In the minds of most people, algae is the scum that grows in the fish tank or ruins the family’s summer lake plans.
But there are tens of thousands of different types of algae in the world – maybe even hundreds of thousands – and some of them are amazing. In fact, the right types of algae contain astonishing arrays of nutrients that are beneficial for human and animal health.
Algae looks like a plant, but it’s scientifically classified as a protist – a microscopic, single-celled organism that can propel itself around its environment. Algae produces its own chlorophyll just like plants and usually lives underwater.
While you might not ordinarily think about feeding algae to your carnivore pet to support her health, it offers some remarkable benefits.
Algae’s impressive nutritional profile includes proteins, amino acids, minerals, phytonutrients, omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins A, C, E and K. Many of these are antioxidants that help protect your pet’s cells, tissues and organs from wear and tear.
Antioxidants fight free radicals in your pet’s body that are caused by daily environmental stressors, including poor commercial food, chlorinated water, cleaning chemicals, and exposure to electromagnetic pollution.
Algae is one of the best sources of concentrated antioxidants. It can provide a convenient, high-impact way to help keep your pet healthy and active.
Let’s take a look at how free radicals can put your pet’s health at risk – and how two special algae may be among your best strategies for helping her stay healthy.
Free Radicals and the Dangers of Oxidation
Whether your pet is young or old, his body needs plenty of antioxidant support to deal with free radicals, which can contribute to health challenges and hasten aging.
Free radicals are unstable oxygen-containing molecules that travel throughout your pet’s body searching for electrons to steal from stable molecules. When they succeed, the exchange of electrons that takes place is called oxidation.
Once this process begins, it can produce a chain reaction that generates more and more free radicals. Without antioxidants to absorb that excess, your pet’s body experiences oxidative stress.
Oxidation in the feline or canine body is actually similar to what happens to a piece of metal when it rusts…
As the oxygen molecules in the water react with the iron in the metal, oxidation takes place and the metal slowly disintegrates. In just a few years, that piece of metal can be reduced to a pile of crunchy rust.
Although you can’t see it in your pet’s body like you can on a piece of metal, oxidation also causes damage in his body. This damage can potentially show up over time as health challenges, decreased vitality and early aging.
These Molecular Defenders Take a Leading Role in Protecting Your Pet's Eye Health
Let's consider that piece of metal again. Think about what would happen if you painted it before the water got to it.
Paint acts as an effective layer of protection to prevent the metal from reacting with the oxygen in its environment – so now you’ve protected it from rust and disintegration.
Antioxidants are kind of like “paint” when it comes to helping protect your pet's body from free radicals. They protect your pet’s cells by neutralizing the free radicals, rendering them harmless.
Antioxidants reduce oxidative stress in your pet's body and protect her cells' delicate DNA, supporting healthy function of her cells, tissues and organs.
Antioxidants are uniquely important for the health of your pet's eyes, especially in certain breeds with more protruding eyes, such as Pugs, Bulldogs, Boxers, Himalayans and Persians.
A healthy diet complete with foods rich in natural antioxidants is important for helping to maintain your pet's vision and eye health. For the greatest impact, look for antioxidants that can cross the blood-brain barrier and blood-retina barrier to reach and nourish delicate eye tissues.
These Foods Are Rich in Antioxidants That Can Support Your Pet’s Health
Whether you feed your pet a homemade diet or a commercial diet, consider adding antioxidant-rich foods to his meals. You can help him benefit from the following antioxidants by feeding him these foods:
- Carotenoids: Kale, spinach, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, spirulina
- Vitamin C: Green leafy vegetables, broccoli, Brussels sprouts
- Vitamin A: Liver, eggs, cheddar cheese, greens, carrots, pumpkin
- Lutein: Green leafy vegetables, including spinach, broccoli
- Vitamin E: Spinach, sweet potatoes
Are you ready to create a balanced homemade diet that keeps your pet healthy and happy? Check out Bark & Whiskers® Meal Mix and Recipe Generator to help take all the guesswork out of homemade pet food.
Feeding your pet a species-appropriate diet loaded with natural antioxidants is a great way to support her health.
If you feed your pet a commercial diet, you can boost its nutritional value by mixing in some finely chopped, antioxidant-rich foods.
