higher fat foods

first off let me say, Ruckus doesnt eat raw anymore. I fed it to him for three weeks, and since day three he has had diarrhea. so i stopped, and his poops stopped being liquid.

i have noticed lots of shedding. i find hairballs everywhere, and i brush him DAILY and get handfuls of hair out. so i took him to the vet. she said his diet was too low in fat.
i am feeding nutro natural choice. not even the puppy kind (he is 7 months old) the fat content is 12%
the vet said to get 20 -22% food. does anyone know if i have a quack for a vet?
lol
and does anyone know what kind of good food i can find with such a high fat content?
thanks everyone!!

Can you add fat to his food? Do people do that with dogs?

My horse is on a high-fat diet for a metabolic condition (20% fat), and we get the percentage up by adding oil to his feed. I know that Meg loves to lick feed buckets of the horses who get oil added to their grain - some veggie oil, some fish oil, and some coconut/soy. People always comment on how shiny she is .

i did find an eagle pack food with 20% fat.
its a power formula. but Ruckus is lazy! i dont want him fat. maybe it would give him more energy. because he is very lazy

i dont know anything about adding oil and fat to dog food. maybe someone can chime in soon.

We feed 30/20 to all our dogs, summer and winter. Pups, seniors, lazy ones, active ones. Only difference is in how much they get. Like, Dakota only needs 1 cup, but Ranger needs about 2.25 cups. It can be hard to find the right feeding amount at first. The bag is only a very general guide line, and I think most performace foods are calculated with working dogs in mind. Start with about 1 cup, and go from there.
As for adding fat, any fat works. Lard, chicken skins, beef fat, corn oil. Be careful when adding fat, esp. since he's been on a low fat food.

i am thinking i will get the eagle pack power food i was talking about, and mixing it with another food that isnt so fatty.
i am scared one cup would make him hungry. so i could give him two cups daily like i have been and not worry so much about him getting fat. and if that works out i will eventually have him only on the eagle pack power.

sound good?
thanks for the help

I personally think foods with higher fat are a better choice, especially when it comes to coat condition and shedding. The higher fat diets wont make your dog fat unless you over feed them.

Eagle Pack Power would be a good choice, or Healthwise Active or Puppy formula. Canidae Chicken and Rice formula has a little more fat, but not as much as your vet recommended. You could also try adding fish body oil to his diet. That alone helps coat quality and will decrease shedding. www.seapet.com

thanks showpug
do you think just adding fish oil to his food now would help? if i get that power food then i wont need to add that oil right?

We feed Canidae All Life Stages + Lakse Kronch salmon oil in the morning and organic olive oil in the evening.

I think that 2 cups of the Eagle Pack will be too much for Ruckus, especially at first. Check how many calories (kcal) of Nutro you are feeding and then feed the same number of calories of the Eagle Pack, regardless of volume.

and i shouldnt feel like i am being cruel to him by making him go hungry? sometimes it seems like two cups make him hungry, much less one.. or even less.. depends on how many calories i am feeding.

No, you shouldnt feel cruel at all. It would be more cruel of you let him get overweight. If he still seems hungry, and you feel mean about it, add in some low calorie/high bulk things. Water, green beans, oatmeal, etc.

For example Canidae ALS has more calories than the Eagle Pack Power formula per cup. It just depends on the food. Fat content doesn't necessarily mean more calories etc.

It is important to figure out how many calories you dog is eating now and feed off of calories instead of cups etc.

Fish oil is a good addition to a dog's diet. It can drastically improve skin and coat, but I think feeding a higher fat formula would be very beneficial as well. You could up his fat and improve his coat by feeding a raw egg once a day as well. That is, if he can tolerate it. My dogs do fine on raw eggs every day and they love them, but I have heard that some dogs can't tolerate them.

As far as feeling guilty, don't. Dogs are programmed to take food when it's available. They are opportunistic feeders, so they act hungry almost all the time. That doesn't mean he actually is hungry. If you want to give him a treat then consider green beans or ice cubes.

Sorry I do not want to toke over your Thread but on the raw egg would you just crack it and let them eat it like that or would you mix it up in the food?

I just plop the raw egg without the shell on top of the kibble and they gobble it up. Some people feed the shell as well, but I do not.

Hannah won't eat the shell. If I give her a full raw egg, in the shell, she'll just look at it and doesn't know what to do with it. She doesn't like the shells though I gave her a shell, figuring she'd eat it if I gave it to her from my hand and she put it in her mouth and then spit it out and walked away even after I coaxed her to eat it for a few minutes she wouldn't even try it.

thank you guys. my eagle pack power food is on the way right now. i looked on his current food and i cannot find the calories!!! i will look harder. it should be on there.
someone told me i shouldnt be feeding him high fat food because he is overweight. that was there opinion. he is 19 inches, and 29lbs. he is a big boned big sheltie but i am not so sure he is fat.

i think i would like to mix it with the food he eats now and keep mixing it. where he does have higher fat, but not that high. or would it be best to just get him on the eagle pack?

thanks for everyones help!

To tell if he is fat, check to see if you can feel his ribs/hips/spine. You want to be able to feel them easily, but not sticking out. It is ok to have a thin layer of fat, esp. in the wintertime, but if you have to really press hard, time to loose some weight! Make sure you are feeling through his coat. If he is overweight, it is still ok to feed the higher fat food, just feed even less of it.
As for calories on the Nutro, check on thier websites. Many food websites list the calories on there, but not on the bag.
and IMO, I would just keep him on Eagle Pack. I dont like mixing foods, but that is just my thoughts. Even when switching foods (which is pretty rare for me anyway), I just go right from one food to the other. Then again, my poochies have pretty strong stomachs, so I rarely have a problem.

i can deffinally feel his spine and ribs!

can someone do some math for me please?
right now i feed two cups of nutro natural choice. that is 676 calories (i added up both of the cups)
and his new food is 826 calories for two cups.
how much of his new food do i give him to equal 676 calories?

You will need to give him about 1.5 cups, maybe a tad bit more. (676/413=1.63)

thanks!
i dont want to change him cold turkey because he doesnt have a very strong stomach. i wonder how much to mix with his current. just like i would do any other food just not go over one and a half cups (give or take a bit)

If he doesnt have that strong of stomach, I would mix about 1/4c EP 1.25c Nutro, then go, 1/2c EP 1c Nutro, 3/4c EP 3/4c Nutro, 1c EP 1/2c Nutro, 1.25c EP 1/4c Nutro, then straight EP. Depending on his sensitivity, either do down each day, or every other day.