Digestive Enzyme supplements

Almost every type of raw food contains live, active, working enzymes.

These small molecules are actually proteins and they are essential to speed up chemical reactions throughout the entire body.

Every living cell in our body and our pet’s body contains living enzymes, essential for life and hugely responsible for health and longevity.

When we eat raw food containing live enzymes our entire body benefits. Food is digested more efficiently, more of the nutrients are absorbed into the blood and as a result our cells are able to better utilize these abundant nutrients for essential biological reactions.

Whilst enzymes are essential in the digestive process, when taken on an empty stomach they also:

Reduce inflammation
Digest bacteria
Improve coat condition
Increase mobility in older pets
Reduce problems in pregnancy
Improve immune function
Faster recovery from sickness
Beneficial after a course of antibiotics
Sometimes stop dogs from coprophagia (eating poop)
Promotes normal body weight without hunger cravings
Promotes respiratory health
Supports healthy teeth and gums
Reduces occasional bloating, gas, heartburn, and constipation
Promotes comfortable movement of joints
Helps maintain healthy cholesterol levels


Unfortunately, if a cat or dog is always given heavily processed commercial pet food there are no live enzymes to assist digestion and absorption. Any enzymes that may have originated in the raw ingredients are surely killed in the heating process. Some pet foods add enzyme supplements to their processed and packaged foods, however it is highly debatable how beneficial they are.


If your cats and dogs do not have a raw diet, it's a great idea to add human grade digestive enzymes to the food.

My cats and dogs are all on a raw food diet and I regularly add a digestive enzyme supplement (which consists of bromelain, amylase and papaya) to their diet so that protein and carbohydrates are better broken down and utilized in the body. Older cats and dogs usually don't produce as many natural enzymes in the body as younger animals, so they benefit enormously.

The most popular plant based enzymes are bromelain and papaya.
They are both protein enzymes, very safe to use with cats and dogs and in the long term, very beneficial to the overall health of your pet. They can be added to a processed pet food diet or indeed to a raw food diet to ensure that all those fresh, live nutrients are absorbed into the blood.

The four digestive enzymes beneficial to cats and dogs are:

Protease to help with the digestion of protein
Lipase assists in the breaking down of fats and as a result better absorption
Amylase digests carbohydrates such as grains in the diet
Cellulase helps to break down the tough plant fibre found in fruit and vegetables.

Digestive enzymes are not expensive and are available in most pharmacies, health food shops and large supermarkets.

Be sure to buy some for your cat or dog and for you, they are a great addition to any diet.