Burns Holistic Nutrition
Working with Nature to Promote Pet Health
Principles of Burns Pet Health and Burns Holistic Nutrition
Nature Has Health-Promoting Power
The body has the power to maintain health and, when necessary, to heal itself.
Diet, like any healer, should obey the principle: Do no harm.
Pet Health Is Holistic
Your pet is a complex interaction of mind, body and character (or spirit) functioning in the environment (which can greatly influence all of the other aspects).
Pet Health Deals Primarily With Causes, Not
Symptoms
Symptoms express the body’s attempt to heal. We should always seek the
underlying cause of any symptom rather than simply suppress it.
Pet Health Means Empowering Pet Owners
Holistic practitioners should educate and motivate the pet owner to take responsibility
for the pet’s health by adopting healthy lifestyles, feeding good diets and providing a
good social environment.
Prevention Is Always Better than Cure
Burns Pet Health products are formulated to enable the body to function in a normal healthy way, complementing the well-being of every organ for the benefit of the animal as a whole.
Burns does this mainly by minimizing the accumulation of waste products in the body. When fed according to need, Burns helps maintain a natural balance within the body.
Burns is based on brown rice, a food long recognized as beneficial in the maintenance of health and well-being.
The main protein sources are chicken, lamb or fish — highly digestible compared to other proteins.
Sunflower oil and chicken oil provide essential fatty acids and seaweed provides an organic source of minerals.
One way of looking at Burns is through the collected wisdom of traditional Chinese medicine.
In this tradition, every food has an “up” side and a “down” side. For example, warming or
cooling qualities.
Good formulas include ingredients that moderate and balance the extremes of the other ingredients to create a food that is in a sense better than the sum of its parts.
In traditional Chinese medicine, hypoallergenic whole grain brown rice is neither warming nor cooling.
But if brown rice is the “star player,” it needs the entire team, including the energetics
of easily digestible proteins, beneficial fatty acids and the protective minerals in seaweed,
while chlorophyll from vegetables aids in the absorption of carbohydrates.
It is this combined, complementary approach to formulation that gives Burns Pet Health products the leading edge in terms of holistic nutrition.
Early Warning Symptoms of Nutritional Imbalance
The immune system is particularly vulnerable to nutritional imbalances and
tends to show symptoms much earlier than, say, problems of the joints or major
organs.
The following symptoms are among the easiest to recognize:
- Itchy Skin
- Eczema
- Hot Spots
- Hair Loss/ Shedding
- Waxy Ears
- Runny Eyes
- Tooth Tartar
- Bad Breath
- Chewing Feet
- Anal Gland Problems
- Digestive Upsets
- Body Odor
- Eating Grass
- Hyperactivity
- Loss of Energy
Symptoms such as these, when they persist, may indicate that waste or toxic matter has been accumulating in the body and that the immune system is attempting to get rid of it.
The important questions are, first, where does the toxic material come from, and second, how do we assist the body in ridding itself of the waste product and help it toward optimum health?
The answer to the first question — where does the toxic material come from — may involve, we believe, at least three factors related to diet: Too Much Food, Unhealthy or
Non-Optimal Ingredients, and Harmful Formulations and Additives — or combinations
of all three of these.
Too Much Food - in addition to the obvious problem of overfeeding total calories in relation to a pet’s activity level and metabolism, often means too much of certain types of food: too much protein — too much fat — too much sugar — too much salt — all potentially compounding the problem of sheer overfeeding.
Unhealthy or Non-Optimal Ingredients include derivatives and byproducts of animal origin, and even some derivatives of vegetable origin.
Soya for protein. Beet pulp for fiber. Wheat because it’s cheap. Sugar in the form of dextrose, fructose, sorghum, beet pulp and many other “hidden” sugars, all to make it taste good. Beef, pork, and dairy products.
Harmful Formulations and Additives include, potentially, over 8,000 non-food additives that government regulations still allow to be put into pet food. The most obvious of these are the chemical colorings, flavorings and preservatives.
The problem in a lot of cases starts before the food even arrives at the manufacturer; for example, many protein sources such as chicken and lamb may be preserved with chemicals prior to this stage.
Other examples of chemicals include the emulsifiers used to stabilize mixtures of water and oil to create a marketable appearance, such as “juicy chunks.”
What Is a Good Diet?
To assist the pet in reducing waste or toxic matter, we must make sure that the food is of high quality, easily digested and without added chemicals.
A good diets ingredients, fed in the correct quantities, hels the body and mind function
in a normal healthy way.
What Is a “Balanced” Diet?
Most pet food companies advertise their products as being ‘Complete and Balanced,‘ which in one sense is correct but in a deeper sense can be very misleading.
It may mean that the food contains all the vitamins and minerals required to sustain life. But this can be true without reference to quality or digestibility.
At Burns Pet Health we believe that balance is achieved when the body works in harmony and when what is consumed is utilized in the best possible way to achieve health and vitality.
This harmony can be termed 'metabolic balance', where every organ in the body functions at an optimum level for the benefit of the whole body. This state is the goal of Burns Holistic Nutrition.
Burns Pet Health foods are formulated to avoid excesses of protein, fat, salt and sugar and to be preserved naturally.
Young Pets, Older Pets, and the Miracles of Marketing
It has been well documented that higher levels of protein and fat are required for growth of young animals and that less is needed for older animals.
