# how did my dog's coats get like this?



## apriliamille (Aug 28, 2013)

hello,
first a little history. the boxer for the first two years of his life was on royal canin maxi puppy then royal canin boxer. this spring i got our dobe puppy whose first two months was on royal canin maxi puppy. they have both been transitioned over to redmoon 1337 grain free with a range free chicken egg from my friends back yard hens every 2-3 days for about 3 months running now. sunday morning they get a raw meal of elk, venision, organs and some bone in a 80/10/10 mix (it comes from a local meat locker jerky processing plant) and end the day with deer or elk marrow bones.
probably too many variables to determine my question but any thoughts on it would be apprecited
any how my question
the boxer shedded like crazy and now the boxer coat is to die for, id take him any day as a cuddle over a pillow or teddy bear. sooo soft. the dobe pup, yeah she is a doberman, but she sure is shiny.
im looking at a grain food to put them back on. (several reasons why, some kind of embarrassing)
what did the awesomeness to the coats? was it going grain free? or is it a high quality food? or do i have too many variables to determine what did it.

that was probably very winded way to simply ask can grain dog food match a grain free diet in regards to coat quality?


----------



## 1605 (May 27, 2009)

apriliamille said:


> hello,
> first a little history. the boxer for the first two years of his life was on royal canin maxi puppy then royal canin boxer. this spring i got our dobe puppy whose first two months was on royal canin maxi puppy. they have both been transitioned over to redmoon 1337 grain free with a range free chicken egg from my friends back yard hens every 2-3 days for about 3 months running now. sunday morning they get a raw meal of elk, venision, organs and some bone in a 80/10/10 mix (it comes from a local meat locker jerky processing plant) and end the day with deer or elk marrow bones.
> probably too many variables to determine my question but any thoughts on it would be apprecited
> any how my question
> ...


Since good hair/fur/nails usually are attributable to high protein levels in the diet, I would point to that as the reason why your dog's coat has changed for the better. I know my dogs' coats became very shiny & soft when we changed to a higher protein food.

FWIW,


----------



## Unosmom (May 3, 2009)

probably due to higher omega 3 content found in red meats as well as eggs, you can still supplement with those if you decide to feed kibble.


----------



## Ruthjacobs (Dec 10, 2013)

We have a Weimaraner, when he was about a year old his coat started to lose its lovely gleam. We were only feeding him straight kibble at the time. The vet told us to add a crack a couple of eggs over his kibble once every couple of days. That really did the trick. Higher protein intake may well be the reason.


----------



## rogerharris (Jun 13, 2013)

Minced with raw vegetables like carrot and spinach are good food for dog’s coat. You could add some fish oil and raw egg . I like to feed a grain free protein kibble for shiny and soft coat. I would not consider dry packaged food for my dogs, just as I would not recommend junk food.


----------



## Georgiapeach (Jan 24, 2011)

I'd stick with what works. As you may already know, boxers can have notoriously finicky tummies. Having had boxers in the past, I found that they couldn't tolerate grains at all and did best on grain free. I had one boxer that couldn't tolerate high protein and did best on Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream (fish and potato). When I fed a supposedly better kibble, he started shedding like crazy and passing room clearing gas, along with pudding poo (transitioned slowly; didn't overfeed). Go figure - every dog is different.


----------

