Seems My Dog Has Dog Food Allergies

I know it's been a while since my last post, but I think one of my dogs has dog food allergies! It kind of shocked me. I guess I was in the thinking that since I changed to homemade dog food, using human-grade, quality ingredients, that I didn't have to worry about much as far as dog food allergies.

But one of my dogs, Shadow, started scratching alot, all over. It kind of built up over time. My son insisted it was fleas, as it started in the middle of summer, and that seemed logical as I don't use flea medication unless I see a problem. But I never saw any fleas on my dog, in the house, or even any flea 'dirt' where he slept. At my son's insistence, I applied some flea control - and it made no difference.

Now I know from my own experiences with my children, that you can develop an allergy to just about anything, at any time. Something you've eaten or used for a long time can suddenly leave you in hives. So I thought maybe I needed to look at my dogs' food.

For carbs, I primarily use brown rice, although I will substitute oatmeal, lentils, and barley every so often just to mix it up. So that was the first change I made. No brown rice for a month, for either of my dogs. Although my son wanted results fast, that just isn't the way the body works - you can't just quit an ingredient for a few days and expect a dramatic change unless it is a very severe allergy.

After a month, I went back to brown rice and saw no change in the itching - no more, no less.

Next on my list was eggs, as dairy products are also a common allergen for dogs. I feed my dogs one egg a day. I originally began feeding eggs to help improve their coats - and now their fur is so soft and lush. I hope not feeding eggs won't change that.

After two weeks of no eggs, we saw a noticeable decrease in Shadow's itching.

It has now been one month, and although he does still scratch every now and then (and still no fleas), I'm thinking my baby has joined the ranks of the thousands of dogs with dog food allergies!

NOTE: After re-reading my post I wanted to put in that Shadow's itching was not so bad that he was causing any harm to himself - it was more annoying and surely frustrating for him. If he was at the stage of scratching 24/7 or tearing up his skin, I would have completely eliminated all of the food I was giving him - not just one ingredient at a time. I would have found a hypoallergenic dog food that did not have ANY of the ingredients that I feed him. Then once the itching was back under control, I would have started investigating what the offending ingredient was.