German Shepherd Dog (Add Rich Color to Your Shepherd’s Coat)

Exploring the vast prairie of the Washita National Wildlife Refuge

Hi Everyone,

I am sorry that I was unable to post yesterday; our internet was down all day. Today, I am going to discuss improving the richness of the black and red in your German Shepherd Dog coats. While our Heidelberg German Shepherd Dogs have beautiful color and markings, we discovered by accident that even this can be improved by a diet change.

Approximately six years ago we started collecting the venison scraps from two large deer processors near us. They were just burying these scraps because in Oklahoma it is illegal to sell wildlife parts. We now freeze approximately 6,000 pounds of meat and feed approximately 20 pounds of cooked venison daily to our German Shepherd Dogs. This works out to approximately three to six ounces of cooked venison per dog depending on the number of puppies and boards that we have at any given time.

Two Richly Pigmented German Shepherd Dogs Playing

Within two months of feeding the venison, we noticed that our German Shepherd Dogs coats began to get noticeably darker and richer. The black became blacker and the tan became redder. Even our regular customers noticed the change.

I believe that the rich red venison meat is providing the vitamins, minerals, and amino acids necessary for our German Shepherd Dogs to express their true coat colors. I have no scientific proof of this, but strong anecdotal evidence. Even slightly faded German Shepherd Dogs are no longer faded.

I do not know if beef would provide the same results, but definitely any dark rich meat, such as venison and bison would improve your German Shepherd Dog’s coat color. This change in diet and resulting improvement in coat color indicates that we still have a lot to learn about feeding German Shepherd Dogs correctly by providing them with all the needed nutrients for maintenance and growth.