How can I improve my pet’s gut microbiome?
Improving your pet’s gut microbiome starts with what’s in their bowl. To encourage healthy digestion, focus on whole, natural foods and limit your pet’s exposure to preservatives, additives, pesticides, and harsh household chemicals. Heavily processed diets can feed bacteria that disrupt gut balance, while biologically appropriate foods support microbes that promote good health. If you can’t feed only minimally processed food, replacing just 25% of your pet’s current diet with fresh ingredients has been shown to have health benefits.
The way food is processed matters, too. Diets cooked at high temperatures, like kibble, often strip ingredients of their natural nutrients, requiring synthetic replacements that aren’t as easily absorbed by your pet’s body. Ultimately, the more processed, the harder it is for the gut to use and the less beneficial it will be for the microbes.
How does Smack Pet Food promote a healthy gut microbiome?
At Smack Pet Food, we believe in feeding pets the way nature intended. Here’s how our recipes are crafted to support gut health:
- Real, whole-food ingredients promote a more diverse gut microbiome.
- High-meat content helps fuel a healthy, balanced belly.
- Gentle dehydration process preserves beneficial bacteria and enzymes.
- Absolutely no fillers — including legumes, lentils, peas, soy, corn, wheat, gluten, and grain — or synthetic vitamins.
Smack is also the perfect base to accompany other meal additions rich in good bacteria, like prebiotics, probiotics, plant-based ingredients, bone broth, and fermented foods (unsweetened yogurt, kefir, goat milk, apple cider vinegar, etc).
- Baritugo, K., et al (2023). “Perspectives on functional foods for improvement of canine health and treatment of diseases.” Journal of Functional Foods. Volume 109.
- Bordenstein, S., and Theis, K (2015). “Host Biology in Light of the Microbiome: Ten Principles of Holobionts and Hologenomes.” PLOS Biology. Volume 13, Issue 8.
- Mondo, E., et al (2019). “Role of gut microbiota in dog and cat's health and diseases.” Open Veterinary Journal. Volume 9, Issue 3, 253-258.
- Rindels, J., and Loman, B (June 2024). “Gut microbiome: The key to our pets’ health and happiness?” Animal Frontiers. Volume 14, Issue 3, 46–53.
- Wernimont, S., et al (2020). “The Effects of Nutrition on the Gastrointestinal Microbiome of Cats and Dogs: Impact on Health and Disease.” Frontiers in Microbiology. Volume 11.
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