Vet Approved Homemade Dog Food Recipe For Itchy Skin [20 Min Prep]

Hey, I'm Dr. Wolfe, veterinarian and food therapist for pets, and today I'm going to show you how to make a balanced homemade recipe specifically for dogs with itchy skin. And stick around to the end because I'm also going to let you know one big mistake a lot of people make with homemade pet food that can actually make itching worse. Let's get started. So this recipe is built to do three specific things. Reduce allergy triggers, provide skin supportive nutrients, and feed the gut microbiome. Everything your dog ingests contacts and influences their gut, which holds about 70% of their immune system. And your pet's gut has a line of communication directly to their skin. There's something called the gut-skin axis. Whether or not it's a food allergy or something else, diet still plays a crucial role in supporting your dog's skin and calming inflammation from the inside out. We are going to achieve that first step of avoiding potential allergy triggers by not using common allergens like chicken and beef. Instead, I'm opting for cod, which is a really lean protein that also helps supply omega-3 fatty acids. And for a lot of pets, it might be a novel protein, meaning one that they haven't been exposed to before, and therefore it can be used in a diet trial to actually diagnose food allergies. And in order to feed the gut microbiome, we are going to include several different types of fiber. Fiber is going to come from our fruits and vegetables, but also our potatoes. And the carrots, apples, and broccoli are also really rich in antioxidants that help reduce oxidative stress, which is basically cellular damage that can make inflammation worse. We also need a source of linoleic acid, which is an essential fatty acid, meaning your dog cannot make it in their body. They need to receive it through their diet. So I'm going to be using a small amount of sunflower oil. Now I know that might trigger some fear because there's a lot of talk out there about seed oils and how they can be harmful, but in the right amount, sunflower oil is a completely appropriate way to meet the essential fatty acid requirements. But the keyword is the right amount. If we use this in excess, it can increase the omega fatty acid ratio, which can worsen inflammation. I'm also going to be a concentrated source of fish oil. There's a lot of research out there on fish oil, but it does need to be given in the proper amount to have the best effect. Now, if we stop here, we do still have nine nutrient deficiencies and under normal circumstances, I would try to meet a good amount of those deficiencies through whole foods. But for a skin specific diet, especially if you're using this as an elimination diet, we don't want to use a ton of different ingredients. We want to keep it very simple and use a meal completer to fill in those deficiencies. I am going to be using Chef's Canine Complete, a little bit of iodized salt to provide a bit more sodium and chloride, which are essential nutrients and are not bad for your dog when fed in the proper amounts. Now, this recipe is technically going to be balanced at this point, but for the skin specifically, I want to enrich this with a few more nutrients, zinc and vitamin E, which are really important for skin health and immune function. The thing I love most about this recipe is how quick and easy it is to make. Bake the cod at 400 degrees and boil the potatoes, both for about 10 to 15 minutes. Boil the broccoli for only two to three minutes. Chop the apples with the skin on and the carrots can either be served raw or lightly steamed. While the potatoes finish cooking, I wanted to expand a little bit on diet trials, because if you do suspect your pet has a food allergy, this is the best way to diagnose it. The food allergy tests you can buy online are unfortunately not very accurate. They can have a lot of false positives and false negatives. So I wouldn't recommend wasting your money or your time and instead go straight to a elimination, challenge, confirmation, and identification. I've expanded upon each of those steps in the description, but generally this process lasts a minimum of eight weeks. Having practiced for 11 years, I've walked hundreds, maybe even a thousand dog parents through the process of a diet trial. And I know it takes a lot of patience. It's not easy to do. So if you need to do this with your pet and you need a little more hands-on support and guidance, you can learn more about my one-on-one consultation service in the description. Now that everything is cooked, chopped, and prepared, I'm going to weigh out each ingredient and mix everything together. I do like to measure everything in grams because it's a lot more accurate than using cups. The amount that fits in a cup is very dependent on how you chop the ingredient. So make sure you have a gram scale. And if your dog tends to spit out specific ingredients like the broccoli, you can actually just put this all into a food processor and blend everything together so that it's more of a mash. For the fish oil, I do add it directly onto the meals to keep it as fresh as possible. Light heat and air will oxidize fish oil pretty quickly. So you do want to store this in the fridge and you want to make sure that it's fully sealed. After every ingredient and supplement is thoroughly mixed together, portion the food out into meal containers. I do recommend glass over plastic and store up to three days worth in the fridge. Everything else can be frozen. As promised, I want to share the biggest mistake that I see with homemade pet food that can actually worsen your dog's skin. And it's using an unbalanced recipe, which includes omitting or substituting any of the ingredients in this one. Nutrient deficiencies can contribute to itchy skin and they can weaken the immune system. So it's really important that the recipe is fully balanced, but we also want it optimized for skin health. If it's balanced but only provides the bare minimum of things like zinc, vitamin E, and omega-3s, it's probably not going to do a whole lot to support your pet skin. So if you're looking for more recipes that are built specifically for skin issues, I have a calm skin recipe bundle linked in the description. Lastly, please support my channel by giving this video a thumbs up, sharing it with a friend, or leaving a comment below. See you guys next time!