Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Limited ingredient diets for allergy-suffering dogs #naturalbalance

When it comes allergies, diet can be everything.

Jasmine gets quite itchy when she eats things she shouldn't. Her skin also gets dry and flaky if I let it go too long. She'll scratch and scratch, sometimes all night. That's why we've been sticking to limited ingredient diet dog foods -- like Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diets®.
Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diets available at PetSmart

How do I know if my dog has food allergies?

The first thing to do is observe your dog.
  •  Is she/he scratching constantly or over-grooming, especially at the rear end? 
  • Do they have digestion problems -- gas, diarrhea and is it all the time?
  • Is she/he having chronic ear problems?
They may have food allergies.

The next thing to do, and probably the easiest way to test, according to WebMD, is to put your dog on an elimination diet. This is where Limited Ingredient Diets can come into play.

PetSmart sells Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diet dog food.

What is a Limited Ingredient Diet?

A Limited Ingredient Diet is one with a strictly limited list of ingredients. While even high-quality foods might have more than one animal protein (especially chicken):
  • LID dog food should stick to one, single-source animal protein
  • It may also have more novel proteins -- rabbit, fish, venison, bison, that sort of thing
  • They may be wheat or even grain-free
The most common food allergies are:
  • beef
  • dairy 
  • wheat
  • egg
  • chicken
But dogs can be allergic to other proteins, and soy as well. These are all ingredients you will find in many commercial foods.

Jasmine is on a strict limited ingredient diet while we figure out what she is allergic to. After a few weeks, we'll start adding some of these prospective allergens back in, one at a time, to figure out which is giving her a hard time.

Natural Balance limited ingredient diets help pets with allergies.
Natural Balance LID formulas utilize a wide variety of high-quality, natural, animal proteins, unique or otherwise -- everything from chicken to kangaroo.

This is helpful -- maybe Jasmine isn't allergic to chicken like we've always suspected, maybe it's the grain. Cool. Natural Balance has a chicken and sweet potato formula.

Maybe she's allergic to sweet potato. Natural Balance has formulas that don't use potatoes. Jasmine liked the Waygu Beef and Legume formula, for instance.

Jasmine tried the Natural Balance LID formula

To help keep the skin and coat healthy, Natural Balance adds balanced Omega 3 and Omega 6 Fatty Acids. Natural Balance also has foods for small breed dogs specifically, which may have different nutritional needs. And all the foods are balanced for all stages of your dogs life -- from puppy to senior.

Natural Balance's LID varieties exist in dry and canned food as well as treats. And Natural Balance stands by its products with its Buy With Confidence guarantee. Every product is test at the Natural Balance facility in California.

Head to PetSmart or PetSmart.com


So if you think your dog may be suffering from a food allergy, consider heading to PetSmart® to pick up Natural Balance's Limited Ingredient Diet. An extensive selection is available at your local PetSmart location, or at PetSmart.com.

3 comments :

  1. We went through the allergy process with Bentley too. L.I.D. foods are a wonderful way to narrow down the culprit!

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    Replies
    1. We thought that he was allergic to chicken but now we think it might have been a reaction to his ear problems. I think we have it under control and I have been giving him small bits of chicken without any problems.

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