Avocados: A Surprisingly Healthy Fruit For All Dogs Part 2

Most dogs love avocados. They taste good and they are an excellent source of fat. Fat is responsible for providing dogs with an extra amount of energy and gives them healthy skin as well as an extra glow in their coat.

Strangely enough, it was the dogs themselves who led us to the idea of using the avocado as a supplement to the canine diet. It seems that avocado growers’ pet dogs were competing with the growers for any fallen fruit. The growers became curious and decided to compare the nutrients that this amazing fruit contained with those needed by canines.

According to a Veterinary professor at Iowa State University, this fruit enhances hair quality as well as skin tone. Avocado growers have reported this improvement in their dogs is most likely due to the amount of linoleic acid of the fruit when added to the dog’s diet.

Of course, this fruit alone could not be recommended as the only nutrient source for dogs. An avocado, in small quantities as a supplement, might be helpful if adequate amounts of fat were not available from other sources.

A dog’s requirement of fat depends mostly on the amount of activity he engages in. For instance, an active working dog needs up to twenty percent fat in his diet, while the average household dog that walks a few blocks everyday, needs only five to eight percent of fat in his diet. The very thin dog should get a diet rich in fat until his weight and health improve. The pregnant and nursing female dog also needs greater amounts of fat in her diet.

The majority of canine canned foods contain adequate fat to satisfy the need of an average household dog. However, if the dog is fed a diet strictly of dry meal, it might be moistened with additional sources of fat.

Avocados are an excellent source of fat for this purpose. For canines that get most of their fat from canned foods, this tasty fruit also serves as an occasional treat. Avocados might be alternated with other occasional food supplements to add variety to the dog’s regular diet. Simply put, dogs love avocados and they are good for them!

Word Of Warning: Documented evidence suggests that some dogs, as well as other domestic animals like cats and cattle, can be severely harmed and prove fatal when they eat the avocado pit, skin, leaves and bark of the avocado tree. Therefore, when supplementing your dog’s diet with avocados, make sure to only give him the meat of the fruit.

Avocados Are A Surprisingly Healthy Fruit For All Dogs

If you feed your dog a diet consisting of only lean meat, chances are it could have severe nutritional problems. While a dog is a carnivore, it cannot live on protein alone. Just like its owner, a dog needs a balanced diet including fats, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.

Few of us could afford a predominantly steak diet for our dogs, but even if we could, they would be a lot healthier with a cheaper cut of meat. Less expensive meats are better for dogs because they have a higher fat content.

Fats provide dogs with energy and heat and help keep their skin healthy. Not enough fat in a dog’s diet can cause scaly, dry skin. its coat may become coarse and lifeless. A diet low in fat may also cause a dog to become highly nervous and more susceptible to many types of illness.

There are three fatty acids that a dog needs. These are: linolenic, linoleic and arachidonic. Linoleic acid can be found in meat products, suet, butter and corn oil. It can also be found in avocados.

The Avocado

Avocados are one of the few fruits that most dogs love. One reason for this is that these fruits add palatability and texture to food, especially dry meal. It is also a nutritious supplement of fats to the canine diet. This pear-shaped fruit contains sixteen percent of rare oil seldom found in fruits, as well as an unusual amount of protein.

One medium avocado contains about 35 grams of fat, mostly monounsaturated. This fruit also has more potassium than bananas. Avocados are also rich in vitamin E, vitamin K and the B vitamins.

When the nutritional requirements of adult dogs were compared with the composition of avocados, particularly Californian avocados, this fruit proved to be a good source of vitamins and minerals. One half of a medium avocado provides a mature dog with all his daily requirements for magnesium, potassium and niacin. About half of his requirements for thiamin, manganese and vitamin A, are also provided with this awesome fruit.

Compare what the avocado offers a dog nutritionally, to some of the other foods often added to a dog’s diet to improve his skin tone and coat. Half an avocado supplies thirteen grams of fat. There is one gram of linoleic acid in half of the fruit.