Regardless of the diet you feed, your pet needs antioxidants, and I’m excited to tell you how he can get them from two of the richest sources of antioxidants on the planet…
This Blue-Green Algae Offers Your Pet an Easy Source For a Broad Range of Antioxidant Nutrients
We believe the best supplements come from natural sources. They retain the cofactors and components nature intended, unlike isolated, lab-produced vitamins and minerals.
Why spirulina stands out:
- Contains one of the highest concentrations of nutrients in any plant, including vitamins C, A and K, several B vitamins, calcium, potassium and magnesium.
- Composed of over 60% complete and easy-to-digest protein
- An abundant source of the hard-to-find essential fatty acid GLA
- Contains up to 16% of its weight in phycocyanin, a pigment-protein complex that gives powerful support to normal healthy immune function
The rich blue-green color of spirulina actually contains a spectrum of colorful antioxidants…
Green from chlorophyll, blue from phycocyanin and orange from carotenoids… all collecting the sun's energy to support your pet’s health and vitality.
Spirulina has an exceptionally rich beta-carotene content, with ten mixed carotenoids including orange carotenes and alpha, beta, gamma and yellow xanthophylls.
Spirulina’s impressive list of molecular components shows it contains one of the most powerful combinations of nutrients ever identified in any herb or other botanical – a true powerhouse of antioxidant support for your pet.
In just a minute, we’ll take a closer look at the premium sourcing of our spirulina, and how it can potentially help your pet. But first, let's introduce you to another antioxidant powerhouse…
Dubbed the “King of Carotenoids” – Astaxanthin Rules
Astaxanthin is often called the “king of carotenoids” – a potent class of fat-soluble antioxidants. So potent, in fact, that astaxanthin's antioxidant capacity is up to…
- 550 times more powerful than vitamin E
- 65 times more powerful than vitamin C
- 54 times more powerful than beta-carotene
- 5 times more powerful than lutein
Astaxanthin shows remarkably strong free radical scavenging ability and helps protect your pet’s cells, tissues and organs from oxidative damage.
It’s also far more effective than other carotenoids at neutralizing reactive oxygen species (ROS), a special type of free radical.
Another thing that makes astaxanthin especially impressive – and important for your pet in particular – is its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and blood-retina barrier to support brain and eye health. Very few antioxidants can do this.
One of the best sources of astaxanthin is a freshwater microalga called Haematococcus pluvialis. This alga is typically found in shallow bodies of water that dry up from time to time, such as rock pools, and it’s packed with astaxanthin.
Spirulina Meets the King of Carotenoids… Introducing Bark & Whiskers® Spirulina
Because both astaxanthin and spirulina offer such remarkable benefits, we wanted to combine the two to provide a broad-based antioxidant boost for your pet’s health.
Now I’m excited to finally offer Bark & Whiskers® Spirulina – a unique spirulina and astaxanthin complex. With Spirulina, your pet receives two of nature's most nutrient-dense dietary supplements to support normal, healthy:
- Brain and cognitive function
- Eye and retinal health
- Heart and vascular health
- Immune function
- Cell division and growth
- Skin health
- Movement and flexibility
- Central nervous system function
Bark & Whiskers® Spirulina packs a double punch for free radicals – with carotenoids, phycocyanins and enzymes from spirulina, plus all the carotenoid superpower of astaxanthin.
Together, these two superfood powerhouses offer you a simple, easy way to make sure your pet gets a full range of antioxidants, helping his body neutralize free radicals and maintain vitality.
While there is a wide variety of individual astaxanthin and spirulina products on the market, many of them are of questionable quality. In making Spirulina, we went to great lengths to locate a high-quality manufacturer that we could fully trust.
Our manufacturer combines their proprietary, patented AstaReal® P4AF Astaxanthin technology with Organic Spirulina from India.
Produced in an allergy-free facility with science and world-class manufacturing practices behind it, Bark & Whiskers® Spirulina delivers outstanding, high-quality antioxidant support for your pet.
Why We've Selected Organic Spirulina from India, Not the Tropical Beaches of Hawaii
To get the valuable health benefits of spirulina, you want one that is high in total carotenoids, phycocyanin, zeaxanthin, chlorophyll and gamma linolenic acid (GLA).
For truly phenomenal spirulina, I’ve found that U.S. sources don’t always contain the highest concentrations of these nutrients.
