An occasional toot is not only necessary but also healthy for your dog. However, lots of smelly gas causes discomfort and could adversely affect the bond between you and your dog. In most cases, gas results from the food that the dog eats and its feeding habits. The good thing is that gas is a manageable condition, enabling you to restore your dog's good health. Here are some of the things that result in too much intestinal gas for dogs and what you can do to manage the condition:

A Fast Eating Rate

Does your dog eat quickly? Well, you might feel happy considering the zeal with which it gobbles that food, but it isn't good for the gas accumulating in its intestines. When it eats fast, your dog swallows a lot of air that finds its way to the large intestines. Even though this air isn't smelly, it adds to the volume of gas given off by the dog in the end. Ideally, you should encourage your dog to eat more slowly. Check into a pet accessory retailer's shop for a bowl specifically designed to lower your dog's eating pace. A more localised remedy is to put large mounds of food rocks on the dog's plate, which cannot fit in their mouth and forces them to bite off small chunks.

Bad Quality Food

Bad food quality contributes heavily to the accumulation of gas in the dog's large intestine. Particularly, food that comes with large amounts of fermentable fibre causes gas problems. This is because fibre is not taken up in the small intestines like other nutrients. Instead, it moves into the large intestines, which are home to a host of bacteria. The bacteria use the fibre as food and give off a foul gas as a byproduct.

Look out for dog foods with the "highly digestible" labels and one or more of animal-based proteins as the main ingredients. These proteins include fish, meat and eggs. Avoid foods that have a high amount of fibre such as pectin, oats, plant gums and chicory.

Too Much Red Meat

Dogs require lots of protein in their diet. However, avoid feeding them too much red meat and opt for other protein alternatives like fish and eggs. Red meat contains sulphur, some of which ends up in the large intestines. When the bacteria decompose this sulphur chemically, they produce a lot of foul gas. If your dog eats lots of red meat and has gas issues, the red meat is the likely cause.

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