WHAT ARE ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS?

As the term implies, Essential Fatty Acids (or EFA’s), are fats which are ‘essential’ to the wellbeing of your dog. Essential fatty acids for dogs are important because dogs cannot make their own EFAs. Just as importantly, they cannot do without them because they are involved, one way or another, with virtually every biological process. Every bodily function from regulating the immune system to maintaining a healthy heart requires essential fatty acids.

You’ve heard of omega-3 and omega-6, right? Well they’re Essential Fatty Acids and they’re definitely essential fatty acids where your best friend is concerned!

FATS AND FATTY ACIDS

All fats are made of fatty acids, but not all fatty acids are essential fatty acids. So what purpose do they serve?

Fats act as fuel. Fats provide your dog with energy. When your dog exercises or plays, for example, the very first thing it will use for energy is those fats. That’s one of the reason fats are so important. Fats contain twice as many calories as carbohydrates or protein. In other words, they provide twice as much energy for your dog.
Fats also enhance the absorption of vitamins A, D, E and K. None of these can be synthesized by your dog’s body (or yours in fact), because they’re fat-soluble vitamins. In other words, they can only be dissolved in fats or oils.

GOOD FATS? BAD FATS?

Dogs are not like human beings. For the likes of you and I, there are good fats (unsaturated fats) and bad fats (saturated fats). In humans, saturated fats are responsible for high cholesterol and heart disease amongst other things.

In the world of dogs, no fats are bad fats. They just shouldn’t eat too much animal fat (saturated fat). Saturated fats are likely to gain in excess weight gain. As we all know, that in itself poses a great many health risks for your constant canine companion.

SOURCES OF ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS

There are numerous dog-friendly sources of healthy fats. Omega-3 and omega-6. Many of them are plant-based.

Hemp seeds and hemp seed oil, flaxseeds and flaxseed oil are good examples of plant-based fatty acids. Then there’s safflower oil, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds and coconut oil. They’re all good, canine-safe, plant-based sources of essential fatty acids for dogs.

Fish body oil and oily fish themselves are of course excellent sources of EFAs. Fish such as sardines, herring, mackerel and salmon are particularly good for dogs because they are fatty fish rich in essential fatty acids

NOTHING BEATS NATURAL

Importantly, all the above are so much better than any synthetic essential fatty acid supplements.

So before asking your vet to prescribe synthetic EFA’s or buying them online because marketing man has made the packaging look appealing, take a look at what Mother Nature has provided for your dog. After all, she was providing natural remedies for man’s best friend for thousands of years before man-made supplements were even thought of!

The perfect ratio

Just one word of warning if you feed your dog commercial food. AAFCO is the organisation that, worldwide, dictates what should and should not go into commercial dog food. The Association of American Feed Control Officials sounds official, but it isn’t. It’s nothing more than a mouthpiece for the commercial pet food industry. Employees of the major pet food companies make up the majority of its members, so why would we be surprised at some of their recommendations?

Importantly here though, because omega-3 fats are expensive, AAFCO recommends an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of 30:1. That’s 30 parts omega-6 to 1 part omega-3.

That is far from correct. The ideal ratio is actually 5:1. Yet another reason to treat AAFCOs recommendations with a pinch of salt and feed your dog proper food!