Can a dog eat a whole fish, scales and all?

[RazinKain]

Originally Posted by Verivus

Uncooked fish bones are perfectly fine. I personally would cut off any spiny fins just so I feel better about it, not necessarily because my dog wouldn't be able to handle it.

Agreed. I would remove the spiny dorsal (cut it out or trim it flush to the back). The rest should be fine.

[kai.mc.square]

Hey I would like to share with you guys what I've learnt (cut n paste):

"Anyways, I've been reading and found that the problem with fish is that many species contain Thiaminase, a substance which breaks apart Vitamin B1 (or was that B11?), which will cause "malnutrition"... a very bad kind of malnutrition.

I've experimented with a couple of fish and he loves Catfish (Mekong Delta) (he loves the innards as well), and especially Capelin. He slurps up the Capelin like it was Spaghetti! He also hates some kind of fish and would just gnaw on them but not eat them.

Sadly, I found out that Capelin contains high amounts of Thiaminase, so I'm gonna cut it off of our food chain completely starting immediately.

On a brighter note however, I found out through research that Tilapia (and numerous other species: Thiaminase - The Free Freshwater and Saltwater Aquarium Encyclopedia Anyone Can Edit - The Aquarium Wiki ) contain ZERO Thiaminase, and I assume are probably just as good as any other source of meat."

From: Feeding MAINLY raw (thawed) fish?

[kai.mc.square]

Oh jesus didn't realize this thread was over a year old, sorry.

[kiya]

I would be very careful with any frozen fish, specially Tilapia & shrimp for human or canine consumption. There are a lot of farm raised fish that come from overseas, Indonisia, China and such. I would not feed that stuff to a stray dog on the street.

[carmspack]

totally agree with kiya . Tilapia a very popular FARMED fish and catfish , also FARMED, are surprisingly high in omega 6 -- because they are fed grain products . This was a discussion that was from the Mayo Clinic . Popular Fish, Tilapia, Contains Potentially Dangerous Fatty Acid Combination

read the first 3 paragraphs Tilapia vs. Trout ? Battle of the High-Protein, Low-Cal Farmed Whitefish | Poliquin Lifestyle
so instead of being beneficial you may be working against yourself .
Additionally these fish are , both tilapia and catfish and kiya's shrimp , are bottom feeders and they feed on the sludge and garbage that settles . That is why you don't want them coming from China .

Now mackerel and herring are deep sea oily fish , an entirely different "kettle of fish " haha rich in health benefitting omega 3 .
Pollock is an inexpensive oily fish - the constituent of many a "fish stick" - here is an omega 3 comparison -

Pollock is a large marine fish that contain 0.45 g of omega-3 fatty acid per 3 oz. serving. Pollock is also labeled as whitefish when purchased from grocery stores

vs catfish

A 3 oz. serving of catfish contains about 0.2 to 0.3 g of omega-3 fatty acid.

I certainly would not count on fish as a main source of protein in the diet .
Meanwhile my dogs will catch the makerel and have them slip down the gullet . You would think they were seals .

[JakodaCD OA]

I work in a fish market,,I would never myself eat (nor feed my dogs) any fish that is farm raised outside the US/Canada. It is absolutely disgusting We won't sell it either.

The problem with farm raised or imported fish/shrimp outside the US is, it is not strictly regulated, sure they may inspect here and there, but not all of it is inspected.

Farm raised fish from overseas, is basically raised in sewer farms.

Mine get alot of salmon, as in poached I don't do raw fish, to paranoid about bones/scales and such.

I know this thread is quite old, but just wanted to add to the recent ones

[billsharp]

Hahaha, Kai, I wouldn't have thought to see how old the thread was either (admins, can we do something to keep stale threads from becoming active again?)

We feed the whole processed tilapia, dorsal fin and all. Liesl has never had a problem with it. It is sharp but she loves to crunch up the fins. Scales, head, etc., all contain valuable nutrients and calcium. This is not to say that it would be impossible for a dorsal fin spike to cause a problem, but I personally don't worry too much about it.

[JakodaCD OA]

actually we leave alot of old threads that have information for those looking for it

[Lauri & The Gang]

The only thing I would worry about with feeding whole fish is anything they may have ingested - like hooks.

[kai.mc.square]

well, this stinks.

first, we have to battle thiaminase. this goes for both us and our dogs.

and then now we have to battle O3 to O6 ratios.

i have half a mind to teach my dear GusGus to hunt sewer rats from now on heh heh..