Do Dogs Need Fiber?

Fiber may not be a physiological requirement by dogs but has many benefits from managing diarrhea or constipation to helping diabetic dogs and helping resolve swollen anal sacs, just but to mention. Should dogs have fiber?.

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Meaning

Fiber, roughage, dietary fiber, or bulk refer is a type of carbohydrates found only in plant-based foods such as vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes that the body cannot digest or breakdown into sugar molecules.

Animal flesh, hooves, hair, fish scale, feathers, etc. don’t have dietary fiber. It is only found in plant cell walls and helps them to be rigid.

It is divided into two types; the soluble (fermentable) include gums, pectins, hemicelluloses, inulin, and β-glucans, while insoluble include cellulose, lignin, and some hemicelluloses.

Soluble fiber dissolves in water and when inside your dog’s gut to form a viscous gel with many benefits, including helping smooth food passage and others we are going to see. In contrast, an insoluble one doesn’t dissolve in water, isn’t digested, and leaves almost the same way it came (has little or no nutritional value).

Both the soluble and insoluble roughages are very important, and the dog diet needs to have these two and not just one type.

Sources

Before we give you sources, you need to know that all fiber sources are not the same. For instance, beet pulp (has both soluble and insoluble) is said to give stool that has good characteristics and doesn’t compromise dog food digestibility.

There are many sources of both soluble and insoluble. Familiar sources include whole grains, cereals, and legumes like brown rice, wheat, sorghum, flaxseeds, wheat germ, powdered cellulose, beans, and lentils, barley, and oats.

Others are peanut hulls, oat bran, soybean hulls, beet pulp, pea fiber, green bananas, asparagus, sweet potatoes, apples, oranges, carrots, kelp, broccoli, oats, rye, pear, pumpkins, blackberries, artichokes (fructooligosaccharide), dried tomato pomace, among many others.

If you are interested, insoluble fiber, consider going for chicory, inulin, pectins (in fruits), plant gum, beet pulp, psyllium (has some insoluble), fructooligosaccharides (artichokes), and legumes.

Hulls, wheat bran, and celluloses are examples of insoluble roughages. However, powdered cellulose may mean anything, including tree pulp, shredded paper, cotton, and so on. Always ask more about the source of powdered cellulose.

Crude fiber

The crude fiber in dog food refers to the indigestible part of roughages you have after a standardized laboratory treatment with alkali and acid. It is primarily cellulose pentosans and lignin. These laboratory treatments will dissolve all soluble one and some non-soluble, and the residue doesn’t have any nutritional benefits.

It is a meaningless term since it doesn’t tell you about the quality or type used. Most foods with high crude fiber may indicate that either the diet is meant for weight loss (help make your canine friend feel full) or low-quality dietary fiber was used – fillers.

A more meaningful term will be total digestible fiber, which canine food manufacturers are not obliged to state.

If you look at a dog’s diet nutritional profile, including AAFCO, it doesn’t list fiber as an essential part of a dog’s diet. Similarly, their ancestors, the wolves, depend mostly on flesh and not plant material, except for the few occasions they scavenge fruits (berries when in seasons) or eat some of their preys’ gut content fed on grains, grass, and other plants.

Therefore, from a nutritional perspective, dogs don’t have a physiological need for fiber, and they can live without it, and they don’t have enzymes to digest it.

However, not needing doesn’t mean it is crucial. It has many benefits to your dogs, a reason why most dog food manufacturers include it in canine or even feline diets.

Benefits

Roughages have little or no direct nutritional benefits to dogs besides keeping things moving in the gut, mostly insoluble. Some of the critical roles it plays include the following:

1. Helps with constipation and diarrhea

Paradoxically, fiber helps with diarrhea and constipation, thereby improving not only regularity but also stool quality. Regularity is vital in limiting exposure to various toxins and carcinogens that may cause colon cancer.

When constipated, insoluble fiber will absorb water like a sponge (without dissolving), causing bulking and moistening the stool. This effect will pressure on colon walls, something that will trigger muscle contraction. Your dog will be able to expel fecal matter faster, i.e., it increases transit time for fecal matter.

