Is this true about carrots and coat colour?

[Irena]

I was told that it is not recommended to give Weims a lot of carrots OR food that contains them (for the sake of colourant?) because the dog's coat will have a brownish tinge. Is that true? (I have also heard that carrots are given to German Shepherds to improve their tan/red pigmentation.)

[seddie]

Carrots contain beta carotene which is used as a natural food colourant. Nutritionally it is the precursor to Vitamin A but far less toxic than the pure form of vitamin A [retinol].

It can turn human skin an orangey colour but you would need to eat an awful lot of carrots for this to happen.

Likewise a dog would need to eat an awful lot of carrots for it to affect coat colour.

Carrots are good for dogs in a sensible quantity.

[greyghost]

Do we need to cook the carrots or can they be given raw? I notice that when I give Abbie a raw carrot (mainly for chewing purposes) it is not broken down when it comes out the other end . I think somebody once told me to freeze them first, but do we par- boil them first or what? Would she get more goodness from the carrot if I grate it or juice it?

[Irena]

Cressy, welcome to the board!!

Thanks Wendy - what about dry food (kibble) that contains carrot [whatever] as colourant? I was warned against that a while ago, but I don't remember the brand of food, unless it is common practice.

[seddie]

Hi Cressy

Carrots [and all vegetables] are made up of tough cellular walls, within which are held the nutrients. Dogs do not chew their food as such so will not break these cell walls down in this way, and their digestive systems further down will not break down the cellulose either. This means that raw carrot will come out the same size and consistency that it went down and the nutrients will also pass through unused.

Pulverising raw carrots will break down the cell walls so if you want to feed raw carrots you will need to run them through a liquidiser type food processor.

Cooking, and to a lesser extent, freezing will break down the cellulose.

[seddie]

Irena

Theoretically if a dog food contains a lot of beta carotene as a food colourant and it is the only food fed, it could change coat colour. However my working springers have loads of cooked carrots in their diet and their white bits are still pure white and not orange.

[rivenwil]

I know this is an old topic, but I couldn't help but comment because I was wondering about carrots and coats.
I used to feed a strict BARF diet (meat and veggies, no cereals). I did an experiment re. the carrot theory. What I found is that my dogs' coats were definitely more orange when fed carrots in addition to other veggies (I would make a veggie mix with 1/3 carrots and 2/3rds other veggies). Whether it was the carrots alone, or the other veggies as well, I don't know. But as soon as I stopped feeding veggies and substituted porridge, the coats got better. Now I do not feed my dogs carrots or veggies with any regularity. In fact, I only feed them veggies once a week at most. They get their fibre from bran, oats and barley and their coats have been so much better than when fed veggies mixed with their meat.
I expect each dog is different, but that is my conclusion (not very scientific, sorry!)

Kate

[smokeybear]

I would not feed a lot of carrots anyway, not because of the beta carotene issue but because they contain a lot of sugar.

As I have both GSD and Weimaraner I can confirm that a) the weim has not changed coat colour and b) after asking around lots of GSD breeders both here and abroad, none feed carrots for their colour properties.

In actual fact your dog' s coat is more likely to change colour due to mineral content (copper/iron) than anything else IMHO.

[rivenwil]

Aha, so may be it is the mineral content in the carrots and vegetables that affected the coat colour. I can most definitely confirm that I did notice a change in coat colour when the dogs were taken off the veggie mix (Billinghurst BARF diet mix) and put on the oats/barley. Whether it was the absence of the veggies or the presence of grains in their diet that caused this improvement in coat condition and colour, I do not know. But the coats improved, that is one thing for sure.

Kate

[marjolein]

When I bought my Leonberger, my breeder advised me to feed carrots to maintain the reddish glow. I have never done this, but a lot of Leo-owners do it.

[Leslie]

smokeybear said:

I would not feed a lot of carrots anyway, not because of the beta carotene issue but because they contain a lot of sugar.

I want to back up this. One should not feed many carrots. They contain too much sugar which can lead to yeast problems. In fact, all root veggies have a lot of sugar and should be minimized. A good site to visit is: b-naturals.com/default.php Look at the newsletters. There are very good articles on diet.