Here’s how you can easily maintain your pet’s vitality

As a loving pet parent, we know that you want the best for your cat or dog, and will do everything in your control to ensure a long, healthy, and comfortable life for them. Bone broth has been an age-old remedy for restoring overall health, and for soothing and comforting us in times of illness. If it works well for us, we’re sure it must work just as magically for our furry companions too. There is now a specially created version of bone broth for dogs and cats that can help maintain comfortable joints, make movement more flexible, and even support gut and immune health as they age.

Small-age related issues:

The years just flypast with our pets, don’t they, and before you know, they’ve hit a senior age and you start to notice all the small age-related changes. Have you noticed any of these issues in your pets?

• Stiff, achy joints
• Reduced muscle mass
• Declining bone density
• Diminishing immune function

Are you prepared for your pet’s middle age?

Protein – is your pet getting enough?

Protein is considered to be the key building blocks for muscle, bones, joints, and immune function. They form the foundation for your pet’s complete body – bones, muscles, veins, arteries, skin, tissue, hair, and organs. It’s no wonder then that proteins are also called the ‘building blocks of life’. For several years, it was believed that pets, especially cats, required fewer proteins as they age. But nothing could be further from the truth. As discovered in the 1990s, protein requirements actually increase with age. The higher the protein intake of your pet, the greater its life span and this is true even of cats with kidney concerns.

Cats and processed food:

Many older cats grow up eating processed pet food that contains difficult-to-digest ingredients, including poor-quality rendered protein, their entire lives. This leads to health issues such as compromised kidney and liver function. What your aging cat needs now is more high-quality protein, not less. Additionally, as age catches up with your pet, its body becomes less efficient at utilizing the amino acids present in the protein. By feeding them high-quality protein you can help maintain muscle mass, take care of joint and bone health, as well as proper organ and immune function.

Isn’t high-quality senior pet food enough?

Unfortunately, despite what they advertise, top-selling senior pet foods aren’t the right source for high-quality protein. Most of them contain grains as the second ingredient by weight, and that is most definitely not the right food for pets, especially not senior pets. Moreover, these foods could contain traces of glyphosate and aflatoxins, contaminants that have been known to cause cancer and another chronic disease. The best way to help your senior pet’s health is to feed it a high-quality, species-appropriate diet whenever you can. But what about when you can’t? How can you support your pet’s need for good food if commercially available foods can’t supply the much-needed building blocks?

Collagen: the most available protein in your pet’s body

Collagen is an abundant protein in your pet’s body, making up nearly 30% of the body’s total proteins, and 70% to 80% of the skin protein. This protein is found in the connecting tissue and it is the ‘gum’ that keeps everything together. The main roles of this protein include:

• Support digestion by helping produce more stomach acid and keeping all liquids together in the gut
• Restore and maintain gut health and also support immune function
• Enable normal detoxification processes
• Aids healthy muscles and energy production during exercise
• Assists the genetic building blocks, DNA and RNA
• Is the backbone of your pet’s normal healthy inflammatory response

Collagen is an important component of your pet’s health, but with age, the body loses its capacity to produce it. It is important to find ways to replace it. Luckily, with the right diet, it is possible to replenish these building blocks and offer your pet healthy movement and other collagen benefits right into old age.

Let’s take a closer look at collagen

Where does your pet get the much-needed collagen from then? Animal protein is a great place to start. Collagen in animals is mostly found in skin, bones, and tougher cuts of meat that have tendons and ligaments. Nearly 90% of the collagen in your pet’s body comes under these categories:

• Type I — Found in skin, bone, tendon, ligaments, and connective tissue
• The Type II — Cartilage
• Type III — Fibrous protein in skin, muscles, bones, tendons, cartilage, blood vessels, and connective tissues

The bone concentrate is perhaps the best source of collagen for your pet, with beef bone concentrate being particularly effective. The pre-made beef bone concentrate has ample Types I, II, and III collagen as well as various other kinds that are required for tendons, ligaments, bones, joints, muscles, gut, and blood vessels. When you feed your pet pre-made beef bone concentrate, the collagen in it is absorbed by the digestive tract and it spreads to different parts of the body to help make new collagen for up to 96 hours.

Do you know the truth about some beef collagen products?

Did you know that collagen is one of the biggest by-products of the leather industry? Most collagen peptides come from the cowhides. To manufacture this highly-processed collagen, many tanneries are known to use sulphuric acid and chromium salts during the process. This leads to heavy metal contamination, another reason to avoid rawhide chews, by the way. Instead of giving your pet collagen that is obtained from hides or skin, you would be better off sourcing it from real bone broth made from organically-raised, grass-fed animals. Nothing beats extracting collagen in this natural way – you get all the benefits without any of the potential drawbacks. It is through the slow simmering of bones and the surrounding joint and connective tissues that collagen, minerals and other nutrients are released. Please note: you should not allow your pets to consume canned or store-bought beef bone broth or bouillon cubes. These are made for humans and often contain ingredients, like onions, which aren’t good for your pets. Some of these broths also have sugar or salt added to improve its taste. Plus, they are often diluted.

How does collagen and beef bone concentrate help your pet’s gut and immune health?

Your pet can digest pre-made bone concentrate easily, and it soothes, comforts, and nourishes your pet’s gastrointestinal tract. The amino acids present in the collagen support the healthy tissue that lines the colon and gastrointestinal tract while doing so. As about 80% of your pet’s immune system lies in the gut, when the gastrointestinal health is good, the body’s immune function is also healthy. You can also offer bone broth to your dog if she’s recovering from any type of acute gastrointestinal upset. Bone broth is also excellent to help revive the appetite in a fussy dog.

Can’t get your hands on bone broth?

While nothing beats the nutritional value of a slow-simmered broth made from bones and surrounding connective tissue of grass-fed cows, it might not always be possible to make this yourself. Why don’t you consider an organic collagen powder instead, which has all the great nutritional advantages of the bone broth with the convenience of being able to feed it immediately?

Organic collagen powder is great for your pets because:

• It is suitable for dogs and cats
• It is sourced from organic grass-fed beef bone concentrate and not obtained from the leather industry
• Contains no heavy metals so you can serve it to your pet without fear
• Has not been processed with metal salts
• Free of additives, flavoring agents, sugar, onion, spices, and MSG
• Pets love it because of the slight element of Himalayan salt that mimics the taste of animal blood

The powder is boiled and dried, giving you the best possible alternative to slowly-simmered beef bone broth. Simply mix with water and it’s ready for your pet. Adding the collagen powder to your pet’s diet will be immensely helpful in keeping your pet active and healthy for many more years. With this powder, your pet can fight natural age-related issues and:

• Maintain joint flexibility and mobility
• Support physical well-being
• Aid digestive tract health for immunity and gut health

Collagen powder is the best antidote for aging or ailing pets, fussy eaters, athletic animals, and pets with digestive or joint concerns.