We spend a lot of time wondering how our habits, either good or bad, directly affects our health but do you ever think about how they could affect your pets?  Probably not.  You don’t really think that your daily plate of broccoli is going to directly affect the life of your pet, but it actually might play a bigger role than you think.

Because you are the main provider and caretaker for your pets, everything that you do, or don’t do, impacts their daily life.  Sometimes that is a good thing, but more often than not our bad habits can get in the way of our pet’s ability to have a healthy and happy life.  Here are a few things that you know might not be the best for you but can be even more detrimental to your pet.  Don’t worry, though, there are also some suggestions on how you can turn things around and keep your whole family, pets included, happy and healthy!

Your Pack-A-Day Habit

We’ll start with a big one; smoking.  You know that smoking is not good for your health and you are probably aware that secondhand smoke is dangerous to all the people around you.  But did you know that secondhand smoke has a huge impact on the health of your pet?

There has been extensive research lately to find out just what secondhand smoke can do to pets and it isn’t good.  Animals can get cancer, allergies, skin and eye diseases, and respiratory problems.  Secondhand smoke is especially dangerous for cats because they are self-groomers.  They can end up ingesting harmful carcinogens and as a result, get oral cancer as well as lymphoma.  Dogs who get a hold of old cigarette butts and ingest them are also at a high risk for cancer and other diseases.

What To Do:  The best way to protect yourself and your pets?  Stop smoking.  Yes, it can be hard to quit but there are so many amazing resources that can help you crush this bad habit. Plus, you will instantly improve the quality of your life and your pets life.  If you can’t quit or there are other people in your home that smoke, try to enforce the rule of no smoking in the house.  This will lessen the amount of secondhand smoke that your pets are exposed to.

Your Aversion To Exercise

It might seem that not exercising would only affect your health and not your pets, but it has been shown that people who are more sedentary are less likely to exercise their pets.  Your pets need to move and be active just as much as you.  Dogs aren’t the only pets that like to go on walks are play fetch, cats need to run around and chase things too.

Pets aren’t immune to obesity and all the complications that come with that.  More and more pets are overweight, developing diabetes, and experiencing heart disease problems.  Part of the reason for that is their lack of daily activity and as their caretaker, you need to be the one to make sure they get moving.

What To Do:  You don’t have to start training your pet for a marathon or make sure they are constantly moving, but you do need to start building in activity into their day.  It can be as simple as taking your dog for a 15-minute walk or using a laser pointer to get your cat running around.  Remembering to exercise your pets can also be a good reminder for you to get up and move around.

Your Reliance On Processed Food

Step into any grocery store and you can find just about any food product imaginable.  From chicken in a can (yes, a real thing) to fruit snacks that don’t contain any fruit, processed food items are not doing your health any favors.  Unfortunately, processed food just doesn’t impact people but animals as well.  Most pet food is just as processed if not more than people food.  

Processed food can lead to the same issues for pets as it does for humans.  Obesity, diabetes, and other weight-related complications are on the rise in pets and their food is a big part of the problem.

What To Do:  The first thing you should do is talk to your vet and do some research and find out exactly what your pet needs in terms of nutrition.  Then take a look at the food you are currently feeding your pet.  Most likely there are a lot of ingredients in there that you haven’t ever heard of and wouldn’t want to feed your pet.  Try to find a brand that uses more real food than fake and doesn’t have a million ingredients.

You could also try making food for your pets.  There are plenty of DIY recipes for treats for both cats and dogs and they are made with real food ingredients.  

You want to give your pets the best life possible and because you are the one they look to for everything you have to be conscious of all your choices.  Little things that you think might not make that big a difference can actually have a huge impact on your pet.  Start today and make healthier choices for you and your pet!

The post How Our Habits Affect Our Pets appeared first on Chic Vegan.

