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Esen's Zeolite as an Additive in Pet Food
When choosing food for their pets, owners consider how well it nourishes, satisfies their appetite, and affects stool characteristics.
That’s why pet food formulas are increasingly using additives that improve fecal score and odor while ensuring optimal nutrition. One standout is clinoptilolite zeolite, an aluminosilicate mineral known for its safety and benefits. It helps reduce fecal odor, enhance fecal score, boost nutrient digestibility, cut down on gas from food fermentation, and adsorb mycotoxins.
Properties:
The molecular structure of zeolite gives it a much larger internal surface than the external one, formed by cavities and interconnected channels in which compensating ions are present, such as Na +, Ca2 +, Mg2 +, K +, and because they are weakly bound to the structure, it can be replaced by others present in the solution.
Thus, zeolites can absorb certain ions from aqueous solutions, releasing those present in their structure, a phenomenon called cation exchange capacity (CTC), which in clinoptilolite-type zeolites is highly efficient. In addition, it has the property of absorbing excess water by slowing down the gastrointestinal tract, thus increasing the dry matter of the feces and improving the fecal score of the animals.
Applications
Zeolite is considered a technological additive due to its ability to reduce ammonium (NH4+), capture carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and excess water (H2O) produced during digestion or in the environment. It also acts as a binder, enhancing the extrusion process in pet food production.
Beyond these uses, zeolite has many potential benefits for dog and cat food, whether extruded or wet. Scientific studies suggest including 5 to 20 kg (0.5 to 2%) of zeolite per ton of food, based on research conducted in Brazil (FÉLIX et al., 2009; MAIA et al., 2010; ROQUE, 2009; SANTOS et al., 2011).
These studies also show that adding zeolite at these levels doesn’t affect the food’s palatability and can be safely used in extruded, wet, and natural pet foods without altering animals’ voluntary consumption.
Given its potential to enhance various aspects of pet food formulas aimed at optimal nutrition, here are additional reasons to consider including zeolite in your pet food products
Use in diets with ingredients rich in non-starch polysaccharides (NAP)
Ingredients such as soy bran, widely used in the manufacture of pet food, contain 20% ANP. Soluble ANP can reduce the digestibility of nutrients and energy in the diet, due to the increase in the viscosity of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and the reduction of the passage of food, making it difficult for digestive enzymes to access the food bolus and interfering with the diffusion and transport of nutrients.
To minimize the adverse effects of ANP on the fecal characteristics of dogs and cats,
adsorbent additives can be used, such as zeolites, which, when passing inert through the GIT, adsorb water and gases and reduce the elimination of ammonia, which improves the characteristics and odors in animal feces.
Use in high consumption diets
Even in oversupply situations, up to 50% more food consumption, the inclusion of 1.5% zeolite provided an increase in fecal score and dry matter, with better fecal consistency in fed dogs (Lowndes, 2014) .
For certain food categories, such as lactating females or athlete dogs, where food
consumption needs to be higher to meet a higher energy requirement, the inclusion of zeolite can be a great strategy to avoid bulkier and excessively wet stools, nitrogenous compounds and gases that influence the odor of feces.
Inclusion in commercial or natural wet foods
As high humidity is an inherent characteristic of wet food, adding zeolite to these products can influence less moist feces, since it has the ability to absorb water, increasing the dry matter of the feces, bringing the fecal score of the animals closer. that consume wet diets to that of those who eat dry diets. When thinking about the interrelation of zeolite with the digestive process of minerals, there was concern that the additive would sequester the essential mineral ions present in wet diets, since it is an aqueous solution. However, an investigation carried out with cats fed wet diets containing zeolite showed that at inclusion levels of 0.5%, 0.75% and 1% they do not have negative interference from the point of view of mineral nutrition of calcium,
phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, potassium, iron and manganese. (Santos et al., 2011).
Potential for application in innovative products
Zeolite’s mechanism of action is likely to be multifunctional. Different action properties were evidenced in the gastrointestinal tract of the animals, among them: ammonia binding effect, fecal elimination of p-cresol, digestive transit delay effect, increased activity of pancreatic enzymes and toxin sequestering effect. Therefore, there is a strong indication that zeolite has the ability to modulate the intestinal microbiota of dogs and cats and new studies are being developed.
