More allergy friendly dog food is becoming available now, and you may have wondered what allergies this dog food caters for, there can’t be many dogs with allergies right? Well actually there’s a lot more dogs with allergies than you would think and there are also a lot of dogs who don’t have full blown allergies but have a strong intolerance to certain things.
What is Allergy Friendly Dog Food?
Allergy friendly or hypoallergenic dog food is pretty much the same as other dog foods except there are no artificial colors, preservatives or flavors, and the main allergens that dogs react to aren’t included in the recipe. So what are the main allergens for dogs? You’d probably be surprised to know that it is wheat gluten, corn, chicken, soy and potatoes. These five ingredients appear in most dog foods actually so its important to buy allergy friendly dog food if you know your dog is allergic to one of these.
However, most owners are unaware that their dog has allergies or intolerances to one of more of these ingredients. How can you find out? Well of course you could have your pet allergy tested at your vets if that is a service they provide. But actually if you consider your dogs health and it suffers from skin conditions, diarrhea, vomiting, flatulence, bloating, and bad breath, then there is a very good chance they have an allergy to or a strong intolerance toward something that is in their regular feed.
How to Introduce Allergy Friendly Dog Food Into Your Pet’s Diet
If you’ve tried to change your dog’s food dramatically before then you will have probably noted that your dog doesn’t like it. Not only do they go off their food, and look at you like you’re their worst enemy, but they often have a physiological reaction to the new food when they do it such as vomiting, diarrhea and poor general health. Dogs stomachs are very sensitive and an overnight change in diet will make them ill.
So the way to introduce a new food is to mix a small amount of their new food in with their old food for the first few days, and then slowly increase the percentage of the new food, reducing the percentage of the old food, over several weeks until finally they’re left with one hundred percent of the new food. This way they won’t notice the change, and neither will their stomach.
This is why changing to a new allergy friendly dog food could take several months before you can see the difference in your dog’s health. However, after two or three months you should see a noticeable difference. You dog’s skin conditions will have cleared up, their coast will be shinier, and it will be shedding less. Their digestive function will have improved immensely, no more bloating, diarrhea, sickness and much less flatulence.
Most dogs will see a great improvement in their all-round health following a change to allergy friendly dog food.
