What do you feed dogs to make there hair shiny

[challengelife]

HI,

I have 2 toy spaniel type dogs. I feed them Skippy Brand Can dog food with Dry Alpo Dog food mixed in with a little rice everyday. Their hair is dry and dull looking. I was wondering if any of you dog lovers out there know what types of food do you feed a dog to make it's coat shiny, also are there any supplements or vitamins that you give your dogs to help make your dogs coat bright and shinny. Thanks for your help!

If you would like to send me dog tips or any other tips, please feel free to e-mail me at: challengelife@mail.com

I have a lot of things I would like to share with you also. Thank you

 

[John]

Science Diet & Brita filtered water

 

[KK]

Bacon grease on top of their hard dog food.

KK

 

[JC]

Eggs

 

[alexjohnson16]

I've heard giving them a cracked egg (no shell) over their food helps... Thats what the vet told my mom for our retriever...

 

[stev0]

While I have never personally owned a dog, I know many dog owners, one of which feeds his anything from the fatty peices of a left over grilled steak, bacon left over from breakfast (as well as sausages) and he has even gone as far as bringing the leftovers of his prim rib dinner home and giving it to his dog. (on a few occasions it was the tenderloin side )

 

[Kyteland]

sprayon varnish

 

[Apex]

Raw chicken (including skin and fat). Actually, for most dogs, you can include the bones too, as long as they're raw.

 

[0roo0roo]

might depend on dog. mine is almost 100% plain kibble. least tooth rotting stuff. purina or lams or is that iams. give him meat scraps sometimes, but not much, u don't want fat dog. hair is shiny on basically just kibble

 

[DrPizza]

I always considered skippy to be a pretty crappy quality dog food. Maybe switch to a different brand.

 

[Ryan]

Vitamin E capsules.

 

[KaOTiK]

We give our dog Pedigree dog food and her fur coat is very shiny

Kao

 

[WhiteWonder]

Human flesh? I never tried it but I read it in a book.... about dogs.

 

[johnjbruin]

Steak? Veal?

j/k - i have no clue

 

[tcsenter]

have 2 toy spaniel type dogs. I feed them Skippy Brand Can dog food with Dry Alpo Dog food mixed in with a little rice everyday.

I would recommend that you primarily feed them dry kibble with a little canned food mixed in as opposed to the opposite. Particularly small dogs with less bone mass in their jaw, subsisting on the balance of soft dog food will promote bad breath, tooth migration, and gum disease, causing their teeth to decay at a relatively young age even with annual cleanings.

You might also consider a slightly better and more nutritious dog food such as Iams, Eukanuba, Artemis, Canidae, Diamond, Natural Balance, Nature's Variety (Prairie), Pinnacle, Royal Canin, Solid Gold, Verus, Wellness, Wysong, Flint River Ranch, Innova, Lifespan, Prime Life, Showbound, Eagle Pack, Bench and Field, Nutro, and several others. Always change a dog's diet gradually by mixing the new food with the old food in increasingly higher proportions over several days to decrease gastrointestinal problems.

As for coat health, linoleic acid from Omega-6 and Omega-3 essential fatty acids. Fish oils, corn oil, evening primrose oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, and flax seed oil are rich in linoleic acids. According to Iams and other veterinary research, optimal Omega-6 : Omega-3 fatty acid ratio to maintain healthy skin and coat in dogs is 5~10:1. e.g. between 5 and 10 Omega-6 fatty acids for every 1 Omega-3 fatty acid.

You can also buy various Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acid supplements containing fish and flax seed oils. Drizzle the oil on their food or hide it in a dollop of peanut butter. Use it sparingly, the recommended daily amount will probably be based on the weight of the average adult human. A small dog may only require 1/20th the amount as a supplement to their diet. You can give it a couple times per week, not necessary on a daily basis if your dog food is nutritionally acceptable.

 

[0roo0roo]

I would recommend that you primarily feed them dry kibble with a little canned food mixed in as opposed to the opposite. Particularly small dogs with less bone mass in their jaw, subsisting on the balance of soft dog food will promote bad breath, tooth migration, and gum disease, causing their teeth to decay at a relatively young age even with annual cleanings./q]

well, can food promotes decay no matter what

 

[tcsenter]

well, can food promotes decay no matter what

This is true, but larger breeds aren't as susceptible to tooth migration and loss because they possess greater bone mass. Larger breeds are generally more avid chewers compared with small breeds; sticks, tree bark, couches, chairs, moldings, etc

 

[0roo0roo]

probably true. my dog needs its teeth brushed. not so much a chewer...bah. it shreds some stuff, but its way too picky. bought it a hartz dental bone, gone in 5 minutes. shredded all over the floor. bought a nyla bone. doesn't even look at it.

 

[Shelly21]

Some sort of Omega Oil thing.

That's why my vet gave me for my cats.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
probably true. my dog needs its teeth brushed. not so much a chewer...bah. it shreds some stuff, but its way too picky. bought it a hartz dental bone, gone in 5 minutes. shredded all over the floor. bought a nyla bone. doesn't even look at it.

Try Greenies.

 

[rh71]

The quality of the dog food definitely matters. My parents switched to a better brand (forget the name at the moment) and we noticed a change even in the texture of our Pom's coat. Our vet also mentioned a little bit of vegetable oil added to his dry food will help. I've also heard that you're not supposed to bathe them so often... maybe once a month only.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: rh71
The quality of the dog food definitely matters. My parents switched to a better brand (forget the name at the moment) and we noticed a change even in the texture of our Pom's coat. Our vet also mentioned a little bit of vegetable oil added to his dry food will help. I've also heard that you're not supposed to bathe them so often... maybe once a month only.

You can definitely over-bathe a dog. Once a month is a good rule of thumb, but some breeds can benefit from more or less frequent baths, and some individual dogs can have different needs due to skin sensitivities.

The best practice for animals, as in humans, is at least some variety in their diet. This is for obvious reasons less convenient, more time consuming, and slightly more expensive than buying the cheapest crap-in-a-bag one can find on the shelves. Even the best nutritional science today cannot 'engineer' a uniform processed food that people could subsist on entirely all their adult lives and receive optimal nutrition to promote health, manage stress, repair damage, and keep the immune system well tuned (in a manner of speaking).

Some people go to elaborate lengths to feed their dogs (and cats) a more organic, unprocessed, and variable diet using produce market quality sources, often at much time and expense. I don't think one needs to go to such lengths, particularly since variety is beneficial precisely because it helps compensate for low-quality nutritional sources and helps provide nutritional balance, but if you enjoy doing that kind of thing for you pet, have the time and money, more power to you.

We try to feed our dogs lots of different things as "snacks"; raw spinach, squash, carrots, broccoli, beans, yams, asparagus, nuts, apples, pears, oranges, et al. This is relatively easy to do for us, because we eat a lot of these things. Our dogs (four of them, all under 10lbs) will go through a medium size bag of baby carrots in one sitting. They gather in a half-circle in front of you and wait their turn. lol!

They get some of those jerky treats and dog biscuits, too, but not a lot. We don't 'share' much junk food with them; potato chips, cheesey poofs, fast food, french fries, sugary things, and the like.