Hypoallergenic Dog Food Basics
What exactly is hypoallergenic dog food? If you think its food for your dog who has an allergy, you’re right in a way, but if you think it’s also a cure for its allergy, and your dog wont have any more allergies after sticking to the hypoallergenic dog food diet, then you’re wrong. Hypoallergenic food is not a particular kind of food with specific ingredients, and its definitely not a cure or kind of medication for a dog experiencing allergies. It’s dog food that doesn’t have common ingredients in it, so your dog isn’t going to be allergic to it! Food allergies in dogs usually build up from something they continuously eat, most commonly beef, chicken, pork and even lamb. So if your dog eats something new that isn’t common in most brands of dog food, an allergy is less likely.
Excluding chicken, beef, pork and lamb, you don’t seem to have many options left, so what else is there? In the U.S, they are now using duck, rabbit, salmon and venison, then normally add in potatoes. These ingredients are rarely used in typical grocery dog food brands. If you have a dog that is suffering from allergies, buy a new brand for it that’s hypoallergenic and check to see that it doesn’t have the same main ingredients as your old brand, and also do not feed it any other food when it is on a hypoallergenic diet. This way you can make sure about what it is your dog is allergic to. If the skin rashes, watery and itchy eyes, sneezing or stuffy nose goes away, then you’ll know it was something in the old brand of dog food that it has become allergic to.
Other brands outside the US even use meat as exotic as wild kangaroo, New Zealand brushtail, unagi eel and even dried seaweed! Not only can hypoallergenic food help your dogs’ allergies, it’s even an act of being eco-friendly! The New Zealand brushtail, also know as possum, is considered a major pest species, and the wild kangaroo as well is a nuisance that impedes cattle ranching. Therefore, your dogs’ hypoallergenic food is helping to get rid of two pests and at the same time stabilize an important part of the ecology. The meat also has higher levels of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids compared to other red meats and fish.
The disadvantage with hypoallergenic food is if and when the ingredients aren’t considered rare anymore. When your dog is constantly exposed to a certain kind of food, that is when it may become allergic to it. Lamb and rice, for example, used to be considered hypoallergenic until they were being used in all dog food brands, so now dogs can even be allergic to lamb and rice just as much as chicken or beef.
All dogs can have allergic reactions, just like their owners. People who have allergic reactions to dogs normally presume it’s the hair they are allergic to, but it’s actually what gets attached to the dogs fur. Dogs’ hair can pick up pollen and dust, and with every movement the pollen or dust transfers to another element. In this case, those pet lovers are better off getting a “hypoallergenic dog”. It not a dog that won’t ever give you an allergy, but is less likely to give you one. Choose a dog with low shedding levels and short or no hair like the Bichon Frise, Irish terrier, Chihuahua or the Mexican hairless. Keep away from Daschunds, Basset Hounds, German Shepherds, and Afghan Hounds.