On the other hand, when your dog has diarrhea, soluble fiber will absorb water, which will help increase bulk, solidify feces, and reduce transit time, i.e., reduces the rate at which peristalsis (muscular contraction that helps propel gut content through the digestive tract) occurs thereby slowing down gut content movement.

Also, fermentable ones help promote smooth passage of food or fecal matter inside your dog gut since it jellies when it absorbs water.

Therefore, it gives fecal matter formation and nutrient absorption more time, combined with water absorption from inside the gut, reducing the chances of diarrhea.

The overall effect is of better quality and consistent stool, so it is a stool normalizer.

2. Nourishes good gut bacteria

Once it reaches the colon, the fermentable or soluble fiber offers nourishment to the microbes, especially the good ones. This nourishment will increase their population, support immunity and microbiome health.

As they ferment soluble fiber, the friendly bacteria will release short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) like butyrate. Some of the benefits of the SCFAs include:

Nourishes the colon cells, i.e., they serve as a source of energy to colon cells.
They promote a healthy gut. For instance, butyrate acid will help control mucus lining acidity or pH, preventing polyps and tumors formation while boosting mineral absorption.
They increase “muscle activity, blood flow and water absorption (1)
Colon cells are part of the immunity system. They will help boost overall immunity since they create a mucosal barrier to prevent anything inside the gut from entering the dog’s body.
It may also help with Crohn’s Disease (IBD), colitis, colon cancer, weight loss, heart health, and reduce harmful cholesterol levels.

3. May support renal health

Soluble fibers will help increase the population of good gut bacteria that consume nitrogen and promote nitrogen excreting via feces, reducing the kidney’s burden.

A study shows that guar gum and sugar beet pulp supplementation diminishes after meal use of amino acids favoring the use of short-chain fatty acids instead.” This research shows that fiber can influence the excretion or absorption of some nutrients.

4. Weight management

In the US, 30-40% of dogs are obese. For overweight dogs, adding insoluble fiber will make them feel fuller, causes satiety without increasing the number of calories consumed since once eaten. As it absorbs water, expand, and makes him feel full. It is a perfect way to dilute the total calories consumed (fewer calories per meal) by starving your pet. Otherwise, your canine pal will have to eat a lot more to feel full.

Additionally, a sturdy show that dogs that eat a diet high in fiber tend to lose fat up to 5 times more than those that eat low fiber foods. Even when on high-protein diets.

However, unless you go for complete and balanced formulated diets for dogs trying to lose weight, too much may be detrimental. It may also help if you switch to high protein low fiber diets, and you reduce calories.

5. Helps diabetic dogs

Roughages slow down digestion and creates a barrier that reduces the rate of nutrient absorption. By so doing, they will slow the rate of sugar absorption, something that will ensure no glucose spikes or dips occurs in the blood of dogs with diabetes (type 1 that affects the ability for dogs to control the sugar). Did you know that insoluble fiber will help lower blood sugar levels after meals?

Since it helps in weight management, it helps diabetic since obese dogs with diabetes have issues with insulin resistance and don’t make enough. Since fibers like short-chain FOS doesn’t help in weight loss, you expect better glucose control and reduced resistance to insulin.

On the other hand, in healthy dogs, short-chain FOS will improve insulin control and blood sugar levels.

It isn’t uncommon to find many veterinarians who recommend diets higher in fiber for dogs that have diabetes. However, how much depends on individual canines as some thrive higher, others moderate, and some low fiber contents.

6. Remedy for swollen anal sacs or glands

When anal sacks or glands are inflamed or blocked, dogs may drag their hide quarters whit a lot of distress, known as scooting. How doesn’t fiber help? It is simple, since it absorbs water and causes bulking or a large stool, the enlarged stool will pressure these sacs as they poop.

The pressure applied with help unblock these anal glands and promote normal drainage if they are swollen.

7. Good for cardiovascular health

While they don’t suffer the same cardiovascular issues as humans when they eat fatty foods, other conditions and endocrinal disorders may cause cardiovascular problems.

Adding insoluble fiber to the diet may reduce the amount of cholesterol in diets as it binds with and eliminates it, i.e., it lowers blood cholesterol (1), soluble fiber inhibits cholesterol absorption (2). A study on Beagle dogs shows “diet containing 10% fiber (2% sugar beet pulp, 8% oligofructose) lowered blood cholesterol.”

