Vitamin C Information
When supplementing Vitamin C, we prefer a powder or a liquid supplement. Consider splitting the daily recommendation into three or four doses per day. We recommend splitting a meal or a snack into two portions and serving them at different times to accommodate giving your pet Vitamin C mixed into its food several times a day. By supplying more frequent doses, you ensure that your pet’s body is provided with Vitamin C for longer periods of time, enabling it to use as much as it possibly can. The doses below are for general maintenance. It’s fine to double these dosages during times of stress or for overcoming specific ailments.
Dosage Tip: Always start with a small amount of Vitamin C and slowly increase the dose every few days until you work your way up to the ideal amount. Adding too much Vitamin C all at once, before the body is used to it, may cause loose stools or an upset stomach.
Most cats don’t care much for the sour properties though, so you will have to artfully camouflage ascorbic acid in their favorite treats or mix it in with their food.
Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant and has many other important functions. Cats can make their own vitamin C, but in many cases it doesn’t seem to be enough to cope with the stresses of modern living. Avoid supplements that contain only ascorbic acid, which is usually synthetically produced. Use sodium ascorbate, calcium ascorbate or “Ester C” – they’re less likely to cause tummy upset. Vitamin C may be dosed to “bowel tolerance.” That is, you start off adding just a little Vitamin C (50-100 mg) to the food, and increase the dose very gradually until the animal develops diarrhea. At that point, you back off to the previous dosage amount that did not cause diarrhea, and stay with that dose. An individual pet’s tolerance may vary, depending on diet, time of year, and stresses such as changes in the home, pollution and exposure to radiation. In general, 100 mg per day is plenty for a cat.