Discover a Simple Way to Help Set Your Pet up for a Lifetime of Vibrant Health

Owners of healthy pets often ask me how they can help keep their pets healthy – without relying on an armload of supplements.

Maybe that includes you if you have a:

• New puppy or kitten and want to give him a healthy start in life.

• Young pet with no serious health issues, and you’d like to do all you can to help keep her that way.

• Pet predisposed to certain issues, and you’d like to provide an extra nutritional boost to maintain his health.

Wanting to help maintain your pet’s good health is much different from providing targeted organ support, such as eye support or joint support for a pet who is aging or developing issues.

It’s like you taking a multivitamin to help fill in the gaps in your diet – or taking a probiotic supplement for your gut health.

You can reach for a pet multivitamin. While there are plenty to choose from, many are of questionable quality and may not be designed for your pet’s specific size or age.

And if you’re not careful, multivitamins can raise your pet’s risk of a vitamin overdose.

There’s no question that the vast majority of pets can benefit from a broad nutritional approach, including digestive support for gut health and immune support for overall well-being.

In just a minute, you’ll learn about a solution that fits the bill perfectly, but first, let’s take a look at why your pet might need anything extra in the first place.

Why Your Healthy Pet May Need Extra Enzymes, Probiotics and Superfoods

You have a wide choice of pet food options today, and some are better than others.

My favorite for real nutrition is a species-appropriate, balanced fresh food diet, either raw or lightly cooked.

However, depending on the ingredients or recipe you use, a homemade diet can easily be deficient in important nutrients.

Even if you choose wholesome ingredients, they can be deficient in nutrients that you would normally expect to be there. Take chicken for example…

Chickens raised outdoors have plentiful amounts of vitamin D in their liver. Factory-farmed chickens who never set foot outdoors will likely be deficient. Today, the vast majority of animals are raised in confined, indoor conditions – even those specified as “organic.”

Then, there’s the issue of nutrients.

Much of our food is grown in soil depleted of trace minerals and certain vitamins. When animals eat the crops grown in nutritionally deficient soil, they don’t get the micronutrients and minerals they need for good health.

So, if your pet eats food that is lacking necessary nutrients, it’s easy to see how he may be deficient as well.

How to Get the Most for Your Money at Mealtime

It’s common knowledge that high-quality pet food costs more. Even brands that you might not consider to be premium can be pricy, especially if they contain special additives like probiotics, enzymes and extra nutrients.

My advice – and that of other holistic veterinarians – is this: If you can’t feed a species-appropriate diet made with fresh, whole food ingredients, choose a basic food with wholesome ingredients.

Forget the fancy additives, and add your own high-quality, human-grade pet supplements. In the long run, you’ll save money and your pet will end up with a healthier diet.

Not only do additives drive up the cost of the food, but they also increase the potential for unwanted chemical interactions. And they can shorten the shelf life of the packaged food.

With kibble, food manufacturers assume it contains no micronutrients after processing. So, during the final stage of production, they add a nutrient mix along with a sprayed-on “palatability enhancer” or “topcoat” of fat, animal digest and other ingredients to make the food more appetizing to dogs and cats.

This nutrient mix is typically an inexpensive, feed-grade (not human-grade) premix from China. And because it can contain metal oxides and sulfates that speed up the oxidation of fats, it can do more harm than good.

So, how can you improve the quality of your pet’s food?

I suggest adding human foods from your kitchen. Foods like eggs, meats, blueberries, sardines and finely chopped vegetables can dramatically improve the nutritional value of your pet’s food at little extra cost, especially if you’re already buying these foods.

And for added reassurance, I recommend adding probiotics, digestive enzymes and immune-promoting foods to help make sure your pet’s gut and immune system remain in top condition.

4 Key Blends for Your Pet’s Total Nutritional Health

I’m often asked if it is really necessary to give dogs and cats a wide assortment of nutritional supplements. Many owners don’t believe their seemingly healthy young pets need them and, therefore, don’t buy them.

Or maybe you do see the value in giving your pet nutritional supplements, but opening up four or five containers at mealtime can be tedious and time-consuming.

These are two key reasons why I created Bark & Whiskers^® Probiotics + Enzymes.

This “all-in-one” supplement is a cost-effective, light-duty formula that provides the nutrient basics for healthy pets with four key blends:

• Probiotic blend of eight valuable strains of gut-healthy probiotics, including Enterococcus, Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus strains, especially selected for your pet’s gastrointestinal and immune nutritional health

• Digestive Enzyme blend from Papaya, Pineapple and Porcine Pancreas to provide digestive support for any type of food you feed

• Organic Superfood and Green Food blend, including Organic Algae Meal (a blend of Spirulina and Fermented Chlorella), Organic Broccoli Sprouts and Organic Turmeric for nutritional immune support and overall vitality

• Organic Mushroom blend, including highly valued Reishi and Chaga mushrooms to provide nutrient antioxidants, polysaccharides, Beta-D-Glucans and other nutrients for immune system balance and healthy cell growth

Probiotics + Enzymes provides general nutritional maintenance support for your healthy pet’s immune health, digestion and gut health, normal cell growth and development as well as overall vitality.

