Our blog on pre and probiotics for dogs are a basic introduction to caring for your Mutt’s Gut Naturally with dog friendly probiotics and homemade natural prebiotics for dogs.
Gut health broadly refers to the overall well being of the GastroIntestinal (GI) tract. This includes the stomach, small intestine & large intestine. The gut is responsible for breaking down the food a dog eats. And, promotes nutrition absorption from a quality dog diet. Their gut is vital to the functioning of their immune system. The health of their gut can significantly impact their physical and emotional well being.
While on an emergency, to have an immediate impact on your dog’s gut health, it is recommended to administer supplements prescribed by a vet. On the long run, caring for your dog requires a natural meat based diet that supports their overall health.
Gauging your dog’s body language is crucial when it comes to what you feed your dog.
The food we feed our dogs, plays the largest role in keeping a dogs gut healthy. However, regular exercise, movement of the body and dog grooming is also key. Grooming in the case of dogs, since there is a lot of sniffing, rolling & play in a happy dogs life and we cannot control everything in the environment. Here, we will be blogging on the pre & probiotics for dogs.
A dog’s natural cooked diet; meat, fibre and carbohydrates are a given. In the case of dog’s health & support they also require foods rich in natural prebiotic and probiotic for dogs. Feeding a species appropriate diet, is the best way to help strengthen their immune system. Before we get into dog friendly probiotics and natural prebiotics for dogs, let’s understand their functions within gut health for dogs.
Probiotics are live bacteria and yeasts that have beneficial effects on their body. These species already live in your dog’s body, along with many others. Probiotic rich foods or supplements add to their existing supply of friendly microbes. These healthy gut microbes balance the internal environment to prevent disease and promote health. Gastrointestinal microorganisms perform tasks like:
Homemade natural probiotics for dogs include:
We wouldn’t recommend appam or dokhla, considering, those are fermented with the addition of yeast or baking soda in most recipes. There are also other fermented foods like kefir, fermented vegetables which are known to be dog friendly probiotics.
As Indian, we are very familiar with our probiotics, however, we cannot speak gut health, without mentioning prebiotics. We’ll give you a laymen’s understanding about natural prebiotics for dogs. And of course the role they play within the dog’s gut.
Prebiotics are certain foods, the body doesn’t digest in the small intestine. However, they go straight into their body’s large intestine. In the large intestine, the foods rich in natural prebiotic for dogs, trigger the growth of the good germ in their gut. Achieved through a biological fermentation process inside the large intestine by the gut bacterias. This natural fermentation process within the large intestine, helps clean the colon without stripping the gut off it’s good bacteria. Ensuring a better digestive system which supports nutrient absorption.
Natural prebiotics for dogs are plant based foods, which are high in fibre and also carbohydrates. If you are to google a list of foods rich in prebiotics that are also safe for dogs, you’ll get a healthy list of fruits, vegetables, grains.
Popular prebiotic rich foods for dogs include:
To summarise gut health for dogs, probiotics works on the small intestine and prebiotics on the large intestine. Natural prebiotics & probiotics for dogs, do not always have to be fed in one meal. Based on the human probiotics safe for dogs, you choose, you could always choose to feed them separately. If the dog friendly probiotics you choose are curd, buttermilk or kefir, it can be given as an afternoon snack, at least thrice a week. If you are choosing fermented rice, fermented vegetables, idly, paneer it can be a part of their meals too. Natural prebiotic foods for dogs, are usually best fed as part of their meals. Considering, natural prebiotic foods for dogs are plant based and high in fibre, allows you to make it a daily dog meal ritual.
Standard dog meals at Hungry Eyes have a balanced quantity of carbohydrates which have prebiotic properties. In our standard meals, consisting of meat & vegetables only variant, we use sweet potato. And in the standard dog meals with grain, we use cooked & cooled red rice which lends it’s prebiotic properties to our meals.
