Can dogs eat squid? Yes, and here is video proof with Archie

Dogs can eat squid and calamari

Because they are essentially the same thing. Or at least made from the same animal.

DOGS can also eat octopus and any other sea creature that humans can eat. As long as its meat and not toxic … the carnivore dog thrives on an organic fish treat like squid.

DISCLAIMER –  we sell beautiful squid dog treats and have done so for years.

If you want to purchase Aussie squid now, here is your chance:

WHY feed a dog a squid dog treat.

Dogs can get bored eating the same old kibble or wet dog food every day of their life. They can also get bored and eat things in the yard and street that they shouldn’t.

The goal of many dog owners is to feed their dogs something healthy, something low fat, something that is hypo allergenic.  But what if you can feed a dog something that is MORE nutritious than their regular kibble (that has around 30% meat typically).

What squid jerky dog treats look like being eaten

Squid is 100% meat product and very low moisture, so you are getting full value for money.

Squid is a great and interesting texture for dogs to chew on, like a meat ‘roll up’, that even the smallest dogs can eat.

Nutrition data says this food is high in “ Riboflavin, Vitamin B12 and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Protein, Copper and Selenium.”

To give you an idea of how great squid is in providing bio available protein to dogs,  we look at a nutrition data table below.   The raw data shows that for cooked / fried squid with 65% water content it has 18% protein, but in dog treats like ours the water content is more like 10%, which boosts the protein to 45%  or  45 grams per 100g.  Remember that the affco requirement for dog food is only 18%, so adding any reasonable amount of squid dog treats to your dogs diet is going to give a great boost to the amount of usable protein they age.

Squid jerky dog treat ESSENTIAL AMINO ACIDS

Affco also give minimum values of the TEN ESSENIAL amino acids that dogs must get in dog food, for it to be called whole and complete.

Protein is made up of TWENTY amino acids.  Of which TEN are called essential because they can’t be manufactured INSIDE of the dog – they have to get these TEN from the food they eat, to be well.

The table below shows

• column 1 = The Amount of amino acids in 100g SQUID (with 10% water content)
• column 2 – The affco MINIMUM essential amino acids for dogs on Maintenance diet
• Column 3 – How many grams of squid you would require to reach the minimum affco requirement for each of the Essential amino acids

For instance 100g of squid has 512 mg of Tryptophan amino acid in it.  Affco only requires a dog to consume 160 mg of Tryptophan in dog food.  And that would mean that a dog would only need to eat 31 grams of squid to reach the minimum Tryptophan amount required – without ANY other food !

So you might think that is a lot of squid jerky that a dog would have to eat. But the reality is that a dog would get most of its minimum requirements for its kibble, and the squid would just be a SUPER FOOD boost to its health.

Consider this. Grain like dry wheat has about 10% protein, like many other regular grains. It runs well short of the 18% bare minimum required by affco, and that is why meat is typically added to dog food.  Besides the fact domestic dogs are a carnivore, meat is required so that meat added to any natural plant or grain material can reach the bare minimum.

Since squid is 45% protein (at 10% water content), in general it is two and a half times the minimum protein required by affco. AND that is why it can boost regular dog food from barely sufficient to plenty of essential amino acids for the MANY metabolic maintenance and growth processes inside of your dog.

SQUID JERKY (GOOD) FAT CONTENT

As squid can be up to 18% fat (when water is reduced to 10%) … it cant be considered a low fat treat, and cant be used for dogs with special diet restrictions such as dogs with pancreatitis.

The good news is that it has relatively low amounts of saturated fat.

You should note that out of 100g of squid jerky, the Omega 3 (DHA) plus Omega 6 (EPA) amounts add up to 5.3 grams or  5,300 mg.  Noting that in 1 capsule of Salmon fish oil (1 ml) there is typically only 180 mg Omega 6 and 120 mg Omega 3 = 300 mg total.  That means that 100g of squid has the equivalent of about 17.6 fish oil capsules!

Affco regulates the amount of Omega 6 required in dog food but not the amount of Omega 3.  This is extremely poor since Omega 3 (the anti-inflammatory) is required to act as a catalyst for Omega 6 to work. AND if your dog has skin allergies etc, you need to get the amount and ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 right to give them optimum benefits.

Since squid has a relatively low ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 – it is ideal for reducing the typically high ratio of dog food for skin sensitive dogs or dogs with allergies (to help reduce inflammation responses).

You should be aware that most dog food uses flaxseed oil to get its Omega 3 amounts. This is because it is cheap and is less likely to go rancid in a dog food recipe.  HOWEVER “flaxseed oil contains alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a form of omega-3 fatty acid that is only converted in small amounts to active forms of omega-3, like EPA and DHA “   ref 1

This means that while dog food will give the amount of Omega 3 in it from flax seed (ALA form). The form of ALA has to be converted to DHA before it can be further used by the dog, and the low conversion rate  … means that the TRUE Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio that starts out at near 7 often balloons out to a ratio of 70 – making the omega 3 in dog food very ineffective.

CONCLUSION

You are more likely to use squid JERKY for your dog because it is:

• HIGH PROTEIN
• HYPO ALLERGENIC
• NATURAL / ORGANIC

But you might just as much be interested in its high pure true Omega 3 and Omega 6 values.

So its typically not a question of if a dog should eat squid jerky dog treats, but how much.

Several books written by authorities (ref 2) in the dog food industry suggest that you can easily substitute up to 25% of a dogs commercial dog food with meat.  Raw feeders will say 100% – but you need to know what you are doing and balance a raw diet correctly.

The reason that you need to know about The energy levels of any food you substitute for commercial dog food is that if you have your dog at the correct weight, you will want to know how much MEAT based treats you can substitute for grain or plant based kibble without adding to a dogs weight.

Since carbs and protein have close to the same energy value (KJ) per gram, if you are feeding a dog 400g of dried commercial dry dog food, you could substitute 100g of dried quality MEAT dog treat without upsetting the artificially high affco vitamin and mineral minimum levels, AND give a major boost to your dogs essential amino acid intake.

The only thing to be aware of is that with the relatively high fat content of squid (compared to most dog food that is around 4 to 10% fat) … you may want to give a little less squid than a direct gram for gram substitute (since fat is 2.5 times the energy value of protein or carbs).

Squid is a great healthy dog treat to give to any dog. If you are unsure, consult your vet, and/ or buy the sample pack sizes until you confirm your dog is on-board.

REFERENCE

Ref 0 – Data tables from Nutritondata site

Ref 1  –   6 Benefits of Flaxseed Oil — Plus How to Use It

www.healthline.com/nutrition/flaxseed-oil-benefits

Ref 2 – Canine and feline nutrition (case et al)