Omega fatty acids are in a class of dietary fats that have highly sig­nif­i­cant effects on the indi­vid­ual con­sum­ing them. They are com­posed pri­mar­ily of car­bon and hydro­gen with a small amount of oxy­gen. Fatty acid require­ments of felines are slightly dif­fer­ent from the canine’s but both depend upon high qual­ity fat sources in their diets. Over the past twenty years a tremen­dous amount of research on humans and ani­mals have proven that Omega fatty acid intake in proper ratios and quan­ti­ties effects a wide range of bio­chem­i­cal actions. Clot­ting fac­tors, neu­ro­log­i­cal devel­op­ment, cell mem­brane integrity and func­tion, immune com­pe­tence, energy gen­er­a­tion and fat metab­o­lism are just some of the meta­bolic activ­i­ties directly affected by Omega fatty acids.

Omega3 fatty acid, Omega6 fatty acid and Arachi­donic acid are the three main fatty acids impact­ing the health sta­tus of dogs and cats. Dogs must eat Omega6 fatty acid in their food in order to sur­vive; and from this sin­gle source the other two fatty acids can be cre­ated within the dog. Cats need both Omega6 fatty acid and Arachi­donic acid and accord­ing to some nutri­tion­ists they even require an Omega3 fatty acid in their diet in order to survive.

What Are The Sources Of Omega Fatty Acids?

Omega-6 fatty acid is found in saf­flower, sun­flower, corn and evening prim­rose oils and Bor­age oil. Linoleic Acid, which is one kind of nat­u­rally occur­ring Omega6 fatty acid, is found in com­mon pet-food ingre­di­ents such as corn and chicken fat and is a required nutri­tional com­po­nent of the canine and feline diet.

Omega3 fatty acids are derived from plant and ani­mal sources. Fish oils, espe­cially cold water fish such as salmon, mack­erel, hal­ibut, and her­ring, and in ani­mals that feed on these fish, are the pri­mary dietary sources of Omega3 fatty acids. Omega3 fatty acids are also found in oils from some plants such as canola and flaxseeds. Wal­nuts, freshly ground wheat germ, and soy­beans also con­tain sig­nif­i­cant amounts.

Arachi­donic Acid (AA), an essen­tial fatty acid for felines, is present in some fish oils, pork fat and poul­try fat. Sources of both Omega3 and Omega6 fatty acids are dried beans such as great north­ern, kid­ney, navy and soy­beans. Cer­tain fish are very rich in EFAs. The body can con­vert EFAs from fish more eas­ily than fatty acids from other sources.

What Do Fatty Acids Do In The Body?

Fatty acids are pre­cur­sors to many highly active and influ­en­tial chem­i­cals that play a role in mod­u­lat­ing a vari­ety of bio­chem­i­cal path­ways. Immune func­tion, energy pro­duc­tion and uti­liza­tion, cell mem­brane strength and func­tion, reduc­tion and/or stim­u­la­tion of inflam­ma­tion are but a few of the activ­i­ties attrib­uted to deriv­a­tives of fatty acids. The pro­duc­tion of hormone-like sub­stances called prostaglandins and eicosanoids has pro­found effects on the health sta­tus of the dog and cat… and human.

Why Are They Important?

With­out cer­tain fatty acids in the diet mam­mals sim­ply would not sur­vive; they are as essen­tial to life as water or oxy­gen. Only through inges­tion of a select few fatty acids in the diet are dogs, cats and us able to live and thrive. Con­versely, if only poor qual­ity fatty acids are avail­able via the diet, or if high qual­ity fatty acids are present but in min­i­mal amounts or in improper ratios dogs, cats and humans will not thrive. No truer phrase has been uttered than that which states, “we are what we eat” when it comes to the influ­ence fatty acids have on health sta­tus. Pro­vide your dog or cat a diet that has low lev­els of fatty acids, or poor qual­ity fatty acids, or fatty acids that have been degraded by expo­sure to air, high tem­per­a­tures or harm­ful chem­i­cals and the ani­mal will surely suf­fer the con­se­quences. Research has demon­strated that changes in the dietary fatty acids actu­ally mod­ify the fatty acid com­po­si­tion of the cell mem­brane. Any changes in the cell mem­brane lipid com­po­si­tion changes the cell func­tion. Eicosanoids derived from Arachi­donic acid (AA) tend to increase inflam­ma­tory processes com­pared to eicosanoids derived from (GLA) gamma-linolenic acid or (EPA) eicos­apen­taenoic acid.