Most diets I've seen add some sort of vegetable oil to them.

I'm just wondering if you have any preferences to the type of oil that you have added to your RAW recipes? As well if there is any nutritional benefit vs one over the other?

I've used Canola, Olive and Flaxseed and even Corn oil in a pinch.

If you find RAW oils, I think that all are good if you need additional fat (besides the fat on the meat).

Corn oil is virtually never cold-pressed, and I doubt that you can find it in a store. (Not that corn oil has anything in it to make you search for it. It doesn't.)

Canola oil can be found cold-pressed.

BUT flax oil and canola oil don't supply significant EPA and DHA the way fish oil does, and fish oil (plus E) are (IMO) extremely important additions. Flax and canola supply ALA, which dogs don't have the ability to convert to the long-chain Omega 3s the way humans do (and we don't do it so well, either). So I would get fish oil and E anyway, and if you are feeding RMBs (wild rabbit?) that needs more fat, then consider fresh fat of some kind, including cold-pressed oils. JMO.

"Recipes" gave me pause, though.

http://leerburg.com/feedingarawdiet.htm

And on this one, scroll down to the two sample weekly adult diets:
http://leerburg.com/diet2.htm

Sorry Connie, I wasn't clear enough in my question.

Basically the recipe I use is based around Chicken and sometimes a Fish mix and supplement with mammary meat from deer or beef with a dried veggie mix which includes.
INGREDIENTS: All Food Ingredients are Whole Ground, Freeze or Naturally Dried: Carrot, Apple, Barley Greens &/or Alfalfa, Potato, Broccoli, Pecans, Watercress, Blueberries, Cranberries, Spinach, Celery, (New) Lycopene (from tomato skins: Nature's powerful antioxidant), Saccharomyces cerevisiae, natural Calcium Carbonate, Flax Meal, Carob, Kelp, Parsley, Ginger Root, Marjoram, Basil.

I do add salmon oil caplets or a squirt or 2 of the Grizzly fish oil that Leerburg sells, everyday.

The recommendations of this veggie product recommend using 2-3 tablespoons of other oil on top of the fish oil. To add caloric density to lean meats which this mix was designed around.

Being a working Malinois my dog is pretty lean and trim and works off any of the oil in her diet. (I understand that dogs use edible oil like humans use carbs)

So basically I was wondering how the oils from the different plant species stacked up from a nutritional standpoint? Or is oil just oil as it would pertain to my dog's digestion system? She seems to digest any of the different veg oils equally well. I know the cold pressed oils are less processed.

AH! I getcha!

OK. Fresh fat is not chemically altered, and cooked (or heated) oil is.

My first goal is to help balance the overly-Omega-6 modern poultry and slaughter meat (raw or commercial dog food) with a gram (1000 mg) of fish oil per ten pounds of dog, per day.

Then if more fat is needed, my top choice would be a more balanced one, more like cold-pressed hemp oil or cold-pressed canola.

My bottom choice would be supermarket corn oil because (1) it's really heat-processed to death, and (2) it's heavily Omega 6, like soy oil and like big-ag poultry.

I think that the stuff we see about They need EFAs is misleading. A dog on raw poultry or any other big-ag product is eating a load of 6s and virtually no 3s. So They need EFAs for me means "They need a lot more inflammation-controlling 3s to balance the preponderance of inflammation-triggering 6s."

This applies to all diets, raw or kibble. No vegetable oils. I give Fish body oils. (You have omega fatty acids 3,6, and 9 in a diet)

If you were to add olive oil and nothing else to balance it out, you would end up with problems like dry skin. Olive oil is Omega 9s.

Corn and sunflower or safflower vegetable oils are high in linoleic acid omega-6, that they dont usually need. These are inflammatory. OK veg. oil is evening primrose.

However, fish oil is high in the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, which is anti-inflammatory. This is not found in a regular dog food diet. So either Salmon Oil or Herring, (not fish liver, fish body oil) would be great.

Flaxseed although it is good for humans to get omega-3, I do not use, as I believe animal sources are much easier for the dog to utilize. Camelina oil is similar to flax, not easily converted by the dogs body. Also, you need to add a bit of Vitamin E in the diet with any oil.


Anyways, I am currently looking into the different benefits of Unrefined Virgin Coconut oil for dogs!! I know its amazing benefits for humans.

Careful with that coconut oil. While I do have and rarely use organic coconut oil, for all the glowing reviews it gets for humans, in dogs it can contribute to weight loss and thyroid concerns.

If you do get it, don't be shocked-- it stays as a solid until warm enough and then it will be liquid. It should not have a scent of any kind, so don't worry if it doesn't smell like coconut.

Why is evening primrose oil a good veg oil? What about borage oil? My dog mainly only gets fish oil and E.. a small but regular percentage of his diet actually is herring, I live in Europe, it's easier to get than in USA.

Actually, all the info that I have read on pure, unrefined coconut oil, is that it does and should have a coconut smell and slight taste.
It is the refined coconut oil that has no scent and no flavor, and also none of the benefits such as anti-viral,anti-fungal anti-bacterial properties.
I do not know what the benefits to dogs are, but I do know that the best coconut oil to use for humans is the pure unrefined oil, in it's virgin state. MOst sold in stores are highly refined and are unhealthy. There is a huge difference and should be researched before consuming, ie; how the oil is prepared.

Evening Primrose is know for benefits to the skin in dogs both internally and externally, it has gamma-linolenic acid, omega-6, is digestable to dogs. Other vegetable oils have linolic acid. Dogs body is more suited to digest and convert animal oils vs vegetable, but Borage and Primrose are ok.

For the coconut- I'm talking about pure, organic virgin coconut oil, the kind you read about that is supposedly amazing for humans. I am still researching how it would be for dogs. For now I'll stick to fish body oil. I also got a case of Northwest Naturals chicken/salmon, so they are finally getting fish. I am lazy lately and buying pre-made raw.

Heres where I read about Coconut oil benefits, http://products.mercola.com/coconut-oil/

I have yet to try it. I have read glowing reviews from fellow GSD owners who feed pure, raw coconut oil to their dogs. The common denominator is that it helps reduce itching caused by environmental allergies. You can find unrefined coconut oil in health stores. It looks like white paste in a jar.

But I have not personally sampled it with my pup yet, so I couldn't give you my personal experience. But as Joyce has said, it does have many beneficial properties.

As with any new supplements, always introduce in small amounts. I cannot remember the dosage, maybe someone can link or advise on how much to give.