Holistic Nutrition / 16 February 2023
Demystifying Grain-Free Pet Diets
Choosing the right food for your dog or cat is crucial for their health and well-being. Feeding your pets a fresh, natural and holistic pet food will give them a longer, happier life with fewer health complications.
Choosing the right food for your dog or cat is crucial for their health and well-being. Feeding your pets a fresh, natural and holistic pet food will give them a longer, happier life with fewer health complications. With the variety of pet foods available, it can be overwhelming and confusing to choose the right one.
Let’s take a closer look at grain-free pet foods and why they might be a suitable option.
Why Grain-Free?
Grain-free recipes serve as a great go-to in the case of allergies, intolerances or sensitivities, especially when the offending ingredient or ingredients are unknown.
While either issue may necessitate a change in diet, food allergies and food sensitivities or intolerances in pets have different causes and symptoms. Here’s how you can tell the difference:
- Allergy: A reaction involving the immune system. This happens when a pet’s body reacts to an ingredient. While the ingredient itself may be harmless in general for pets, each pet’s immune system has varying degrees of tolerance. The pet’s immune system produces antibodies that generate symptoms, usually external. Some of the most common food allergy symptoms include itchy skin, hair loss, scabbing, hives, skin and ear infection, and hot paws.
- Food Sensitivity (Intolerance) has to do with the digestive system and the pet’s inability to digest certain foods properly. Pets with food sensitivities often have internal symptoms such as bloating, upset stomach, vomiting or diarrhea.
Grain-free pet food eliminates one major possible instigator for these reactions: grains. Removing grains can help to narrow down what is giving your pet issues and could possibly improve their well-being and quality of life.
Grain-free recipes are great for high energy or working dogs. Due to their increased meat content, grain-free recipes are naturally higher in protein. This equates to more calories per serving and acts as an ideal nutritional option for dogs consuming more calories than the average household pet.
What Is In it?
Nutram’s Total Grain-Free product line-up offers natural and holistic pet foods that cater to pet parents looking for grain-free options. They provide complete nutrition with low-glycemic carbs and recipes offer single-sourced animal proteins (i.e. fish only, lamb only or poultry only) for pet owners trying to eliminate ingredients to which their pets have an allergy or sensitivity.
Each recipe uses hormone-free meat and is naturally preserved to ensure the freshest quality. In addition to single-sourced animal proteins, recipes include non-meat proteins, such as chickpeas, peas and lentils, which also serve as a source of healthy carbs. Depending on the specific Nutram Total Grain-Free recipe, you will also find a combination of the following: Blueberries, blackberries, celery seeds, chamomile, chicory root, flaxseed, green lipped mussels, kale, peppermint, pomegranates, pumpkin, quinoa, raspberries, salmon oil, spinach, turmeric and whole eggs; wholesome, nutrient-rich ingredients that you can pronounce.
Try incorporating one of our Total Grain-Free recipes into your pet’s lifestyle
- For dogs (T23, T25, T26, T27, T28 or T29)
https://www.nutram.com/ca/products/total/dog - For cats (T22 or T24)
https://www.nutram.com/ca/products/total/cat
Before you switch your pet to a grain-free recipe, make sure to consult with your veterinarian.
Take the Optimum Transition Challenge!
If you decide to transition your pet to a grain-free diet, it’s important to make the switch gradually, by mixing the old food with the new food. A slow transition over 14 days works best in most scenarios. Nutram makes the transition easy with a Customized Transition Diet Plan.
Get your transition diet plan!
If you want to feed your pet the best, feed them Nutram!
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