Benefits of Mackerel Oil

Modern commercial pet food (such as Petfix Club food) is complete, in that it fulfils all of your pet’s nutritional needs. However, some animals seem to need a higher level of oils than others. This is why it’s often recommended that pets with skin disease should be given extra oils, either in capsules or as a liquid supplement (such as mackerel oil).

Omega-3 and Omega-6

Oils (also called unsaturated fats), derived from plants and fish, are an essential part of all animals’ diets: they make up part of all new cells in the body. Oils are classified as omega-6 fatty acids (e.g. from sunflower oil and corn oil) and omega-3 fatty acids (from fish oil, and some plants like flax seed oil). They are both key ingredients in skin cells: if a pet has dry, scurfy skin, extra supplementation with oils helps to create a glossy coat.

But omega-3 fatty acids have an additional anti-inflammatory impact that omega-6 does not have. So if a pet is itchy, giving extra omega-3 (i.e. fish oil) can often help. Of all fish oils, mackerel contains the highest amount of the most important fatty acids (414.7 and 956.0 mg/100 g for EPA and DHA, respectively).

One squirt of Coastal Nutrients contains 5ml mackerel oil which has 785mg of EPA & DHA.

Recommended Allowance

The recommended allowance of EPA and DHA for a 10 kg dog is 170 mg per day, so a quarter of a squirt daily should be enough: a higher dose will not cause any harm

A 45kg dog needs a full 785mg per day, which means one squirt daily.

It’s also possible to buy specific capsules containing these oils, but it’s more cost-effective to use the oil from a bottle, bypassing the extra process of putting the oil into gelatin capsules.