4 Pet Wellness Tools You Cannot Afford To Ignore

The word is officially out. Pet parents adore their pets - to the point that we call them family members - and we have money to spend. What else can explain the meteoric rise in profitability across the global pet industry? We want to say "I love you" to our companion animals. And we want to make sure they understand. With the ever-present interspecies language barrier in mind, we pull out our wallets yet again, putting our money where we wish our mouth could go, so to speak. But is it working? Does our pet really benefit from our financial choices on their behalf? Animal communicator Shannon Cutts shares what the pets want their people to know about what they truly want and need.

Many of my human and animal clients are wired to be highly sensitive like I am, which means we are all very, well, sensitive to the delicacy required for such conversations to remain productive. And while I always do lead with a disclaimer that animal communication is not ever meant to serve as a substitute or replacement for professional veterinary care, this doesn't mean I am off the hook to share the animal's perspective of it all.

Since I do talk with so many dogs and cats and birds and equines and reptiles who consistently highlight certain key unmet needs, I want to review these here on the blog as well. Of course, always run any changes you want to make by your veterinarian first. But also listen to your gut - your intuition - and be open to listening to your animal as well.

So here we go - these are the four pet wellness tips your pet truly cannot live their best life without.

1. Your pet needs a fresh food pet diet.

Yes I know. Your pet loves their kibble. Or their pellets. Or their flakes. Or whatever commercial pet food you've been feeding your dog or cat or bird or tortoise for weeks or months or years.

But consider this interesting question. If your pet was a wild animal, what would they be eating? And here's another interesting question. Have you ever looked at your own dinner, with its myriad of colors and flavors and the warmth and texture of it all, and then looked at your pet's dish of dried pebbles and felt kind of....bad for them? Like, life is really too short to eat like that.

Well, your pet agrees with you. What's more, I'm betting you already know this.

Sure, the kibble tastes good. So do corn chips. Both are cooked at very high temperatures. Both are surefire party hits. But to eat them every day? Your body won't thank you for it. Luckily, you have a choice. Your pet doesn't....or at least didn't up until now.

There are so so so many alternatives to commercial pet foods. Switching foods needs to be done slowly and carefully over time. Your animal may be resistant or fearful at first - just as you might be if somebody suddenly yanked your comfort food away and replaced it with something you didn't recognize.

But it can and should be done. And animal communication (along with close veterinary supervision) can be a huge help to make sure your animal love understands what is happening and why it is happening.

If you have a dog or cat, I encourage you to follow Dr. Judy Morgan who has both the academic veterinary background and boots-on-the-ground expertise to convince you to leave processed commercial pet foods behind in favor of a fresh food diet. The Best Bird Food is a great resource for fresh avian diet choices. The reptiles category is a bit broad to tackle in a paragraph so I encourage you to do your own research there.

Takeaway: your pet's body is alive and it needs living food to work as it should.

2. Your pet needs plenty of fresh water.

When I started communicating with animals, I was genuinely surprised at how many pets who had health issues were also reporting dehydration.

But it makes sense. When we want to clean something, what do we typically use? Water. What does the body need to move indwelling toxins out efficiently? Water. The lymphatic system works the same basic way regardless of species.

Here's the challenge when it comes to keeping pets hydrated. Not all species have evolved to routinely seek out a source of fresh water to drink. Many species in a wild setting would get most or all of their hydration from eating whole prey food (cats are a great example here).

Even worse, kibble and pellet-based commercial pet food diets do not do a good job of delivering hydration.

So how do you get water into an animal who isn't innately wired to understand the concept? Talking to them sure helps - animal communication offers a way to help explain it to them. But there is still no guarantee they will jump on board.

This is where I typically recommend spicing up the drinking water to increase motivation to drink. You can achieve this in any number of ways. Two favorites are to add appropriate liquid to the commercial pet food and turn it into more of a stew or soup. Another way is to naturally flavor the pet's drinking water with something your animal will want to taste - bone broth is a good one for dogs and cats.

It is also vital to research your pet's species and talk to your veterinary specialist to discover how and how much liquid is ideal and how their body is designed to intake it. But ensuring your pet stays hydrated in some form that works for them is essential to stay healthy and certainly to help your animal's body recover after injury or illness.

3. Your pet needs to explore their world.

Every single animal comes into their life with what you might call a life map or life plan. This is a general outline of what that animal wants to work on and experience or achieve in life.

This is true for human animals too, by the way.

And if you have read my blog post about soul families and soul contracts, you already know that animals choose their people. Chances are good you have a pre-existing soul contract with your pet and it is one of potentially mutual benefit.

All this to say, it is important to allow your pet to explore their world and what they are capable of. This can mean stepping outside your comfort zone, rearranging your daily or weekly schedule, rethinking how much and how you spend time together and even reframing what you see as "fun."

Most importantly, you may need to make a choice to be brave when it comes to allowing your animal to have new experiences, meet new friends, learn new skills, and do all of it imperfectly.

This moves you and your pet firmly away from the top-down human-first hierarchical viewpoint (obedient vs. disobedient) that has dominated all of interspecies life up until this point. When in doubt about a behavior or behavior change, always assume your pet has a reason. Then get curious about what that reason might be. This opens you and your animal up to a whole world of new experiences where equality and shared evolution truly becomes possible.

Psssstt.....need a little extra boost of inspiration for this one? Check out my FREE 30-day Intuitive Pet Parent Adventure! This experience is unlike anything else you will find. Activate your empathy channel and awaken your senses to life lived from your pet's perspective. The journey takes just minutes a day!

4. Your pet needs to say what they need to say.

Animal communication is well on its way to demystifying or "de-wooing" itself these days. Researchers are well underway in their academic explorations of how and why interspecies communication happens. Professionals tackling thorny issues of equitable land use and land management and conservationists struggling to support endangered species are quietly yet systematically making use of animal communicators' services.

Is there really any reason not to at least give animal communication the benefit of a doubt? Nearly every human animal I have ever met who doesn't "believe" in what I do has not yet been willing to even give it a try with their own pet.

And every single human animal I have ever met - or taught - or worked with - has had their mind changed through direct experience of interspecies conversation.

Given the chance, it proves itself. Given a chance, your pet will find a way to get through to you. Someone like me, an animal communicator, is really just a handy prop your pet can and will use to say what they need to say....to you.