Useful Info About Your Four-Legged Best Friend

In the previous edition of Healthy Times Newspaper (available for viewing online at www.healthytimesonline.com/hk) I wrote about skin allergies in dogs and gave reasons why they occur, as well as how to prevent them. For additional avoidance of any skin allergies, the best course to take is not to feed your dog the same bag of food year in and year out. Vary its diet by giving it different flavors. Switch once every six months or so.

You can use the same brand name, but give it a different protein. If you use lamb for six months, switch to chicken or fish flavors. Again, avoid giving your dog food that uses wheat grain as one of its ingredients, as many dogs get skin allergies when they eat this over time.

Why is it that we need to rotate flavors for our dogs? Although their noses are 100,000 times more sensitive than our smellers, their palate is much weaker than ours. They can only taste four flavors: salty, sweet, sour, and tangy (spicy). Their tongues are built for a special purpose. That is for drinking water and for panting and giving off heat and moisture (more on this later).

So if they don’t taste very much, why do we need to change flavors for them? It is actually not the flavor we are after for the purpose of feeding our dogs, but more importantly, it is the amino acids they require for growth and body maintenance. They require 19 essential amino acids for this purpose. No one bag of dog food can or will contain all these building blocks of nutrients. One bag may have as many as 12 different amino acids, while some will have less. A different bag of dog food will have some of the other missing amino acids. By changing flavors every three to six months or so, you can provide almost all the amino acids that they missed with the different flavor. This will also contribute to the avoidance of skin problems.

Some dogs can develop skin allergies through eating the same flavor dog food for one year or more. Just think what kind of physical problems you as a human being will develop if you were to eat just hamburgers and fries for one year non-stop. No doubt, you will also get lots of rashes on your skin as well as other problems. Although your dog has a simpler digestive system, a little variety will go a long way to keeping it strong and healthy.

What about their tongue? This is built for drinking water and if they get hot they will pant and release body heat along with moisture. To do this, the outside temperature can be as high as 35 to 40C, as long as the humidity is below 30, they will survive by panting. This is because their tongues will be able to dry out and release moisture along with their body heat. They then must have lots of water to replace what they vent out. However, if the humidity is above 70 along with the high temperature, they will have a problem being able to dry out their tongue.

When the surrounding moisture is too high, it prevents their tongue from being able to do its work, thus heat is not efficiently exchanged. If this continues for more than 20 minutes, the dog will suffer from heat stroke and this is terminal. In Hong Kong, many dogs of all breeds have succumbed to this climate. So, take extra care when walking your pet and make sure it is cooled by wetting its head and paws, as dogs also “sweat” through their paws.

Jin Hay is an advisor for nutrition in dogs and has extensive experience working with dogs throughout Hong Kong both as a groomer and nutritionalist. He recommends his clients to integrate Chudley’s Premium Dog food into their dogs’ diets. Simply call 2555 2243 to have a bag of Chudley’s delivered straight to your door.


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Useful Info About Your Four-Legged Best Friend By Jin Ha In the previous edition of Healthy Times Newspaper (available for viewing online at www.healthytimesonline.com/hk) I wrote about skin allergies in dogs and gave reasons why they occur, as well as how to prevent them. For additional avoidance of any skin allergies, the best course to take is not to feed your dog the same bag of food year in and year out. Vary its diet by giving it different flavors. Switch once every six months or so. You can use the same brand name, but give it a different protein. If you use lamb for six months, switch to chicken or fish flavors. Again, avoid giving your dog food that uses wheat grain as one of its ingredients, as many dogs get skin allergies when they eat this over time. Why is it that we need to rotate flavors for our dogs? Although their noses are 100,000 times more sensitive than our smellers, their palate is much weaker than ours. They can only taste four flavors: salty, sweet, sour, and tangy (spicy). Their tongues are built for a special purpose. That is for drinking water and for panting and giving off heat and moisture (more on this later). So if they don’t taste very much, why do we need to change flavors for them? It is actually not the flavor we are after for the purpose of feeding our dogs, but more importantly, it is the amino acids they require for growth and body maintenance. They require 19 essential amino acids for this purpose. No one bag of dog food can or will contain all these building blocks of nutrients. One bag may have as many as 12 different amino acids, while some will have less. A different bag of dog food will have some of the other missing amino acids. By changing flavors every three to six months or so, you can provide almost all the amino acids that they missed with the different flavor. This will also contribute to the avoidance of skin problems. Some dogs can develop skin allergies through eating the same flavor dog food for one year or more. Just think what kind of physical problems you as a human being will develop if you were to eat just hamburgers and fries for one year non-stop. No doubt, you will also get lots of rashes on your skin as well as other problems. Although your dog has a simpler digestive system, a little variety will go a long way to keeping it strong and healthy. What about their tongue? This is built for drinking water and if they get hot they will pant and release body heat along with moisture. To do this, the outside temperature can be as high as 35 to 40C, as long as the humidity is below 30, they will survive by panting. This is because their tongues will be able to dry out and release moisture along with their body heat. They then must have lots of water to replace what they vent out. However, if the humidity is above 70 along with the high temperature, they will have a problem being able to dry out their tongue. When the surrounding moisture is too high, it prevents their tongue from being able to do its work, thus heat is not efficiently exchanged. If this continues for more than 20 minutes, the dog will suffer from heat stroke and this is terminal. In Hong Kong, many dogs of all breeds have succumbed to this climate. So, take extra care when walking your pet and make sure it is cooled by wetting its head and paws, as dogs also “sweat” through their paws. Jin Hay is an advisor for nutrition in dogs and has extensive experience working with dogs throughout Hong Kong both as a groomer and nutritionalist. He recommends his clients to integrate Chudley’s Premium Dog food into their dogs’ diets. Simply call 2555 2243 to have a bag of Chudley’s delivered straight to your door.