Search fish oil and you can definitely find all kinds of claimed health benefits.  

“It’s great for healthy joints!” 

“It can heal arthritis issues.”  

“What a difference it can make to your dog’s fur coat!” 

“This oil has helped immensely!”   

“It bolsters heart health!” 

“It’s one of the best supplements there is!”  

Wait?  Is it really though?   

Once upon a time we bought into those claimed health benefits too and purchased fish oil for our two little dogs.  

Here’s a few fishy things we later came to learn ~ 

As fish are crushed to produce the oil, the oil is exposed to oxygen.  It doesn’t take much oxygen to turn oil rotten.  

Almost all fish oils have been pasteurized and heated to high temperatures which kills nutrients and enzymes. 

Several chemicals we don’t recommend for a dog or a cat like bleach, methanol and chloroform are used during the oil extraction and refining process.  

Most fish oil is very low in quality and can be harmful (especially ones marketed for pets.)  

Many fish oils include ingredients in them that are not good for a dog or cat such as: ascorbic acid, tocopherols, biotin, sorbic acid, rosemary extract, silicon dioxide. 

Sad, but true, these days, fish coming from the ocean are likely to be contaminated with mercury, heavy metals, plastics, oils and other harmful chemicals. 

Fish that aren’t coming from the ocean are coming from fish farms where the fish are cramped together, fed food they weren’t designed to eat and they can even be genetically modified.  

Giving a dog/cat fish oil can unbalance the body’s natural chemistry. Mild effects taking fish oil can be fishy breath, heartburn, nausea and diarrhea.

Most pawrents who give fish oil to their dog or cat do so because of the claimed “omega 3 fatty acid” health benefits. 

The reason fish have omegas in them is because the fish are eating algae and seaweed and those plants have omega 3’s (healthy fats) in them. 

Instead of fish oil we recommend to cut the middle guy (fish) out and go to the main source.

This here is one of the best sources of omega 3’s.

We only recommend whole foods - not fake chemicals.