I strongly recommend that your dog be given supplements. I like to think of them, in fact, as a form of “supplemental health insurance” for pets, providing whatever extra nutrients your dog needs to maintain optimum health. They become especially important at this time of shrinking food value.

It’s unfortunate that many of the vitamins prepared especially for dogs are similar in quality to commercial dog food. Typical of this kind of supplement is the poor-quality vitamin mixture that’s thrown together with ingredients that provide flavor but little nutrition or ingredients such as powdered bone meal which cannot be absorbed. While the taste may appeal to your dog the vitamin content is negligible. Many pet vitamins do not even list the milligrams or International Units of the vitamins they contain, much less the chemical make up or source of the vitamin.

Then, too, many vitamin and mineral supplements, intended both for pets and humans, contain binders, fillers, sugars, coloring agents and flavorings that can compromise their ability to be utilized.

Reading labels on supplement bottles to ascertain how many milligrams of vitamin C or International Units (IU) of vitamin E they contain can be of little help unless you’re familiar with the source. A good quality vitamin that is easy to assimilate may actually have less of the key ingredient, yet be more beneficial. It’s also apt to be more expensive.

Doggy vitamins have even more inherent problems with quality and quantity because most vitamins don’t taste very good. Therefore, the average vitamin or mineral supplement for dog’s contain large quantities of nutritional yeast and powdered liver to improve their flavor and small if not negligible quantities of vitamins and minerals. It is also a fact that pet vitamins usually come from poor quality sources and preparations. Therefore, if it happens to be listed, the designated milligrams and units on the label are deceptive as the nutrients are not of good quality and poorly absorbed. Some companies are now creating pet vitamins that are comprised of high grade human quality ingredients that have been prepared in a way that are extremely appetizing for your pets. Deserving Pets is one of the companies that prepares an excellent palatable vitamin that is made from quality ingredients. The difference is coat, energy level and health when a first-rate supplement is given is readily apparent.