Pet Supplements

Pet vitamins and supplements are made to sit next to your animal's daily food, not to replace it. In the UK they are sold as complementary feed, which means they support normal nutrition. A product that claims to treat an illness is a veterinary medicine and needs a licence, so you will not read that language on these pages. Owners feeding a complete kibble or wet food already cover the basic vitamins and minerals. Extra support makes more sense for raw or home-cooked bowls, for older animals, or for one clear concern such as a dull coat. This collection sits inside our wider range of dietary supplements, but every product here is formulated for animals rather than being a scaled-down human tablet.

The form decides whether it gets eaten

A good formula only works if your pet finishes it. That is why we look at the form first.

• Powders: mix into wet or raw food, flexible dosing by scoop.
• Oils, usually salmon or algae: pour over the meal, easy to dose with a pump, keep cool after opening.
• Soft chews: accepted like a treat by dogs that spit out tablets, but they add calories.
• Tablets and capsules: the most exact dose per kilogram, which helps with cats and small breeds.
• Pastes: useful when appetite is low, for example after an operation.

Whatever the form, dosing follows body weight. A 4 kg cat and a 40 kg Labrador take very different amounts of the same powder, so follow the feeding table rather than the size of the scoop.

Cats are not small dogs

Cats depend on taurine from their food and handle some plant ingredients differently, so species-specific products are worth keeping separate. Pet probiotic products also use strains selected for animals, which is one reason splitting a human capsule is a poor shortcut. Read the pack like a feed label: composition, additives per kilogram, and the feeding guide by weight. The amount per serving tells you more than the front of the tub.

How we choose the pet range

We judge three things: the form, the dose per kilogram of body weight, and whether the combination makes sense for the species. A joint powder with a token amount of glucosamine does not reach our shelf. Neither do broad multivitamins meant to sit on top of an already complete food, where extra vitamin A or D adds risk rather than value. We buy directly from the brands, so you get authentic products, our compliance team checks every label before it goes live, and we test products ourselves while independent labs spot-check batches. You can read how we select brands.

What to expect, honestly

Give a supplement time. Coat and skin follow the natural coat cycle, so allow several weeks of daily use before you judge an oil. Joint powders are usually reviewed after four to six weeks. Calming products belong alongside training, not instead of it. Small dogs and cats are the easiest to overdo, simply because the gap between a useful and an excessive amount is narrow. If your dog or cat takes medication, is pregnant or is under veterinary care, ask the vet first. That is not a formality: it stops you paying for nutrients the current diet already covers. Owners who want one product instead of three tubs often start with products from NOW Pet Health, while owners with one specific concern usually do better with a single-purpose oil or powder.