3 Easy and Inexpensive Ways to Improve Your Pet’s Diet

We don’t know about you, but Homescape Pets is ready for fall! What is it about autumn that gets us so excited? Maybe it’s the much-needed cool-down in weather after a long, hot summer. Maybe it’s that the leaves change color, or how cozy it is to curl up with our companions over a good book and spiced tea. And, if we’re being honest, we’ve been thinking about a fall camping trip in the Colorado mountains since June!

Either way, we’re reflecting on the changing season and what it means to us, our animals, and yours. Fall seasons, in particular, remind us of bountiful harvests, delicious and natural foods that will nourish the body, mind, and spirit. Now is as good a time as any to ask yourself if your pet’s current diet is going the extra mile for his or her health. We can’t always rely on kibble, even the most expensive on the market. To complement the change in season, you can improve your pet’s diet in just 3 easy and inexpensive ways:

1. Meat Treats for Cats and Dogs

For the kitties in our audience, we’ve done our research and found that most veterinarians recommend canned food over kibble. Canned food offers more animal proteins, are lower in carbs, and much higher in water. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate—that goes for you and your kitty! While canned food is generally cheaper than kibble, there are even more inexpensive ways to improve your cat’s diet. Simply add these yummy ingredients as a supplement your cat’s meals:

• Cooked and unseasoned meat: Adding more protein to your cat’s diet can prove beneficial to your cat’s vision, heart, and reproductive system. In small amounts, cooked beef, chicken, turkey, and lean deli meats can be great for cats.
• Canned fish: As an occasional treat, try feeding your cat sardines, anchovies, and mackerel that are canned in water only. They are a great source of omega-3 fatty acids and are low in mercury.
• Hemp oil: This is a great essential fatty acid, loaded with healthy antioxidants, and works wonders for inflammation. In addition, it’s tasty! Drizzle a spoonful of Calming Relief Hemp and Turmeric Oil over your cat’s meal and you might just entice a finicky feline. 

We like to get creative in adding meat to our pups’ diets. Baked unseasoned fish skin will treat your pup’s cardiovascular health to more Omega-3s. The leftover turkey bones after Thanksgiving this year will make an excellent doggy broth! This goes for chicken and beef bones, as well. Simply simmer alone or with leftover unseasoned veggies for 3 to 4 hours and let cool. Don’t feed them the bones once they’ve been cooked! Unlike raw bones, the cooking process make bones of all kind brittle and prone shard. These bone shards can cause serious life threatening injuries from the throat to the digestive tract. 

2. Add Raw Vegetables and Fruits to Your Dog’s Diet

Now, let’s be realistic. A strictly raw diet isn’t always feasible. We know it takes space in your home, commitment, and serious research—all of which takes time and money we can’t always afford. 

That doesn’t mean you can’t introduce more raw food to your pet’s diet, especially when it comes to vegetables. There are probably veggies in your kitchen right now that will not only nourish your pet but reduce your own waste:

• Salad leftovers, as long as there’s no dressing
• Leftover veggies, or veggies before they’ve gone bad, blended up in a broth
• Unseasoned green beans
• Celery tops
• Carrots 
• Baked and unseasoned sweet potato skins

Pumpkin is also great for dogs! Our pups go wild when we roast and puree our leftover Halloween pumpkins. Pumpkins treat digestive and urinary health, promote weight loss… and they treat our taste buds, too! Speaking of fall favorites, apples are a tasty and healthy snack for your dog as well.

3. Eggs Mark the Spot, and That’s No Yolk!

Forgive us. We can’t always resist our egg puns. But seriously, you might not realize just how beneficial eggs are to dogs and cats. Eggs are not only dense with nutrients, but they are widely accessible and inexpensive. When feeding eggs to cats, you’ll still want to be mindful about moderation, but cooked and unseasoned eggs are easy to digest and will be a great boost to your cat’s diet. 

For dogs, you can feed raw eggs to their meal—even their egg shells—for an easy boost in protein and calcium. If that makes you nervous, cooked or boiled unseasoned eggs are still rich with nutrients like essential fatty and amino acids. Eggs might also help your pup’s upset stomach! But as with anything, we want to remind you of moderation. A regular diet of eggs, cooked or raw, can lead to biotin deficiency, impacting your companion’s digestion, metabolism, skin, and cell growth. Be sure to talk with your veterinarian first before adding in extra food to your pet’s regular diet.

Autumn is not only a season of change, but of gratitude. We at Homescape Pets are grateful for each moment shared with our loving companions, and that’s why we put your pets’ health first. Our Mussel Mobility supplement is formulated with 100% all-natural green lipped mussel and turmeric to help maintain healthy joint movement and alleviate mobility discomfort.

For an extra boost to your pets’ joints and comfort, we’ve introduced our Mussel Mobility Complete with CBDa. It’s our same great Mussel Mobility formula, enhanced with CBDa to help promote relaxation and recovery. This optimum blend provides the same great benefits of Mussel Mobility with the calming balance of CBD. This fall, there’ll be no stopping your companion from chasing those autumn leaves!