As dogs and cats move through different stages of life they have different nutritional needs. This straight -forward article covers the basics and serves as a simple reference guide for the pet owner.
Dogs
Puppy
up to 2 years of age
Address immune function: One of the most important things you can do for the health of your dog is to ensure that their immune function is strong from the beginning. This will help them stave off problems like allergies and infections later in life. A little known fact; 80% of immune function is related to the health of the gut, and more specifically the bacterial composition (the gut flora).
What to do: Make sure you feed you puppy probiotics for at least the first year of their life, but evenbetter to keep it up through two years. This will help them to have a health flora balance which result in a strong immune function.
Adult dog
Prevention through nutrition: Nutrition is always important, but the vigor of youth often overcomes potential problems. When a dog reaches adulthood especially, middle age nutrition can help protect them from ailments brought about by nutritional gaps, or by the beginning of where and tear on their bodies (just like in humans).
What to do: Ensure they get all the vitamins and minerals they need along with some basic joint support as a preventative measure in keeping your dog as healthy and strong as possible as they approach old age.
Look for a vitamin and mineral product that also supplies additional joint support.
Senior Dog
Age 7 or older
Issue 1:
Protection for joints: Many old dogs have problems with joint wear and tear as alluded to above. This greatly affects their quality of life (and often yours as well).
What to do: Provide them a powerful joint support supplement that provides therapeutic levels of Glucosamine, MSM, and Chondroitin. For the ultimate program add fish oil. This powerful combination will both provide the nutritional building blocks for regeneration, but also will address inflammation.
Issue 2
Aid their digestion: If you start seeing your dog look like their quality of their coat is diminishing and their energy level is low, sometimes this can be related to poor digestive or enzymatic function. As dogs age they typically produce less enzymes, which can result in poorer nutrient utilization.
What to do: For sure give them a digestive enzyme formula that is designed for dogs; meaning for the foods they typically eat. For the ultimate program add probiotics as well.
Cats
Kitten
up to 2 Years Old
Address immune function: One of the most important things you can do for the health of your cat is to ensure that their immune function is strong from the beginning. This will help them stave off problems like allergies and infections later in life. A little known fact: 80% of immune function is related to the health of the gut, and more specifically the bacterial composition (the gut flora).
What to do: Make sure you feed you kitten probiotics for at least the first year of their life, but even better to keep it up through two years. This will help them to have a health flora balance which result in a strong immune function.
Prevention through nutrition: Nutrition is important here as well, just as it is in dogs. The emphasis though switches a bit from prevention for joint health towards more against allergies and infections.
What to do: Provide your cat with all the daily nutrition it needs and additional protection against allergies. Look for a vitamin and mineral product that also supplies additional protection against allergies. For the ultimate program add probiotics for immune support.
Senior Cat
Look for specific needs: Cats dont experience joint degeneration at the rate that dogs do, so that may or may not be an issue. In this phase of a cats life a more general approach will probably suffice.
What to do: Similarly to the adult cat phase, make sure that daily nutrition support is provided through a good vitamin and mineral supplement providing allergy protection and joint support. If the symptoms of joint wear are dominant look for a therapeutic joint product.
