Grrrrr?
Garlic was originally grown in Central Asia. It has been accepted and recognized as one of the most powerful antibiotics available, effective against bacterial, fungal and parasitic infestations. Numerous medical studies show how garlic juice reduces cholesterol and helps the heart. Worldwide, people take garlic pills, eat garlic cloves and spray garlic juice on food for both taste and good health.

It should be noted that the ASPCA shows garlic in the onion group in their list of 10 items that should not be fed to pets, The group consists of Onions, Garlic and Chives and reads as follows with argumentative discourse noted.  
These vegetables and herbs can cause gastrointestinal irritation and could lead to red blood cell damage. Although cats are more susceptible, dogs are also at risk if a large enough amount is consumed. Toxicity is normally diagnosed through history, clinical signs and microscopic confirmation of Heinz bodies. An occasional low dose, such as what might be found in pet foods or treats, likely will not cause a problem, but we recommend that you do NOT give your pets large quantities of these foods

Once again, the rules of moderation come into effect!

Garlic contains organic alkyl sulfur components specifically, S-alkyl cytosine and other cytosine derivative like S-alkyl cytosine sulfoxides that are responsible for many of its anticancer, antibiotic, anti-lipid and anti-diabetic properties.

It is not surprising that veterinarians have leaned towards the use of garlic supplements in pet diets and nutrition for the relief of several ailments, particularly in cats and dogs and while it benefits mankind, for dogs it does even more! .

Garlic keeps dogs from having worms and gets rid of worms that are there. It also keeps fleas and ticks off dogs by getting into the dog’s system and creating a garlic odor that fleas and ticks detect and avoid the dog altogether. Don’t worry, your dog won’t smell like garlic.
 
Garlic Juice is easiest way to give garlic to your dog, here’s how most kennels and dog owners do it; spray or pour garlic into its natural dog’ food and mix well.
Give your pet some garlic every day if your pet dog and cat is nearing middle age or older, it is time to add some garlic to your pet’s food. Garlic protects against cancer, enhances immunity and even reduces the formation of athero-sclerotic plaques and thrombi. In companion animals too, garlic has been found to be beneficial in reducing cholesterol levels, and even lowering blood sugar levels.

Listed below are some ways in which you can use garlic to help heal your pet.

• For skin boils and other bacterial infections:
  Take a bulb of garlic. Crush it and extract the juice. Apply raw garlic juice on the infected areas. Within a week, you will see that your pet’s wound has healed and is back to normal.
• As a circulation toner, blood purifier and cancer preventer:
  Take half a clove of raw garlic. Mash it well. Add the clove in your pet’s food everyday. Half a clove of raw garlic should be sufficient if your pet is a large dog. If your pet is a small breed of dog or cat, then a quarter clove of garlic should be enough. However, what you need to make sure is that the garlic that you use is raw not any preserved form of garlic.
• The raw garlic will help to improve the circulation, cure any stomach indigestion and flatulence. Besides this, if you give your pet garlic regularly, it will also help to prevent against cancer. However, if your pet already has cancer, then giving garlic may not help very much. However, it can protect your pet from getting worse or developing new tumors.
• Another property that garlic has is that it is also a powerful anti-oxidant. Therefore, when you give your pet garlic regularly, it also helps to reduce some of the degenerative changes seen with aging.
• Regular consumption of garlic has been found to help reduce the ability of blood to clot and form clots i.e. an anti-thrombosis action effect.
• Another age associated change is the development of arterioscleroses i.e. the hardening and narrowing of the blood vessels due to formation of plaque inside the vessel wall. Garlic has also been found to reduce high lipid levels and reduce plaque formation.

Garlic is especially useful for female pets:
Garlic also contains compounds that are weakly estrogenic. This useful medicinal plant has compounds that have low concentrations of estrogen and other related compounds. Therefore, although garlic may be very useful for your pets, it may also adversely affect the fertility of your male pet, especially if you have serious plans to breed your pet. Consult your veterinarian before you start your pet on a long term course of medication with garlic

Here’s the recommended daily dosage:

5-20 lb. dogs - 4 sprays or 1/4 ounce in food daily.
21-50 lb. dogs - 6 sprays into food and mix well.
51 lbs. and over dogs 8 sprays into food and mix well.

If, for some rare reason your dog will not eat food with the garlic juice in it, mix the garlic juice with soybean oil (available in the cooking oil section at your local supermarket) and mix into food - this also helps make a very nice coat on the dog.

Say goodbye to poisonous flea collars! Mother Nature has provided a safe and all-natural alternative - farm fresh garlic juice!

                                                                     
No matter what kind of pets you have, you want to take care of them to the very best of your ability. To do this, you want to get the proper supplies for them. There are a lot of supplies available, so you must know exactly what you are looking for, and it is best to have somewhere you go to find it.

