Vitamin D can be added to dogs in a variety of ways when feeding a BARF diet. Naturally, dogs get most of their vitamin D from their food, as dogs cannot produce it to the same extent as humans and other animals. It is therefore important that dogs are provided with sufficient amounts of vitamin D when feeding a BARF diet. We have summarized the available sources here.
Supplying vitamin D to your dog through BARF food
The most natural way is to provide your dog with vitamin D as part of the normal BARF diet. This means that it should come from animal meat. Various types of fish are particularly good for controlling the vitamin-rich intake: types such as sprats, herring, salmon and trout contain a lot of vitamin D. Pangasius, pollock and cod, on the other hand, are less suitable for this specific purpose.
In addition to the pure meat content, offal for dogs , such as heart and liver, also contain a certain amount. However, this is not enough in the long term to ensure the required amount of vitamin D in the diet. In moderation, egg yolk is suitable for providing a vitamin-rich supply.
To achieve an optimal vitamin D supply when BARFing, one meal a week should contain fish for dogs , offal and egg yolk. This way, the dog remains well supplied with vitamin D. As always, the fish should come from the highest quality sources possible.
Consequences of Deficiency and Fish Alternative
Vitamin D plays an important role in dogs' calcium absorption and in their immune system. A long-term low vitamin D supply may contribute to an increased risk of heart disease, chronic intestinal inflammation and cancer, even years later.
So if your dog doesn't like fish or has a food intolerance, it is very important to ensure that the dog still gets enough vitamin D. The best way to do this is to add cod liver oil to the food. However the vitamin D supply is provided, an overdose of the vitamin can be harmful. You should therefore pay close attention to the recommended portion sizes and the vitamin D content of the types of fish used in the food and, if you feed fish regularly, also use types with a low vitamin D content. In the BARF shop at haustierkost.de you can find numerous different types of fish. As always, you can find recommended amounts and portion sizes in our BARF calculator .
