The Importance of Vitamins for Your Pet

Unless you're making your own pet foods at home, you're buying kibble and canned food off the shelves of your local pet mart. Highly processed, store-bought pet foods vary in quality from super premium varieties with a meat as a first ingredient to sub-par foods that are full of unnecessary fats, grains or mystery meats and meals. While premium pet foods are better with including vitamins and minerals than those that are of lesser quality, every pet owner can supplement their pet's diet to ensure a long, healthy life.

A multi-vitamin can replace vitamins and minerals lost in processing that pet foods go through. Regardless of quality, both kibble and canned food can be supplemented with various types of multi-vitamins. The multi-vitamin you give your pet should be determined by the current food vitamin content, species and size of your pet, and any other health concerns, allergies and age. Solid vitamins can be added to dogs' food and cats oftentimes prefer a gel that can be added to food or fed separately.

Many pet owners complain about severe shedding which is surprisingly easy to prevent. Recently proven to be immensely helpful in humans, essential omega-3 fatty acids contribute to a healthy pet, complete with a shiny, low-maintenance and minimally shedding coat. The most soluble version of omega-3 can be found in liquid form which can simply be added to pets' canned food. Consider supplementing a healthy diet with salmon treats which are available for both dogs and cats.

Frequently, pets have digestion and intestinal problems that may seem far more serious than they are. Supplement your pet's diet with liquid acidophilus. Containing many of the same healthy bacteria that are found in yogurt, acidophilus acts in pets the same way that it acts in humans and can mediate a lot of problems or concerns.

Have brown grass? This could be caused by your dog's uric acid. To keep grass green, add a supplement. Often called a "lawn protector" or "green grass supplement", this is a 100% safe option to prevent huge brown spots from ruining your grass. A positive side effect may be that your dog is able to absorb more nutrients from his food.

Older pets may develop arthritis. A particularly big problem in large-breed dogs, arthritis can begin to show as young as four or five years of age. Be proactive and prevent your pet from suffering unnecessary pain early in life: choose a supplement that contains MSM and Glucosamine and administer based on your pet's size, age and species.

Aspirin is a staple in human medicine cabinets and should be on hand for your pet, too. Unless prescribed by your veterinarian, feline or canine aspirin should not be administered daily, but should be kept as a "just in case" supplement. Pets are notorious for not showing pain, which means that when you do notice a limp or painful spot, it is probably worse than it may seem. Call your vet first, and be sure that aspirin is ok for your pet before giving the recommended dosage.

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