Please note, if your pet is middle aged or older, she may need more than general health maintenance. Your pet may benefit from targeted organ and system support with our full-strength probiotic, digestive enzyme and immune support supplements.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these four blends in this one-of-a-kind formula…

8 Strains of Probiotics to Promote a Healthy Balance of Flora in Your Pet’s Gut

Probiotics are live microorganisms that live in your pet’s gastrointestinal track as well as her lungs and other organs, as well as on her skin. Microorganisms even reside inside her nose and mouth.

When talking about bacteria, probiotics are considered “the good guys,” or beneficial bacteria.

For optimal health at any age, your pet needs the right balance of good to bad (or pathogenic) bacteria. A probiotic supplement can help achieve that balance.

Diets high in carbohydrates, such as kibble and other carb-containing pet foods, can encourage the wrong type of bacteria to flourish, starting in your pet’s mouth.

Adding probiotics can help promote a healthy balance of bacteria throughout your pet’s entire digestive tract, beginning with his mouth.

Whereas the most popular pet probiotic on the market contains 100 million CFU from only one probiotic strain, our Probiotics + Enzymes formula provides 15 billion CFU per 1.7-gram scoop from a blend of eight strains of beneficial bacteria specially designed for dogs and cats.

These strains include:

1. Lactobacillus acidophilus - Supports the health of your pet's digestive tract and immune system, and promotes the growth of immune cells.

2. Bifidobacterium bifidum - Helps promote a healthy balance of flora in your pet's intestines and supports a normal immune response.

3. Bifidobacterium longum - Supports proper digestion and bowel health, along with supporting behavior and mood by working on the gut-brain axis.

4. Bifidobacterium animalis - Promotes optimal health and intestinal well-being. Plus, it is resistant to low pH and bile acids. May help prevent stress-related gastrointestinal upsets.

5. Enterococcus faecium - Promotes healthy stools in cats and dogs, and helps calm the signs of stress. Supports healthy immune function and microfloral balance in the gut, and promotes the growth of other good bacteria.

6. Lactobacillus brevis – Promotes gut health and helps maintain optimal nutrient absorption.

7. Lactobacillus casei - Works with other helpful organisms to encourage the growth of other "good" bacteria. It lives in the mucus membrane in cats and dogs, and it’s a key part of the gut-brain axis for supporting mood.

8. Lactobacillus plantarum - Helps ensure the delivery of nutrients to your pet's cells and supports the health of the colon walls.

Probiotics support your pet’s total health, from head to tail. They’re important for her digestion and utilization of nutrients. And because 80% of your pet’s immune system resides in her gut, her immune system also benefits from the addition of probiotics.

Enzymes: Essential for More Than Just Digestion

When animals in the wild kill prey, they truly receive a balanced and complete meal.

They get everything they need to digest their food, absorb the nutrients and thrive. Above all, they receive live enzymes from their prey.

Enzymes are tiny protein molecules found in every living cell. They’re responsible for many activities beyond digesting food – they’re essential for energy production, detoxification and every metabolic process in your dog or cat’s body.

Here are just a few of the many benefits of enzymes:

• Assist with the absorption of vitamins and minerals from food

• Promote normal body weight without hunger cravings

• Support immune health

• Promote normal cell growth

• Support healthy teeth and gums

• Promote regularity and reduce occasional bloating and gas

• Promotes healthy skin and coat

• Supports energy production due to optimized nutrient absorption

• Support normal detoxification processes

When provided with meals, digestive enzymes help break down protein, fats, fiber and carbohydrates into their usable components.

Between meals, enzymes promote all the other functions at the cellular level, including immune health, instead of digesting food.

So, where does your pet get the enzymes she needs to optimal digestion and overall nutritional health? Your pet’s body is designed to get some of its enzymes from food.

However, here’s what you need to know about enzymes in pet food: When you heat food above 110 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit, you destroy the live enzymes.

That certainly includes commercially processed pet foods, especially kibble and canned foods, and may even include homemade food if you heat or cook the ingredients.

Unfortunately, because most dogs and cats live on processed diets devoid of enzymes – and they don’t regularly get to eat prey with guts – the vast majority of our pets are deficient in life-promoting enzymes.

Too few enzymes not only can affect your pet’s digestion and utilization of nutrients, but it can also impact immune health, cellular health, detoxification and so much more.