The greatest demand is for dog and cat food nutrition that are, beyond a doubt the most important feature of pet care in America today. You may be looking [in the link above) at the most convenient source for the healthiest selection of supplies available for cats, dogs, the smallest and even the most exotic pets.

For dogs you will have no trouble finding leashes, collars, food and water bowls, toys, and food. There are also a lot of cat and dog training, health and cleaning products. There are other categories of supplies, and each category has hundreds of products available. Your cat will find scratching posts and climbing trees in plentiful numbers, along with many carrier options.

If you have fish, you will be able to find tanks and fish-friendly cleaners and food for all kinds of fish. There are many interesting things to put into the tank with the fish as well.

If you have small animals such as rabbits, gerbils, guinea pigs, or ferrets, you will find lots of pet supplies for them as well. Food, litter, and grooming supplies are available. There are a lot of extra products for ferrets, including harnesses, leashes, and toys. Ferrets are extremely playful animals, and providing them with toys helps to alleviate boredom.

For birds there are aviaries, cages, perches along with a variety of food and water dishes. As with other animals, toys are plentiful for birds that need these to engage their attention. You will also find treats for your birds to either keep them occupied or to reward them.

Of course, you don’t want to forget about your reptiles. While many people don’t think about reptiles needing things, they need their pet supplies just as much as any other animal. They require heat lamps and proper flooring in their terrarium, along with places to hide and climb. Calcium supplements are common health products bought for reptiles.

With the right pet supply store, you can get your little friends everything they need to stay healthy and happy.

For the cat lover, the cat is more than a pet; it is a valued member of the family. It is essential for cat health care to feed a high-quality natural cat food.
A lot of cat food and treats claim to have the highest quality ingredients, but not all of them make the grade. This post will discuss the essential ingredients to look for in choosing a quality cat food as well as the three ingredients to avoid. You will know what food contents to choose to assure your pet gets the finest cat nutrition with organic or natural cat food.

When choosing a cat food or treat, make sure the first label listing is protein. Many cat foods use a filler ingredient such as wheat or corn instead of protein as the main ingredient.

Cats are obligate carnivores, which mean that they must eat meat; no matter how wonderful vegetables may be for the health of a human being, they are not essential or even needed to maintain the health and happiness of our feline friends.

Feeding a cat food that has wheat or corn as its primary ingredient can lead to health problems in the long run, including joint, skin, coat, and eye conditions. It is also important to remember the wheat gluten contamination that led to the recall of so many cat foods as well as multiple deaths in 2007.

Another problem with cat foods that contain corn or wheat gluten is that cats can develop allergies. If you notice that your cat is scratching more, or develops scabs around the head and neck, you will want to discuss with your veterinarian switching your cat to a different cat food containing higher quality ingredients than those found in your cat’s current diet.

Some people think premium cat foods are expensive, but in fact, because they have less filler, the cat is able to gain a full day’s nutrition eating as little as half the amount as of a lower quality food. As a result, often the cost per day is the same.

The difference is, with a wellness cat food, your cat is not immersed in a diet of artificial preservatives such as BHT, BHA or Ethoxyquin, animal by products, or unnecessary fillers. Removing these unfavorable ingredients makes a significant difference in the overall cat health and well being of your pet, improving the quality of life, as well as reducing the likelihood of developing health issues and frequent trips to the vet.

Humans may eat junk food once in awhile but we surely couldn’t survive or thrive with such a daily diet. Imagine now that we give our felines a daily feeding of junk food (which unfortunately some cat food brands are). That certainly would not be healthy for them.

 Sometimes we will see this manifest into a dull coat or bowel/urinary issues. Or we may not notice anything wrong. However, as most people know, quality nutrition and proper absorption of nutrients is beneficial to overall health and the same is true for our cats.

Whether we have two legs or four, what we eat makes a difference. Avoid animal bi-products, fillers such as corn or wheat gluten, and keep your pet on a cat food that promotes cat health.

                                     It’s me again
There is more to love about our pet dogs than their faithful affection for us. They are also a boost to our good health as well as a tail wagging reminder of our obligation to them in the form of dog health care. One could say, in no small way, we thrive on the quality of  healthy dog food and nutrition we give to them,

The portrayal of the dog as mans best friend is an apt one. If you don’t laud children or family members and greet them with enthusiasm; they’ll be less likely to be around you. Not so with the ever faithful canine friend. It has been sad to hear that no matter how cruelly people treat animals, they remain faithful to those who abused them. They offer no judgment, no hesitation. What a gift that is.

It is also understandable that people who are suffering, whether from failed relationships, money woes, job frustrations or ill health often turn to the dog in their lives to find a source of non-complaining , non-judgemental companionship.

