Something has been bugging Rose recently… (Rant alert!)
Instagram is great for inspiration and ideas. However, with all those beautifully prepared bowls of raw food, it can look quite scary. There is also the tendency to start trends that run with little thought or science behind them.
One such recent trend is adding supplements to a bowl. Whilst some may be helpful, we wonder how much thought and research really goes into them. Only yesterday we saw a bowl of what looked like nicely balanced raw food having 15 supplements added to it. Yes, 15!! This was for a young dog that has no apparent health issues. (See later for more comments on one of these.)
It seems if a bowl doesn’t have several colourful 'somethings' sprinkled on it, it’s not Insta' worthy.
This is questionable on a few counts…
Firstly, these bowls can put people off raw feeding, believing it needs to look perfect (it doesn’t) and have lots added to it to make it healthy (it doesn’t). It’s not complicated. There are many ‘open and feed’ raw options out there.
Secondly, we always say 'feed the dog in front of you.' Do your research if you have a reason to think that a supplement may be beneficial to your dog. Don’t add it ‘just because’…
We recently offered Four Leaf Rover soil-based probiotics to Mollie our Rottweiler, after she had antibiotics. And when Taz our mini Schnauzer was still with us, he had Proflax Liver Love as his liver enzymes were way out of whack. Both were good evidence based choices the dogs needed at that time. (Note we said offered. We believe in most cases, a dog knows what is good for them. So, any additions are offered separately to their food to afford them choice whether to take them or not)
Which leads onto the third point. Many of these supplements if fed injudiciously, will be nothing more than a waste of your money. A pretty picture, but often an expensive, wasteful one.
One of the latest trends (and part of the 15 supplements mentioned earlier) is bee pollen.
Do you use it? Should we use it?
Claims are made of it being a superfood for humans and dogs alike, with multiple health benefits. However, have you stopped to think how all this bee pollen is produced for the ever-growing market?
Consider why a bee collects pollen. It is a vital source of protein for young developing bees within a hive. Without pollen a hive would fail. There is no way to harvest this pollen ethically, except in tiny amounts, without causing damage to bee and hive alike. If we take it for our use, bees will die and the hives will fail. This will have catastrophic consequences for the bee.
Are the supposed benefits worth risking the long-term sustainability of our world bee population and the crops they pollinate?
Bee pollen. Do you use it? Should you use it?
We think not.