Besides food & water, what else do you give?

[counter]

I want Nara and Paw Paw to be as healthy and happy as possible, so here's my question: besides the basic care of a good food (we give Wellness CORE) and water, do you give them anything else? I'm asking about supplements or anything that I might not know about. Please let me know what brands you give, and why you chose that brand over another. O, and we also give them Wellness grain-free jerky treats and Innova EVO grain-free treats for training purposes.

These are my first 2 dogs, and everything is going fine, but I see talk of people giving all sorts of things to help with hips or coat or eyes, etc. What do you give, and why? What are the essentials for a 100% healthy dog? I've started them on a glucosamine supplement with chondroitin to help avoid hip/elbow dysplasia, but so far they don't seem to have any joint problems, so that's good.

We're trying to stay as close to a homeopathic/holistic/organic/grain-free lifestyle for the pups as possible, just so you know in advance. Thanks for any and all help!

[Toffifay]

I am not even so sure supplementation is really necessary...with the high quality dog foods that are available, now-a-days. However, I do supplement with Animal Naturals Showstopper, Wholisitc Pet Wild Salmon Oil and Wholistic Pet Kelp . I also feed lots of raw meat and bones, some cottage cheese, beef and chicken liver, various raw vegetables, cooked rice and at the most twice a week they get some Merrick canned dog food mixed in.

I never have any problems with them turning their noses up at anything, they will eat just about anything, including lettuce and cucumbers!

They have glorious coats,clear eyes, no anal gland or ear problems and pearly white teeth. I say that I use Crest White Strips on their teeth, hahaha!

[LisaT]

A lot of us have "issue dogs" and treat for that.

I'm one that thinks kibble is neither complete, nor balanced. I don't think we know what levels of nutrients are needed for optimal health (including breed and individual variances), and the processing of kibble will also compromise the nutrients.

With that in mind, a variety of real foods I think would be a healthy supplement.

I am a believer in a good multivitamin type supplement, ground flaxseed (if there are no allergies), and additional amounts of B-vitamins. Don't really know what I would do if I had a healthy dog.....I would have way too much free time

[AnimalLover]

Aside from our girl getting Wellness dry kibble, she also gets human food, just what we'd eat, mixed in with her kibble. She loves just about everything, we don't give her any junk (cookies, etc.) but she does get the occasional pancakes for breakfast on Saturdays when we have them. So long as your dog doesn't experience digestive upset, I would see nothing wrong with human food. My family has had many, many dogs who all lived well into their teens, who were fed mostly human food. Our girl is only 6 and very healthy, so, thus far, we've not seen a need for any type of supplements. In the past though, with our older dogs, we had given Cholodin for brain function, Ester-C which is an anti-oxidant, Condroitin for joints, cranberry supplements for kidney function, herbs from our holistic vet, and fish oil.

It is truly frightening to look at the ingredient list of some pet foods, and then go look up what each of those things actually is. Some of it doesn't even seem fit for driveway gravel.

[Elaine]

You don't need to give any supplements to a healthy dog eating a premium dog food.