Fat

[chuckie500]

Am I giving this too much thought??

When I decide to give my dogs some meat, eg, beef or lamb, I usually trim off the fat. Is that bad to do or good? I give them some tinned salmon and off course that is low in fat. (Mine aren't overweight. I usually feed Eaglepack and Barf patties for about 80% of their diet.)

Thanks

[Gayle.]

I don't trim off any fat unless there are large visible chunks on chicken frames. Dogs need fat....it's concentrated energy and fairly essential for their welbeing, their coat health and in winter, their ability to keep themselves warm.

[gareth]

I wouldn't trim it off. Dogs need fat in their diet and process it differently to humans. They don't get high cholesterol (can't remember who told me that or know the reason why)

[Nekhbet]

actually too much fat is a bad thing in dogs. Apart from pancreatitis which can pop up in some breeds, my malinois developed a fatty deposit on her eyeball and threatened her sight. She had to be on a low fat diet (which is hard on such an active dog) and it disappeared.

everything in moderation. They need fat, but huge hunks of thick white fat on raw bones and lamb flaps, trim off most and discard or chop up and feed sparingly especially to thin or very active dogs.

[Sandra777]

So far as I know dogs don't have cholesterol problems so I wouldn't trim the fat for that reason. Pancreatitis can be a problem and also some dogs simply don't tolerate a lot of fat and it gets the dire-rear going. I wouldn't fed huge chunks of fat, but if the individual dog has been proven to cope with it then I don't see there's any harm in it.

You have to remember that in the wild most prey animals aren't all that fat - sure they might have a good summer and put on some weight, but not many will have masses of fat as we see on older mutton, some beef etc.

[corvus]

My dog tends to self-regulate a little. If I give him a lot of fatty lamb flaps he'll stop eating them after a while and look for something else. I pay close attention to what he wants and what he doesn't want.

[Greytmate]

Corvus, don't wait for your dog to get gut ache and stop eating because its pancreas is overloaded. Dogs rely on us to set their limits.

Saturated fat is good for dogs, but all things in moderation. Depending on breed and activity level, anywhere between 4% and 25% fat content in meat can be acceptable. I wouldn't trim the fat from meat for my own dogs, but I don't feed them pieces of fat either.

[puggy_puggy]

If there is not to much fat on the meat I wouldn't worry about trimming it off. If it was very fatty I would.