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My dog has food allergies. Poor Cuddles when she gets exposed to corn, soy or wheat breaks out in a rash and runs a fever. I had a solution to this problem in that for six months I fed her nothing but homemade dogfood, guaranteed not to contain any of her allergens.
At the end of that time, I started adding back in small amounts of commercial dogfood touted as not containing any of those ingredients. Slowly her allergies returned. Yesterday, I made the decision to go back to homemade dogfood, at least for another four or six months to clean her system.
This morning, as soon as she saw me start peeling the sweet potatoes, she started dancing, whimpering and drooling. She loves this stuff. :)
You can find all kinds of recipes for homemade dogfood on the internet and all kinds of advice about what should or should not be included.
Hugs to you and your furry friends. :)
Erin
Comments
Cuddles!?
You named your dog Cuddles? I thought only cartoon dogs were named Cuddles!
What were the brands of dog food who lied about their ingredients? That just isn't right, I guess there isn't a food and drug administration for pet food. You should really spread the word on those chiselers!
Mr. Ram
No
I inherited the dog from a neighbor. And the name fits for a very lovey mini-poo. :) I would have named her Sophie.
It's not that any brand specifically lied but that feeding her only brands that say they don't contain corn, soy or wheat does not stop her allergies.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Ingredients
Given Cuddles is allergic to such a wide variety of grains, it's possible the hypo-allergenic commercial foods contain another ingredient she's allergic to.
Of course, finding out exactly what's in a dog food is a nightmare, because (at least in the UK) they're not required to list the actual ingredients, only using vague terms like "meat and meat derivatives", cereals, "oils and fats" etc.
Home prepared food would probably be tastier and healthier to an allergy free pet - after all, most of the meat that goes into pet food is that which is left on the carcass after the cuts for human consumption have been removed. And (to a human, at least) commercial food doesn't look that appetising, with cans of food swimming in fatty jelly, and the dry stuff resembling brown bullets (or brown / green / yellow / white / orange bullets, for those that differentiate ingredients by pellet type - "min 4% fish in the white kibble, min 4% cereals in the yellow kibble, min 4% vegetables in the green kibble, min 4% carrot in the orange kibble" etc.)
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Right
Most dogfood makers in the US do list ingredients after the scare over the deaths of hundreds of pets in the US and Canada due to poisonous petfood from China. But a typical kibble has dozens of ingredients. It takes up to four months to test an ingredient to see if it is allergenic. Easier to keep to my simple formulas. Sweet potatoes or potatoes or turnips, salmon or mackerel or chicken, carrots or green beans or bell pepper, parsley or broccoli or kale. With a little black pepper and some schnibbles of pork, Cuddles ate pretty good for six months and all her rashes went away.
She likes a bit of black pepper on her food, go figure. It's good for human and canine digestion so it's okay. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Yep
Used to cook up and make all my girl puppies food, still do mostly. You can tell at a glance the leavings of pups that eat tinned food.. ick. Chicken or lamb very slightly cooked with some vegies even had to puree and feed her with a big syringe for a few months. But that was years ago now and she's healthy as they come. Still do the meat with some dry food mixed in.
Weird? Whatya mean weird...hmmph. She's family, ya know?
Kris
dog food
The manufacturer probably did not lie, the problem lies in the ingredients and how they were made. Almost all farm animals are fed the ingredients that your dog is allergic to and remnants of that food is stored in the farm animals body tissues. Your dog is mostly allergic to only part of the organic makeup of those foods and you would have to talk with an agriculture professor to find out what is common in all three.
Hugs,
Jenna From FL
Moderator/Editor
TopShelf BigCloset
Hugs,
Jenna From FL
Moderator/Editor
TopShelf BigCloset
It is a long road ahead but I will finally become who I should be.
Feeding the Dogs
My babies get chicken cooked for them everyday fresh I cook chicken quarters or whole chickens , last month turkey was 58 cents a pound they ate turkey and I put 5 turkeys in my freezer I LOVE MY PUPPIES
Been there, done that..
Corn is apparently the single most common food allergy - among those things commonly included in commercial dog food. We never knew. Our last Samoyed developed the issue, and we ended up making her meals special.
One thing that worked well for Princess - We made up a week or so's supply each weekend, and put each meal's into a snack size ziploc bag - and froze them. Guaranteed to stay fresh longer that way. We'd pull each one out - thaw it, and she'd have her home cooked meals. With our schedule - this way we were able to feed her at a consistent time - which was also important. Sadly, even this wasn't enough.
Anne
P.S. The recipe varied, but included various veggies, rice and poultry (chicken or turkey)...
On the flip side...
...some twenty-five years ago, my grandpa (who lived with us) had a dog who developed this terrible skin condition. Every vet thought that it was flea-allergy dermatitis (Yes, she had fleas. We tried just about everything. Nothing worked. We only licked that problem two dogs and ten years later, when fipronil hit the market).
Anyway... my sister (who is a vet) got a puppy of her own, and being a vet student at the time, decided to "raise her right." And that included switching the dogs to commercial dog food, instead of the (admittedly low-end) homemade food the elder dog ate. Surprisingly, the old dog's skin condition improved markedly. We don't know what was the problem with the homemade stuff. It might be some allergen, although the main constituents (chicken, rice and vegetables) are common in commercial brands too. We theorize that she was just suffering from an unbalanced diet, lacking an essential vitamin or other nutrient.
The morale: if you are going to cook your own pet food, do your homework. Balancing a dog's diet is not that obvious.
Oil or fat
A daily teaspoon of oil or fat would probably have worked for that older dog. Some dogs need more oil in their diet for healthy skin. Cuddles isn't allergic to pork so I give her a tiny bit of pork or chicken fat each day. I would switch to vegetable oil but most oils are blends and corn or soybean oil would be the wrong thing. I'm wondering about olive oil but have not been able to find a good source on whether that is safe for dogs. Avocado and walnut oils are poisonous to dogs and canola oil causes thyroid problems. I've heard flax oil is good but haven't found any.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Oil
I also give my girl a tin of Mackerel now and then, sometimes a bit of rice or even pasta. Virgin Olive seems fine drizzled over if the lamb or chicken is very lean. Flax is a variation of linseed and tastes godawful, works nicely on my guitar fretboards though. Oh I got a small bottle in a Health food store as a salad dressing...blech, one try was enough.
Kris
Erin, you are awesome
Lots of people do not get it. "Pets" don't really have too many options in our relationships with them and our ability to communicate with them is often not that good.
Making their relatively short lives the best we possibly can usually has large returns for both sides. We have both parent and God status in the control over their quality of life.
Cuddles is very fortunate to have inherited you and that you are both observant and caring.
I Harley-tily agree!
I really do!
Dio vi benedica tutti
Con grande amore e di affetto
Andrea Lena
Love, Andrea Lena