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How to control my labs shedding?
in Pets
My husband and I have a 6 month old white lab and he sheds a lot. I get so tired of cleaning dog hair off of everything since he is in the house. We use the Furminator along with other brushes but it only seems to help a little bit. Does anyone else have this problem? And if so what is your solution?
Re: How to control my labs shedding?
What are you feeding him? Sometimes a higher quality food helps reduce shedding.
We also furminate and use salmon oil on their high quality food. We still have massive hair, mostly white on everything.
Sweep daily! Sucks I know!!
The vets always recommend crummy food. Sorry!You can do better. It's not a terrible food, but it's not great either.
Think of it like eating McDonald's at every meal. You can survive and be alright, but you'd look and feel better if you ate a little healthier.
When we looked at switching foods, we look at dogfoodanalysis.com and went to our local pet store and asked questions there. I didn't know there were so many different types of food until we started looking at switching!
We actually feed less of the better quality (4 or 5 stars on DFA) than we were of SD, so while the initial bag might cost more, the actual cost comes out to about the same or less.
Science Diet and Iams are not good quality foods. Check out: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/ to find better foods to feed. While some are more expensive at first glance, you feed less of them so you go through less.
In reality, we spend less now per dog than I did when I fed my oldest the junky food when I didn't know better. My oldest is a long haired mutt and used to shed like there was no end...I'm talking tumbleweeds in my living room every day. We switched him about 3 - 4 years ago to better food and the amount of shedding has reduced dramatically.
Take a look at this site :
www.dogfoodanalysis.com
Compare the ingredients in Iams to the ingredients in something like Innova or Wellness Core. Like the pp said, it is like feeding your dog fast food. It will keep him alive, but it won't help him thrive, which is what we all want for our pups!
Happy Spring!.
Ok. Thanks, but what I do not understand is then why do many vets sell Science Diet and Iams in their clinics?
Someone else can probably speak to it better. Most vets do not get much nutrition training. What they do get is often sponsored by Purina and other corporations. They also make money from selling it in their offfices.
You'll find that many women on this board have had vets just like yours, and have done this kind of research on their own to do the best for their dogs.
If you look on the websites for the better foods, most will have a store locator to help you find where to buy it in your area. Wellness is also sold at Petco.
Good luck! My parents switched their dog to Canidae and then to Wellness from Kibbles n bits, and the change in his coat was very noticable.
Happy Spring!.
Because many of the nutrition classes that vets take are sponsored by Hills (makers of SD) or Iams.
Honestly, I was very hesitant to switch my dogs at first, but once H and I did a TON of research, we realized that SD was just not great for our two hunters. Now their coats are softer, shinier and Max, at least, seems to shed less.
And I'm with you on white hair all over everything. Trixie, our GSP, has little white hairs that stick to EVERYTHING, but primarily my black pants in the morning before I leave for work.
You might want to look into getting a shedding blade for grooming as well as a switch in dog food - our shedding blade takes a lot of those extra hairs that are no longer attached and removes them.
if you take a close look at the nutrition textbook vet school use, you will see that it's published by hill's science diet. not exactly the most objective point of view. though, in recent years, many vet schools are exposing their students to better foods.
and royal canin isn't that great either. some of their foods are better than others, but overall, they rank with SD.
my pups were on purina proplan and nutro natural choice at first, and while they did great on it, i noticed several changes when i switched to a better food, including less shedding and shinier coats. i havent' vacuumed in over a week, and there are no tumbleweeds. and my two lab/dane mixes aren't exactly small.
Have you seen my monkey?
Most of the Royal Canin formulas are only rated about a 2 on that site (out of 6). That is the link to the review of the Royal Canin Maxi Labrador Retriever 30. You can search for whatever formula you do feed.
Look for a 5 or 6 star food. You will definitely see a difference!
Happy Spring!.
What kind do you feed them? I vaccum about every other day and it gets real old, real fast.
i switched them to nature's variety and then canidae, both of which resulted in markedly less shedding.
i currently raw-feed my dogs, which cut down shedding even more, but raw-feeding isn't for everyone.
Have you seen my monkey?
I also raw feed my dogs; there are commercially prepared diets (Nature's Variety) but they are definitely expensive. We do it for the overall nutrition and because our dog has special needs- epilepsy, food allergies, sodium intolerance, hypothyroid, the list goes on and on. With raw, we can control what goes in the most and the results have been spectacular.
You'll see a difference in coat quality and shedding on any of the 4-6 star foods on the dogfoodanalysis, though. We feed our fosters California Natural Herring and Sweet Potato and it does a great job.
Former lab owner here. Better food will help, but you also have to realize that labs are naturally heavy shedding dogs. The short coats are deceiving, but they are actually double coated dogs.
I'm not saying there's no hope, but I am saying that labs are not a dog you get if you don't want to deal with a lot of shedding. You can control it and keep it to a minimum, but don't ever expect to see your house hairless, no matter how much sweeping and cleaning you do.
That said, they are excellent dogs! I hope to own another one someday.
Well, first of all, you DO have a lab, which are heavy shedders. There isn't a whole lot you can do about that
However, I do ditto all the pps about feeding a higher quality food. I noticed a HUGE difference in my dog's coat, skin, and poops when I took her off of Iams and put her on a better food.
I notice my foster dogs stop shedding so much and their skin improves after I get them off the Iams. It's remarkable, really, how much difference a simple thing like food can make.
I, too, use the furminator, but you have to use it regularly to get results. And I vacuum. A lot. Such is life.
Royal Canin is NOT a high quality food. Hate to break it to ya.
B/w 1/8: betas 17,345, progesterone 25.6
heee hee...is he eating yet?
WHYYY are all these threads still on the server???