Pets Need Wholesome Food Also
A Hassle Free Guide To Natural Homemade Pet Food — Totally 100% Free To Read
Promoting Natural and Holistic Health For Dogs and Cats Online Since 1994

Ask Jesse — Holistic Health For Dogs and Cats

Helping Others Help Their Pets With Love

Dogs and cats deserve a wholesome raw meat diet

Can I Give Calcium Citrate Instead of Ground Egg Shells?

I wanted to supplement my cat with calcium citrate instead of egg shells. I have read that without acid minerals are not bioavailable. What are your thoughts?

Jesse's Answer

When you feed a raw meat diet, a carnivore produces 15 times more hydrochloric acid in the stomach than us humans.

A carnivore produces a lot of acid to break down bones, skin, blood, digest meat, fur, feathers, etc... and this strong acid is what helps the carnivore extract the calcium from its diet. That's why, dogs and cats eating a commercial diet or cooked meat diet have poor calcium absorption because the cooked meat diets shut down the body's production of hydrochloric acid.

So I am not sure why someone would say that calcium citrate is better for our carnivore friends because that's just calcium... with egg shells, it's a whole food with all of its supportive minerals too. It's better for the body when it gets a whole team of nutrients rather than just an isolated nutrient. So in ground egg shells you also get magnesium, sodium, potassium, sulphur, etc plus amino acids.

Personally, I never give nor suggest giving a pure calcium supplement... it's better when it comes from a food source such as <-- eg -->ground egg shells. In nature, our carnivore friends get their calcium from blood. Blood is high in calcium because blood transports the calcium to the other parts of the body. But the meat we feed is drained of blood and thus we have to supplement the food with a calcium supplement. Contrary to popular belief, bones are not the natural source of calcium for our pets but rather the blood.

In nature, the carnivore doesn't always eat the bones. If you watch a lion eating a zebra, then you will notice that the lion leaves the bones and just eats the meat. The hyenas then come along and eat the bones. If a lion were to catch a baby gazelle though, then due to the size of the meal the lion would eat the bones too. A cat will eat the bones of a bird but if a cat caught a rabbit, the cat would leave the bones and just eat the meat. The arctic wolf will eat the arctic hare, bones and all, but if the artic wolf catches a musk oxen, the arctic wolf just eats the meat and leaves the bones.

So bones are not the natural source of calcium for our pets. However, people have become fixated on bones as the best source of calcium because everyone knows that bones contain calcium but bones also contain a high amount of phosphorus and that's a concern... meat is already high in phosphorus and low in calcium and thus feeding bones as the calcium source doesn't help balance the calcium to phosphorus ratio.

Blood is ideal source of calcium. But since blood is not available in supplement form, I use ground egg shells as an alternative and with great success too because ground egg shells are very high in calcium yet contain almost no phosphorus.

For a human, calcium citrate is okay while for a human, ground egg shells is not good because we humans don't produce enough hydrochloric acid in our stomachs to get the calcium from the ground egg shells.

Questions That Have Been Asked

Your Comments

Your Comments

 




Testimonials

What Others Have Said

To submit your testimonial, just send me .

The following are testimonials shown in random order. In addition to reading these testimonials, you may also want to read The Sick Pet Project.

Read more testimonials.

I Like Your Products – And The Bonuses Too!

2008-06-12

SharonHi Jesse, I am so delighted with your products. I really appreciate your sending the extra gift of the enzymes the past 2 orders. They are really good and I can see that they are extremely beneficial. Many thanks for making these products available. My dogs send you many wet kisses.

– Sharon

The Wonders of A Wholesome Meal!

2010-03-10

Hello everyone,

We are two Pomeranian brothers Dolce & Gabbana.

We were born on the 18th of November, 2009 in Malta, Europe (near the southern part of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea).

We have been struggling with allergies since we started eating at 4 weeks of age.

When our mother took us home for the first time she immediately realised that there was something wrong with us, Big possibility it was allergies. Mummy took us to the vet with no delay. Our vet changed our food, yet another garbage dry food perhaps even worse from what we where having. It was full of corn, maize, corn, maize. Mummy thought this food was more appropriate for chicken and not puppies. This food only made us feel worse with watery eyes, itchy skin and it just irritated much. So Mummy thought ok I will feed them what I believe is nutritional and healthy – nothing can beat natural food.

So mummy started cooking for us fresh cooked food – 2 parts meat and 1 part vegetables and some boiled apples, pears and raw bananas instead of vegetables for breakfast. Our skin and itching had improved in the first week but our eye irritations and watering got worse. To the vet again. This time the same brand food but a veterinary diet and still with corn plus some supplements such Omega 3, Omega 6, taurine, minerals and vitamins. Since Mummy did not know much about these sources she did not trust it and believed this was another commercial crap. She bought it and the food also but never gave it to us. Now Mummy came to the conclusion that we were allergic to wheat – so no treats, allergic to corn – so no commercial food. Mummy had to find what was harming us in her fresh food diet that she believed in so much.

Mummy began to believe that we had protein allergy. So our diet had been adjusted to boiled duck breast and sweet potatoes. At this point Mummy was worried sick about us and our health at this very crucial time while we are growing from babies to young boys. She was worried that we are going to be weak for the rest of our lives just because she did not know what was the proper food for us. She was feeling irresponsible that she had brought us to her without knowing how to take care of us properly. The love she gave us was not enough for our needs. She hesitated to go to the vet again as she felt that he was not understanding her when she explained natural food was her choice to feed us.

