Is your dog a picky eater? Does he/she need a certain nutrient, needs to eat more, or simply…is looking for a tasty, healthy treat? If so, meal toppers may serve as a benefit to your pet. Meal toppers are typically diet enhancers used to add nutrients to dogs’ meals. They are also designed to help animals eat more.  While at times they can be used in more serious situations (for instance, to control certain health conditions), they can still be used as a treat for all pets.  Keeping these facts in mind (as well as your dogs’ condition and health), it may prove useful to add meal toppers to your dog’s everyday diet.  Here, we list 5 reasons why we recommend adding meal toppers to your pets’ daily diet.  

1) They help hydrate your dogs’ food

Meal toppers are great for providing needed hydration that is not seen in most kibble. Oftentimes, meal toppers contain ingredients such as broth, goat milk, or even water! Because of this, they help provide necessary moisture and hydration to our pets. This hydration can prove essential! Providing additional hydration helps our pets remove waste from their systems, move good nutrients into their blood, and regulate their bowel movements. These benefits help our pets live in their prime, and truly thrive.  

2)  They enhance the taste of their food

Now, let me ask you this; Who doesn’t like food? I think we all do. But sometimes, our pets can be very picky, or have a condition that gives them a difficulty eating certain foods. To help pets in this scenario, meal toppers come to the rescue! Meal toppers are added to the top of the dog’s main course. They often consist of ingredients such as savory meats, tasty fruits, delicious vegetables, and many others! These kinds of ingredients help to enhance the taste of the original meal, helping dogs who are more selective eaters. The taste of their food can change drastically, and positively alter their health and food consumption. 

3) Meal toppers provide essential supplements to our pets’ food, improving their diet and quality of life

Like us, dogs obtain certain nutrients from their food, which include important supplements. Many meal toppers contain a variety of these supplements without adding unneeded carbohydrates or ingredients. Some examples of supplements that can be used in meal toppers include fish oil, glucosamine, and antioxidants. These supplements can help aid in digestion, improve the joints and ligaments, give a calming effect, slow allergies, help with skin and coat, and even help with the heart!  

4) They add probiotics into our pets diet

Probiotics are a very important part of an everyday diet, especially for our pets. They are used to help maintain the good bacteria in our system, which is a must for our pets. Our pets are often more susceptible to certain health conditions, which the use of probiotics can avoid or even dodge! They are often used as a supplement, and give many benefits. These benefits include boosting the immune system, avoiding certain infections and diseases, decreasing allergies, and aiding in constipation. They are also completely natural, which is good for dogs with certain allergies.  

5) They add a variety of good ingredients to the food 

Something that proves vital in our day to day diet is variety. This happens to be the case for our pets as well! Meal toppers add a variety of ingredients to our pets’ food, such as meat, vegetables, natural preservatives, and minerals.These ingredients not only end up making the food taste better, but also end up affecting our pets well being. Functioning similarly to supplements, a variety of ingredients can ultimately end up in aiding digestion, helping our pets grow big and strong. Meal toppers can also be anything, such as eggs, canned pumpkin, or a wet or dry dog food topper from the store! This variety of food can be used as a topper, making it easy to add to a dog's diet! Depending on your pet, wet toppers such as pumpkin, peanut butter, or meat, or dry ones such as frozen toppers or flavored dust flakes can be used.  Ultimately, meal toppers help our pets in many ways!  They allow our dogs to live in their prime, and help them maintain great health.  Of course, it is necessary to discuss this new decision with your veterinarian.  Overall, because of their amount of hydration, taste, supplements, probiotics, and variety, we believe that meal toppers are a beneficial and great thing to add to our pets meal. We can all agree that they are great for your pets, and that one day, your dog will thank you for this!  APFP