Nutritional Supplements

Right now I do not give my cat any supplements. I am reluctant to buy pet supplements because I wonder if manufacturers are really making these supplements "human grade" or just faking it and tricking pet owners to by it. I don't know if I trust the rules and regulations that go into pet supplements, since I don't trust the manufacturers. But perhaps, I may change as I get suggestions and advise from others who have had success.

In many of the books I read, they give recipes on how to make your own supplements, such as calcium supplements (from egg shells) etc. However, I am still learning. I also do not want to over-supplement my cat friend, nor do I want to make some strange concoction that may upset the phosphorous calcium ratio.

Dr. Henry Pasternak believes that because vitamins are such complex , organic substances, they cannot be easily replicated in a test tube, through man's technological advances.
He points out that man has only recreated a small fraction of Vitamin C, calling it ascorbic acid.

Vitamins are a group of chemically related compounds, so once it is separated into a single compound, it no longer behaves the way nature intended it to behave. He feels that synthetic vitamins are only a fraction of the real thing.
And that whole foods contain all related nutrients (vitamins, minerals, trace elements, enzymes, coenzymes, amino acids, fatty acids, and unknown factors).
It's possible that he may be right especially in terms of our animal friends. Perhaps more studies can be done on this.

He believes that isolating vitamin compounds, can lead to vitamin imbalances and deficiency of other members of that complex. What's the point of providing synthetic supplements to our animal pal's food; if all we feed is canned and dry foods, which is of inferior quality to begin with.?

For cats he recommends only natural vitamins such as freeze dried raw bone meal, alfalfa, carrot powder, brown rice bran, nutritional yeast, oat flour, peavine juice, garlic, broccoli, sprouts, ascerola berry, potato flour, adrenal, liver, spleen, kidney, kelp, beet root and carob.

So far my cat has eaten, garlic, broccoli, beans, wheat bread, kidney. I am still working on the other stuff.

I suppose we veterinarians who a a lot of work with skin and ahir problems ought to thank the commercial pet food industry for all the business they create for us"
J. Keith Benedict, DVM

Nutritional Supplements

Menu