Another heart-warming experience is one wherein the elderly, confined to nursing homes (often without family or friends) are benefited by the visit of a full of love, furry, four-legged friend. The way they light up at the sight of these animals is a joy to behold.

 Studies abound telling of remarkable health recoveries people have made and attributed to benefits derived from their pets. One of the damaging side effects that occur with convalescence is loneliness that accompanies the recovery process. A companion pet can minimize that to great degree. A study has put the survival rate of heart attack patients who have a pet, at five times greater than those who don’t have a pet, That is an astounding statistic.

As we give medical science the credit it deserves for improving the quality of life for so many, let us not overlook the less heralded but widely recognized contributions of the noble pet in their power to positively affect the healing of people in their lives.

Table scraps, given in appropriate amounts, do have their place in your healthy dog food diet. However, there’s a big  difference between good quality leftovers and “scraps”.

Quality leftovers are pieces of steak (trimmed of fat), roast beef, chicken or turkey and adding this to your dog’s bowl is fine when done in moderation and do not exceed 10% of the pet’s normal feeding, In addition leftover pasta and rice is good, so long as they are minus butter and other fatty sauces, and are plainly cooked.

Don’t overfeed table-scraps on a continuous basis. Doing so will expose your pet to a diet loaded with fat and you’ll end up with a pet prone to stomach upsets, diarrhea and other potentially serious gastrointestinal disorders such as life-threatening pancreatitis.

Even if your dog’s digestive tract can handle a diet full of table scraps, the chances of him or her gaining weight will increase enormously in proportion to the amount of scraps you’re feeding. There are many people who claim that table scraps are not good for your pet, but much human food is perfectly acceptable for dogs.   The trick is research!.

Forget, for example, about serving your dog the leftover macaroni and cheese, even though pasta is OK and the cheese is low fat. Dogs do not have the needed lactase to break up the lactose and the result can be diarrhea.

Turkey, chicken, steak, or any other kind of cooked bones are no-nos, because they can splinter and pierce or obstruct the dog’s digestive tract.. Bones can also cut the roof of the mouth.
Leftover stew is OK, as long as you remove the onions, and if your family loves sushi, Fido will have to “pass” raw fish that can create a thiamine deficiency in dogs. As a result the dog will suffer from seizures and possibly death.

Easily digestible foods such as cooked rice or chicken and turkey (boneless) will be fine in dog food. Some fruits and vegetables are well received by dogs, though there are some types to avoid such as grapes. Feeding grapes to your dog may cause severe kidney damage. While some fruits are acceptable to feed your pet, avoid grapes at all times.

Fido, Buster, or Sport know all the moves when if comes to finagling you out of those scraps. Don’t let mealtime degenerate into a battle of wits. Know what are acceptable table scraps, and feed them in appropriate amounts, but never try to save money or avoid wasting food by making them the main ingredients of your pet’s healthy dog food.

You can never underestimate the importance of understanding the AAFCO cat and dog food nutrition standards and of knowing how to read  food labeling when choosing a commercial diet for your pet.
The AAFCO approves both low and high quality ingredients; but unless you know what’s in the commercial pet food your dogs and cats are eating, you might think everything is just fine.

There were problems with many of the lower quality dog foods and the ingredients used that have been brought to light in the early part of 2007. Speaking of problems with dog food will of course trigger the memory of the most recent devastating loss of canine and feline lives due to contaminated food.

Reports indicated the number of affected cats and dogs to be in the 39,000 mark across the country. Animals became extremely sick or died due to contamination of commercial pet foods with an industrial chemical (melamine), used to make plastics and fertilizers. This chemical was found in more than 100 brands of dog and cat food recalled in Canada and the USA in mid-March.

The major culprit was identified as rice protein concentrate (otherwise called rice gluten), NOT brown rice. In June, concerns were raised about reports of acetaminophen (Tylenol) being found in dog and cat food, followed by salmonella poisoning in others.

To cruise through the FDA site for information (some of which is dated by now due to the passage of time), here is their url: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.html

The second chemical found with the melamine was cyanuric acid! Deadly when combined. Both were found in the cat and dog food recall in March 2007. Cyanuric acid is commonly used to slow the breakdown of chlorine in swimming pools. It has NO place in healthy pet food!

It was speculated then and still believed today, that those two chemicals were used in dog food to increase the reported nitrogen content but the rice gluten contaminate with melamine was simply known as a “filler.” The recall of those contaminated pet foods has done nothing to stop the use of fillers in lower grade commercial.dog food.

Such pet food manufacturers keep their costs down by loading them with bulk, which has absolutely no nutritional value. Your pet’s food could contain one or more of a number of fillers, including, cereal by-products, cottonseed hulls, citrus pulp, peanut hulls, weeds, straw, corncobs and soy

You and I realize the value of taking herbal remedies to support healthy immune system function and to keep the liver functioning properly. We are aware of the role that antioxidants play in preventing age-related diseases. The diet of an animal in the wild would often include these antioxidants and herbs. But, they are mostly lacking in our dog food and wellness cat food.

