Dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, pet birds, etc need Vitamin D

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A sampling from the web

• Rabbits Kept Indoors Could Be Vitamin D Deficient June 2014
• New Study Shows Dogs with Low Vitamin D Are At Risk For Cancer
• Vitamin D (Cholecalciferol) How Much Should My Pet Receive? lots of detail
• Vitamin-D Deficiency In Parrots
• Vitamin D: The Essential Nutrient Your Pet Bird is Likely Seriously Lacking Jan 2010
• The Importance of Sun to Parrots
  After an UVB light is added they eat better, will try new foods, sleep better, bite less, are less noisy, feathers look more iridescent and bright, sleep better, have an improved diet, display less hormonal behavior, act happier and less depressed
• DSM in Animal Nutrition & Health - Vitamn D - a huge amount of detail
• Vitamin D and Your Pet – Should you Have it Checked?
  " low levels of Vitamin D in dogs and cats may be associated with the following diseases: Heart Disease, Kidney Disease, Cancer, Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), Certain Infections"
  "Can I just supplement my dog or cat with extra Vitamin D instead of testing?" NO

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VitaminDWiki - Overview Veterinary and vitamin D contains

Veterinary category has 151 items

Animals need Vitamin D too

• Vitamin D is important for pregnancies (pigs as well as people)– Sept 2022
• Many Vitamin D similarities: people and cows - March 2022
• Several advanced-maternal-age problems reduced if given Vitamin D during pregnancy (mice in this case) – July 2021
• Poor immune system associated with low Vitamin D (dogs in this case) – June 2020
• Chicken bones, eggs, and activated vitamin D in eggs increased with 2 hours of daily UVB – Dec 2019
• Vitamin D in eggs increased 4X after UV lighting near legs was added – April 2019
• Hens with Vitamin D were better in at least 5 ways – RCT Aug 2018

Pets as well

• Critically ill dogs with good levels of vitamin D have much better outcomes (humans too) – March 2018
• Half of dogs now get cancer, it used to be just 1 percent (probably low Vitamin D)
• Dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, pet birds, etc need Vitamin D
• Dogs with Cancer have low vitamin D, same as humans – Sept 2017
• Companion animals (dog, cats) need vitamin D too – March 2016
• Hospitalized cats 8X more likely to die if low vitamin D (Vit. D helps humans too) – May 2015
• Rickets increasing in dogs

Farm Vets are paid when their "patients" are healthy,
   vs doctors who are paid only when "patients" become sick
Cows are routinely given 30 IU per kilogram (which would be 10,000 IU for a 150 lb person)
Same information is available on Cattle need 66 IU of vitamin D per pound
The US RDA of vitamin D for cows is 13 IU per kilogram (which would be 4,300 IU for a 150 lb 'cow')
Virtually all US farmers who raise livestock use feed that is supplemented with vitamin D
Merick Vet Manual supplement if not have UV or sunlight

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Be Aware

Be aware - Vets often give vitamin D recommendations as IU per pound of FEED, not per pound of BODY WEIGHT
Be aware - No consensus as to which animals can get Vitamin D thru their fur/feathers
Be aware - Many vets are concerned about dogs getting too much Vitamin D.
But recall that many doctors had also been concerned about humans getting > 2,000 IU of vitamin D