Dog food--just how important is it in keeping your pet flea free? Today I would like to talk about the importance of the food that you feed to your best friend and how it relates to flea control and prevention.

Most people are concerned with getting a food that the dog likes and believe because it came from a particular store that the food will be all that their pet needs for good nutrition. While it is important that Fido likes the food, the most important thing is that the food has all the vitamins and minerals that he/she needs for overall good health. A food with by-products and soybeans for instance probably will not meet all the dog's needs. It probably has a lot of sugar, etc., etc. to entice the dog to eat it and that's not good. (By-products--yum, yum!) They can even use road kill. The four d's--the dead, the diseased, the dying and the disabled. Sorry, but it's true.

Digestibility is the thing that is needed to promote overall good health. So, if a food is full of by-product and undigestible grains such as soybeans, then digestibility is not going to be there. When food cannot be digested, this is when skin problems as well as others, such as allergies start to occur. Then we go to the vet and begin endless shots and medicine, with all the side effects, to give the dog relief, when most of the time if we would just simply upgrade the food we could solve most and probably all the problems the pet is suffering.

Okay, now getting to the main point. If you truly want to prevent and control fleas--the very first place to start is with your dog's skin health. If a flea jumps on a dog with healthy skin--the flea will flee in a hurry because it is just too hard for the flea to survive when the skin is in good condition. It's like if you plant a tomatoe plant in depleted, worn out soil, the tomatoe plant will be a perfect place for hornworms to take up residency. Hornworms will riddle the plant and then the plant dies. I'm not saying that your dog will actually die from fleas (although in severe cases it could happen). Flea infestation on your dog is very unhealthy leading to many problems such as tapeworm. (That is another story maybe for later). But, for now, understand that good skin condition through proper nutrition will be the first step in keeping you, your pet and home flea free.

Flea/tick control and prevention is an ongoing process and is best taken of care by natural methods. It's safer for everyone as well as for the environment.