Superfood Must-Haves for Health and Well-Being

When I sat down to formulate Probiotics + Enzymes, superfoods were on the top of my list. So, I turned to a few of my time-honored favorites as well as one relative newcomer that holds exciting potential for your pet’s health:

1. Organic Algae Meal (Spirulina and Fermented Chlorella)

I first learned about spirulina when I was a teenager working with a wildlife rehabilitator. Her success rate was double that of any other rehabilitator in the country. Her secret? The green superfood spirulina.

Spirulina contains one of the highest concentrations of nutrients of any plant, grain or herb. And it’s composed of easily absorbable nutrients – vitamins, amino acids, fatty acids, antioxidants and phytonutrients.

Of all foods, this unique green food is the closest thing to a multivitamin. Because it is so loaded with nutrients, it excels at nourishing your pet’s body if her diet is nutrient-deficient.

I consider chlorella a near-perfect food, and when fermented, this normally difficult-to-digest food becomes digestible and available to your pet’s body. The fermentation process creates a soft, thin cell wall that provides easy access to chlorella’s nutritional bounty.

A variety of fresh water blue-green microalgae, chlorella boasts well-balanced ratios of proteins, nutrients, vitamins and minerals as well as a special type of growth factor – chlorella growth factor (CGF), which is rich in nucleic acids.

As your pet ages, levels of nucleic acid in her body decline and can threaten her immune health. Providing CGF can help replenish her declining supply of life-supporting nucleic acids.

Like spirulina, chlorella has abundant amounts of the natural detoxifier chlorophyll. Chlorella supports your pet’s detoxification processes to help her liver and kidneys clear away any buildups of pesticides, herbicides and other toxic substances.

2. Organic Broccoli Sprouts

You already know sprouts offer excellent nutrient potential for you, but did you know they’re equally as nutritious for your cat or dog?

Broccoli sprouts contain high concentrations of two important antioxidants for cellular, detox, gut, joint and immune health – glucoraphanin and sulforaphane.

These two potent antioxidants stand out for their long lifespans and ability to recycle and actively scavenge free radicals in your pet’s cells.

Broccoli sprouts contain far more of these active compounds than regular broccoli. After three days of sprouting, broccoli sprouts contain 10 to 100 times the amount of glucoraphanin – the precursor to sulforaphane.

3. Organic Turmeric Root

Turmeric is the spice that gives curry its flavor, yet it’s been the focus of over 6,000 studies for its potential to support health, in humans and animals.

Along with its active compound, curcumin, turmeric offers multiple potential benefits for your pet’s nutrient health. It can help:

• Promote a normal healthy inflammatory response.

• Support normal healthy cell growth and development.

• Maintain a healthy gut.

• Support organ and tissue health.

As much as I value superfoods, I didn’t stop there… These next two ingredients are in a class of their own.

Organic Mushrooms for Liver and Immune Health

A relative newcomer to the western world, the Chaga mushroom has been used for hundreds of years in Asia and Siberia.

The Chaga mushroom grows throughout the frigid forests in the Northern hemisphere, mostly on birch and other hardwood trees.It grows as a black protrusion from the bark, but inside, it is soft and rust-colored.

An antioxidant rock star, Chaga contains a wide variety of immune-supporting antioxidants, such as polysaccharides, Beta-Glucans, phytosterols, Superoxide Dismutase or SOD, and two components unique to Chaga: Betulin and Betulinic Acid.

These two triterpenes are found only in Chaga mushrooms and are a result of the symbiotic relationship between the Chaga and the birch trees on which they grow.

The better-known nutritional mushroom, Reishi, is considered to be the premier balancing herb in Traditional Chinese Practice. Reishi is valued for its ability to help regulate and fine-tune the immune system.

This means it can both support your pet’s immune function if it needs a helping hand and it can help normalize an out-of-control immune response, like what happens with allergies.

Together, Reishi and Chaga mushrooms can potentially help maintain your pet’s nutrition through:

1. Healthy normal immune function.

2. Healthy blood flow and circulation.

3. Optimal liver health.

Give Your Pet Her Best Chances of a Lifetime of Vibrant Health with Probiotics + Enzymes

An “all-in-one” nutritional supplement, Probiotics + Enzymes covers the basics for young, healthy pets – digestion, gut health, and immune health – with its four key blends:

1. Probiotic blend of eight valuable strains of gut-healthy probiotics

2. Digestive Enzyme blend from Papaya, Pineapple and Porcine Pancreas

3. Organic Superfood and Green Food blend, including Organic Algae (a blend of Spirulina and Fermented Chorella, Organic Broccoli Sprouts and Organic Turmeric)

4. Organic Mushroom blend of highly valued Reishi and Chaga mushrooms

I know your pet’s health and well-being mean everything to you. And I’m sure you appreciate the importance of getting him off to a healthy start as early in life as possible.

Unfortunately, you can’t depend on pet food makers to do the job for you. It’s up to you to make sure your pet receives everything she may need. And the sooner you start, the greater the potential benefits.

Help ensure your pet is on the road to a long, healthy life, and order Probiotics + Enzymes today.