An egg has half the amount of fat grams and only a trace of linoleic acid. One half cup of cottage cheese only offers five grams of fat and a trace of linoleic acid, while one tablespoon of corn oil has fourteen grams of fat and seven grams of linoleic acid, but none of the vitamins and minerals that the avocado offers.

Understanding and Preventing Hair Loss in Dogs

Hair loss in dogs can really be a problem; in many cases, hair loss in dogs starts at the tail and then works its way into the body creating some ugly bald patches. The bald patches on the dogs body would usually turn black and the skin on it will become rough and hard to hold. In some cases, hair loss in dogs could affect their entire body making them appear sick.

What Causes Hair Loss in Dogs?

There are many reasons for hair loss in dogs. One of the most common reasons is the incessant scathing that they usually do in response to some itching. Usually, dogs that have lice, fleas and ticks running under their hair and biting onto their skin would resort to strenuous scratching. The more the dog scratches the spots that have been bitten by the ticks, lice of fleas, and the more hair would come off. Moreover, bites from lice, ticks and fleas, would eventually swell and the hair their in would start falling off as a result. Eventually, there will be some bald spots in the coat of the dog resulting from the scratching.

Another reason for hair loss in dogs is hormonal abnormalities. There are some breeds of dogs, which are prone to hormonal abnormalities like the dachshunds. If you have a dachshund as a pet, make sure that you bring your dog to the veterinarian when you notice some bald spots in your dog so that it can be treated accordingly.

Some hair loss in dogs is caused by allergies. Food allergies are one of the most common reasons. If your dog has eaten a new type of dog food and it starts scratching itself, it would be a good idea to stop feeding it with that type of dog food. There is a big possibility that your dog could be allergic to some of the ingredients of that dog food.

Dog Food Recall – Knowledge Is Power

Due to the recent pet food recall, millions of pet owners are left feeling bewildered as to why this incident happened. So many dogs and cats were left sick and many more died. Since most pet owners depend on commercial pet food to feed their dogs, they are now skeptical about which brand of food to buy and what type of food is safe for their dogs.

Who Can You Count On?

Commercial pet foods have been contaminated with harmful chemicals, including mycotoxins (toxins produced by fungi). The FDA and food manufacturers have authorized several recalls after a defective food is found. The FDA and the food company join together to find out the main cause of the problem and prevent it from happening again.

Knowledge Is Power

When it comes to getting the best dog food possible, you need to know what to look for and what to avoid. Below are some ways to monitor the food you are giving your dog to ensure its safety:

1. Check the expiration date on all foods and treats before feeding them to your dog. Doing so will help you avoid any items that are scheduled to go bad. While this is a wise consumer action on your part, ironically enough the food could still be poisonous to your animals because of preservatives and other chemicals that are added for taste, longevity and texture. Try shopping organic if possible.

2. If the food or treat is not yet expired, but appears to be stale, or has a foul odor, do not feed it to your dog and contact the company/manufacturer. There probably isn’t much you can do in terms of getting your money back, but by contacting the producer, you may be a small part of a larger action to have a recall initiated. Remember, if nobody complains, nothing gets done.

3. Consult your vet if your dog shows any symptoms of abnormal or unusual behavior. Early treatment will result in a better chance of full recovery. It’s safe to say that some of the dogs and cats that were killed by tainted pet food, may have survived, had the owners’ brought them to the veterinarian at the first signs of illness. Take the situation seriously if you sense that your dog is having a reaction. Remember, the threat is real and many pets have died.

4. To ensure the safety of the food that your pet is eating, keep informed of the latest news on pet food recalls. The best way to do this is to go online and type in “pet food recall”. Read through as many articles as possible.

Try to avoid information that is put out by pet food manufacturers themselves. It’s not that the information is not reliable, but these companies are going to sugarcoat the dangers of pet food. It is their livelihood after all. They are in the business of selling pet food!