Our four-footed family members deserve the best care that we can possibly provide for them. While living safely indoors with us protects them, it also limits their capability to take care of their own health, as they would do instinctively.

In the wild, they would seek out milk thistle, cat’s claw or echinacea when they were feeling unwell. These are not plants that we grow in our backyards as most people consider them to be weeds. You may notice after rainy periods when weeds begin to sprout, that your dog may nose among the weeds and chew on them. This is where our animals may find these natural cures for what ails them but this source falls far short of their requirements to maintain good health. 

Luckily, there are some supplement companies that realize the importance of our cat and dog food nutrition. They make dietary supplements for humans also, and follow the same safe manufacturing practices for pet supplements. These supplements are meant to make up for some of the short-comings in the diets of our animal friends.

C-Caps by Native Remedies, are among the best dietary supplements on the market. They were created specifically for dogs and cats. They contain no artificial ingredients and none of the artificial colors that are present in many pet foods and even in the nutritional supplements sold by major corporations.
The principle ingredients of C-Caps are:

Astragalus - an ancient herbal remedy, because of its possible use to treat cancer. It has been used to help maintain healthy blood sugar levels, increase vitality and improve appetite.

Mistletoe - a highly nutritious plant that animals would naturally eat in the wild. It is a popular herbal remedy in Europe, where it is used to treat circulatory problems, respiratory problems and cancer.

Echinacea - a well-known plant that supports normal blood pressure and stimulates the immune system.

Indian ginseng - a tonic herb that supports growth, strengthens the immune system and nourishes the blood.

Milk Thistle - used as a liver tonic for thousands of years. It has been recommended for cirrhosis, jaundice and hepatitis. Modern research has found that the plant contains a compound called silymarin, which is responsible for its beneficial effects.

Cat’s Claw - another plant that supports and maintains the immune system.

Remember, these ingredients do not suppress symptoms. They treat the causes of the symptoms. They support the body’s ability to fight disease.

Whether your animals are well and healthy or suffering from chronic health problems, C-Caps are a good investment

It’s difficult to resist feeding your pet scraps, but it’s more important to provide your pets with healthy dog food and natural cat food.
Feeding them good organic or natural food with all the nutrients they need can aid development, prevent obesity and ensure a good immune system. If you don’t maintain a healthy diet for your pet then this will only lead to poor health.

Some pet snacks and dog treats are specifically developed to reduce tarter and plaque build up. Cat and dog owners may still need to take their pets to the vet for regular dental checks, as cat and dog dental health can affect the overall health and well-being of your animals.

Active pets are healthy and happy pets - and maintaining a sensible exercise routine can help those pets with excess flab lose weight. Walking and running are great exercises for dogs and will increase flexibility and stamina.
In addition, fun toys can keep both cats and dogs entertained by turning exercise into quality playtime.

As the warm weather approaches, it’s important to be prepared for nature and its effect on the health of your pet. Warmer weather brings insects that could harm your pet or cause discomfort; therefore, be aware of bees and wasps, as a sting can be distressing to cats and dogs.
What’s more, flea infestations can affect both pets and your family, so remember to regularly treat your pet and home with a flea preventative.

In addition to showering your pet with love and affection, regular grooming can help your pet stay trim and healthy. Washing your pet will not only help reduce germs and prevent diseases, but it also ensures you are properly examining for potential problems that may cause pain and discomfort to them.

Pets can be allergic to certain ingredients in their food. With companies trying to keep costs down and substituting cheaper ingredients the probability that an allergy could be triggered for your dog or cat has probably increased.

Sometimes a food allergy can come from something besides their commercial pet food. There was a case where a dog was suffering from low energy, a chronic cough, and a yellow discharge from his nose. The holistic vet took the dog off commercial food and switched him to a natural dog food diet. The idea being to give the dog food it had never had before to make the allergy go away. The new diet worked but the dog was still having some problems. It turns out the owner was giving the dog its daily medication in a piece of cheese and the dog was allergic to cheese. Once the cheese was eliminated from the dogs diet, all the allergy symptoms disappeared.

Dogs and cats most common sign of an allergic reaction is itching and scratching. Any ingredient may cause allergies, with beef and soy protein causing the largest percentage of allergic reactions and treating allergies may take as long as two months. To help with the itching and scratching consider using a natural dog food or natural cat food product to reduce itching. Vets also recommend boosting your dog or cat’s immune system to help their bodies resist triggering an allergy. There are herbal remedies available for dog and cats to strengthen their immune system. Common ingredients are dandelion, yellow dock, burdock and goldenseal

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