Improving coat quality

Switching to a higher grade of food will greatly help. Casey eats Blue Buffalo - found at petsmart. The high quality stuff is more expensive, but the bag will last you longer since you wont have to feed as much.

Fish oil can also improve a coat, along with eggs.

Agreed. A higher end food, with some fish oil and vit e will make a huge difference. Beneful looks good, and it sounds good, and the price makes it seem like it'd be a really good food. Flip over the bag, though, and you don't find the fresh meats and veggies that you'd think. You find ingredients like ground yellow corn, by products, food colorings, and sugars. Check out dogfoodproject.com for info on how to read dog food labels. 

I would switch from the Beneful right away.  That alone will most likely help.  I'd try something along the lines of Canidae or Innova. 

 

If after that the coat is still somewhat dull I'd start supplementing with Vitamin E or fish oil, but I wouldn't run out and spend money on those until you see what a new food will do.  I just recently switched to Taste Of The Wild and I cannot believe how good my dog's coat looks! 

Thanks for the replies. I never knew Beneful was a low quality food! My vet said it was perfectly fine, as did the breeder of my beagles,  and honestly I haven't thought it could be the culprit. I will need to do more research obviously and make the switch to something else. Thanks very much for the link! Can I supplement with fish oil and Vitamin E that is made for human consumption? I have both of these (they are liquid filled capsules) Would I just squeeze a few over a bowl of his Beneful until I switch to a new food?

Beejou

Thanks for the replies. I never knew Beneful was a low quality food! My vet said it was perfectly fine, as did the breeder of my beagles,  and honestly I haven't thought it could be the culprit. I will need to do more research obviously and make the switch to something else. Thanks very much for the link! Can I supplement with fish oil and Vitamin E that is made for human consumption? I have both of these (they are liquid filled capsules) Would I just squeeze a few over a bowl of his Beneful until I switch to a new food?

     I agree with everyone else here - Beneful is a very poor quality food due to the artificial coloring agents and sorbitol (sugar). It's also basically a very low meat, extravagantly high carb product - the equivalent of Kibbles N Bits. I would nix the Beneful immediately ... There are good quality foods that should be locally available, personally I use Purina ONE and have found it to be a good product for coat health.
     If I may make a suggestion, you mentioned you gave boiled eggs? Forget boiling them and give the yolks raw 2x weekly until you notice some improvement, then move them to a maintenance dose of one raw egg yolk a week. Do not give raw whites, as they contain the enzyme avadin, which will deplete certain B vitamins over time. Raw yolks are like taking a vitamin pill om steroids, lol. They contain a spectrum of nutrients, Vit E, Omega 3 fatty adics, highly digestable protein. Also, try adding some raw meat, especially ground beef, since the zinc and fats are excellent for improving coats. I do give mine fish oil on occasion, as well. I purchase human grade capsules with Vit E already added and just open the capsule and squeeze the oil onto their food :) Get rid of the Beneful first, because you'll just be wasting your $$$ using fish oil on junk food :(

     ETA: I completely forgot to mention - one of the best remedies for a poor coat (of course, along with proper diet) is a supplement called Fresh Factors!!! We recently used it on a bitch who came to us with horrendous skin/coat problems and it WORKS! Quite well. You can purcahse it from www.springtimeinc.com

 I second the yolk, and - uh - third or fourth the fish oil.  An easy way to get the raw yolk without the bother and mess of separating the white - drop the egg into a small pan with about an inch of boiling water in it.  Remove the pan immediately from the heat, let it cool, and pour the whole thing over the kibble - yummy!  Warm eggy water for the kibble (forget that expensive Iam's gravy), and the yolk will still be raw, while the white will be safely cooked - cooking neutralizes avidin.

Definitely use fish oil and E no matter what kibble you end up with.  There just isn't enough omega-3s in commercial food to provide vital EPA, which is the fatty acid needed most for good skin and coat health.  Good food will provide more, but your dog started out disadvantaged to begin with (before coming to you) and can use all the help you can provide.

Good luck! 

