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Permalink Reply by rae on February 5, 2013 at 9:44am

yep, he gets fish oil every other day. until 8 months.  then every day.

he also gets vitamin c for life.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Liu on February 4, 2013 at 1:27am

I feed Tobey 1 capsule per meal (2 meals a day) of the Costco Fish Oil.  I haven't seen any adverse affects at all, in fact his coat improved quite a bit after I started feeding him the oil.  His coat looks shiny and healthy now when before it was noticeably more dull.  My corgi is also much bigger than the standard (length and height wise) so I think others could cut down to 1 capsule and be fine.  I've heard many good things about feeding fish oil to dogs so I figured I'd try it out.  I'm sure there are more benefits than simply a better looking coat, and it isn't hurting Tobey, so I'm sticking with it for now. 

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Permalink Reply by Priss, Charlie & Kaylee (PK) on February 4, 2013 at 6:52am

We feed Kaylee about 1/2-1 tsp of the liquid fish oil (a dog brand cuz it was more convenient at the time) per meal. I swish it around with her kibble to make sure she gets it all. Usually she ends up licking the bowl. ^_^ No major improvements in her coat but she has fewer instances of acting all itchy like she used to.

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Permalink Reply by Frances & Nappy on February 4, 2013 at 9:55am

I give my Napoleon the liquid fish oil. It comes in a pump and I just add one pump to each feeding (he gets fed twice a day). The liquid can probably be bought at your vet and we order it online.

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Permalink Reply by Beth on February 4, 2013 at 10:15am

I periodically give mine actual fish instead; I'll give them a tinned sardine, or buy a can of salmon and mix in a couple spoonfuls. Of course I cut back their kibble a bit on those days.

I also sometimes buy dried fish treats.

For people, it's clear that eating oily fish a few times a week offers a lot of health benefits. The jury is more mixed on fish oil supplements. I take them myself, but it's because my husband is allergic to red fish. If he wasn't, I'd just eat salmon or something twice a week instead.

So the way I figure, I'd rather the dogs have the fish itself than the oil. Tinned fish is cheap. It has the skin and bones so it has all the nutrients. The salt is the only concern.

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Permalink Reply by Lemmy Winks on February 4, 2013 at 11:54am

I just feed my dogs sardines. I get the canned sardines, in water, remove the spines and throw one fish into the dog dish with the food. They get this about 2-3 times a week.
I assume this works the same? They love it.

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Permalink Reply by Beth on February 4, 2013 at 12:05pm

Sardines, salmon, and mackerel are all oily fish and they are all small enough so mercury should not be a big problem. The canned fishes with the skins are best. By the way, you CAN feed the bones because when the fish is canned, it's cooked to the point that the bones are very soft. My cat loves it too!

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Permalink Reply by Ludi on February 4, 2013 at 12:45pm

I fed Ace a tinned sardine or two; when he was getting fish oil in capsule or straight-up liquid form, he'd have runny poos and the most awful anal gland discharge just seeping out. No matter the amount! It's like his body could only really cope with it if it came in a "natural" form. So if you notice Ein starting to have "fish-butt", consider feeding whole fish (sardine, mackerel) for that instead.

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Permalink Reply by Ingrid & Ein on February 4, 2013 at 11:05pm

Thanks everyone for the great info! 

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Permalink Reply by Emily Trupiano on February 5, 2013 at 9:49pm

You can get Welactin fish oil powder at vets. I think it's less likely to make their breath stinky.

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