Dealing With A Dog Food Allergy?
By Blake Kritzberg, Fri Dec 9th

Just as humans can show up as a sneeze or rash, yourdog's can manifest as itchiness -- or even earinfections. In fact, if your dog's allergic to his food, it cancause him to scratch himself constantly, even with no obviousparasite problem.

Dog rarely get solved with medicine, so the best wecan do for our four-footed friends is focus on prevention.Providing the right type of food is essential to stopping yourdog's scratching habit.

Many people like to share their food with their dogs or let themhelp "clean up" the kitchen after a meal. Little do they know,their dogs just may not be able to take the tasty food we loveso much, and some breeds (like the greyhound) are extremelysensitive. Even common foods like cheese, beef sausage and tunamay cause allergic reactions in some dogs. So it's best to letdogs enjoy dog food and not human food, even though they clearlyadore and want what we're eating!

Narrowing Down the Problem

To determine the exact ingredients your dog is allergic to, tryan elimination diet. Although powerful, it also requirespatience. In fact, the elimination diet can call for eliminatingspecific food for up to 12 weeks before you'll notice theeffects. And if you still haven't found the right (and wrong)ingredients, you'll have to repeat the process all over again.

So is there an alternative to the lengthy elimination diet? Yes-- give your dog a brand or type of food

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he's never eatenbefore. But simply changing to a new brand of dog food might notbe enough to eliminate his food allergies, since many brandscontain similar ingredients. Instead, study the existingingredients your dog is eating to determine which types ofprotein source he hasn't been exposed to. Then, hunt for a dogfood that doesn't contain any of the ingredients you saw listed.For example, there are many brands of dog food that containsunusual protein sources such as rabbit or venison -- great fortesting allergic reactions to other, more common proteins.

Perhaps the best way for you to get control of dog's allergiesis to whip up your own dog food. That way, you'll know exactlywhat he's getting and what he isn't -- something that'sextremely hard to tell from reading the back of a dog food bag.Making your own food is especially helpful in elimination diets.To start, combine a portion of rice with baby food and lamb --so long as your dog isn't already eating lamb and possiblydisplaying a reaction to it.

Dog food are a special condition that can befrustrating and take patience to solve. Since allergic reactionsdon't disappear overnight, you'll need lots of time andthoughtfulness to help your dog overcome this problem -- but hisgoofy smile and those scratch-free days ahead will probably makeit all worth it.

About the author:Blake Kritzberg is proprietor of Poodle-oo: Fashion for ToyDogs. Stop by for toy dog couture and home decor, free toy dogpostcards and the Toy Dog Blog. http://www.poodle-oo.com/