Coconut oil?

[BlackGSD]

I've seen recently that some folks give their dogs coconut oil. Seems I read 2TBS a day for a GSD sized dog. (gradually work up to that amount.)

My questions are:

WHY coconut oil?

Since it is solid at normal room temp, do you warm it a little first or not?

How do you feed it? I don't/won't mix ANYTHING with the dry kibble I feed. But Siren being Siren, she well eat ANYTHING "plain". And yes, that includes coconut oil in its "solid" form. (I gave her a little bit on a spoon.)

Do you feed any other oil at the same time? (Like you feed salmon oil AND vit E together.)

[Cassidy's Mom]

Here's an article about the why of coconut oil: Benefits Of Coconut Oil For Dogs | Dogs Naturally Magazine

I first read about the benefits in the Whole Dog Journal. One thing about coconut oil that's better than other fats is that it's easily digestible, even for dogs that have trouble with fats in general.

I am a bit lazy about giving it to my dogs, I tend to do it sporadically, but when I do, I'll give coconut oil in one meal, and then salmon oil in the other. I don't know if it matters, I just like to spread it out. I don't warm it unless I'm down to the bottom of the jar and I can't easily scrape it out. My dogs love the taste and will eat it either as liquid in the summer when it warms up naturally, or cold and hard in cooler weather. I put it on top of their kibble.

[BlackGSD]

Thanks Debbie.

One of the pages I just read was talking about "virgin" or UNrefined coconut oil. The only kind around here is refined. Does it really matter that much?

The kind I got says "Expeller Pressed, Organic Coconut Oil, Refined."

How Imuch do you give them?

[Cassidy's Mom]

I use virgin organic. I'm not sure what the refining process does, but I'd look for the unrefined. The WDJ guideline was 1 tsp per 10 pounds - that would be 6 tsp (2 tablespoons) for Halo and 8 tsp (approximately 2-1/2 tablespoons) for Keef. I don't really measure though, I eyeball it.

If you can't find it at the grocery store and don't have a health food store nearby, you can buy it online. I've gotten it from here before: Welcome to Tropical Traditions

[BlackGSD]

Ok. The refined isnt going to hurt anything is it? I would really rather not throw it away and I have no other use for it. (Course if it would be harmful, I won't use it.) Will try to find some UNrefined for next time.

[Cassidy's Mom]

I think at worst it may not be quite as beneficial, but it's not going to harm them. If you've already got it, I'd go ahead and use it.

[carmspack]

I have been using coconut oil , Tropical Traditions Gold Label for over a decade in my formula for Sh-Emp . It is cold pressed organic virgin coconut. It matters that it is not refined . Coconut oil is high in lauric acid among other things . Coconut oil is anti microbial , anti diarrheal, anti bacterial , healthful for the glands - adrenal, thyroid , liver . It is an instant source of energy for the muscles .
Carmen
Carmspack Working German Shepherd Dogs

[Discoetheque]

I've been using coconut oil since about May of this year after Discoe developed a strange set of symptoms (nothing harmful. Just personally distressing, really) that had my vet pretty well stumped. Learning that coconut oil had anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties, I figured I would give it a try because the least it could do would be nothing at all.
After three weeks of EFA Gold organic virgin coconut oil, the symptoms cleared up completely and she seems even better than she had been before that.
I've since moved on to CocoTherapy coconut oil. I like the consistency of it better than the EFA Gold (It seems to stay softer and easy to scoop without solidifying).
I only do one tablespoon a day. She has done stellar on that, and so I don't see a reason to give more. I usually just drop the tablespoon on top of her food and that's the first thing she'll eat, but she will also gladly eat it off the spoon or out of my hand. I don't give any other supplements but this.

[sable123]

Coconut oil is a good fat to add but keep in mind each teaspoon you use per cup of dry will raise the fat content 5%, so if your food is 25/15 you will be at 25/20.

Coconut oil is a part of most performance supplements because it is digested more like a carbohydrate than a fat, which is good. Ironically, too much usually doesn't cause the runs, rather oily stools.

A healthy dog shouldn't need it but of all the fats it is pretty good.

Keep it on the counter near your oven, it should stay like hard butter there.

You can use the refined it will help the skin and coat the same.

The extra virgin stuff is amazing as a cooking fat.

[jocoyn]

Just don't loose those omega 3s from fish oil though.
Coconut oil is still saturated fat, just short chain and better than beef fat by a long shot and it also does not throw off the omega 6mega 3 ratio like vegetable oils do.


In my undergraduate years as a biochemisty major my research project was feeding rats a diet containing
A) cocounut oil + EFAs (linoleic, linolenic)
B) coconut oil + EFAs + DHA and EPA (which was very expensive to get during those days)

We then looked at osmotic hemolysis of Red Blood Cells because membrane integrity is a major role of these (though much more is known now than then about role in the immune system). His goal was disease states that cause breakdown of rbs in the body like sickle cell and burn victims. The DHA and EPA supplemented rats had MUCH better red cell integrity.

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Oh all this was 1976-1977 and My professor was on the bandwagon THEN about how horrible margarine and the trans fatty acids in it were and that butter was a much healthier choice!