N101 Blog » Cod Liver Oil

We all love our pets and want to make sure that they live long, healthy lives. Sadly, many of the pet products that are commonly sold on the market lack the full amount of nutrients that cats and dogs need to maintain proper health. One of the best things that we can do to help supplement these nutrients into our pet’s diet is to give them a daily dose of cod liver oil which is loaded with nutrients that are beneficial to pets.

What is Cod Liver Oil?

For hundreds of years people have used cod liver oil for it’s nutritional benefits to humans. In the past century, pet suppliers have also harnessed the power of this supplement to provide additional nutrition to pets after a man named Edward Mellanby performed research that found cod liver oil could be beneficial to pets with arthritis.

Cod liver oil is an oil that is retrieved from fish. The oil is loaded with vitamins A and D, and also contains omega-3 fatty acids that are not only excellent for pets with arthritis as Mellanby speculated, but also in other areas of pet health as well.

Pet Health Benefits of Cod Liver Oil

The nutritional value of cod liver oil helps to provide joint support which can indeed help as a treatment for pets that suffer from arthritis. However, supplementing cod liver oil into your pet’s diet from an early age can also prevent arthritis from occurring because it helps to keep joints loose and limber.

Cod liver oil is good for all pets, but should definitely be given to some breeds of dogs that are more prone to developing joint disorders as it can help to prevent the joint problems from occurring. It is also highly beneficial to both cats and dogs that are older and may be beginning to experience stiffness in their hips and legs after sleeping.

Working dogs can benefit from a cod liver oil supplement because it also helps to provide the dog with a natural energy booster. But be warned, older pets that have become more sedentary and lazy may suddenly start running around and acting young again thanks to the energy this supplement provides!

Finally, cod liver oil also helps to provide a healthy coat and skin for your pet. Many people do not realize it, but having a healthy coat and skin is important to your pets health because it prevents serious skin and coat conditions from occurring that can actually affect your pets overall health.

Purchasing Cod Liver Oil for Pets

When purchasing a cod liver oil supplement for your pets, look for a quality supplement that contains no additives and has been distilled to produce a pure oil, such as the Pet Cod Liver Oil from Nordic Naturals that is safe for use in both cats and dogs. Just a small dosage of the oil added to your pets food daily will provide them with the additional nutrients that they need and help to keep them healthy and strong for many years.

Cod liver oil is a nutritional supplement derived from the liver of cod fish, and it is chalked full of omega 3 fatty acids, as well as vitamins A, D, and E. Long ago the needs for such supplements were not necessary because people lived off of the land and actually ate whole foods that were extremely beneficial to the body. The meat they ate was usually wild, such as fish caught fresh from a river or some sort of red meat grazing free on a range. Now days, our food is full of preservatives, and so chemically altered that the goodness has long disappeared. We now eat for survival and filling, and we must supplement for health because our food is basically left worthless in this area.

Obviously, from the name you can tell that fish are considered the number one source of Omega fatty acids. However, in our modern society many people are steering clear of fish due to the mercury and pollutants that are thought to be in the meat. There are still hundreds of thousands of people that do eat fish, the problem is that these fish are raised on large commercial fish farms and lack the fatty acids, because of poor diets and over crowding. Fatty acids are completely essential to the body, yet they are not manufactured in our bodies, so we must eat them, to get them. It is estimated that 90-95% of the population is deficient, and this may be the explanation for our high numbers of disease and sickness.

So why not just take a fish oil supplement??

This is an easy question to answer, the difference between cod liver oil and regular fish oil are vitamins. Cod liver oil is a great source of vitamins A, D, and E while regular fish oil is not. You can think of cod liver oil as fish oil with benefits, and many people switch between regular fish oil in the summer and cod liver oil in the fall and winter. This switching is a great option for people who get plenty of sun exposure during the summer and not much in the winter. However, if you are restricted from the sunlight, for whatever reason, sticking to a cod liver oil supplement throughout the year is best.

Everyone can benefit from a daily cod liver oil supplement this is because, cod liver oil is one of those all around good for you supplements, that benefit everyone from your kids to your grandma and everybody in between. It so easy to take a supplement there is really no reason to not take one, most defiantly one that possesses as many health benefits as this!