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Dog Food For Allergies
Dog Food For Allergies: Hypoallergenic Dog Food
What exactly is a dog food for allergies? Basically, it is a special dog food that uses both limited and uncommon ingredients and is commonly called a hypoallergenic dog food. These dog foods also use very high quality ingredients that are packed with nutrients your dog needs to thrive.
On the other side of the dog food spectrum, a low quality, or economy, dog food contains lots of grains and grain by-products as well meat by-products that provide very little nutrients for your dog. This tends to leave your dog’s immune system in overdrive, in a hyper sensitive state, making him have a reaction to just about anything (i.e. allergies).
Refer to What Exactly Are Premium Dog Foods for more information on how to tell what kind of dog food you are currently feeding.
There are several types of allergies in dogs, the most common being: food, inhalant and flea/insect bite. And although you will want to help your dog by eliminating the triggers, switching to a hypoallergenic dog food can help in all areas of allergies – simply because you are making your dog healthier and allowing them to help control their own allergies.
Dog Food For Allergies: What If Food Is What Triggers Your Dog’s Allergy Symptoms?
If you think your dog has food allergies, you may need to do the Elimination Diet to figure out what food your dog is allergic to. However the elimination diet can take several weeks to months to figure out which ingredient your dog is allergic to.
Instead of the lengthy elimination diet, you could try a special hypoallergenic dog food for allergies. As I said above, these dog foods don’t use the common grains that cause food allergies (soy, wheat, corn). Instead they tend to use rice, barley, oats, and potatoes. Many also use only one or two meat sources, and they are not the common meats that your dog may be allergic to. These dog foods for allergies tend to use meats such as lamb, bison, and salmon. Some also use organic turkey and chicken.
Dog Food for Allergies: Sometimes It’s Stuff Added To Your Dog Food
Another common trigger for allergies in a dog is artificial colorings and artificial flavorings. A quality dog food for allergies should never contain either of these. Check to see what kind of artificial ingredients are added – they may be the culprit.
Look at your current dog food for the meat source and main grain sources (up to first 7 ingredients listed) and select a dog food for allergies that has completely different meat and grains. Hopefully, you will find the change of ingredients works – but it can take up to a few weeks to really tell – don’t expect the allergies to clear up after one or two feedings. However, with a hypoallergenic dog food for allergies you should be able to see gradual improvements in your dog’s allergy symptoms.