It intrigues me to see how excited dogs and cats get when a can of smelly pet food is opened and dinner is on its way. They’re intelligent animals so how are they convinced this junk pet food is edible? According to vegan vet Dr. Andrew Knight, in an interview he shared with Animal World “years ago the pet food industry created an ingredient called ‘digest’”. Digest is considered to be the most powerful ingredient to enhance the tastiness of dogs and cats food to encourage them to eat it. If you Google this term it doesn’t provide anywhere near as much detail about what’s really in it that Dr. Knight shared. Since my main interest is in wellbeing for all animals I wanted to learn more about what feeding this food means to our dogs and cats health.

Dr. Knight explained that digest is made up of partially dissolved chicken entrails, intestines, bits of their livers and lungs and other organs found in the abdomen and thorax. These are partially dissolved using enzymes. These enzymes are a closely guarded trade secret and they also prevent bacteria putrefactions. When digest is coupled with other ingredients a pet’s digestion is arrested at a certain stage, this is also aided by the addition of a strong acid, usually phosphoric acid.

But that’s not all of the nasty stuff included! Dr. Knight also shared that fast food restaurant grease which has been many times over is sometimes sold to the pet food industry as ‘fat blenders’. If this grease is used multiple times to cook it accumulates high levels of free radicals which can damage pets’ tissues and organs. Ugh!

Other ingredients which may be present are meat, meat by-products, slaughterhouse waste, 4-D meal (diseased, disabled, dead or dying and not fit for human consumption), supermarket rejects and rendered dogs or cats. They also try to add anti-oxidants and flavor enhancers to limit the damage these products can cause to a pet’s health but the ability to limit this amount of damaged is quite limited.

There are also different types of contaminants that can be found in commercially produced meat based food for dogs and cats. Dr. Knight said these include a variety of bacteria and this is why we’re always hearing of outbreaks of things like salmonella, e coli, listeria and campylobacter. There are also fungi and prions which cause things like mad cow disease and the human equivalent of that.  It’s enough to make anyone’s head spin.

Did you know that slaughterhouse animals are checked by inspectors who spend an average of about two to three seconds per carcass? This is done to ensure that the carcass is free of all of these contaminants as well as parasitic worms, diseased or cancerous tissue. With such a short inspection it’s hardly surprising we see so many incidences of human food poisoning and animal reactions like diarrhea and vomiting. Dr. Knight commented that these days it’s almost considered normal for dogs once a month for example.

It’s alarming that a potent concoction of meat based commercial pet food and great marketing has created an estimated $23 billion in 2015 the USA alone.

How do you start to transition pets to a healthier diet?

Dr. Knight explained that the diet has to be palatable and taste good to the animals with good color, texture and smell so that it will be eaten. It has to be bio-available which means digestible and absorbable and meet the right locations in the body. There are a range of commercially available vegan diets for cats and dogs that aim to achieve all of these things and appear to do so very successfully as far as he can tell. You can also contact a vegan vet or do more research on the topic before you start the transition. Dr. Knight advises to slowly introduce new food mixing it in. This may be done over two to three weeks, carefully supervising each pet’s reaction to the change and dietary preferences. Some people say that dogs are easier to transition than cats. However Dr. Knight is a big proponent for introducing a cat to a vegan diet but it may take up to six months. My kitty is nearly 18 and hasn’t managed this yet.

What are the benefits?

Usually there is an improvement in overall health and vitality and decreased incidences of cancer, infections and a hormonal disease called hypothyroidism. Often times there is a decrease of external parasites like fleas, ticks, lice and mites, improvement in coat condition and skin allergies. Some pets experience weight loss. Sadly obesity is becoming the biggest health issue of dogs today and even cats. Other pets may experience a regression of arthritis and diabetes too. Interestingly a resolution of cataracts if this addressed before these are too advanced. This is good to know as personally I would never have even thought about that.

Our pets love and entrust us with their health and wellbeing. If their eating a vegan diet benefits their health and the lives of farm animals it’s worth taking the time and making the effort to do it.

My two dogs are now vegan and they love it. They are seven and eight years old, full of beans (no pun intended) and act like puppies.

The post Commercial Pet Food Dangers appeared first on Chic Vegan.