Have you ever thought about your dog’s diet and where they are sourcing their micronutrients from? In many cases, it can seem difficult to balance your dog’s diet and ensure that they’re getting plenty of micronutrients, minerals, and vitamins. 

In line with this thought, today, we’re looking at some of the key things you should know about naturally balancing your pet’s diet. In turn, this should help make it a little easier to find a suitable meal plan for your beloved pooch.

Why Balancing Your Pet’s Minerals is So Important

When it comes to your pet’s diet, mineral balance is essential. Indeed, it’s often easy to overlook this, but these micro molecules play a direct role in your pet’s health and well-being.

Far from simply being insignificant, minerals and vitamins impact many aspects of your dog’s immune function, appetite, energy levels, and more; plus, getting excessively supplying too many minerals can also lead to health consequences. Thus, finding the right natural balance for your pet cannot be stressed highly enough.

The Importance of Ensuring a Chemical-Free Diet

With vitamins and minerals playing such an essential role in our dog’s health, it’s no wonder that many of us feel swamped and overwhelmed by the decisions. In turn, this can make it feel tempting to simply top up their diets with chemical vitamin and mineral additives. However, this could potentially lead to a myriad of issues for your beloved canine companion.

How Balancing Your Pet’s Diet Naturally Can Help

Vitamins and minerals come in many different forms, but in many cases, everything your dog needs can be found in a balanced natural diet. Of course, the exact optimal diet will depend on your dog’s needs, so it’s worth discussing this with your vet before taking the jump. However, there are a number of significant benefits to feeding your pet a natural diet that are well worth keeping in mind.

First and foremost, it’s worth noting here that naturally derived foods for your pet are often much higher in minerals - at least before supplementation - than highly processed pet foods. Indeed, whereas natural, gently prepared foods contain a wealth of minerals for your dog, processing the ingredients to create commercial foods can often cause many of these minerals to be lost. In turn, this could leave your dog at risk of missing out on the necessary balance of vitamins and minerals when fed a highly processed diet.

Now, many commercial feed manufacturers are well aware of this issue relating to processed food. And, as such, the AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Operators) requires foods to meet certain vitamin and mineral levels at a minimum. In turn, this means that many feed companies simply replace the lost vitamins and minerals with synthetic forms of vitamins and minerals, ensuring they meet the requirements for AAFCO approval.

The Risk of Overdosing on Minerals

Artificial vitamins and minerals are undoubtedly a simple and effective way of ensuring your dog gets enough of these essential nutrients in their diet. However, there’s a relatively fine line between “enough” and “too much,” and depending on the composition of your pet’s diet, there’s a potential risk that they could end up overdosing on certain compounds due to mineral additions. 

Now, in theory, your pet’s food alone shouldn’t cause an overdose; however, if they are also getting other minerals in their diet, this could lead to potential mineral toxicity.

Artificial Minerals Can Cause Side Effects

In addition to this, it’s worth considering that some of the compounds used to add artificial vitamins and minerals may not be as safe as the natural form of the mineral itself. For example, take sodium selenite, a common food additive as a source of selenium.

While this compound does offer a good way for pets to get selenium in their diet, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health also warns of potential side effects that can come with prolonged exposure, such as nervousness or stomach disorders (among many others). Now imagine your dog eating a diet supplemented with sodium selenite daily… It’s easy to see why issues might arise.

Lower Bioavailability

As we’ve already touched on briefly, synthetic minerals often are less readily available to the body - a concept known as “bioavailability.” In contrast, natural vitamin and mineral sources are much more bioavailable as they are less likely to be locked up in chemical compounds, while natural co-factors further enhance bioavailability. This often isn’t the case for synthetic compounds, meaning that your pooch won’t be able to make use of artificial minerals as effectively.

Final Thoughts

For many of us, ensuring our dogs have the ideal balance of minerals and vitamins in their diets can seem tricky. And, since this will also vary from pet to pet - with each dog’s specific mineral needs potentially fluctuating slightly - there’s a lot to think about. 

Even more critically, considering the bioavailability of minerals and nutrients in your pet’s ration can further complicate matters; as such, it’s so important to plan your dog’s diet carefully.

Luckily, Healthy Dogma can make this easier. Our PetMix dog food is chemical-free, and completely free of grains, gluten and common allergens, making it a great option for dogs with food sensitivities. It’s easy to add PetMix to your dog’s meals, giving them all the essential nutrients they need to stay healthy and safe.

Since 2009, pet owners have trusted PetMix, often sharing how it boosts their dogs' energy and improves mobility.

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