Eggs as Pet Food?

To some, their pets are just as important as their kids, and are spoiled beyond belief. For others, food, water, and a nice place in the garage is sufficient for the household dog or cat. "Aaaaand your point is......?" 

Well, pets need to eat just like you and me; granted, anything pets would eat we would think twice about touching, but they would gladly eat any of our food, whether its good or bad for them. However, there are a few ingredients that both people and pets happen to like, and also are healthy options! One such "ingredient" is eggs! 

Since eggs (duck eggs in particular) are high in protein, vitamins, and fats, they can be great by themselves, or paired with just about anything! While this article isn't to go over all the benefits of eggs for you, it will go over some benefits of using eggs as a pet food supplements.

First, lets start with some of the problems with commercial pet food. 

Most dog food contains corn and some other grain byproducts as an energy and fat source. Remember that dogs are carnivores, which means that their primary source of food comes from other animals, not grain. Consequently, grain based dog food can lead to health problems, like itching/inflammation, as well as obesity. As farmers long ago discovered how grain could increase the size and performance of their animals, regardless if the animals were meant to eat grain or not, adverse effects were also noticed. In cattle, high grain amounts in the feed rations leads to acidosis (acidification of the blood), which can end up killing the cow if not counteracted with a sodium bicarbonate supplement. 

While grain based pet food does have some benefits, such as soft and shiny fur, what if it could be used a little less and have the difference made up with something that would benefit your dog or cat without any adverse effects? 

Since eggs have a high amount of good fats, those get translated into a soft and shiny coat on your dog/cat. And, in addition, a majority of the numerous vitamins found in eggs are located in these fats! Vitamins and minerals are essential to keeping everything from hair growth to skeletal functions working properly, and deficiencies in certain vitamins and minerals can significantly impact the body (pet and human alike) in negative ways. Eggs, as has been said numerous times in past articles, are one of the few complete food sources that have numerous levels of many different vitamins and minerals. While eggs are not vitamins in a concentrated form, they offer a moderate amount of vitamins, fats, and protein for roughly the same price, often less, than a bottle of vitamins would cost (not that those don't have their place too). 

Why does this matter for your pets? 

Well, one thing's for sure, vet bills are expensive. By feeding a slightly more expensive or high quality pet food, or supplementing with say, eggs, the chances that your pets will be visiting the vet for internal disorders or joint inflammation, ect... diminish significantly. Granted, even the healthiest of animals (or people) still have problems, that is just a consequence of living in this world. However, the frequency and severity of said problems decrease when a proper diet is implemented. 

My favorite example to illustrate this point would be a study I came across about the effects of a pure corn diet for turkeys versus a pure oat diet. Long story short, the turkeys fed oats outperformed (by a landslide) the corn fed turkeys. Why? Oats are high in protein, fiber, and minerals. Corn, on the other hand, is high in starch and gluten, with a smattering of minerals mixed in. From a farming perspective, feeding lots of corn might make sense because its cheap, but you also get cheap results, or negative results, in the case of this study. Applying this to the diet of a dog or cat, feeding them "stuff" they were (a) meant to eat, and (b) is nutritionally beneficial will ultimately win out in the long run when the cost(s) are stacked up, At the very least, if the costs were to even themselves out and be comparable, one side will create less headache and worry than the other, which means there is more time to do other things, and one thing's for certain, time can't be replaced. 

While this article promotes eggs and the benefits that it can have on your pets, they aren't the only food good for them! Of course, items like meat, bones, some vegetables (yes, wild dogs and cats do eat some quantities of vegetation for minerals and fiber), and some fruits can all be included under the umbrella of "pet food."