DOGS HEALTH

Dog Food For a Labrador Retriever on a Diet

It is mandatory that you feed your Labrador a healthy and well balanced diet. This type of food preparation is especially important if your dog is on a special diet.

Your Lab has to have the essential combination of vitamins and trace elements in their food which can easily be found at your local pet store.

Good sources of protein that can be incorporated in your Lab’s diet are meats, fish, and cottage cheese. The diet should consist of about 45% carbs. Your Lab’s diet should never consist of any table scraps or leftovers. Dogs, like humans, are omnivores which mean that they require both meat and vegetables to ensure proper health.

It is also imperative that you do not overfeed your Lab. There are numerous kinds of dog food on the market today. Most of these foods contain the proper amount of nutrients that your Lab needs for a well-balanced diet. Food for your Lab comes in the form of semi-moist foods, dry foods, or canned foods.

Dog Food Allergies Treatment

Owning a dog is a part of the American dream. One of the most common problems that might afflict your pet are food allergies. Food allergies are common in dogs for a few different reasons. Next the dog food usually contains ingredients that dogs build sensitivities to easily.

Treating your dogs food allergies depends entirely on which exact ingredient is causing their symptoms. The main symptom that your dog might show is skin irritation. The big difference is that your dog will only have allergies during certain seasons if it is a inhalant allergy.

Luckily, when it comes to dog food allergies treatment, you won’t have to give your dog any expensive medication with dangerous side effects. You need to figure out exactly what is in the food that your dog eats. You can then switch your dog to a hypoallergenic dog food that doesn’t include any of these ingredients.

How to Treat Dog Food Allergies

Dog food allergies are very similar to other allergies such as seasonal allergies (also known as inhalant allergies). There are other allergies, such as allergies to flea bites, but food and inhalant allergies are the most common.

Treatment of your dog’s symptoms should hopefully be as harmless as possible. Thankfully, dog food allergy treatment doesn’t require that you to give them any kind of medication that might have nasty side effects. If you are not afraid of giving your dog a medication, and your veterinarian thinks its a good idea, you can consider giving your dog an dog food allergy shot. You can also give your dog fatty acids.

The first treatment that should be used in treating a dog food allergy should be switching foods. You need to examine the ingredients found in the food or foods that your dog is already eating.

Dog Food Ingredients

You might not know it, but the dog food ingredients that you find in your dog food have a lot to do with how healthy your dog is overall. Finding dog foods with the right ingredients is the best thing that you can do for your dog’s overall health.

All commercial dog foods list the ingredients on the label. You should find a dog food that has real meat or vegetables listed as the main ingredients for the food. Also, you should avoid foods that have meat meal listed. Chicken meal, fish meal, and other types of meat meal are simply substances that come from the animals listed.

Also, you want to chose foods that don’t have chemicals listed. If you can find the right dog food ingredients, one thing that you will find is that your dog will be healthier. The best way for you to find great dog foods is to do your own dog food research. Natural and organic foods do not use meat meal, and they only use real foods that your dog will benefit from.

Dog Food Ingredients Label – Do You Really Know What is in Your Pet’s Food?

Why do you need to understand your dog food ingredients label? So you just shake your head and put your trust in the dog food company. Here are some of the more common “tricks” to reading dog food ingredients lists:

The first 5 – 10 ingredients listed are the majority of the food. If they are not quality ingredients, it is not a quality dog food.

If your dog food uses them, you could be poisoning your dog. For example, you might see corn flour, corn bran, and corn gluten meal all listed somewhere in the dog food ingredients list – yet they are all derived from corn.

Listing just a meat as a top 3 ingredient. If the actual meat is listed (i.e. chicken), and not a meat meal (i.e. chicken meal), then the meat is weighed with all moisture in tact. Keeping the moisture in the meat makes it weigh more, keeping it in the beginning of the dog food ingredients list.

Your current dog food may be great, or it may be the worst thing for your dog.