There is a lot of mixed information available about the pros and cons of adding “human” food to your dog or cat's commercially prepared kibble. Kibble is balanced to provide a set amount of valuable nutrients for the overall well-being of your pet. However, kibble requires high-temperature processing for preservation, and oftentimes, a lot of the naturally occurring vitamins and minerals are lost. Almost all kibble has to have synthetic vitamins added to the recipe to ensure that the final cooked product meets the needs of the animals it is being fed to. This is fairly standard practice and one of the reasons we here at Viva Pets recommend a minimally processed raw, dehydrated or canned food diet for part or all of your animals' meals.  We do understand that kibble offers some amount of convenience and can sometimes be the more affordable option for the household. That does not mean that it is forbidden for you to add value to each of your pet's meals by including one or more of the following whole foods. Meal toppers act as variety, enticement for fussy eaters and are an excellent source of easily digestible, bioavailable nutrients.  Top 3 Things to Add to Your Pet’s Bowl Fruits and vegetables.   At home, you can add fruit and veggie trimmings that are a bit discoloured or bruised that would otherwise end up in the compost bin to your dog's dish. Fruits and veggies are a source of fibre, as well as vitamins (A, C, E, K, folate and other B vitamins) and minerals (potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, and phosphorus). Most cats will turn their noses up to these fibrous additions, as they are obligate carnivores and usually aren’t enticed by greens. This writer has one cat whose favourite treat is cantaloupe; he will actually bite it right off the rind, so I can’t say cats will NEVER eat their greens, they are just less likely.  My Favourite Household Additions : Tops off of strawberries, whole blueberries, carrot ends (or whole carrots, occasionally), minced kale, romaine or spinach, a few slices of your morning banana or melon, cucumber slices, broccoli ends.  My Favourite In-Store Addition: Green Juju Freeze-Dried Blends (Bailey’s Blend, Just Greens). Shelf-stable and easily sprinkled over a meal for all the benefits of fresh greens.  What To Avoid:   Onions, grapes, avocado pits and skins, moulding/brown bits.  Omega-rich fish.  An easy way to increase the amount of Omega 3 Fatty Acids in your pet's diet is by adding fish. This time of year, especially, our pets are likely dealing with the same itchy, dry skin we are that comes from extreme temperatures and constantly running our furnaces. Fatty acids in the diet can help relieve some of these symptoms.  My Favourite Household Addition:   Low-sodium and packed in water, whole sardines, gently steamed salmon, or trout.  My Favorite In-Store Addition:   Wiggly Babies Freeze Dried Rockfish; this brand sources Canadian, sustainably sourced rockfish from the west coast. The cuts of fish in each bag are quite large but easily broken down. This is one of my toothless-cat’s favourite treats; it crumbles down to fluffy flakes for her.  What To Avoid:   Fish that has been prepared in oil, butter or seasonings and excess fatty trimmings.  Protein-Dense meat.   More affordable kibble brands, especially those you would find at the grocery store or at Costco, use some amount of plant-based protein to account for the total percentage in a bag. Cats, being obligate carnivores, have almost zero ability to process and absorb plant-based protein, and it's also less digestible for dogs. More often than not, plant-based protein is contributing to large poops for you to clean up! Adding in cuts of animal-based protein to your pet's dish, when possible, can make a huge difference in overall health. If you have an animal who is predisposed to DCM (dilated cardiomyopathy), muscle and organ tissue is high in taurine, an essential amino acid that directly contributes to the health of organ (heart) function.  My Favourite Household Addition: Boiled and drained lean ground beef or chicken breast, fresh (raw or cooked) chicken hearts or livers, fresh (raw or cooked) beef liver, kidneys or heart, dehydrated beef heart jerky.   My Favorite In-Store Addition:   SMACK dehydrated meals, available in a range of proteins from chicken, pork, lamb and fish. Fully balanced recipes, synthetic free, Canadian made and a satisfying crunchy texture. This can be fed as a topper, a fully balanced meal or used as a high-value treat during training.  What To Avoid:   Meats prepared in oil, butter or seasonings, charred meat, cooked bones, fatty trim.

