i have a 6 month old chocolate lab who has had itchy skin for 3-4 months. We have had lots of vet advice, tested for everything and tried 3 different foods (all kibble). She is about to be put on an exclusion diet to trace the allergen. Coincidentally she is currently on 'plain' food following spaying - home cooked chicken and rice as receommended by our get. The itching has stopped. So I would like to investigate home cooked food but am of course concerned to make sure she gets the correct balance of nutrients for her age and size. Can anyone recommend a reliable source for recipes, quantities of protein/fats/carbs/veg etc plus supplements? There are lots of resources on the internet but I can't really tell whether they are safe to follow. All tips much appreciated. Thanks.
I have two friends who followed Dr. Pitcairn's book. Be careful if you pick up a first edition, he says to feed grapes in it. He changed that in the next books. https://www.amazon.ca/Pitcairns-Complete-Guide-Natural-Health/dp/157954973X You will have to google your own if Canada isn't where you are. There are university courses now on nutrition for animals and specifically dogs. IN Canada I could pay to consult and have custom diets and recipes made up for my Lymphangiectasia dog. A Holistic or maybe regular Vet could perhaps suggest some to you.
I feed my boy raw meat and raw meaty bones due to his itchy skin - I think easier than cooking. If you are cooking, you need to ensure adequate calcium - my boy eats bones for this. The general rule I follow is 80% muscle meat, 10% bone, 5% liver, and 5% other organs. This ratio was apparently arrived at by observing the ratios in a whole prey, like a chicken. Your dog might’ve stopped itching due to the quality of the chicken you’re feeding. This has been discussed on the raw feeding forum I belong to - the quality might mean fewer chemicals, hormones, etc. My boy was on a bland cooked diet for bloody diarrhea some months ago - we bought roast chicken from a gourmet chicken shop! (We are vegetarian and didn’t want to cook at home) and his itching reduced. With the raw chicken we were feeding it was worse - and someone suggested affordable chickens are farmed really badly (I’m in South Africa). These are things to consider when putting a diet together for your dog: choose the highest quality food you can afford. If you have found the cooked diet is working, that sounds promising. Itchy skin can be very difficult to deal with! I found shampooing with an antifungal shampoo gives very good relief.
I feed my boy home cooked food sometimes - he doesn't have any allergies, but he really likes the food, and can be a bit of a fussy eater sometimes. I found this website very useful, here's the section on homecooked food - with an example recipe at the bottom of the page. The website also has sections of raw feeding if you are interested: http://dogaware.com/articles/wdjhomemade3.html There is also a review of books: http://dogaware.com/diet/bookreviews.html I have Dr Becker's Real Food for Health Cats and Dogs - which I don't really like. It is basically a mixture of raw or cooked meat with vegetable blends - but I think there are only two or three vegetable blends. I also have Feed Your Best Friend Better, by Rick Woodford. I like it a lot, because there are lots of difference recipes, and it's set up so you can make them in big batches. So, I make a weeks worth of food and freeze some for later in the week. But, some of the recipes have ingredients that might be criticised - tomatoes, beans, and grains. I just pick and choose which recipes I want to try. It also has information about what supplements you have to include (calcium) and which are optional. As @MF said - an important thing is to add a calcium supplement. I use ground eggshell - you can either buy it in the pet shop, or just finely grind your own eggshells.
I started with raw and then because of a change in my living situation had to change to home cooked. To be honest, I didn't follow any plan, it was just kind of trial and error to see what my dog did best on. While I think it's important to have enough protein and a good balance of nutrients, I do feel that people can get WAY too obsessed with having the perfect proportions in every meal. I took more a 3-5 day balance strategy, in the sense that all groups would get covered over several days. I did not feed the same thing every day, it depended on what I could get at the store and what was left in the refrigerator. Also for a growing dog like yours, I would pay close attention to the calcium/protein requirements, as others have already said. Otherwise, my big staples were chicken/turkey and fish (mainly sardines and some salmon), organ meats (liver), veggies (broccoli, zucchini, okra, lots of others), fruits (apples and bananas), eggs and small amounts well cooked steel cut oatmeal for fibre. Protein was about 60-80% depending on the day. Except for the small bit of oatmeal, no grains, and no potatoes or dairy either. This is what worked best for me.
I don't cook for me either. Every once in a while I'd nick a bit of Brogan's food for myself, though.
Thank you all very much for your advice, it's really helpful. I should probably have said we are in the U.K. so I don't know if I can get some of these books but I will definitely investigate. I loved the 'don't cook for myself' comment! Already I am feeding the dog better than the kids!!
You might be able to find them in a pet shop, or I think some bookstores will order books for you - not sure if there's a fee though. You can also order them online e.g. Amazon. Good lucky with your pup - I hope you manage to work out what's causing her itchy skin!
