every day?
3. Is the food cooked or dried out in the sun?

The answer to the above questions should give you some insight into the way you should feed your pet.

1. No, they eat a variety of things, at different times and sometimes not at all.
2. No, they don’t eat the same animal or the whole animal every day.
3. No, the food is raw or it might be preserved by burying it (if in excess). (Why do dogs bury bones?)

So why don’t we feed them what they would eat in the wild? So many chronic problems can be fixed by changing what we feed our pets, but why don’t we? Time, convenience,or lack of nutritional knowledge outside of the box.

We (Self Serve Pet Spa) understand feeding kibble (dry food) is quick, easy and less expensive than feeding raw in a lot of cases and this is why we carry the best kibble we can find.  Lets make the kibble even better!

Taurine Example
A little example before we go into the how. A lack of an amino acid Taurine can cause Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM – enlargement of the heart and thinning of the walls). Back in the day, a particular food may have helped your pet greatly improve it’s health but now that same food may be implicated in causing DCM. Do you switch foods and in a year find out that it lacks another nutrient or do you fill that gap and other gaps that you don’t know about? Taurine is not the only nutrient the body needs and there are lots of other foods out there that may not cause this problem but will cause 50 other problems. Our knowledge of nutrition grows and changes all the time, so how do you stay ahead of the game?

Feed them like you eat
We don’t want anyone’s pet having health issues from a lack of nutrients because they aren’t absorbing or synthesizing certain nutrients. How are we going to prevent this? By feeding a dog/cat the way we would feed ourselves. We get our nutrients over periods of days, weeks and months by eating variety. We don’t eat the same sandwich every day for every meal, so why do it with our dogs and cats.

If you currently feed just a kibble (dry food), we recommend substituting at least 20% of the kibble with one or a combination of raw, freeze dried, air dried or raw fermented goats milk and a quality probiotic. This will add a larger spectrum of real food nutrients to your pet’s diet which will hopefully provide the additional nutrients your pet may need if it is lacking or inefficient in producing. Rotate between the different flavors and brands because they all have different nutrient profiles, so if your pet needs more of one nutrient, it may get it in another brand like we do by eating variety. It’s easier than it sounds, come see us or shoot me an email at info@selfservepetspa.com.

If you are feeding just raw, freeze dried or air dried, keep doing what you are doing but rotate between the flavors and brands.

Every pet can benefit further from whole food supplements like Answers raw goat milk, kefir, bone broth, greens, CBD and/or fish stock. We are always looking for new whole food supplements to add to pet food, so check in and ask often.

Have fun feeding your pet. Feed them like you eat – fresh and variety!