Whats In The Bag? Could Be A Recipe For Pet Food Allergies

Just like humans, dogs can have allergies to certain types of food. It may be an intolerance to individual ingredients such as wheat or corn, or a general complaint which is provoked my many types of food, such as colitis.

Some symptoms of dog food allergies include: Vomiting bile or blood, bad appetite, diarrhea and blood in the stool, itching, dry coat and skin, chronic ear infections, loss of fur, lots of scratching, hot spots and skin infections, increased bowel movements and anything else out of the ordinary.

If you're worried that your dog may have a food allergy or intolerance to a particular food, you should test to ensure that the food is what's causing the problem. Other issues, such as parasites or infections, can cause similar symptoms.

It might be necessary to use a home made dog food, so you can control the ingredients, and the balance of proteins and carbohydrates.

Making the issue more complex, there are many additives in dog food, and it may be one of these additives which is causing the allergy, rather than a certain kind of meat or grain.

Common allergy-causing foods for dogs are beef, dairy products, chicken, wheat, chicken eggs, corn, and soy. But these are the most common ingredients in dog foods!

You bet, and there is a correlation. The problem may have been caused by overuse of particular foods, like with humans who are lactose intolerant.

New recipes such as lamb and rice have been formulated because these are not traditional dog foods, therefore dogs have not had time to build up an intolerance.

These can really not be the solution to treat an intolerance nevertheless, as much of these trade names contains soybean, egg etc., so verify the ingredients.

Now that there are more dogs now than ever before with food allergies, the market is full of hypoallergenic dog foods to meet those needs of those dogs. The usefulness of these standards is limited by the unique constitution of each pet, but does provide some structure.

However, consider that many healthy dog foods may still cause allergies in your dog if they contain that specific ingredient he is allergic to, and even human grade dog food might still be causing your dog stomach problems, so be prepared to compare dog food brands until you find the one that works.

Just as in humans, an intolerance to wheat or dairy contained in dog foods, natural and high quality though they may be, will still cause the end result. Canine skin allergies are another sign that your dog may have an allergy.