Why Switching Up Food Varieties Good for Your Dog

A common belief amongst pet owners is that constantly switching up food brands and food types for your mutts is bad for their health and digestive systems. Recently, however, certified veterinary nutritionists have been challenging this belief and have found that NOT changing your mutts' daily diet on a regular basis can actually cause nutritional deficiencies later on.

When you are feeding your mutts the same chicken, rice, and/or dog food pebbles every day, they are only getting the nutrients offered in those foods instead of a good variety of other vitamins and amino acids in foods like fish, beef, or other fruits and vegetables. So mixing up your mutts' daily diet is a good habit to acquire, but as a responsible pet owner, you still need to handled the change with the right care and precaution.

Below are a few tips as to how to safely and successfully switch your dogs' diet:

1. Decide on different main ingredients - If you've been feeding your mutts chicken and rice, you may look to change to something completely different like beef and vegetables. Just be sure that whatever you're feeding your dogs is safe for them to eat.
2. Switch up dog brands - If you are looking to switch dog food brands, compare the labels on the package and see what good nutrients and new formulas are lacking from your current brand. It's important to stick to the high-quality mixes for optimal nutrition. 
3. Watch the caloric intake - Dogs being overweight is a huge issue and chronic problem that, as a responsible pet owner, you should help your mutts avoid. Make sure that whatever new diet you're feeding your mutts does not exceed the right amount of calories they are supposed to have. 
4. Make the switch slowly - To avoid any digestive problems for your mutts, switch out their diets slowly by increasing the new food and decreasing the old food over a 7-10 day period. In terms of how often to change, you can consider buying a new diet plan for your mutts every time you need to go shopping for their food. 

How to Keep Your Dogs Safe From Bees

For humans (who are not allergic to bee stings), a few pricks of the skin from a small bee is just a little bit of pain and irritation. For mutts, however, multiple bee stings can lead to serious health problems like kidney failure or even death.

A main key to keeping your mutts healthy and happy is to take precautions for your dogs from bees. Below are a few tips on how to keep your mutts safe from troublesome stingers:

• A clean area to play in: Bees are attracted to strong smells and messes like leftover food in the garbage. Maintaining the cleanliness of your backyard, picnic area, and barbequer will help prevent bees from taking over the outside of your house. 
• Flowers & fragrances: It's not a big surprise that bees like flowers. So if you're walking your dogs, it's best to keep them away from big flower bushes to avoid getting stung. At the same time, bees are also attracted to sweet fragrances, so be aware of how much perfume or deodorant you apply - not only for your dogs' safety but also for yours. 
• Right times to go out: Bees tend to have the most activity during the hours of 3 - 6 p.m. So it would probably be best to plan around those times for your outdoor walks and exercises with your mutts.

Keeping your mutts happy, healthy, and hearty!