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Recipe: Home-cooking For Your Senior Pet

Easy Recipes For Pets 4 min read
Cooking for senior pet

Cooking for Senior Pet

As pets age, their nutritional requirements often change. It is important to adjust your older pet’s diet accordingly to keep them healthy in their senior years. Here are some things to keep in mind when choosing the right diet for your senior pet.

Calories

What do we know about most senior pets? In general, their activity is often decreased and they’re slowing down. This means the fat content of their diet should be adjusted to keep them from gaining too much weight. Extra pounds on a senior pet can be very tough on their joints. Increasing fiber will help your senior pet to feel fuller and encourage healthy digestion.

Protein

When one thinks about older pets what’s another body change that comes to mind? Many senior pets will begin to lose muscle mass. Increasing your older pet’s protein levels can help to slow this deterioration of the muscles. It is important to consider any underlying health conditions, so ask your vet if an increase in protein is right for your pet.

Antioxidants

Antioxidants are compounds that help the body combat the natural oxidation, or aging, of all the cells in the body.

You’ve probably heard of antioxidants and their benefits, but what exactly does this mean? In short, antioxidants help the body combat the natural oxidation, or aging, of all the cells in the body. This includes everything from deteriorating joints, weakening muscles, loss of hearing and vision, and many more aspects of natural aging.  Antioxidants can be naturally found in some vitamins such as vitamin C. Some foods which are high in antioxidants include blueberries, cucumber, oranges, and turkey. Supplements such as NHV Turmeric also contain high levels of antioxidants which help to slow cell damage and brain aging.

Antioxidants also help to support the immune system. So, why is this important?  Because, as with humans, when aging the immune system can become weaker, making senior pets more susceptible to infections and diseases. Along with antioxidants, NHV Stimmune and Natures Immuno can help to provide support to an aging immune system.

Tryptophan

You know that feeling you get after you’ve eaten a big meal? You’re happy and tired and just want to relax. This may be due to tryptophan. Tryptophan is a natural amino acid found in many foods like oats, egg whites, Atlantic cod, and sunflower seeds. Many believe that turkey contains higher levels of tryptophan, however, its levels are similar to those found in other meats. Tryptophan can help to improve your senior pet’s overall mood. It can help them to feel calm and improve their sleep, which is very important for keeping them healthy. NHV Matricalm can also help to keep your senior pet calm and help them rest and sleep better, helping their immune system and helping to slow the aging process.

Don’t forget, in addition to a wholesome and healthy diet, give your pet large daily doses of care and attention. Love and happiness go a long way to keeping your pet young at heart!

Recipe for Senior Pet

Here is a simple recipe you can prepare for your senior pet. Please keep in mind this is a recipe for overall healthy seniors and should be adjusted if your pet has any health conditions. For a customized recipe, Dr. Amanda can help!

Ingredients:

  • Whole or ground turkey
  • chicken liver
  • quinoa
  • sweet potato
  • pumpkin
  • blueberry
  • pear
  • carrots
  • Dicalcium phosphate
  • Brewer’s yeast
  • salt
  • Taurine (for cats)

There are a few essential additives that make this diet balanced.

  • Dicalcium phosphate supplements calcium and is a tartar control agent.
  • Brewers yeast, which contains essential B vitamins
  • Taurine, which is an amino acid required in the diet of cats. If you are preparing this recipe for a dog, you can safely omit the Taurine, however, it must be added if this diet is being fed to a cat.

This diet also requires NHV Multi Essentials for additional vitamin and mineral support and NHV Pet Omega 3 for essential fatty acids.

  • Start by cooking the turkey and liver. This can be done by baking, pan-searing, or even BBQ! Turkey should be cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 165 °F
  • Cook the quinoa according to the instructions and boil the sweet potato, pumpkin, peas, and carrots until they are soft. The blueberries don’t require cooking, but you can if you’d like.
  • Allow all the ingredients to cool and then combine them in a mixing bowl and mix them together well. You can then add in the dicalcium phosphate, brewers yeast, salt, and if you are preparing the diet for a cat, the taurine.

The amounts of each ingredient will vary based on the size of your pet.  See the chart below for a basic guide on how much of each ingredient to use for your pet. In order to calculate exact calorie requirements for your pet, you can visit here for cats and here for dogs. Each gram of this diet contains 2 kcal. If you have any difficulty please contact us, we’d be happy to help!

This diet can be prepared fresh daily, or you can prepare it in advance and freeze the portions. If you plan to make larger portions ahead of time, you should use a blender to mix the ingredients to distribute them evenly throughout the meal.  Make sure you only add the NHV supplements when you serve the food to your pet. In this diet, we recommend adding NHV Old Timer for joint support and NHV Turmeric for anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant support

With a healthy, wholesome diet, natural botanical supplements, and lots of love and care, your senior pet can live a happy, fulfilling life.

recipe chart

Happy Cooking!

Johanna RVT

Johanna RVT

Johanna is NHV’s in house Registered Veterinary Technician. Technicians are the veterinary equivalent of a human nurse. Johanna has over 10 years of experience in different types of veterinary clinics and hospitals. She has seen and assisted in the treatment of a variety of medical conditions and injuries. She will share her experiences in her monthly blog series “Vet Tech Rounds” to help our extended NHV family learn about common preventable medical cases and other interesting stories of vet clinic life.

Published: August 10, 2018

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