acarr1983

Howdy everyone,

I was wondering if anyone has experience or advice on fish/salmon oil? I did a lot of research on the different types of food and decided to go with Innova puppy food for now, however I've been hearing stuff about supplements and I'm wondering should I add them to her diet or if the Innova is "perfectly" balanced for my pup. She is 12 weeks and a few days old now and I want to make sure she is healthy. The main things I am wondering about are the fish oil and the probiotics. I went to this natural/organic/health food store for pets and they are really into supplements, which was kind of a turn off for me because they were pushing it so much.

So I guess what I am asking is does anyone have any advice on them or should I just let the Innova do the work?

RedMaro

There is nothing wrong with adding salmon oil and probiotics. With that being said for a 12 week puppy don't overdue it. At most I would give 500mg of salmon oil until your pup is 6 months. Probiotics just follow the directions. I use the stuff from purina the name is slipping me, but someone on here will know.

I have had great results with Grizly salmon oil, and it doesn't require you to add vitamin e which is a bonus.

If you are feeding a high quality food, that is usually enough. So your doing it right so far.


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acarr1983

Thanks, I read up on Innova and it appears to be a really good food. I've heard good things about it. That and the Blue Buffalo food. I just went with Innova.

Heather P

I give Bentley a generic verison of the Derm Caps called Brite Coat XS. I may be wasting my money and could just do fish oil, but his coat looks amazing! If you are feeding Innova I don't think you should need any supplement. We tried switching Bentley to a high protein food and it didn't agree with him, so he's back on the Pro Plan large breed puppy.

acemommy

Where are you buying your dog food from? Online, or the vet?

dobebug

I generally don't give supplements at all to puppies less than six months old.

If you are feeding a reasonably good kibble mine have always done fine without supplements. What I have found was that most of the highly rated kibbles were more than their not fully developed digestive systems could handle so I stick to what has worked for me--which means I feed kibble that many people think is pure poison (contains things like grains, including corn) but I find that I don't have puppies with soft stools and/or on going problems with diarrhea.

FortaFlora is probably the probiotic made by Purina that RedMaro was talking about. But I haven't had any reason to use it with any of my dogs. I did use the FortaFlora for cats when I ended up with a stray who was starved, had just given birth to two kitten who died shortly after birth and who had to be put on high powered antibiotics before we could even spay her--she had pyometra to top everything else. Worked very well for her.

I do start giving young dogs fish oil (in capsule form) and vitamin E at around six months.

Q734

Here are a couple of Dr. Becker articles about supplements.
Pet Joint Supplements | Healthy Joint Support - Mercola.com
Krill Oil For Pets | Essential Omega-3 Source - Mercola.com

One thing about fish oil supplements is that it has to be balanced out w/a ratio of vitamin E if you aren't going the sardine, krill oil route. Sorry I'm not remembering what the percentage is other than it has to be given once a week v fish oil supplement.

The Whole Dog Journal has an article on that^- WDJ well worth subscribing to, which reminds me I plan on giving WDJ as gifts & need to get on the ball.

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ZeldaRules

Dont forget to check with your breeder for their input. They know their lines best and what has worked for their dogs.