Taurine Powder
Of course this is not a herb but an amino acid one of the building blocks of proteins. It is the second most abundant in muscle meat after glutamine.100% pure Taurine Powder is a human-grade supplement which may be added to your pets diet to help with deficiencies. It is an essential amino acid for cats. And even dogs can be deficient in taurine in some circumstance though they can produce some in the body they may not produce enough for optimal health.
Our L-taurine powder does not contain any fillers or flavouring.
Taurine is an essential addition to your dog or cats diet for vegan or vegetarian diets, (which I do not recommend) restricted diets and promotes heart health.
Amino acids are essential for health and there are 22 amino acids present in the body which are the basic building blocks of protein. They are essential to the proper functioning of the body. Taurine is distributed throughout the body with high concentration in certain tissues including heart wall muscles, in the retina of the eye, and brain.
Taurine deficiency can cause blindness* (as in the cat food scandal in the US in the 1970s) deafness poor muscle development and heart disease in particular dilated cardiomyopathy.
Essential amino acids are a group of amino acids that cannot be synthesised in the body and must be obtained from the diet. This is especially true for cats and the reason most cat foods contain added taurine.
However, dogs may also be lacking in this amino acid if they are not eating enough fresh meat or eating cereal based diets such as processed foods. It is found in reasonable levels in raw meats in particular the small mammals which form the normal diet of cats but is damaged by cooking particularly the very high temperatures used in commercial pet food manufacture.
Some meats such as rabbit and lamb muscle meats have relatively low levels but the organ meats such as beef kidney and hearts contain larger amounts. This is one of the reasons we recommend feeding a variety of meats and adding organ meats to a raw food diet.
Most if not all commercial pet foods have added taurine after cooking but storage for long periods can reduce this and errors can occur. So for cats and dogs particularly those prone to heart disease it may be advisable to add taurine to the diet. It is not harmful to supplement and may be beneficial to both raw, home cooked and commercially fed pets.
TAURINE POWDER SUPPLEMENT FEEDING SUGGESTION:
25mg/kg bodyweight daily mixed into moist food.
(1/4 teaspoon = 1000mg taurine)
Cats/Small dogs: Very small pinch, approx 250mg
Med Dogs: 1/8 teaspoon, approx 500mg
Large Dogs: 1/3 teaspoon, approx 750mg
once a day or less often if the diet contain taurine
References further reading:
1. Ettinger et al 1970, Picon et al
2. Torres et al JAP&AN 87(9-10) 359
3. Fauscettti Job AVMA 223 (8) 1141
3. C Brady Feeding Dogs 2020
www.naturalpetcare.co.uk
https://dcmdogfood.com
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30543707/
https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/taurine-diet-and-heart-disease-in-dogs/
This last article discusses grain free dog foods and suggest the DCM problem may be more complicated than simple taurine deficiency
https://dcmdogfood.com
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30543707/
https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/taurine-diet-and-heart-disease-in-dogs/
This last article discusses grain free dog foods and suggest the DCM problem may be more complicated than simple taurine deficiency