Dog Multivitamin Guidelines

There are several dog multivitamin products that are readily available in stores. However, each pet's nutritional requirements differ due to age, underlying illnesses and overall health. You thus need to work with your vet to determine your pet's dietary and vitamin requirements so that you administer the right vitamins to maintain optimal health. If your pet has an overdose of certain vitamins, it could lead to vitamin buildup in the body and cause toxicity. Contrary to this, if your dog doesn't get his recommended daily intake of vitamins and minerals, he stands a chance of developing various health concerns due to vitamin deficiencies. It's therefore important to maintain a balance and avoid supplementing your pet's diet with multivitamins if his daily nutritional requirements are met by food alone.

Vitamins Required by Dogs

Vitamins serve many purposes in the dog's body. They're essential for optimal growth, reproduction and metabolism. These vitamins are classified into two types: fat soluble vitamins and water soluble vitamins. Fat soluble vitamins like A, D, E and K are stored in the fat cells in the body. These vitamins should be carefully administered because they aren't easily excreted from the body. Water soluble vitamins like B, C, folic acid and biotin are also required in small amounts, but don't pose a risk of toxicity since they're easily eliminated. Before administering any multivitamins to your pet, you should conduct a vet check to rule out underlying health issues and bear in mind the daily dose of vitamins that's recommended for most healthy pets.

Guidelines

When it comes to fat soluble vitamins, dogs should have a daily intake of at least 2,225 IU of vitamin A, per pound of food consumed and 225 IU of vitamin D per pound of food consumed. Although vitamin K is synthesized by the body, dogs also require a minimum daily intake of 2 to 20 IU of vitamin E per day. Since these fat soluble vitamins are present in varying amounts in natural foods like vegetables, fish oil, nuts and dairy products, you need to exert caution when supplementing your dog's diet on a daily basis. Similar to vitamin K, vitamin E needn't be added to the dog's diet since it's synthesized by the pet's liver. Apart from these vitamins you should also be aware of the daily requirement of water soluble vitamins for dogs.

Guidelines for Administering Water Soluble Vitamins to Dogs

  • Vitamin B1- 0.01mg/lb
  • Vitamin B2- 0.05mg/lb
  • Vitamin B3- 0.12mg/lb
  • Vitamin B5- 0.1mg/lb
  • Vitamin B6- 0.01mg/lb
  • Vitamin B12- 0.00025 mg/lb
  • Folic Acid- 0.002mg/lb
  • Biotin- 0.001mg/lb

Choosing the Right Dog Multivitamin

Although every commercially available dog multivitamin consists of vitamins, minerals and fatty acids in varying quantities, you should make sure you purchase ones that are formulated with good quality ingredients. The nutritional requirements of dogs that are pregnant or lactating and elderly pets is different from those of healthy pets. You must bear all these factors in mind when selecting a multivitamin. A good product is one that's highly palatable and one that has all the essential vitamins and minerals in the correct ratio. Some commercially available multivitamin products include Super VitaChews, Pet-Tabs and Healthy Glucose Multivitamin.

Although most food products contain certain quantities of vitamins, they're usually destroyed during the cooking process. If you're feeding your pet a raw food or BARF diet, you may not need to supplement his diet with vitamins on a daily basis.

 

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