A good part of my day is spent researching, reading, and reviewing information about pets, centering on nutrition.
Whether I am looking for answers to specific questions from clients, or just widening my knowledge base, the algorithms are getting trained to show me related information. So each day I see new and informative reels or threads that broaden my knowledge and open up new avenues to research. Thanks to the internet, information sharing is global now, and some of the best information is coming from outside our local areas.
As you know if you read my column regularly, I am a staunch advocate of using fresh, clean foods for our pets. It just makes sense, we’re doing it for our own diets, doing it for our pets now is getting a lot easier and it can work out to actually reduce the cost of pet ownership. But that’s another column.
Most recently, I have stumbled across Dr. Kelly Halls, of the Bentons Road Veterinary Clinic in Australia. Everyone loves the Australian accent, and I find it much easier to drink in knowledge when the presentation is pleasant. Dr. Halls presents information clearly and concisely; I think I have received more information per minute from watching her than any other presenter. She has posts on Facebook, and YouTube, search her and you won’t be disappointed.
In one short that I shared on my Facebook page, she outlines the benefits of starting a new puppy or kitten off on a fresh food diet. Many new pet owners get the advice to start new pets off on hyper processed diets “to make sure the pet gets a balanced diet while they grow” and then after a year, if you want to “experiment” with clean, fresh foods, there is less chance to do harm. While there may have been some truth to this a decade ago when balanced clean foods were not readily available in stores. It now makes no sense. You can find a vast variety of balanced raw foods easily, with many options specifically formulated for puppies.
She goes on to say that adding a fish oil — they don’t have access to seal oil there, I’m sure she would love to have it — to your puppy or kitten’s diet is her favourite supplement, and she bring up an additional point that I am adding to the advice I offer. She mentions that it helps the brain development, the eyes, skin, coat, kidneys, gut. In her words, “It just supports everything.” The new thought she adds is that “if you want a young dog to do well at puppy school, Omega 3s support their memory and learning.
She goes on to recommend that you include some probiotic foods and some vegetable fibres. For the longest time, I’ve been on the fence about vegetables in a raw diet. It has been my experience that there are some instances where any veg can upset a pet’s diet. But more and more, I am seeing that there is a value in adding some particular vegetable matter to the diet.
Fermented foods, fibres and some nutrients can be added through the use of “rainbow” foods. Trying to avoid vegetables high in starch or protein, looking for small amounts of a variety of colourful foods. Peppers, broccoli, leafy greens, a little carrot, and berries can be fed together or separately, best either frozen or steamed to break down the plant so the pet can access the nutrition. You can pick up “ugly” last day for sale veggies at a reduced cost and freeze them, and then make a smoothie and freeze in ice cube trays to add when you defrost your raw diets.
Every day I learn a little more, both from research and from my client’s results. It is easy to be passionate about something that makes people’s and pet’s lives better.
