Health supplements for cats, as with everyone, is big business. Yet most people don't really understand much about them. They are just following what is currently fashionable or what is advised by their vets.

Before supplements were invented, everyone relied on a healthy diet. And this is really at the bottom of the problem.

If you feed your cat a healthy diet, which is species-specific, why would you need to add in supplements?

The commercial cat food industry DOES add in supplements because they know full well that their product is nutrient deficient.

And simply because of this, holistic veterinarians do the same. 

These supplements do not come from healthy food. They are synthesised in a laboratory, very often from petro-chemicals.

This is not food, where nutrition naturally comes from.

Whilst a chronically deficient patient can respond to these synthetic copycats of the real thing initially, long term use, as in a diet, can result in toxicity.

This toxicity can come from over exposure (ie too much which is not uncommon) and from a lack of the body to eliminate. This is obvious because the body doesn't recognise synthetic chemicals so it doesn't know what to do with them.

Often they are shuffled into fat tissue where they do least harm. Until they don't.

Diet is king. It really is the very first consideration for anyone's health, whether simply maintaining good health or restoring it.

When your cat is not well, the very first thing you need to look at is the diet, because this is likely to be the cause of the malady.

How can anyone be healthy when their diet is poor? Put the wrong fuel in your car and what happens? It's the same with food.

Commercial cat food is the dregs from the more lucrative human market. Most of the ingredients are inappropriate for cats. The 'raw material' is often stale or rotting as the same quality control for human food does not apply to cat food.

You may not be aware of the numerous recalls of pet food, but the vast majority is contaminated commercial brands.

In addition to the synthetic supplements, preservatives are added. They may not be listed in the ingredients, because they may come from another supplier.

Typically, these preservatives are highly toxic and are not allowed in human food.

Cats are far more sensitive than most humans. They are not able to deal with the high toxicity from commercial cat food. It does, sort of, keep the alive. But it doesn't keep the healthy. This is why cats have such short lives, now.

This applies across the board with highly processed food, whether you purchase from your vet, the supermarket, online, whatever price you pay.

In addition, cats are carnivores. They don't have the ability or necessity to digest plant based food. They are predators and hunt their food. 

A mouse, with the muscle meat, organ meat and bones, provide cats with all they need in the way of healthy food.

Nature doesn't worry about the taurine content, the B12, the omega 3, the balance of bone to meat. It's already in perfect balance in the species-specific diet.

All we have to do is to duplicate that, as close as possible, from the sources that are available to us.

Before you consider any health supplements for cats, consider the diet. It's much more efficient, much easier, much more economical.