Why is Holistic Lifestyle the Best You can Give your Pets?
Of late, following a holistic lifestyle has become the buzzword for a healthy life. What is true for you holds true for your pets as well! Sadly most of us consider this option only when we reach a dead end concerning our pets’ health and by then sometimes…it’s too late.
Your pet is never going to demand a holistic lifestyle. It is you who has to take the initiative and learn about the ways to provide them with a holistic lifestyle, which they rightly deserve. That doesn’t mean you have to end up with a PhD in the field nor does it involve heavy expenditure. In fact you wouldn’t find a simpler and hassle free way to enjoy life with your pet.
Give them the Right Food
Nutrition plays an important role in healthy living and forms the base for a holistic lifestyle. You might insist that you had been feeding your pets with the best of ‘premium’ high dollar pet foods. Then why aren’t your pets healthier?
Unfortunately, these processed foods have made your beloved pets more prone to human-like diseases like cancer, diabetes, allergies etc. They have become lethargic, smell badly, have a dull coat…and exhibit all the other characteristics that are undesirable. And you keep wondering what is wrong with them, whereas the answer lies right in front of you.
These cans and bags of processed pet foods are full of byproducts, preservatives and other constituents, that are unsuitable for your pets.
Besides whatever little nutrition is available is also lost due to the way it is cooked – at high temperature and pressure. This kind of diet leads to severe depletion of both macronutrients and micronutrients in your pets and lays the foundation for chronic health disorders.
According to a paper published in the British Journal of Small Animal Practice, way back in 1995, processed pet foods suppresses their immune system and leads to liver, kidney, heart and other degenerative diseases.
We definitively want to avoid any of these medical conditions for our pets. So the next logical step would be to do away with processed pet foods.
A Healthy Diet…A Healthy Pet
The best healthy diet for your pet is a raw food diet. It might be inconvenient as well as repulsive, but then you do love your pet…don’t you?
You can begin by giving them (in case of dogs) a balanced diet of raw meat and bones and also include some variety like raw eggs, some vegetables, raw cheese, yogurt etc. You can supplement them with dietary enzymes, vitamins and minerals as deemed appropriate for your pets.
Here again you have to take care that you don’t overdo it. It’s better to evolve a feeding plan based on the nutritional requirements of your pet or still better would be to get professional guidance from your vet. The worst thing that can happen would be to let the pet suffer due to owner’s ignorance or carelessness.
Make them feel at Home…literally
Once their diet is taken care of, the next best thing you can give your pet is a stress free environment to live in. Ask yourself, if left on their own, where would they love to go? It is not difficult to guess. Obviously we wouldn’t send them back to their natural habitat. So the next best thing would be to recreate it.
Allow your pets to get the experience of running, playing, hunting in the kind of environments they have evolved. You won’t realize it, but these small aspects are crucial for your pets’ well being.
Some of you may find this a bit of asking for too much in our concrete jungle. If that is the case, at least avoid taking them to crowded places where they are bound to get nervous. Also it would be better to avoid polluted city roads especially amidst traffic.
At the same time it would be criminal to confine them inside flats. Take them to a nature trail at the outskirts of the city. They would love it. Just ensure that they have their daily exercise running, climbing, chasing, tumbling etc. They act as great stress relievers.
More than anything else, be there for them, as they are here for you…so give them the emotional belongingness. They would remain your beloved companions for a lifetime.
