Adding sardines to my dog’s diet and other questions

[pudlice]

Hi!
I would like to buy Naturea Naturals Lamb dry food to my adult miniature poodle and will mix it with ground beef too. The ingredient list is this:

Fresh lamb (21 %), dehydrated lamb meat (17 %), brown rice, purified fat chicken, hydrolysed lamb liver (3 %), brewer’s yeast, potato, glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, apple, carrot, pumpkin, spinach, cranberries, seaweed, mannooligosaccharides, fructooligosaccharides, yucca schidigera, oregano, rosemary, parsley, sage.

I like that it doesn’t have fish or fish oil since I’ve heard fish oil becomes easily rancid. But because of this the Omega 3 percentage is only 0,22 %. That’s why I was thinking feeding my mini poodle (around 5-6 kg) sardines but don’t know how much I should, could you help me? The dry food has 2,5 % of Omega 6 by the way.

Other dry food I was thinking to feed is Barking Heads chop lickin’ lamb but it has fish and fish oil. What are your thoughts of it, should I worry about fast oxidation of fish oils? Other difference between this and Naturea’s lamb dry food is chop lickin’ lamb doesn’t have any fruits or berries. Are those important in dry food?

Thanks in advance!

[Tinyplanets]

Hello and welcome to the forum,
Were you thinking of adding cooked or raw ground beef to the food? Raw might not mix too well with a dry food due to differences in the rate of digestion.

Lots of people add sardines as a food topper but it is very difficult to recommend an exact amount. I know in humans, no more than 2 portions of fish  weekly are advised so perhaps that could be a guideline but I am no expert.  I try to give my dog a variety of foods and tend to add any dog friendly fruit or veg that we are having to her diet.  I do worry that all so called complete foods can provide absolutely everything needed for good health.

[pudlice]

Thank you Tinyplanets. I add cooked ground beef. I do give sometimes fresh veg/fruit, carrot and apple for example, but I think I should do so more frequently. I found an article on Whole Dog Journal that says about 50 g of sardines should be given to a 5 kg dog in a week, does this sound about right?

One thing I’m worried about Naturea Naturals Lamb is the ratio between omega 6 and 3, 3 is pretty low. Could it be fixed with sardines or should II be looking for other kibble? I’ve also been thinking feeding Ziwipeak. I bought a small sample bag of beef dry food and my dog didn't want to eat it without anything (he’s very picky about dry food) but when mixing it with a bit of rice and cooked ground beef he ate it. I wonder how much I should be feeding Ziwipeak if it’s mixed with other food.

[Dottie]

The Whole Dog Journal article on sardines is here.  I have two dogs, one 7kg and the other a little over 8kg.  They are fed fresh cooked food rotating beef, chicken and turkey. I don't use the fish variety so I provide a topper of sardines in tomato sauce once a week.  I don't know if this is the correct amount but they have half a tin each and I split the portion between two or three meals. I give the sardines for variety more than anything else because the food that they have already contains oils. They enjoy the sardines very much.  I think you might find the Rodney Habib video Why Fresh “Human Food" is so Important for Dogs useful. 

The company which makes the food that I give includes the omega 3 - 6 ratio on their website: Omega 6: Omega 3 ratio  1.4:1. The Whole Dog Journal article Dietary Fats in Dog Food may be helpful.

On the subject of extruded food becoming rancid, I can't really help as I don't use this type of food. However,  it does usually have a long shelf life and depending on stock rotation and rate of sales I imagine some might not be a fresh as one would want. As you like to feed dry food it might be worth checking out the cold pressed varieties because they tend to have a comparatively short sell by dates.

[pudlice]

Thank you Dottie for the info. I was thinking if I should feed air dried or cold pressed food instead of regular kibble, I think I’m going to feed Ziwi Peak next, it seems like good food.