Why Balanced Fats Are Critical to a Dog’s Health

More than any other nutrient, a dog becomes the fats she eats. Yet fats are often the least understood aspect of canine diets and consequently few dogs are fed a proper balance of fats.

Fortunately, improving the balance and types of fat that your dog eats is easy. It’s the best thing that you can do to improve the chances that your dog lives a long, healthy, happy life.

Fats are actually a broad category of nutrients, in the same way that minerals and vitamins are. To be healthy, your dog needs to consume the proper amounts and balance of each kind of fat, just like it needs to eat the proper amounts and balance of many minerals and vitamins.

The balance of fats that a dog consumes has a profound influence on the dog’s cell membranes, those semi-permeable layers that allow cells to receive nutrients and eliminate wastes. Because every cell in the body has a cell membrane made mostly of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, consuming the proper amounts of omega-6s and -3s has the potential to affect every organ system in the body.

A good dietary omega-6/-3 balance makes the cell membranes fluid, permeable, flexible and healthy. On the other hand, too much omega-6 (from chicken fat, corn oil, safflower oil, soy oil, canola oil, etc), makes the cell membranes, including those in the brain, brittle, sluggish and inefficient, so that the dog thinks and moves a little slower. Likewise, too much of an omega-3 fatty acid called DHA in the diet can make the cell membranes prone to oxidation, which leads to premature aging.

The fats that a dog consumes affect every cell in her body, especially the cells in her brain and eyes. The consumption of balanced fats is especially important to fetuses and puppies; for example, consumption of proper fats (and the avoidance of rancid fats) when young can reduce the incidence of eye problems when dogs are old.

(My next post talks about how to achieve a healthy balance of fats in your dog’s diet)

(Find more in my new book, Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet, Healthier Dog Food the ABC Way, Dogwise Publishing, 2009, www.seespotlivelonger.com.)

Jeannie

My two Goldens have been on a raw food diet since they were puppies and have gorgeous, shiny coats. However, one of them has some food allergies and I just began ordering buffalo from Darwin's Natural Pet Foods. I enjoy your articles but would appreciate it if you would explain what the proper ratio of Omega 3:Omega 6 is supposed to be and how much a 60lb. dog should receive. I'm afraid I'm giving them too many supplements.
Steve

The ratios of omega-3/omega-6 are from 1:2 to 1:6. How much depends on how active your dogs are. If your dogs are rather inactive, then the acceptable ranges of consumption are from 3.5 to 12 grams of LA (omega-6), 1 to 4 grams of ALA (omega-3), and 0.2 to 1 gram of DHA + EPA.

However, since Darwin already includes hempseed oil to the buffalo, you should not add LA or ALA. You should add a can of sardines in water no salt added per week for each dog for the DHA and EPA.

I suggest no other supplements.

A more detailed discussion with answers to other questions on balancing fats, can be found in my new book, Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet, Healthier Dog Food the ABC Way. You can purchase it at ww.seespotlivelonger.com or through dogwise.com