Our Ingredient Standards at LifeStages

We take great pride and care in how we select, source and test our ingredients for each of our supplements. We conduct extensive research on individual ingredients and develop formulas that work synergistically to deliver maximum potency. We are always on a quest to identify the best ingredients to help you maintain an optimum state of health.

Best Ingredients, Best Formulas, Best Results.

At LifeStages we live by the saying: Best ingredients, best formulas, best results. We believe that getting the best ingredients will make the best formulas, and ultimately, you’re going to get the best results.

How We Select Our Ingredients

Each of our supplement products are thoughtfully crafted. When we begin working on a new supplement, we make sure that we select ingredients that are at a clinically studied level. This ensures they have a physiological impact on your dog's body and that they are efficacious and successful in producing a desired or intended result.

With new formulas, we begin by talking about a health condition.  LifeStages’ team has over 150 years of combined experience in the natural product industry, including a biochemist, master herbalist, and pet nutritionist

Through a collaborative approach, they look at key ingredients to include, why the ingredients are chosen, what studies have been done on each ingredient, and where the ingredients have proven to be helpful in showing results.

Once we have identified our unique, synergistic formula and our biochemist has designed it, we then source our ingredients. We work with suppliers we have trusted relationships with and have worked with on other supplement products and begin sourcing the ingredients needed.

How We Source Our Ingredients

We source ingredients for each of our supplements at LifeStages from all over the world. Some of the ingredients we source are called branded ingredients due to either a patented process or having patented intellectual property regarding specific research and/or clinical trials for a given function.

When our product development team deems it more beneficial for the functionality of the formula, or more beneficial for the end result, to include branded ingredients on certain raw materials then we follow suit.

How We Test Our Ingredients

We test all incoming ingredients for identity, potency and purity (microbial, heavy metals, etc). Each ingredient is tested three times:

• when we receive it,
• throughout the manufacturing process,
• and again with the finished product.

LifeStages Botanist

Every single ingredient that we procure passes through our botanist. He takes a sample of every batch, identifies the active constituent, and takes a photo of each batch. With that sample he can identify if the quality of the ingredient is going to produce the effect of and is high in activity with the active constituents (chemicals that have a medicinal effect on the body).

He also looks for adulterants. Although most things that are adulterated are usually your vitamins and your minerals, not your herbs, we look for all of these things under the microscope to ensure a pure ingredient. (Adulteration: “to corrupt, debase, or make impure by the addition of a foreign or inferior substance or element; especially: to prepare for sale by replacing more valuable with less valuable or inert ingredients.”)