Dog food

I often see some friends going to the pet shop every month to just buy a bag of doggy kibbles and they don't get the large ones because its too heavy to carry it home. This makes me wonder why don't they just order and get the pet shop to deliver? Most pet shops earn their bulk of their income from the sale of pet food. Most of them do delivery and they even waive off delivery charges if you are a regular.

Personally, I use the website Hotdog. I've used them for so many years and I can safely say that they give me value for money. In order to keep my dog's food fresh, they were the ones who suggested repacking the food into 6 separate bags!! Talk about excellent service!! They do offer grooming services but they actually send the dogs to another pet shop and I didn't like how my pooch looked after that. Nonetheless, its very fuss free because they pick the dog from your home and will deliver your pooch back to your home once the grooming is done.

Well...this post is about food...so I shall blog about the grooming bit in another entry. Anyway...let's talk about allergies. If you've got a purebred like me, chances are...your dog is more suscepitble to skin allergies. Long floppy ears like my Cocker Spaniel? Ear infection alert. Most of it can actually be traced back to allergens though.

Common allergens for dogs? Corn and wheat. Science Diet uses these 2 in bulk and they don't compensate it by adding oils like flaxseed/ primrose or simple fish oils. Lesson learnt: READ LABELS. Seems like a no brainer but I never really thought about it until my dog (when he was a puppy) had rashes, hairless patches and adding flaxseed to his diet wasn't helping.

Surprisingly, dogs can be allergic to meat too. I know...this sounds absolutely weird. However, according to his vet, my Baileys is allergic to meat. What type? I think all. Haha. Fish is ok though. Nonetheless, I have since put Baileys on the Solid Gold Holistic and his skin has improved tremendously.

During New Year, I gave him a couple slices of beef and the next day...his ear started smelling really bad and he was scratching himself like mad. Yes...dogs can be allergic to meats. No...I'm not gonna make my dog a vegetarian. =P

Anyway, the main point is to be observant and it helps to talk to your pet's vet regularly!