Dogs today certainly have a lot of choices when it comes to the food they eat. Just taking a look at your average supermarket pet aisle, you’ll see an amazing range of styles and flavors, everything from turkey with gravy, to beef and barley, to fish and sweet potato.
If you’re like many dog owners, you may be curious about seafood as the main protein and how these foods stack up against meat based foods. Are fish based dog foods the right choice for your pet?
In fact, there are a number of advantages, as well as potential disadvantages, to feeding your dog seafood based foods.
Advantages of Seafood-Based Dog Foods
To start with, fish and fish meal are very
protein rich. In fact, when taking a look at the biological value of fish, which measures the amount of available amino acids in a food, we see that fish meal is very high on the scale, coming in at a value of around 92 out of 100.
As you likely know, amino acids are of utmost necessity in keeping a dog healthy, active, and long lived. Dogs that do not get enough of the essential amino acids in their diets can have a range of health problems, including impaired immune systems and problems with their skin and coats.
Fish, and fish-containing dog foods, can have an especially high level of omega-3 fatty acids. These nutrients are key to your dog’s overall health and especially the health of their skin. Even if you do feed your dog a fish-based diet, you may want to supplement with additional omega-3s in the form of
fish oil, to really see the health benefits of these fatty acids.
Disadvantages of Seafood Based Dog Foods
Despite these nutritional benefits, some dog experts and dog owners believe that the disadvantages of seafood-based foods are serious enough to question their value.
To begin with, although many dogs enjoy the taste of seafood flavored meals and although these meals are high in available protein, a dog cannot get all of their nutritional needs through fish alone. Make sure this “sea-faring” food does contain all of the needed vitamins and minerals by looking for a “complete and balanced” label approved by the
AAFCO. Dog foods labeled “fish formula” or “fish recipe” will contain other meats and proteins besides fish, which is a good thing, unless your dog has a specific allergy you’re trying to avoid. The other protein sources help to make the food more nutritionally balanced.
A more serious charge against fish based meals is the possibility that the fish have high levels of heavy metals in their systems, which your dog then ingests. This is common in long lived fish like tuna, Mahi-Mahi, swordfish, and other top end predator fish. Short lived fish like jack mackerel, herring, or catfish do not accumulate these heavy metals to the same degree and are safer choices. Much of the fish meal used in dog foods tends to be from the shorter lived fish resources.
Some fish meals that end up in commercial dog foods are preserved with a chemical known as ethoxyquin. The amount of ethoxyquin used is likely of no harm to your pet in any way, but the negative connotations of synthetic preservatives turn some consumers away.
Of course, any fish that lives in the ocean will be exposed to some small amount of pollutants or heavy metals. Talk to your vet about you dog food choice if you’re concerned about any possible issues.