Fats are responsible for providing your dog with energy. So it is an important nutrient that all dogs need. It is also partly responsible for building  strong cells and promoting the absorption of nutrients.

However, similar to the essential amino acids, a dog cannot product the essential fatty acids. So it has to come from somewhere else, from their food.

It is not a common thing for dogs to develop a deficiency in fatty acids. This is because they usually get a sufficient amount of energy in the form of fat from their basic diet. In fact a small amount of fat is actually good for your dog and is beneficial in several ways…

• protects them from catching a cold
• gives their body added cushion
• acts as a protecting layer for some of their internal organs

Dogs have the natural ability to convert fats into energy when they need so they are pretty efficient at using their stored up fats.

Read our article on Why Your Dog Also Needs Other Supplements in Her Diet.

Not Too Much Fats

As with most other things, too much can be bad for your dog. Although fats can be beneficial, consuming too much can become a concern. If your dog has too much energy in its body - no matter the source - it will eventually be converted and stored as fat. Too much body fat can cause obesity and related conditions such as…

• diabetes
• canine osteoarthritis
• heart disease

There is a limit to the amount of fat that can be used for some of the things mentioned above - cold prevention, protective layer, and so on. Once that limit is reached anything in excess is converted to and stored as fat. For example, if your dog eats 3,500 more than what its body can use, then that will be turned into one pound of body fat. Pretty scary right?

Keep in mind that the only way for your pet to get fat - outside of a health condition - is if they consume more calories than they burn and use. On the flip side, the only way for your dog to lose weight is to burn more calories than it consumes. That way it will start to burn of some of the excess body fat as it converts it to energy.