Dr. Deva's 10 Tips for Purchasing Pet Vitamins

Is your pet getting all the vitamins and minerals he needs from his food dish? Just like with us humans, vitamins are an important contribution to your pet's diet. Many pet parents think they are covering all the bases when they buy a pet food labeled "complete and balanced." But the truth is, your pet could be lacking the vital nutrients his body needs to stay well.

Doesn't my pet get the vitamins he needs from the food he eats?

There are many reasons why your pet may not be getting all the vitamins and minerals he needs from his food bowl. But for the sake of keeping this short, the main reasons include: your pet's body may not absorb all the nutrients from the food he eats due to over processing and/or poor quality food sources; a weakened digestive system; age and rate of metabolism, etc.

At Groovy Cats & Dogs, we recommend you feed a premium quality food, give your pet a good vitamin supplement as well as a digestive supplement to ensure your pet gets everything he needs to be healthy. A digestive supplement helps your pet's body absorb and utilize all the nutrients he eats and the vitamin supplement is extra insurance that your pet gets all the nutrients he needs.

10 Tips To Help You Select Vitamins for Your Pet

Dr. Deva Khalsa, holistic veterinarian and author of The Natural Dog, offers these helpful tips to help you choose the right kind of vitamins that support your pet's health and keep diseases away...

1. Your cat or dog should like the vitamins, either as a treat or as an addition to their food. If your pet doesn't like his daily supplement, both you and your pet will quickly get tired of it.
2. The milligrams (mg) and International Units (IU) should be listed on the ingredients panel. This tells you exactly what is in the vitamin and you can compare apples to apples.
3. The vitamins must be complete. Complete vitamins and minerals provide your pet's body with the correct tools to stay healthy. An incomplete vitamin formula doesn't allow your pet's body to function the way that it should.
4. The vitamins should be correctly balanced. Vitamins work together and if they are not balanced with all the ingredients, they simply don't get the job done.
5. The sources should be bioavailable. Your dog or cat should be able to easily absorb the vitamins and minerals in the vitamin mix. Stay away from powdered bone meal or oyster shells. Used for their calcium content, neither can be absorbed or utilized by your pet's body.
6. The flavorings and formula should be designed with respect to the high incidence of allergies in pets. For example, brewer's yeast is an inexpensive by-product from brewing beer that is often used as a flavoring in vitamins. It is an inexpensive and incomplete source of B vitamins and it is one of the top foods dogs are allergic to.
7. New research on vitamins comes out frequently. Vitamins should incorporate new research findings into their formulation.
8. The vitamins should be designed with the biochemical needs of the species in mind. For example: cats cannot synthesize taurine in their bodies, so they need this amino acid included in their vitamin supplement. Cats ony get active Vitamin D3 from raw liver or supplements so they need a healthy dose.
9. Vitamins that help decrease the toxic load of today's environment further promote your pet's health. Many pet vitamins don't include Vitamin C, yet Vitamin C helps to flush systemic toxins out and boost the immune system. Our pets are exposed to flea and tick medicines, lawn chemicals and many noxious substances. Extra Vitamin C only helps to keep your pet's internal system clean and free of toxins and chemicals and by doing so, promotes better overall health.
10. Consider the quality and the sources of the ingredients. Human grade is best. Ingredients that are poor quality aren't effective.

Dr. Khalsa has formulated a vitamin supplement for both dogs and cats that is loaded with whole foods and phytonutrients. It has all the things your pet needs to get on the path to wellness. They are Made in the USA. They are called Vital Vities, and guess what? We carry them at Groovy Cats & Dogs.