Omega 3 for dogs, EPA and DHA by body weight

Published 2 October 2026. Not yet reviewed by a board certified veterinary nutritionist. Numbers marked as engine output come from the Petcare engine on the date shown.

When joints or skin is the focus, Petcare sets a floor of 50 mg of EPA plus DHA per kg a day for a healthy adult dog: 500 mg at 10 kg, 1,000 mg at 20 kg, 1,500 mg at 30 kg, the bottom of Bauer's range of 50 to 220 mg per kg and under the NRC upper limit.

What EPA and DHA are, and what a dog needs without a concern

EPA and DHA are the long chain omega 3 fatty acids found in fish and fish oil. Plants supply a shorter omega 3, alpha linolenic acid, and dogs convert it to EPA and DHA poorly, so fish is the practical source (Bauer 2011) Grade C. For an adult dog with no particular concern, the need is small. The NRC 2006 recommended allowance is 0.014 g of EPA plus DHA per kg of metabolic body weight, which is 79 mg a day for a 10 kg dog, 132 mg for 20 kg and 179 mg for 30 kg (German 2015) Grade A. FEDIAF and AAFCO set no adult minimum at all (FEDIAF 2025, AAFCO) Grade A. Petcare's ordinary recipe for a 20 kg dog, with no concern selected, carries 180 mg from egg, beef and lamb, which already clears the allowance. A healthy adult dog with no joint or skin focus needs no fish oil.

Where the 50 mg per kg floor comes from

Bauer's 2011 review in JAVMA puts therapeutic intakes between 50 and 220 mg of EPA plus DHA per kg of body weight a day, with the highest figure used for joint disease (Bauer 2011, summarised in Today's Veterinary Practice) Grade C. The controlled evidence behind that range comes from dogs with diagnosed joint disease under veterinary care: in a six month trial of 127 dogs, a food rich in fish oil improved owner rated mobility (Roush 2010), and in a trial of 38 dogs, 82 percent on the test food improved their weight bearing on a force plate against 38 percent of controls (Roush 2010) Grade B. A 2022 meta analysis confirmed the effect of omega 3 while finding none for glucosamine and chondroitin (Barbeau Gregoire 2022), in line with an earlier systematic review (Vandeweerd 2012) Grade B. For skin, the ICADA guidelines include raising essential fatty acid intake in managing chronic allergic skin disease, again under a vet (Olivry 2015) Grade A. Petcare takes the bottom of the range as a wellness goal for a healthy dog, because the trials were not run in healthy dogs and every extra gram of oil is also calories.

The numbers for 10, 20 and 30 kg dogs

The engine's recipes are for a neutered female of five years, walked daily, low budget, with joints selected. In each case the solver met the floor from food, mainly salmon, so no fish oil step appeared in the supplement plan; the fish oil column shows the same amount as oil.

The recipes use less salmon than the "salmon alone" column because egg, beef and lamb contribute the rest. Note the top of the Bauer range: 220 mg per kg exceeds the NRC safe upper limit for all three dogs, by 119 mg for the 10 kg dog and by 1,857 mg for the 30 kg dog. The engine never goes there, because the upper limit is a hard ceiling on every recipe. That is the difference between a therapeutic dose a vet chooses for a patient and a floor a calculator sets for a healthy dog.

Salmon or fish oil, and what the label must say

Petcare's salmon row is USDA chinook salmon, raw, with 1,008 mg of EPA and 944 mg of DHA per 100 g, 1,952 mg combined (USDA); weigh it raw, since cooking removes water. The engine's fish oil row is USDA cod liver oil, 6.9 g of EPA and 11.0 g of DHA per 100 g, so 1 g supplies about 179 mg of EPA plus DHA (USDA). The same record shows why cod liver oil is a poor everyday choice: it also carries 30,000 mcg of retinol and 250 mcg of vitamin D per 100 g, so a plain fish body oil suits a dog that already eats liver. Products vary several fold, so the number that matters is the EPA plus DHA in milligrams per capsule or millilitre on the label. Two things rise with fish oil. Vitamin E must rise with polyunsaturated fat: AAFCO adds vitamin E in proportion to it and FEDIAF asks for more when fish oil is fed (AAFCO, FEDIAF 2025) Grade A; the three engine recipes sit at 99 to 100 percent of the vitamin E minimum. And calories: at about 9 kcal per gram, 8.4 g of oil for a 30 kg dog is 76 kcal, about 5 percent of her day, which should come out of the rest of the recipe.

The upper limit, and the side effects it guards against

NRC 2006 set a safe upper limit of 2.8 g of EPA plus DHA per 1,000 kcal for adult dogs, which is 0.37 g per kg of metabolic weight on the NRC energy basis (AAFCO, Today's Veterinary Practice) Grade A. For the three dogs that is 2,081 mg, 3,499 mg and 4,743 mg a day. It is easy to pass without noticing: a 20 kg dog on a joint diet that already contains fish oil, plus a capsule on top, can exceed 3,499 mg, which is the worked example Today's Veterinary Practice uses. A review by Lenox and Bauer lists the harms that make the limit worth respecting: altered platelet function, digestive upset, slower wound healing, lipid peroxidation, nutrient excess and toxin exposure from the oil itself, weight gain, altered immune function, effects on blood sugar control, and interactions with drugs (Lenox 2013) Grade C. Petcare writes the limit next to the target on every recipe and refuses to dose above it.

Fish oil is not a treatment

Nothing above makes fish oil a treatment for any condition. The trials that justify the 50 mg per kg floor were run in dogs that a vet had diagnosed and was managing; the floor is a wellness goal for healthy dogs that borrows their lowest dose. A dog that limps, stiffens after rest, scratches, or has a diagnosed condition needs a vet, who may choose a higher dose, a different one, or none. For joints the single best supported intervention is not a supplement at all: Labradors fed 25 percent less than their littermates for life lived longer and developed chronic disease later (Kealy 2002) Grade B, so a dog's weight comes before its omega 3. Puppies, pregnant and nursing dogs and dogs on a weight loss plan should have their fat sources set by a vet.

Check it with Petcare

Select joints or skin and coat in the Petcare calculator to see the EPA plus DHA target for your dog's weight, how much the recipe supplies from food, and the upper limit it stays under.

Petcare is software, not veterinary advice. It builds recipes for healthy adult dogs. For puppies, pregnant or nursing dogs, dogs with a condition or food allergy a vet has diagnosed, dogs on medication, and dogs that need to lose weight, the diet should come from your vet.