Here's what we mean…
Our manufacturer recently commissioned two independent studies by outside laboratories on the organic spirulina used in Bark & Whiskers® Spirulina. They examined a series of batches over a period of several months.
These studies were complete analytical workups that looked at more than 30 different dietary and nutritional parameters, including vitamin, mineral, fatty acid and carotenoid content. They paid particular attention to total carotenoid levels, zeaxanthin, phycocyanin, chlorophyll and GLA.
When compared with published information on Hawaiian spirulina, they found these important differences with the Indian source of organic spirulina. The Indian spirulina had:
- 8% higher total carotenoids
- 23% more zeaxanthin (a critical carotenoid that supports eye and retina health)
- Equal levels of C-phycocyanin and crude phycocyanin; however, our organic spirulina has the potential to reach higher phycocyanin levels on a consistent basis
- 30% more chlorophyll
- 20% more GLA
These two independent studies demonstrated a far superior nutrient profile in the Indian organic spirulina, making it the obvious choice for Bark & Whiskers® Spirulina.
Why Spirulina from the Southern Tropical Region of India is So Extraordinary
In a remote area of India, away from bustling cities, polluting industry and farms, you'll find the manufacturing home of the organic spirulina that goes into Bark & Whiskers® Spirulina. Produced under the highest standards, this spirulina is cultivated…
- With no animal products or wastes
- With only natural herbal fertilizers
- With pure, artesian groundwater
- Without synthetic minerals
- Without pesticides or herbicides
In addition to these best practices, the manufacturer’s methods and use of pure vegetarian organic nutrients help ensure that levels of heavy metals in this spirulina are the lowest possible.
In fact, this organic spirulina is verified under the U.S. Pharmacopeia ingredient verification program and certified as GRAS (Generally Regarded as Safe).
It is certified by three major organic standards organizations – USDA National Organic Program, Naturland (Germany) and ECOCERT (France).
To meet these exacting standards, no trace minerals – such as iron – are used in the spirulina cultivation process. The practice of boosting mineral content by adding mineral salts is common with lower quality, non-organic spirulina.
The Astaxanthin in Bark & Whiskers® Spirulina Is Not Your Everyday Astaxanthin… Not Even Close
Astaxanthin is truly one of the most powerful antioxidants ever discovered.
It packs an exceptional antioxidant punch, and this means more power to fight oxidative stress in your pet’s body.
Unlike synthetic astaxanthin, which is commonly found in feed formulas and many supplements, the AstaReal® P4AF natural astaxanthin complex in our Spirulina delivers a high-quality natural extract with scientifically verified activity.
Here’s what's different about this form of astaxanthin…
Like most natural astaxanthin supplements, AstaReal P4AF is a natural astaxanthin powder derived from Haematococcus pluvialis and produced from solvent-free supercritical CO₂ extraction. With this microalga, once the tough cell wall is cracked open, it is highly unstable and the nutrients must be extracted immediately. The extract is then made into a Microalgae Extract Powder.
Our manufacturer uses a non-patented solvent-free supercritical carbon dioxide extraction method to isolate and concentrate the astaxanthin, rather than toxic chemicals (like many others do). It's far more natural and much safer for your pet – and the environment.
Quality matters when it comes to astaxanthin. That’s why we only stand behind products we can trust completely.
Help Protect Your Pet’s Health and Vitality with a Simple Daily Dose of Bark & Whiskers® Spirulina
Just like a coat of paint helps protect metal from rusting and breaking down, a strong supply of antioxidants helps protect your pet’s cells from damage that can cause him to lose his vitality.
Bark & Whiskers® Spirulina gives you an easy, effective way to arm your dog or cat with the antioxidants he needs to neutralize free radicals and avoid oxidative stress.
With a double punch from superfood spirulina and super-antioxidant astaxanthin, you can help protect the normal, healthy function of your pet’s brain, eyes, heart, skin, joints and immune system.
Thanks to the powerful nutrition contained in these two little microalgae, even when he doesn't eat as well as you'd like, Bark & Whiskers® Spirulina can help provide the extra protection your pet needs from the daily oxidizing stressors in his life.
Help your pet stay healthy and active with the antioxidant power of this unique superfood combo. Order Bark & Whiskers® Spirulina today.