Prebiotics for Pets

Provided by IAMS

Did you know that 70 percent of your pet’s immune system is inside its digestive tract? To promote healthy digestion, you need to start with the inner health of your pet. Prebiotics can help with inner health by feeding the good bacteria in your pet’s digestive tract and helping support your pet’s ability to absorb nutrients into the body.

What are Prebiotics?

Prebiotics are a fiber that feed the good bacteria that live in your pet’s digestive tract. They can come in many forms: fructooligosaccharides (FOS), galactooligosaccharides (GOS), inulin and others. FOS is one of the more commonly used prebiotics in pet food.

What are the Benefits of Prebiotics? Why are They Important to My Pet’s Health?

Prebiotics help your pet stay healthy, inside and out. They promote nutrient absorption which can help with many of the following benefits:

• Healthy digestion
• A strong immune system
• Healthy skin and coat
• Heart health
• Strong bones

What good is eating healthy if your pet’s body does not get the benefit of all the nutrients packed into its food? Prebiotics are important because they help your pet’s body get the most out of what they are eating so they can be at their healthiest.

How Do Prebiotics Work?

There are two types of bacteria in your pet’s digestive tract — good bacteria and bad bacteria. Good bacteria helps break down food into nutrients that the body can absorb and use. They also break down prebiotics into specific nutrients that feed the lining of the digestive tract, improving its ability to absorb nutrients. And the better nutrient absorption your pet has, the more it can get out of food and the better its overall health can be. Bad bacteria, on the other hand, interferes with the absorption of nutrients by using those nutrients themselves or by crowding out good bacteria.

What is special about prebiotics is that they only feed the good bacteria; bad bacteria cannot use prebiotics. Therefore, by feeding the good bacteria and starving the bad bacteria, prebiotics help promote the health of your pet’s digestive tract and support your pet’s strong defenses.

A healthy outside starts with a healthy inside: the digestive tract with and without prebiotics.

Prebiotics and Probiotics — What’s the Difference?

While prebiotics are the fiber that feed the good bacteria, probiotics are also the good, living bacteria that can improve your pet’s inner health. By increasing the amount of good bacteria in your pet’s digestive tract, you're able to improve your pet’s total body health.

From digestive health to strong immune defenses to joint health, probiotics can provide many benefits depending on the type of live bacteria and its ability to help specific nutrients to be absorbed into your pet’s body. Prebiotics, when combined with probiotics, further optimize your pet’s defenses and digestive health, helping to improve the overall health of your pet.

Ask your veterinarian about prebiotics and how they can help promote strong defenses and healthy digestion.

For more information, please visit www.iams.com.