Canine Caviar - Great Result so far...

NikoAwesomo

After 18 months.... I am still checking his poops...haha........

I hate to break it to you, but Cherokee will be 10 in August, and I'm still checking her poops.

chelsea_b

NikoAwesomo

After 18 months.... I am still checking his poops...haha........

I hate to break it to you, but Cherokee will be 10 in August, and I'm still checking her poops.

   Ha ha; same here, and Jessie will be 10 this fall too.

    Niko, I hope the Canine Caviar helps his coat, but if it doesn't you may want to try a food that has high levels of linoleic acid and zinc; Nature's Variety has a good amount of zinc but only about 2% linoleic acid. Jessie loses more water through her skin than normal dogs because of her allergies (transepidermal water loss)  and I've found through the years that she has the best coat on foods that have 3.5% or more linoleic acid and more than 200 mg/kg of zinc. I learned about the importance of the combination of zinc and linoleic acid from an article my vet gave me from the JAVMA.  I have also learned not to add much extras to her diet in the way of home cooking but to let the majority of her calories and nutrition come from her dog food; this wasn't easy for me but she does better this way. You have to listen to your dog; good luck.
 

Linoleic acid is also very easy to add.  A small amount (a quarter teaspoon per 500 cal of food) of sunflower, coconut, and several other vegetable oils will do the trick.  So does adding an egg yolk every so often.  Either raw or cooked is fine for LA content, but cooking will destroy biotin and a couple other micronutrients.

Ben is 12 years old and I am still an obsessive poop-checker with him.  I will admit I'm not so much with Maggie, 14 1/2 years old, but she's always had the stomach of steel.  Nothing, and I mean nothing, bothers her. 

Thanks for all the feedback. I think the current dry food I am giving him (canine caviar dry - chicken, puppy formula) has about 4.5% of linoleic acid (omega 6, right?) and 1.84% of Omega 3. I still add fish oil and vitamin e. He gets an egg yolk every other day (alternating with canned or homecooked meat). 

He is one active dog and now in the heat of summer in Phoenix, AZ, he swims a lot and runs on treadmill (instead of running at the park).  Do you think I should still add sunflower/coconut oil since canine caviar I am feeding him has about 19% of fat already?

Pauline 

P.S. - My husband and I adopted a baby girl (9 months old) and our 18-month lab, niko, gets along great with her!!!  Both of them love to stare at me whenever I am eating something.  Both will sit next to each other quietly staring at me (not blinking at all...) waiting for some handouts.  I was laughing so hard yesterday and forgot to take a picture of them!!

brookcove

Linoleic acid is also very easy to add.  A small amount (a quarter teaspoon per 500 cal of food) of sunflower, coconut, and several other vegetable oils will do the trick. 

  Good tip, but that wasn't enough for Jessie; she also needed more zinc than a lot of foods have. I followed the guidelines in the article and chose a food with a high percentage of linoleic acid and zinc, and it really helped her dry coat and dandruff. Before reading the article, I added about 2000 mg of fish oil to her food daily, but that didn't help. Each dog is different, and it's important to try different things to see what works best for your dog.
 

NikoAwesomo

P.S. - My husband and I adopted a baby girl (9 months old) and our 18-month lab, niko, gets along great with her!!!  Both of them love to stare at me whenever I am eating something.  Both will sit next to each other quietly staring at me (not blinking at all...) waiting for some handouts.  I was laughing so hard yesterday and forgot to take a picture of them!!

   Congrats on your new daughter! I would have loved to have seen that picture. 
 

Zinc is one I wouldn't supplement without the help of a vet experienced with dietary supplementation, or a nutrition expert (which I think you had this kind of advice, jessies mom?).  When my son was little, we were supplementing zinc on the advice of his pediatric gastroenterologist, and it was very tricky making sure we weren't oversupplementing.  We had to figure out absolute values on the food he ate every day.

That's why I hesitate to say, "Oh, yeah, try zinc!"  I know it's often implicated in skin problems, but often a change to a food naturally higher in this mineral will be sufficient.  Oysters are very high in zinc, to the point where one must be cautious of overexposure if one frequently includes these in the diet.  Nuts and legumes are good. 

Of the animal proteins (all of which are excellent sources and sufficient for most purposes), turkey neck and head (yeah, weird), and beef or lamb or goat shank tops the charts on zinc values, that is among easily acquired meats.  Well, I guess the head's a little hard to get, but neck is very easy to find.  Foods that include turkey would most likely be high in zinc, I'd guess, since the poultry in most dog food is from "frames", which includes neck.

Sidebar:  Zinc signalling (the use of zinc ions as neurotransmitters) is a burgeoning area of study in microbiology and may hold the key to why zinc is so vital and yet has been difficult to explain its exact roles in cellular function.

To the OP:  I wouldn't change anything in the way of supplementation if you are happy with the way your dog is right now.   I was merely mentioning easy ways to increase linoleic acid exposure without having to change dog food.  I believe on omega fatty acids, it makes more sense to supplement anyway, to ensure freshness - even with preservatives, OFAs do not remain stable long after heating, packaging, travel, storage in central distribution centers, travel again, and finally shelf time.  But if your dog is fine now,  there's no reason to change anything.

brookcove

Zinc is one I wouldn't supplement without the help of a vet experienced with dietary supplementation, or a nutrition expert (which I think you had this kind of advice, jessies mom?).  When my son was little, we were supplementing zinc on the advice of his pediatric gastroenterologist, and it was very tricky making sure we weren't oversupplementing.  We had to figure out absolute values on the food he ate every day.

    You are so right about zinc; it's very tricky to supplement. The recommended daily amount for adults is only about 8mg; I have no idea what a dog requires. I thought about adding some oysters to her food, but one ounce of oysters has about 100 mg of zinc. Most dog foods have around 160mg/kg; I buy foods that have more than that, such as Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice. She's limited in which foods she can have by her many food allergies; Nutro doesn't have the most sexy ingredients, but she does very well on it. The advice came from an article my vet gave me about dietary fat and the skin and coat of dogs. I'm thinking about having Monica Segal formulate a diet for her but she likes to use potatoes in her recipes for fiber and potassium and Jessie's allergic to white and sweet potatoes. Thank you for your advice about the lamb and beef, and also sources of linoleic acid. I may try feeding Eagle Pack and Nature's Variety again and supplementing accordingly.

 I'm going to PM you - I'm about to go OT! 
 

 Hmm, maybe zinc is why Emma is doing so well on Bravo patties. The first ingredient of the turkey patties is turkey necks and frames. I've always been super cautious about supplementing zinc. I'm far less cautious with whole food than I am with supplements.

I love skin and coat threads It's good to hear that you've found something that works for Niko.