I have only just found Rodney Habib’s Facebook page due to David posting a link to it on the All About Dog Food’s page. Rodney is a pet nutritionist and for anyone who is not a member of FB but who would like to look at his blog, it can be found here.
Rodney Habib has updated his supplement dosage list and it is presented in graphical form so I can only provide the link to the relevant Facebook page - see here. It covers the commonest supplements such as coconut oil, fish oil, green lipped mussel and many more. If anyone wants the information but cannot view it due to not being a member of Facebook, let me know and I will copy it into this post.
I have to say that he has a very big following and the post generated a lot of comments, some of it seemingly from quite knowledgeable people. I find myself a bit in awe (and confusion) on this subject of supplements. I feel that it needs to be approached carefully because some of them are included in good quality dog food so I would say check the recipes of your product before feeding them to your dog.
Supplements seem more of a minefield than dog food. The link to the website brings out the sceptic in me, mainly because it is a US website! It may be just my natural British reservations, but issuing a claim that a teaspoon of turmeric a day can prevent cancer, heart disease and depression seems a little…exaggerated? There is some good interesting stuff on Rodney Habib’s blog but I can’t help wonder why if raw feeding is deemed the best then why the need to supplement? The list of supplements highlighted in the blog, would never have been available to wild dogs /wolves so I guess it comes down to creating a better diet than was anciently available?
As an old man myself, brought up in the countryside by my grandparents - my grandfather was a true countryman born in the 1880s - I was always told that animals, both wild and domesticated, had an instinct to seek out and eat herbs and other healing plants when they were in need of them. My grandfather would turn out his sheep into ancient meadowland rich with herbs whenever he felt they were under the weather, trusting them to seek out what they needed, and I myself have observed foxes nibbling on herbs from time to time so it’s not just herbivorous animals that seem to do this.
It’s also the case that our dogs face all kinds of challenges to their health - as do we - that historically wolves and the like would never have been confronted with such as pollution & vaccination. Plus, we do rather like them to stay alive for as long as possible, whereas most wild animals actually live far less than their theoretical maximum lifespan.
The difficulty for me is knowing what supplements an individual dog (or person!) might benefit from, and that is truly a minefield.
‘most wild animals actually live far less than their theoretical maximum lifespan’ - it would be interesting to find out what zoos feed animals and if they supplement to make up a complete diet. eg do wolves in captivity just get a meat diet or are they fed things they might scavenge for in the wild such as berries,eggs & herbs? (do they only scavenge if they don’t have an easy meat source?)
I would say with supplements may need to be given when there is changes in the dogs environment - say when a dog is indoors more during winter and the heating may dry out the skin more - or changes in age or circumstances (pregnancy illness etc) but to supplement all the time, to me, means the food is lacking something and to supplement to ward off cancer etc seems a little far fetched.
Zoos will try to stick with the most natural diets they can provide where they can and supplement where needed. Having worked in both US and UK zoos, I’ve found that UK zoos seem to be more into feeding as close to a natural diet as possible.
I agree that it does seem unnecessary to use sups all the time.
With my own dogs I will only add supplements as needed. I firmly believe that a balanced and varied diet does not need supplementing. I give my 5 year old Cavalier Hawthorn tincture daily since he suddenly developed a grade 4/6 murmur (MVD) last year. He still remains asymptomatic and his heart and respiration rates have not changed since the diagnosis. I’m hoping the Hawthorn is playing a part in keeping it from progressing. Other than that, there are no supplements that go in their food as there are no other issues.
Being a member of the Facebook Turmeric User Group UK myself, I can only say that Turmeric is a spice upon which lots of scientific studies have been carried out. There are links which the group accumulates to support its positive effects to stop cancer cells from forming, it’s effects on Diabetes, Arthritis and other ailments too numberous to mention. The Facebook Group is very lively with lots of daily positive testimonials from people who have seem miraculous improvements both for themselves and their pets. The sheer number of these testimonials offer positive proof that there might just be something in the claims made for it…