8. Other benefits

Besides what we have seen, diets with fiber may benefit canines in the following ways:

As NomNomNom.com says, fermentable fibers, especially “fructooligosaccharides (FOS) and mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS), showed improved cell-mediated immune function (an immune response that doesn’t involve antibodies), enhanced ability to fight infection, positive microbial population changes, and overall improved immune status.”
May bind with some toxins and irritating bile juice inside the gut and be eliminated via fecal matter.
Gives more time for nutrient absorption by slowing transit time, especially during diarrhea.
It may hairball problems since it will increase since it helps keep the hairball moving just as it does in constipation. It supports bulk fecal matter, which will promote movement.
Soluble fiber will help manage large bowel diarrhea since they absorb water, which will help stool form well. Large bowel diarrhea often results in mucus or blood in poop, straining to pass feces, and frequent defecation but with only small stool.
Help reduce tartar and plaque build-up on their teeth.
Insoluble fiber will help reduce gas or flatulence
May reduce pica in dogs characterized by eating non-food material or spoiled (rotten) food.

How much fiber

Different dogs can tolerate different amounts, both soluble and insoluble. Typical dog diets have beet 2-5% of fiber. Those with beyond 5% are considered high. For instance, weight loss formulas (calorie-reduced) may have from 6-12% fiber.

Also, ensure it has both the fermentable (soluble and insoluble) since we have seen each has its roles.

However, not all dogs deserve diets high in fiber. For instance, since they need more energy to support their fetus’s growth or produce milk, pregnant or lactating dogs should have diets high in readily digestible carbohydrates. Otherwise, problems like ketosis, less milk production, embryo resorption, and fetal abnormalities may arise.

Too much is bad

While it has numerous benefits, don’t be tempted to give your canine too much fiber as it will negatively impact. Some of the downsides of excessive fiber in dog diets may result in undesirable effects.

Firstly, too much fiber affects digestibility, availability, and absorption of essential nutrients. For instance, quickly fermented ones such as guar gum and pectin lower the availability of some minerals. This effect may lead to nutritional deficiencies and poor coat quality.

Secondly, it causes loose (diarrhea) or hard stool, vomiting, flatulence (gas), increased density and volume of dog poop, and frequent defection.

Furthermore, it is not good for growing puppies, and in extreme cases, too much of some fiber types impact energy and nutrient concentration. Your dog may be full before they have enough nutrients and calories, making such diets bad for growing puppies that need fats, protein, and the right calories for growth.

Since they need more energy to support their fetus’s growth or produce milk, pregnant or lactating dogs should have diets high in readily digestible carbohydrates. Otherwise, problems like ketosis, less milk production, embryo resorption, and fetal abnormalities may arise.

If your dog has small bowel diarrhea with many feces a few times, consider going for low fiber canine diets.

Talk to your vet

If you decide to increase the amount of fiber you are giving our dog, do it gradually over 7-10 days. For instance, the microbes in the colon need time to adjust to an increase (soluble). Otherwise, it may be disastrous, and your dog may end up with diarrhea.

You will get many online recipes to guide you on adding fiber to your dog’s homemade diets. Some of the recommended sources include:

Canned pumpkin – Has over 80% water and fiber, but may not be enough for therapeutic use. However, avoid pumpkin pie mix since it has added sodium, sugar with some having xylitol that is toxic.
Dried psyllium husk or dried pumpkin powder

For temporary use in dogs with Virbac Vetasyl Fiber Capsules 500 mg or Metamucil, 4-in-1 Psyllium Fiber Supplement, Sugar-Free Powder, Orange Smooth Flavored Drink

However, suppose you intend to use fiber for therapeutic reasons, including managing diabetes, constipation, diarrhea, weight loss, or managing canine hairballs. In that case, it is good to talk to your vet.

He will conduct a proper diagnosis before recommending the right fibers and correct amounts for both soluble and insoluble. Balancing them on your own isn’t a walk in the park.

Best dog foods with fiber

Instead of relying on homemade recipes that guide you on the right amount to give your canine pal, consider investing in nutritionally balanced and complete dog foods such as the following:

Alternatively, if you want your feline to lose weight or have digestive issues, there are dog foods for hairballs, weight loss, and so on.

Meaning

Sources

Crude fiber