There are dogs that have a lovely fur, shiny, very soft to the touch, and then there is your dog, which, although you try to comb, wash and care, always has a coat that is off and felted. Do you pay attention to the diet of your pet? To improve the appearance of the fur it is essential to ensure him a proper and balanced diet!
The food contains all the nutritional substances and the vitamins necessary for the dog to grow healthy and strong, have beautiful and shiny fur and do not suffer from problems of any kind. Not surprisingly, one of the first hints that indicate that the dog is sick is precisely the coat: if Fido is sick the nutritional substances are first used to feed the vital organs, consequently the fur will be ugly, full of dandruff, opaque and will tend to fall.
A proper and balanced diet includes food belonging to different groups: proteins, carbs, vitamins and minerals.
1. PROTEINS
The protein intake is a delicate aspect of the canine diet: the dog’s fur bulb is formed by 90% of proteins, when there is protein deficiency in the dog’s body, its fur is weaker, it breaks easily and struggle to grow again. It is always necessary to buy a good quality animal feed, in principle food products for sale are well balanced, but what makes the difference is to buy them considering the age, physical activity and the health of the pet.
2. FATTY ACIDS
The healthies fatty acids are essential to keep the dog’s fur shiny and elastic, so the dog’s diet must be rich in these substances. For example, all foods that contain omega 3 and / or omega 6m fatty acids such as fish (salmon or fish oil) or vegetable oils like flaxseed, sunflower or pumpkin are good for it. These fatty acids have effects on the production of sebum, a sort of thick liquid that essentially has a protective function for the fur, and which at the same time makes it shinier.
3. VITAMIN A, E
Fruits and vegetables must represent approximately the 15-20% of the dog’s diet, while they are the main source of vitamins and antioxidants. The absence of vitamin E in fact cause the famous alopecia. From this point of view there’s not much to worry about, because all the dog’s products on the market, both croquettes and wet food, they contain in good quantities. Alternatively, there are vegetables that we can give to the dog such as carrots, peas and broccoli, of course without exaggerating and exceeding the doses granted.
4. ZINC
If the dog follows a diet too rich in foods deriving from whole meal flour or in any case too rich in cereals, it may have a zinc deficiency. Zinc is very important and is maybe the most correlated to the beauty of the coat, since gives to it shine and hydration, so sometimes try to add bits of beef liver and eggs to its diet. A disease has also been discovered, zinc deficiency dermatitis, which can affect certain breeds of dogs.
“We are what we eat”, this also counts for our dog friends!
