If you have pets at your place, like dogs or cats, there is a high chance that you’re quite familiar with the concept of pet shedding.
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You could already be quite used to having fur around your home throughout the year.
Why Do They Shed?
Before anything, it is essential to understand why this happens to your pet.
You have to remember that your pet’s fur or hair plays a very significant role.
Your pet’s fur is critical in making sure that his or her vital organs, as well as skin, are protected from elements like cold, heat, the sun just about anything your pet gets exposed to.
It also plays a role in regulating the body temperature of your pet.
For example, some dogs have thick undercoats.
This acts as kind of like insulation for them to remain cool or warm.
Just like us humans, your pet’s hair or fur grows all year round.
At some point, a particular strand stops growing at the end of its life cycle.
This causes it to break and fall off to be replaced by new and healthy ones.
It’s pretty much the same as you finding strands of hair on your shower drain after taking a bath.
However, while you’re most likely not to find fur on your drain, if you don’t take precautionary measures, your pet’s hair might end up just about everywhere, from your mattress cover to your carpet and even your clothes.
How Often Do They Shed?
Like I mentioned earlier, the hair growth process takes place all year round.
Different pets have different shedding frequencies.
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In actuality, it all greatly depends on the kind of dog you have.
Coat shedding also bases on your pet’s overall health, breed, as well as pregnancy status.
This cycle of shedding is normal and cannot be prevented.
Some pets may shed all year round or in season, most notably during summer, while the others seem not to shed all that much.
It really all boils down to the factors mentioned above.
With that out of the way, here are some sure-fire tips on how you can handle pet shedding like a professional.
Keep in mind that these tips will let you know about the tools that can be of great help for you as well as best practices you can adopt to minimize shedding for your pets.
Tip 1: Regular Visits to the Vet
The primary and most crucial thing is to keep your pet in check.
It doesn’t matter what breed of pet you have. It’s always significant that you get advice coming from a professional about whatever issues they might be dealing with.
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Regular check-ups with a reliable veterinarian will help you adopt the best practices you can apply so that you can take care of your pet adequately and give them the best life possible.
When you notice that your pet is shedding excessively and his or her skin appears to be irritated in any way that doesn’t look normal, it is always best that you take your pet to your vet.
There are a lot of health issues that could cause this, like allergies and skin irritations.
Your pet’s veterinarian will be able to determine the cause of these skin issues and prescribe the correct medication and care guidelines.
While the digital age offers us heaps of information on the internet that you can read up on, still, nothing beats advice coming from a seasoned and trained professional.
Tip 2: Get Yourself a Reliable Vacuum Cleaner
While the first tip is for your pet, this one is more for you.
As we all know, your pet might be shedding all around the place, but you can’t really expect your buddy to clean up after him or herself.
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This is why you need to get yourself a powerful and reliable vacuum cleaner.
You might be knocking off all the items on your checklist and be giving your pet the best care possible.
However, you have to remember that shedding is inevitable.
There are a lot of companies that make vacuum cleaners that cater specifically to dog owners.
There are also vacuum cleaners on the market that have sweeping cloths included.
You can try to replace these sweeping cloths with a fabric softener sheet to make cleaning easier for you.
When you sweep this along your baseboard or on other smooth surfaces, it leaves behind a film or a coat that tends off the dust as well as dog fur.
Taking note of your cleaning needs is critical to consider before you even buy a vacuum cleaner.
Make sure that it can handle your demands as far as cleaning up your pet’s fur is concerned.
Tip 3: Choose Your Pet’s Diet Wisely
Your dog needs a consistent and nutrient-rich diet to minimize, if not prevent, shedding.
It always pays to read nutritional facts on the label of your pet’s food to make sure that you are aware of what you’re putting inside their bodies.
Be on the lookout for ingredients such as soy, wheat, and corn, as well as their by-products.
Ingredients such as these are significant contributors to excessive shedding.
They’re most likely the equivalents of junk or unhealthy food for your pets.
What Should You Feed Your Dog?
Look for food that has high levels of protein or has protein as it’s primary ingredient.
High-protein diets aren’t just more nutritious and healthier for your dog.
They’re also more filling, so you won’t have to give them a lot of food.
On top of the health benefits, high-protein foods bring to the table; it also helps to reduce the intensity of the shedding majorly.
Tip 4: Supplement Your Pet’s Diet with Healthy Oils
In addition to keeping watch over the nutritional components of your dog’s food, you can tap the power of healthy oils to keep your pet’s fur shiny and healthy.
In actuality, the condition of the coat and the skin of your dog has a lot to do with Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids.
So, it is equally important to consider this when choosing their food.
While a lot of the dog food packages available on the market claim to have these fatty acids as part of their ingredients, your dog might not be getting the amount he or she needs as the quantities on a particular dog food might be quite low.
Here are some hacks to augment the amount of these healthy oils in your pet’s diet.
Add Olive Oil
Olive oil is known to contain Omega-3 fatty acids.
This conditions your dog’s coat, as well as their skin, and keeps them well moisturized.
Put one tablespoon of olive oil to your dog’s food every day, and this will help.
This makes the coat of your dog healthy. Therefore, there will be less shedding.
Fish Oils and Other Supplements
Top-quality canine skin supplements and fish oils put together the benefits of Omega-3 and Omega-6.
Plus, dogs also love the taste, which is definitely a welcome benefit.
Continue giving supplements like these to your dog, and you should notice the difference in about a month.
Molasses
Here’s a bonus hack that you might not be aware of: add molasses to their food. That’s right.
Molasses is not just for your cookies; you can also use this natural sweetener to prevent shedding.
If you want to take the tasty route of keeping their coat healthy and shiny, add this to their food.
Don’t go overboard, though, as the recommended amount is a tablespoon for every ten pounds.
Molasses brings a lot of health benefits to the table. It contains a lot of nutrients and copper, which is a trace mineral that can help strengthen your dog’s hair.
It is also rich in antioxidants, iron, as well as B-Vitamins.
All these combined helps improve the overall cost quality of your pet.
Tip 5: Regular Bathing and Brushing
Your dog can always get into tricky and messy situations.
That’s why it’s always important to follow a regular bathing schedule.
This helps to loosen up your pet’s hair or fur during the actual bath, so it doesn’t get anywhere else.
Just make sure that you’re using a gentle and compatible shampoo with your dog’s coat.
Additionally, you also must set a regular brushing session with your pet.
Brush your dog’s hair at least three times a week to keep his or her coat shiny and remove all the falling hair.
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While brushing might come off as just a basic and obvious solution to shedding, it actually works.
There are many tools you can purchase in the market that have excellent quality for brushing your pet’s coat.
On top of that, this process serves as a great bonding experience for you and your pet.
It further improves your connection with your dog.
Tip 6: Give Them More Water
Just like us humans, drinking enough water is also essential to keep their skin and coat healthy.
While tracking how much water your dog is actually taking in is quite an impossible feat, it always pays to check out his or her water bowl often.
This especially applies if your pet is shedding more extreme than usual.
Keep in mind this general rule. Every day, your dog should take in one ounce of water for every pound of weight.
In other words, if your dog weighs ten pounds, he or she should be drinking more than a cup of water every single day.
Please understand that skin that is dehydrated is one of the primary causes of excessive shedding.
Keep the options above in mind and try adopting one or even all of them to help you prevent and minimize the amount of fur your dog sheds.
This can truly save you a lot of time, money, and effort down the road.
