09/10/2026
What is the GUT (micro)BIOME?
What is the COLONISATION of the Gut (micro)BIOME?
As breeders, we are on the very exciting journey of never-ending learning, and we learn something new with every litter.🐻🐾🤎
Earlier this year, I completed a most fascinating course for breeders about the gut microbiome and its colonisation - "Weaning For Life" - through Madcap University/Puppy Culture, conducted by Jane Lindquist.
This new field of fascinating knowledge has made breeding even more enjoyable and exciting and I wish, I had also known all this when I raised my four "human babies"!!!!👶👶👶👶
The following is only a tiny, tiny little speck of this most amazing topic "the GUT(micro)BIOME".
THE GUT BIOME:
The inside of our gut and a dog’s gut is a miniature universe, home to trillions of microscopic organisms. We call these organisms the MICROBIOTA. We host them and give them a place to live. In return, they help us digest food, regulate bodily processes, and protect us from diseases.
These friendly tenants form a living garden inside us that we call "OUR GUT (micro)BIOME". We cannot live without them as they help break down food. The gut (micro)biome is linked to a healthy immune system and trains our gut to recognise and distinguish between friendly flora that benefits us and intruders, pathogens that can make us sick.
It trains us to destroy intruders without hurting the good guys or ourselves......
The gut (micro)biome is an interplay between genetics, diet and environment.
THE COLONISATION OF THE GUT (micro)BIOME:
It all begins in the utero with the amniotic fluid. It continues as puppies nurse, ingesting the mother’s milk, skin cells and vaginal fluids in the whelping box. It finishes with the foods the breeder introduces in those first weeks of life.
Puppies are born with little in their gut (micro)biome. The first food a puppy eats, significantly affect how the gut (micro)biome is colonised. The makeup of a dog’s gut (micro)biome plays a vital role for its long-term health and lifespan.
Gradually introducing a wide variety of whole foods, including fermented foods, probiotics and prebiotics to feed the probiotics, is crucial in building up the puppy's intestinal health and gut (micro)biome.
A healthy gut (micro)biome, by its sheer abundance, will then outcompete any pathogens that enter our gut.
During a Gut Biome seminar, a vet recently said, that the most valuable gift a breeder can offer new puppy owners is a puppy with a healthy, well-colonised gut (micro)biome!
🐻🐾❤️
The puppies in the following pictures are lapping double fermented blueberry Kefir and are loving it! 😋😋😋