The pet food manufacturers have exploited this natural situation to the fullest. People seem surprised when we ask them, “What level of protein do you feed your children?”
We normally don’t worry about special or unique diets for our children, beyond infancy, yet the attention that this subject is given with regard to young pets strains belief.
Pet food marketers have succeeded in creating any number of niches for different formulations designed for pets of various ages.
This may give them a “hook” for advertising and promotion, but the value to the pet is not as clear.
But more is at stake here than just the silliness of marketing hype and the possible waste of money by consumers naturally anxious to do the best thing for their pets — and that is the possible harmful effects of overfeeding protein.
Pups are fed more food per body weight than adult dogs, and so tend to take in more protein.
Add to that the effect of “high-protein” diets for puppies and we see a potential for skeletal problems. High protein intake could force growth of the muscle beyond the capabilities of the skeletal system, putting strain on the joints.
We suspect a correlation between the advent of high-protein foods for growth and the rise in problems like hip dysplasia.
Burns by contrast is a moderate protein–level food. Because it is low in fat, simply add a little extra-virgin olive oil to the food to increase the fat intake for puppies.
Concerning special foods for older pets, again, we ask whether you buy “older people foods.” Of course not.
At this writing, my mother (Mrs. Burns) is in her 92nd year. She does her own shopping.
She doesn’t look for food for older people; she eats the same diet she has done most of her life, only she eats less.
Old age is normal, and eating less in old age is normal.
What is not normal are the many degenerative diseases which seem to accompany old age in our animals — diseases we might prevent if we paid more attention to the proper composition of our pet food and less attention to creating special marketing categories by age.
Protein and Ingredient Manipulation
We are sometimes asked why brown rice is the first ingredient listed in most of our foods, when other companies may list “chicken” or another protein as their first ingredient.
Setting aside for now the important question of how much protein our pets should have, we note that the prominence of protein in some other foods compared with Burns is, unfortunately, simply a matter of “ingredient manipulation.”
If manufacturers want to impress consumers with an ingredient list that leads off with “chicken,” for example, they can do this in two different ways that do not actually reflect the amount of chicken or increase the percentage of protein in the food.
One, they can diversify the grains in the food — for example, if chicken is 25%, use brown rice (20%), white rice (20%), oats (10%), corn (10%), corn gluten meal (10%), and so on.
Therefore none of the particular grains need be listed in front of chicken. Another common practice is to use a chicken slurry that may be up to 80% water, before the food is dried.
The manufacturer gets to count the water as “chicken” in the ingredient list, even though, in the end, the protein percentage will tell a different story.
At Burns, we refuse to get into the “ingredient manipulation game.”
“Holistic,” “Healthy,” “Natural” — How?
Burns attempts to bring reality to the overused terms Holistic, Healthy, and Natural.
Ultimately, what we can say to pet owners is that Burns Pet Health foods are products they can feed to their dog or cat and feel comfortable that it will promote health and
vitality and certainly ‘Do No Harm.’
All Burns products meet the following minimum standards:
- No Beef, Pork, Soy, Wheat or Dairy Products
- No Chemical Colors, Flavors or Preservatives
- Highly Digestible — Reduced Stool Volume
- No Canola Oil and No GMO Ingredients
- Suitable for adult dogs and cats of all ages
- Quality at an affordable cost
Quantities to Feed
In terms of nutritional needs, every single dog or cat is different.
A number of years ago someone explained to us that they had two collie pups, litter mates, both males. The owner had been feeding the exact same amount of food to both pups but one was losing weight and the other gaining weight.
“What should I do?” he asked.
The basic answer was simple: reduce the quantity of food for the one getting fat and
increase the quantity for the one getting thin.
The answer might seem obvious but it illustrated precisely how the energy requirement of each animal is different.
If a dog or cat does not eat all food presented at one go, the animal is proabbly getting too much to eat. Reduce the quantity until all is consumed and the pet is looking for more.
With “fussy eaters,” exercise discipline basically as you would with a child.
Think of how we deal with a child of, say, 4 years. We don’t sit them down at the table and present them with a bowl of broth and a bowl of ice cream and leave it to them to choose.
If your pet has been neutered, the nutritional requirement is significantly reduced; however, people tend to keep feeding the same quantity of food and the pet gets fat.
Similarly, the older pet has a reduced energy requirement; it does not require a different kind of food, it simply needs less.
The quantities outlined for feeding are only starting points and need to be adjusted up or
down depending on individual needs.
The level of exercise is another consideration and one which can vary considerably depending on climate and weather.
Feeding Guide
Weight of Dog / Daily Amount
2–11 lb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/4–1/2 cup
11–22 lb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/2–1 cup
22–44 lb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–1 3/4 cups
44–66 lb . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3/4–2 1/2 cups
66–110 lb . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1/2–3 1/2 cups
Weight of Cat / Daily Amount
2–6 lb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.5–1.1 oz
6–10 lb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1–2.0 oz
10–15 lb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.0–2.6 oz
Feeding amounts are measured by an 8 oz. kitchen measuring cup
Amounts may vary depending on age, exercise and other factors.
A supply of fresh clean water should always be available — preferably bottled or filtered water.
Do you have a pet health question?
From arthritis in dogs and cats to diabetes in dog and cats.
Ask us - Simply fill in and return our Pet Health Questionnaire and we'll get right back to you. When you fill out our questionnaire we'll send you some free samples of our food so you can 'try before you buy'.