Anyone with pets understands that they make wonderful companions. Whether you own a dog, cat, or some other lovely animal, they may have specific dietary requirements. Fortunately, identifying food allergies is less difficult when you know what to look for. When animals have food allergies, they react in many of the same ways people do. However, the primary difference is their inability to express discomfort in the conventional sense. Pets develop skin rashes or show signs of limb discomfort when affected by allergies, and they may suffer from diarrhea. In addition, problems that are more serious may occur, seizures, vomiting, and intestinal discomfort.

Identifying allergies in pets is not always easy to see. Sometimes finding out what your pet is allergic to is a trial and error and process. However, in order to take care of these animals, it is important to understand pets, like people, can have specific allergies. If you suspect a food allergy, look for the following signs:

1. Scratching and licking
Pets may also show symptoms of food allergies by displaying skin redness, scratching, or excessively licking or biting at a specific area while trying to resolve skin irritation. In addition, they may lick or bite so obsessively that they suffer hair loss.

2. Specific food triggers
Usually, pets will eat pretty much anything, however, it is unwise to feed them people food. Nevertheless, not everything you eat is good for a pet. A few things your pet might be allergic to are proteins in various food products. These cause most food allergies for pets. This may include:

• Soy
• Fish
• Wheat
• Beef
• Chicken
• Rabbit
• Dairy
• Eggs
• Pork

3. Environmental allergies
Allergies to environmental factors like grass and outdoor items can create many of the same symptoms. Therefore, pay close attention to your pet. A pet might suffer from dry skin, watery eyes, sore paws, and itching as a reaction to certain allergens.

4. Toxic foods for pets
Some foods are not just irritants but dangerous to pets. Chocolate and caffeine in particular may cause seizures, tremors, and heart palpitations for pets. Donuts are a delicious treat. However, any food with refined sugar is not good for your pet, and yeast can produce bloating becoming a health risk for a pet. Nuts, onions, garlic, grapes, and raisins are delicious for humans, but these foods are dangerous for horses, cats, birds, or dogs. Egg allergies in cats can create violent vomiting, as well as runny ears they can’t stop preening. Reactions to wheat, dairy, or egg allergies in cats may not be immediate, but can take a couple of hours. Even then, the feeling of pain or discomfort may be prolonged.

5. Observe your pet’s diet closely
Of the many ways to surmise if your pet has a food allergy is careful observation. If they are allergic to a food, results may not show up immediately. Food reactions may show hours later even as many as 4 hours later.

6. Feed pets an allergy diet
Your vet can help you diagnose a food allergy in your pet and may recommend a different type of food. Allergy diets for pets may include grain-free cat food (no wheat, corn or soy), which are common food allergens in cats. Limited-ingredient cat and dog foods are the wisest option for a pet with food allergies. These are made with alternative proteins, such as turkey, chicken, salmon, or duck.