Does a healthy raw food diet help keep fleas away?

Fleas are ectoparasites, which means that they live on the skin’s surface, similar to lice or ticks.

When we got Monty our Shih Tzu 7 ears ago he came with over 20 fleas on his little body. We were told that he had been given a flea treatment but obviously it didn’t work. He was very smelly so my daughter Emma and I shampooed and blow dried him and then I sat for hours with flea comb removing all the fleas.

We did not know anything about raw feeding when we first got him so we accepted that the puppy kibble we were given for him was the right stuff. We found out soon enough that he didn’t really like it and he had the meanest farts going. He could fill a room!

When he was a few months old we went on a road trip to Auckland where we came across a raw feeding shop. We asked many questions and gave raw feeding a try. Well we can safely say that Monty stopped farting and started enjoying his food. That was 8 years ago and we haven’t looked back.

So does a healthy raw food diet help keep fleas away?

For Monty and now our new addition Tana, yes it has done. However, it doesn’t work for every dog. Having a healthy raw food diet does go a long way to keeping fleas at bay.

What are fleas attracted to?

Fleas love smelly dogs and are sugar junkies

There are two main reasons why dogs that eat processed food have higher rates of flea infestation.

• Fleas love sugar and kibble is packed with carbohydrates (sugars), this causes severe spikes in your dogs glucose levels which in turn attracts fleas.
• Fleas are attracted to animals with stronger odours and less healthy skin. Everyone who feeds a balanced raw diet will agree that there is very little “doggy” smell.

Conventional Flea Treatments

At this point I want to talk about conventional flea products. These products are chemically based and have been known to cause serious side effects such as seizures. We do not like to put these products on our dogs’ skins however, we are not telling you that you shouldn’t as that is your decision.

What we do suggest is that you consider other ways of flea control such as

• Homeopathic remedies
• Diatomaceous earth
• Plant & aromatherapy based flea sprays
• Flea combing regularly
• Using shampoo & conditioner with natural products like Neem oil in them and other essential oils that repel fleas
• Edible products such as Flee Flea

Or if you would like to have a chat with us about raw feeding then click on the button below