29 gru I bought some flaxseed oil for my dog, I’ve heard it’s just as good as the fish oil. Am I right?
At first glance, you are right – both products have a high content of Omega 3 fatty acids. However, if you take a better look and compare the two products you will see that, actually, you were wrong. On one hand, the flaxseed oil is highly unstable, which means that it oxidizes very quickly. Once oxidized, the product not only that it loses it benefits, but it becomes detrimental. On the other hand, even if it is fresh, it is less effective for your dog for one simple reason – it does not get absorbed well by your dog’s body, because dogs don’t have the necessary enzymes to extract all the beneficial Omega 3 fatty acids from plant based products. According to science, for an equal amount of ingested product, a dog absorbs four times more Omega 3 fatty acids from the salmon oil than from the flaxseed oil.
So, we are sorry to disappoint you, but no – you are not right. It’s not “just as good as the fish oil” for your dog or cat. Which doesn’t mean that the flaxseed oil is bad – it’s just not so great for your pet.