Dog Food Allergies

Symptoms, Causes and Cures

Dog food allergies are by far the most common type of allergy we see in our store.

Dr. Alfred Plechner, D.V.M "The most common and most visible symptoms of nutritionally caused deficiencies are allergies of one kind or another. Because many commercial foods are woefully deficient in key nutrients, the long-term effect of these foods makes the dog hypersensitive to its environment.

Dog food allergies are the product of the big grain dog food manufacturers. What we are lead to believe is that the food they manufacturer is complete balanced nutrition. The dog was never meant to eat this crap. It's full of allergy producing grains, chemicals, and things you would not believe.

We put up a sign in the window or our sign-holder displays a sign on a street corner and these signs read “Stop The Itch.”

That gets peoples attention. They have a dog, the dog scratches a lot and they want him to stop. It bugs the parents and it’s not too much fun for the dog.

They come into the store and say, “I’ve seen your sign to stop the itch. How do I do that?”

We’re very glad to see them come in and ask. That means our marketing is working but more than that, we have a chance at helping another dog end needless suffering.

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We start by asking what they’re feeding; any moist type foods in their diets, what type of treats are they giving, etc. We’ll also find out more about the dog. How old is he, hows his weight, any other medical conditions, etc.

With this information then we can see his life style, food and teats he gets and any outstanding conditions. From that information there are almost always one or more areas that we can suggest is causing his scratching.

The most common culprit, dog food allergies. Some dogs are more sensitive than others. Some can tolerate grains and others can’t. We seen Labrador's as one of the most common type dog to develop allergies. They have a sensitive digestive system and can develop allergies easier than a lot of other breeds.

First thing then, read your ingredients. Or we can usually look up their ingredients on the internet while they are here in the store.

Usually they are feeding a commercial type food that has one or more of the following ingredients.

Wheat
Corn
Soy
By-products
Any of the gluten
Chemical preservatives
Animal Digest
Peanut Hulls

This all-star line-up has caused havoc with many breeds. You need to find foods that DO NOT contain any one of those in them. That is the place to start. I'll give you a list of some good foods later.

Having the store we can give them samples of many of the leading brands of dog food so they can take them home and see what their dog likes.

The biggest thing is to strip down the ingredients. Lets get to a point where he is eating his food and not having so many itching problems. Mind you this can take weeks. The bad stuff has to get out of his system. Many times it may get worse before it gets better because of this. Usually we see things subside after a few days.

Stripping down the ingredients means getting one that has the fewest ingredients. Since you don't know what for sure is causing the allergy, you need to eliminate as many of the possibilities as possible. There are some very good choices for doing this. See the list below.

Once you find a limited ingredient food that he likes, take a week or so and see how he does. If the itching subsides, you've probably found the problem. You can start adding other ingredients back into his diet. If he is like most, it was one of the bad grain culprits that caused the problem. If so, stay away from anything containing wheat, corn, soy by-products, chemicals. That includes treats and human grains like break, crackers, pizza crust.

The best course of action is to start a raw food diet. This is how the dog thrives, how he's survived for centuries. See our Raw Dog Food page for more information.

The next best thing to do is add supplements. Most good nutrients are lacking in the dogs diets. Supplements that are critical are enzymes, probiotics, and fish oils. Supplementing can nourish the skin and coat and help boost the immune system. Learn more about supplements at our Dog Supplements page.

It’s very critical to start pups out right. If there mom had been fed a commercial food with grains, they have increased chances at forming allergies. If you know what the breeder fed, look at the ingredients. If any of the bad products are in it, switch his food once he's settled down in your house.

See our page on Healthy Dog Food to find out more about good food and a proper diet.

If you have questions and/or need some help figuring things out, drop us a note on our Ask Us A Nutritional Question page.

We have successfully rid hundreds of dogs that have developed food allergies eating commercial pet foods.

There are cases of dogs developing allergies to a certain protein as well. If they have eaten one protein for a long period of time, even if it's commercial or premium, they can develop and allergy to that protein. We've seen it a number of times. People will say to us that they've fed this same food his whole life and always done fine. All the sudden he stopped eating it and scratches a lot.

Either one is great; you’ll find what you need in these pages and articles. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to contact us and we’ll try to give you some suggestions as to what you might try.

That brings up another point. Many people come into the store after a toy or collar. We see their dog itching and has a dull coat. We'll ask what they are feeding. They say Science Diet or something like that. We tell them that's not a good food. They come back and say,"well, he's done fine on it." The problem is, all dogs do fine up to the point when a cancer or degenerative disease takes over. Then the damage is done.

Here is a lists of some of the premium foods. This is not a complete list by any means. There are many good companies up and coming that are putting out a good food.

Good food for trying when you suspect a food allergy from something you're feeding:

• Innova (They have grain-free foods and make California Natural - a limited ingredient food.
• Natural Balance (The most popular we sell for allergies is their Duck and Potato brand)
• Taste of The Wild
• Core (by Wellness)
• Canidea has a grain-free product now.
• Good Life - A new product for our store. It's grain-free, has a bio-coating with enzymes and probiotics. A great food.

Like I said, this is only a partial list of some good premium foods. Seek the help of a local small retail pet food store. Not the big chain pet food stores. You can usually find them in the yellow pages.

We have teamed up with National Pet Pharmacy. They sell online, have great prices, and offer free shipping on over 650 products. Click on the links below and search for the foods, supplements, flea control you need at great prices. You can even search by condition or item.