Critter Lick contains a researched, developed, and proven combination of all-natural ingredients that are valuable for the health of the game animals.

MINERALS  &  WILDLIFE

MINERALS:

Minerals are absolutely essential for all living organisms. Not only is everything in this world made up of mineral elements in its most basic form, but higher life forms like animals (wildlife) require minerals on an ongoing, continuous basis. As new cells are formed, minerals are required; as cells are repaired, minerals are required, and finally the cell dies and a new one takes its place. Each cell’s ongoing functions requires new minerals each day as our bodies do not store minerals other than those placed in our skeletal structure which are best not to deplete.

Mineral elements all play different roles in nature. Some minerals are in gaseous form like O (oxygen), N (nitrogen), H (hydrogen); other like P (phosphorus), K (potassium), Ca (calcium), Mg (magnesium), Mn (manganese), Fe (iron), Cu (copper), Zn (zinc) are solids. Some minerals function as building block elements that form structures like bones, tissues, muscles, veins and vessels, organs, hooves, horns, and hair; while other mineral elements run the enzymatic systems that sustain life, movement, intelligence, digestion, reproduction, immune system, respiratory and neurological systems, etc.

INTUITION:

Animals have an innate sense about mineral nutrition and what minerals they need. Given the opportunity, they will seek out those minerals. We often see areas of earth where animals literally eat the soil for needed minerals; this is Geophagia. Geology has placed minerals in very uneven quantities throughout our environment; minerals are not evenly distributed throughout all soil and different vegetation types take up very different minerals in varying ratios into their plant tissues. This is why you see a wide range of grazing habits for wildlife as they seek different compounds made up of primary and secondary plant metabolites based on the variant of mineral compounds.

Often over time, minerals are eroded, weathered, leached or simply depleted from native soils so the mineral deposits run out and/or the soils may no longer have scarce minerals for plants to take up and make compounds available to grazing animals. Animals or wildlife grazing those resources will have to find other deposits or vegetation to replace the missing minerals in their diets. Animals do not store minerals and ill health will follow if minerals remain lacking.

Animals, like humans, are born with a finite or limited supply of enzymes. Once these enzyme resources are used up, death occurs within a few days. An enzymes function is to catalyze or speed up a chemical reaction; an enzyme takes molecules of ions (separate elements) and converts them into compounds or products. Here’s an example; N (nitrogen) is a component of protein and we all need it to survive. Through a series of enzymatic reactions, nitrogen is combined with other elements like carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen which in combination become amino acids and further enzymatic reactions form proteins. Enzymes are the living and functioning side of matter (mineral elements and compounds that form blood, tissue, bone, muscle, veins, organs, etc.), but enzymes do not function strictly on their own. There are thousands of enzymes and millions of enzymatic reactions. Mineral trace elements are the primary ‘activators’ of enzyme functions. Without these vital trace mineral elements, enzymes may function very slowly or not at all. There are essential trace elements and beneficial trace elements; perhaps as many as 60 to 70 or more of these, some of which we have yet to learn their contribution to life.

VITAMINS:

Vitamins are also enzyme activators but in the organic form whereas trace elements are in the non-organic form. Vitamins, however, are secondary to minerals in enzymatic activation as vitamins do not naturally occur in nature (as elements do) but are compounds of elements made up through enzymatic reactions; so minerals must come first for vitamins to exist. There are groups and different types of vitamins; for example, there are eight B vitamins, none of which would exist without Co (cobalt) as it is a fundamental element in the formation of all B vitamins. There are fat soluble and water soluble vitamins; vitamin A, C, D, E, K, Biotin, Folic Acid, Pantothenic Acid all of which act as enzymatic activators to sustain living functions.

Often times the failing in mineral programs is that they contain too few mineral types in the formulations; formulators often focus on the essential elements as they are needed in higher quantities than some of the other elements. This is more often an oversight as each element requires the presence and assistance of as many as 15-35 or more of other elements to complete all the potential transformations necessary in the enzymatic chain of events to become complete and functional constituents or compounds necessary to sustain life. All mineral reactions are interrelated; no one minerals acts alone. It is the balance and full spectrum of elements (minerals) that provide the highest energy and nutrient forms for living organisms.

Here is a wonderful example of complexity in nature; plants form primary metabolites which are carbohydrates, proteins, lipids (fats and oils) and they also form plant secondary metabolites of which there are 4 groups. Alkaloids, Terpenoids, Phenolics and Sulfated Amino Acids. In the Terpenoid group alone there have been more than 22,000 identified with each terpene containing anywhere between 200 to 800 different constituents. This means that nature, in just one of the four groups of plant secondary metabolites, has assembled some five million to over seventeen million different arrangements of molecules and compounds that all contribute to living functions. None of this would be possible without all the elements of nature being present and functional. Animal physiology is very similar to plant physiology in that both animals and plants can take up elements, minerals, and compounds then through their DNA coding produce the essential compounds that ensure life to its best potential. Through the enzymatic processes animals are capable of producing the same volumes and types of compounds required to sustain their lives.

With the proper trace mineral elements, the catalytic reactions involving enzymes occur many thousand or even millions of times faster. Here’s another example; we all breathe air or O2, during cellular respiration hydrogen peroxide is created. The enzyme catalase peroxisome breakdown of hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen can occur 600,000 times a second when it is present and functioning compared with too little if any in the absence of this enzyme and required mineral activators. Hydrogen Peroxide is toxic to cells and must be quickly converted to avoid cellular damage.

Enzymes and minerals drive every single life function; we could not take a single breath, think or process a single thought, move a muscle, blink an eye, or feel an emotion without them. Each living system provides its own enzymes but it requires minerals from outside sources for those enzymes to function properly. This is why animals constantly seek minerals. They innately know their life systems are totally dependant upon mineral nutrients to run the enzymatic functions that allow them to grow, maintain health, reproduce, digest food, and create energy for flight or fight and much more.

CONCLUSION:

Minerals activate and speed up the chemical enzymatic reactions of the metabolic, digestive, and food enzymes that sustain all life. Minerals are the structural components that form the physical characteristics of each species. Minerals become the replacement and repairing compounds – organized by different enzymes – to sustain that physiological structure; and without minerals, none of it would function properly and life could not be sustained.

Animals (wildlife) are very wise at conserving energy; they will seek the most plentiful sources of minerals that are the easiest to obtain. Our blend of minerals contains as many as 80 or more of these naturally occurring elements in a well-balanced blend. Animals are very perceptive to wellness and health and they seek those minerals that sustain it. While there are other mineral products on the market, ours is an exceptionally good one; watch the animals, they will tell you which product they prefer.