Meanwhile Mummy kept on searching on the internet for a remedy, day and night of course this was how she learned to detect our allergies to wheat, corn and also protein – from the internet. Mummy was worried sick, Saying to her self, but if I don’t feed them protein from meat what can I feed them to make them grow strong and healthy? Vegetables were not enough! Dogs are not vegetarians! It is against their nature. Mummy’s head was spinning now feeling down and sick of not eating herself. Spending nights not sleeping, staying on the internet searching for a remedy for our proper intake and praying to mighty God to help her find a solution to make us healthy and happy. On Friday night or early Saturday morning on March 5th, 2010, Mummy came across Pets Need Wholesome Food Also. She thought, here I am, this is the answer to my prayers!

Mummy kept reading till morning – her eyes filled with tears of joy. She knew this was it. Same diet as she was giving us, which she believed in so much except uncooked! So Mummy has found the key. At least, that was what she was hoping.

After she read and understood all which was very plain and easy for her to understand, she went to the freezer, got the fresh meat which she had bought and packed in portions the previous day for us. Mummy thought she would start off with chicken breast minced, although, there was a time that she was beginning to think that we where allergic to chicken meat but after she read the story of the The Sick Pet Project, it encouraged her to give it to us. She thought this is for sure more wholesome than the poor meal of 2 parts sweet potatoes and 1 part cooked duck breast which we have been eating for 3 days now.

So Mummy prepared the well blended vegetables which consisted of carrots and peas and defrosted the chicken mince by putting it in a plastic bag and soaking it in warm water: For this time she had learned not to use a microwave for our food. Than she broke some eggs, washed the shell and removed the white lining inside and also removed the parts which where printed with ink for date of consumption, then she crushed them as fine as possible by putting them in a plastic bag and crushed them further with the rolling pen several times. Unfortunately, in Malta we do not have a homeopathic veterinarian, let alone a place where to buy the homeopathic remedies for pets.

By now it was 6 o’clock in the morning. Mummy had realised that we where hearing her all the time so we were not sleeping in our playpen. While Mummy always gave us breakfast at around 7:30 AM or 8:00 AM, she could not wait to start giving us this wholesome meal and start us fresh on this what she called miraculous raw diet. We where so starving that we ate double the portion we normally eat. Mummy started crying and showered us with kisses and cuddles and telling us that now we were on the road to recovery, good health and happiness. We had a very nice sleep afterword and Mummy was very much concerned about our reaction to the new diet so she kept watching us constantly while we where sleeping like two little angels.

When we got up we where rather upset because it was our digestive system. Mummy thinks we needed some FloraZyme LP according to what she understood in her reading but unfortunately Mummy did not have any on hand, neither could she go buy it nor make it her self for us like she did the calcium. So Mummy decided to rub our tummy and stomach with warm hands after some time one of us went to the washroom on the nappy to get relieved, that was me Dolce, and immediately I started playing and running with my toys. Gabbana was still upset looking up at Mummy with mercy. He did urinate quit a few times, not only on the nappy but wherever. His urine was very clear like water. Meanwhile, five hours has passed and Gabbana had no sign of apatite.

This time we were not so keen on the food both of us. Not much of a nice taste like the food we are use to. So Mummy decided to mash some peanut butter in it because that is our favourite treat. We ate it all from Mummy’s hands, given with love.

My brother Gabbana still has not been relieved and he was sleeping again when Gabbana got up went to the nappy pad and got relieved. Seeing us happy playing and full of life was a great relief for Mummy! We have been fed 4 times a day as usual but much bigger amount, almost double of what we normally ate. Although we are very small, we still have managed to take big meals until this morning. I, Dolce, weigh 1.6 Kg and my brother Gabbana weighs 2.1 kg. Today is our fifth day on the wholesome meal raw diet. At our first meal of the day we ate the usual big meal and after some small pieces of pear and bananas. At our second meal we ate a little less and our third meal was less for Gabbana. Gabbana always seemed to be the strongest.

In these 5 days, we had become two complete different puppies – no excessive itching, no eye irritations and the rough hair patch on the lower part of our back and tail begin to get smoother. Mummy had helped it a little by messaging some olive oil on it too. It is unbelievable how much benefit we have had from the wholesome raw diet in just 5 days. We are already feeling and looking healthier – and much more playful, relaxed and obedient. And all this was not possible without the help and amazing educational information to our Mummy of how to feed and make wholesome meals for us (http://www.pet-grub.com/).

We have no words to thank you enough Jesse. You are a God sent gift to us and those like us. May God be with you and bless you always!

– Dolce & Gabanna


Dolce and Gabbana

What A Difference Your Diet Has Made!

2009-03-13

I just wanted to write and tell you what a difference this new diet has made in my dogs' over–all health. I am awe struck and I have only had them on it for about three weeks.

I have two Chihuahuas and a Sharpei mix. My Sharpei (Nelly) had skin problems or allergies, I think due to the dog food I was feeding her. I could run the sweeper three times a day and still have hair everywhere. I was seriously thinking of finding a new home for her. I work two jobs and have teenagers and not enough time to sweep constantly.

That's when I started searching for a new diet for the dogs. I came across this and started it right away. It doesn't really consume anymore of my time and I don't have to sweep everyday anymore! I just can't get over the difference in their coats. They are so shiny and healthy looking. Thank you so much Jesse!

I actually enjoy feeding time for them. They love it. Even the finicky Chihuahua! And another great part about this is that they don't poop near as much as they used to. I know that Nelly would go at least six times a day if not more. I have learned so much from your website. I have read a lot of books about feeding a raw diet and one would say do this and the other one say don't do that and back and forth but none of it worked out for us and none of it was as simple as this is!

I just can't thank you enough.

– Shani