Thanks so much everyone for all the great info. When I feed the dogs tomorrow I am going to fix some eggs as Brookcove suggested. Can anyone tell me how often I should be using E and fish oil? I feed 2x daily and will do it every feeding if recommended but something tells me that might be too much. Really looking forward to finishing off the Beneful (I just bought 3 XL bags lastnight- D'oh!) and switching the gang over to something better. My other four have good coat quality but it will be interesting to see how it changes with an improved diet.

When I first got my aussie rescue she was in very poor shape. Itchy, dry, flaky skin, horrible fur, etc. I switched her food to Canidae and her fur cleared right up. It took about 3-4 weeks total to get her in better shape coat wise but now she looks and feels great. I've since switched her to some other foods but Canidae is a good one, worth checking out. the price is right for what you get. 

   Welcome to the forum;   When looking for a better quality food, try to find one with higher levels of zinc and omega 6 (linoleic) fatty acids. For example, zinc levels in dog food can range from about 120mg/kg to 280 mg/kg and linoleic acid can range from a little over 1% to 5%; the higher levels are better. My dog has allergies which cause her to loose more moisture through her skin than a normal dog, causing dandruff and a dry coat. According to an article my vet gave me from the JAVMA,  zinc and linoleic acid are important for reducing transepidermal water loss. Omega 3's are important but so are omega 6's.

   This is the recommended amount of vitamin E to supplement according to an animal nutritionist;

Body weight; 10-25lbs        50-100 IU daily

                    26-50lbs       100-200 IU daily

                    51-80lbs       200-300 IU daily

                    80lbs and up 300-400 IU daily
 

                    
 

Yay! More dogs onto a path of better health!!  Would it be possible to donate those bags to a shelter?  No, it's not good food for them either, but it's food.  As you heard a million times from these posts...Beneful is junk and the sooner you can make the transition off of it the sooner your dogs will benefit.  I wouldn't want to feed my guys sawdust and fastfood scraps (my opinion on that foods equivalent...ha ha!! ) for any longer than I really had to...

Good for you for supplying all those great supplements and caring enough to make changes!!    

 You've gotten some great advice about the nutrition.  I'd get rid of the Alpo too.  I also add in some sardines and jack mackeral once a week or so.  And then I typically just leave out the fish oil.  I like them getting the oil right out of the fish.  With fish, the smaller the fish, the more oil it has, typically.  So a sardine has more oil than tuna as does salmon. 

The only other thing I'd mention and only as a side because this is Nutrition, unless he's blowing his winter coat, you might want to lay off the Furminator a bit.  I'm using mine every day right now because otherwise I get a carpet of dog hair in my house, but for regular grooming during the non shedding season(well less shedding season, lol, with huskies there really is no such thing as non shedding season), I use a slicker and a long toothed comb to get down to the skin.  I find the Furminator strips too much from their coats if I use it too much without undercoat to pull.

I agree with the others...Beneful is junk.

If Purina is even an option for you...consider the Pro Plan Selects line.  My dog was on it the first year of his life and his coat is amazing.  Shiny and gorgeous.  If you switch to a better food you might find you don't need the supplements.  Time will tell for sure.  We are now on the Pro Plan Salmon because he is having sensitive stomach problems and doing very well and again his coat is perfect. 

Thanks for all of the info, everyone. I really appreciate the time you all are taking to reply :) I must say I am slightly embarrassed that I am so clueless about dog food, lol, especially when I am so learned on foods for my fish! But, I am happy to be learning! I definitely need to pick a new food that is easily accessible to me and I know Blue Buffalo and Purina are for sure. I will continue to do research. I forgot to mention that not only is Roscoe's coat dull and dry but he has dandruff also. He is a great dog and deserves a great coat! I started E (thanks for the weight/dose chart, btw) and fish oil today. What does everyone think of Natural Balance dog food? I will use Dogfoodproject.com to help me but I am still a newbie and would like opinions and if anyone has had personal experience, that would be great to hear about too :)

Don't be embarassed.  To tell the truth, when I came to this forum I was also feeding Beneful.  I did a search and started seeing all the negative comments about it and I was shocked.  I ended up starting a thread to find out what others thought would be good to feed.  For the most part everyone was more interested in helping me do better for the dogs then making me feel bad about what I had done wrong.  Just think about it like this, before you didn't know better and now you do so your fixing it.  Can't ask for more than that.