Animals take good care of us. They give support and according to many unconditional love. Working with animals gives relaxation and satisfaction. And the best part is that they remain themselves.
Conversely, taking good care of an animal is not so easy. Eating, playing, resting, moving ... an animal does it in its own way. Unfortunately, despite good intentions, their needs are often insufficiently understood. With 33.4 million companion animals and 450,000 horses in the Netherlands, this simply causes too many problems.
Animal welfare is a logical sum of good housing, the necessary exercise space, medical knowledge, natural behavior and good nutrition. But what is good feed? Is it feed that meets the legal standards? With natural ingredients? Varied? Fresh? Enriched with minerals or vitamins? The opinions on this matter are, as always, quite diverse and often symptoms are addressed without looking at the big picture.
This is the reason why Metazoa was created. During the breeding of exotic animals, health and behavioral problems in alpacas, kangaroos and emus improved and disappeared by identifying causes and adjusting rations. The right feed was not for sale and founder Marc Jansen became fascinated by what was possible with animal nutrition. Thirty years on we know from experience that nutrition is the key in 90% of cases. Even zoos know where to find us for advice. Our vision is based on two fundamental principles:

1. The origin of an animal

To understand what animals need, you must be able to oversee the evolutionary journey. From the first life to the emergence of the species and then how a species has evolved genetically and physiologically over millions of years. We look at how the animal got food. Whether it lived in groups or solitary. Whether it was a hunter or a prey animal and how it defended itself against danger.

2. Our animal is modern
Some animals are still close to their ancestors, others have meanwhile adapted considerably genetically. In addition, a domestic or stable animal has a different lifestyle than its ancestor, with consequences for its energy needs. There are nutrients that it needs less of, or more of, and there are substances that are unnecessary or even harmful and that many animals unfortunately do ingest in practice.

Concretely, Metazoa produces feed and supplements, but we prefer to talk about the right feeding plan. To put that together, we combine the knowledge of various scientific fields: evolutionary science, biology, physiology, biochemistry, physics, chemistry, psychology and of course food production. That knowledge teaches us when the metabolic chain is functioning optimally. How food is turned into fuel and which chemical elements are needed for that. We like to share this knowledge as comprehensibly as possible. So that everyone can feed their animals on the basis of a well thought-out plan. And that has an effect on the welfare of animals. Because a good nutritional balance promotes the self-healing mechanism and prevents many physical and mental problems in our animals. Now and in future generations