Nutrients in fish skins
Health benefits of seafood for dogs is generally high overall.
Fish products such as Cod Skin contain all classes of nutrients except carbohydrates
Fish Skins are rich in protein, high quality fat with omega 3 fatty acids, minerals, vitamins and trace elements. The highest content of nutrients in fish is the high quality proteins.
What are proteins?
Protein is in the range of 14-20% of fresh fish. They are made up of 20 amino acids. The amino acids are bound together in long chains and are called proteins. When heated they become more digestible. In the digestion of the dog, protein chains dissolve so that the amino acid peptide bonds break they release from one another and enter the bloodstream in the gut.
Importance of proteins for dogs
Protein in fish products is the largest and most important component of the nutrients of most fish products. They are among the very best available and are comparable to protein in egg white in protein quality and the best meat in terms of vital nutrient content. Essential amino acids are similar to vitamins in that sense that shortage of only one of them inevitably leads to death.
Essential amino acids for dogs
Nine amino acids are essential for dogs, and they can not be made by their body and are therefore essential for them. They are histidine, lysine, methionine, threonine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, and tryptophan. Debates among protein scientists are if arginine should be on this list, it is conditionally essential for humans.
Protein Quality
The quality of proteins is often described by quality - units obtained by feeding experiments on animals. The units are e.g. BV (biological value) and NPU (net protein utilization).
Fish proteins score very high in protein quality of 82-85% net protein utilization , meaning up to 85% of the consumed fish protein can be utilized by the dog to build muscle or produce any kind of operation within the body. Fish proteins score higher than protein isolates from milk.
Protein deficiency
It is rare today that dogs have the symptoms of chronic protein deficiency. Protein deficiency in dogs is often considered as a syndrome that should be treated by veterinarians. Protein deficiency can occur as effects of prolonged general hunger, which is very rare nowadays. Protein shortages have been observed in older dogs and sick , who receive too little protein over an extended period of time.
Tickled Pet has these high end fish proteins in the form of Fish Skin treats for dogs , as well as we have dried cod food topper and both contain up to 85% of these highly usable proteins for any size and any breed of dogs.
By Snorri Halldorsson
Seafood Science Expert,Director of R&D at Tickled Pet