For many, this time of year is full of hustle and bustle, finishing up at work, spending weekends with family and friends, planning an extravagant feast (or two!) and there’s always the last minute gift shopping. For some reason this side of winter, the one that comes before December 31st, seems to have so much cheer. It makes the cold and the snow that much more bearable. Have you noticed, our animals also tend to get a bit more cuddly in the winter? Cats are more prone to curling up in our lap while we’re relaxing, dogs may try to sleep in a bit longer when they can. Or maybe you have a Husky or other Nordic breed and this is their best time of year! This time of year we naturally tend to gravitate towards more social settings; not everyone enjoys being outside and the lack of natural sunlight can be a bit gloomy. One of the best ways to counteract this is to get together with others, indulge in yummy foods and decorate our spaces with lots of lights and sparkles. Our animals don’t understand holidays, or why there may be a sudden change in weekend activities but that doesn’t mean that we can’t involve them in the festivities! What we do need to remember as the caretakers of our furry friends, is that they do not always have the same threshold for large groups of people that we do. They also don’t understand the health risks that come with chewing on all the shiny new “toys” decorating the house, or when to stop overeating those rich tasting foods. It’s our job to keep an eye on our animals' mental and physical health so that they can enjoy this time of year with us.  If your household is the type to give gifts during the holidays, you don’t have to exclude your pets but you do have to watch what you wrap these gifts in! New plush toys, stockings with individually wrapped chews, catnip toys, toys that squeak, rustle or jiggle all add to our animals excitement during the holidays and it’s fun to wrap these items up because, let's be honest, our animals love tearing up paper almost as much as they love getting to the item inside the paper! However, we don’t recommend using brightly colored, sparkly wrapping paper. The paper we are used to seeing in stores for our own gift wrapping can be tinted with harmful dyes, coated in microplastic glitter and because our animals use their mouths for 90% of opening their gifts, you are better off using repurposed brown paper bags from the grocery store. You can still dress these up with cute ribbons to keep with an esthetic, just make sure you remove any ribbons before giving the gifts to your animals to open, especially cats, who may chew off and swallow harmful pieces. The bonus of using brown paper bags is that you can purchase catnip spray and spritz the outside of the bag to further entice your cat (or even dog!) to tear into it. Another fun way to wrap small, loose treats is to tuck them into toilet paper or paper towel rolls. We have a reel to our instagram account showing you how we did this. If gift giving isn’t your thing, there are still fun activities you can involve your pets in. One of the most popular things to do in the month of December in Edmonton is to take a stroll down Candy Cane Lane. Bundling up and taking a warm drink to go for a walk and look at all the lights is always a great way to spend an evening. We know that our dogs are better adapted to dealing with the cold than we are; they're covered in fur coats! But not all fur is made equally and not all dogs are as protected from the elements. And even the thickest double coated dog can still get cold feet, and little chunks of ice built up between their toes. It’s always a good idea to consider outfitting your pup with a set of boots and maybe a winter jacket, depending on how thick his coat is. We know that some dogs can be uncomfortable wearing apparel, which is why it's a good idea to start when your animal is young, if you can. Trying items on in the comfort of the house and being patient with you pup as he adapts to the new weight on his feet while he wears boots the first few times can really save you some frustrations later on. It can be quite hard to dig those little chunks of ice out mid-walk!  We have included a couple of recipes that you can make for your pets this holiday season so that they can enjoy a tasty warm treat as well. While both recipes mention to be refrigerated for storage, both can be gently warmed up to be fed to our pets. Test the temperature by placing a small droplet on the inside of your wrist; if the heat stings a bit, cool it down a bit before feeding to your cat or dog. While it is recommended to stick with a well rounded and balanced diet day to day, there are foods that are perfectly safe to be fed to our pets during the holiday feasting, in small portions as treats. Lean cuts of mildly seasoned meat, steamed vegetables with no fats added, the last of the canned pumpkin that the Pumpkin Pie recipe didn’t need. These foods will not overload an animal's system with unnecessary carbohydrates or grease, and if fed in small amounts, will not lead to digest upset. As a safety precaution, I have to state, never feed your animals cooked bones. These can splinter and cause damage to the trachea, stomach and intestines. If you are ever interested in feeding bones to your animals for dental health, always feed raw and always feed the appropriate size for your animal. We can help you discover the best options in store, we all deserve holiday fun and safety with our pets ! The holidays are always a whirlwind and they are often gone as quickly as they come. We hope that everyone has an enjoyable season and that you are able to spoil your loved ones and your pets with the thing they truly want most; time with you.

As spring approaches, many dog owners notice their pets are suddenly scratching, shedding excessively, chewing their paws, and showing signs of red and irritated skin and ears. Some pet parents are seeing these types of symptoms year round, with a noticeable increase around spring time. Did you know that your pets can have food, seasonal, and environmental allergies just like you? If these symptoms are noticeable year round, then it’s almost a certainty that your dog is experiencing a food allergy or intolerance. If they only show these symptoms in the springtime, it can indicate a seasonal allergy trigger, or possibly a minor food allergy that is usually unnoticeable until it is paired with a seasonal flare up, and then all those symptoms start to manifest. The most common allergen culprits in pet food are corn, wheat (and many other grains), artificial colours and flavours, and chicken (Yes!Chicken!). Unfortunately the over usage of chicken protein in the commercial pet food industry, for the past 50 years, has led to an ever increasing intolerance to it! So what can you do about it? Here are a few simple suggestions to try, in order to alleviate all that scratching! Feed a high quality, grain free, chicken free food There are so many pet foods on the market, and so many commercials promising us the best ingredient quality. Unfortunately many commercial brands are made using extremely poor quality ingredients, and are a major contributor to the increasing number of allergy and immune issues affecting our pets. Making sure you feed a thoughtfully sourced food, with no grains, by-products, fillers, or artificial colours, is a great first step. A raw food diet is the easiest way to ensure you are removing the major potential allergens from your pets diet, as they are made of simple, limited ingredients, and available in a huge variety of proteins. Support your pets immune system Sometimes minor allergy issues can be overcome relatively easily by simply offering good immune support. There are several ways to do this, but we find the most effective ones are organic mushroom supplements, high quality (animal specific) probiotics, and in some cases bovine colostrum which provides all the components of ‘first milk’ which are loaded with antibodies and amino acids. Supplement to increase your pets nutrition intake It can be surprisingly simple to add extra nutrition value to your pets food! Products like raw goats milk, kefir, and bone broth make wonderful additions to a dry food diet, making it more digestible and palatable, as well as increasing the moisture content and nutrient levels! Including a digestive enzyme in your pets food can also help their bodies breakdown and absorb maximum amount of nutrients. Spirulina type supplements can fill in a lot of phytonutrient and B vitamin gaps. The dreaded itch can be conquered, and eliminated through appropriate nutrition, and at Viva Pets we are well equipped to help you make the changes to get on the right track!