Allergies. Yuck. Itchy dry skin, bumps and hot spots. Double yuck. Are you afraid that your dog has a food allergy? 

If you feed raw its an easy thing to uncover! Some dogs are more sensitive to certain foods than other dogs – anyone with a multiple dog household probably has a general idea of this fact. Food allergies can be hard to diagnose and even harder to pinpoint. Thankfully, if your dog is on a raw diet, its a much easier task. 

The elimination diet is easy to do if you KNOW what you are feeding your dog. When you feed raw you have no doubts what they are ingesting. You are in control and can give them a pure elimination diet without extra additives. 

Simply put your dog on ONE protein source and NOTHING else for about 2 weeks. For example, choose beef. During that two weeks your dog gets nothing but beef. No veggies, no supplements, no biscuits. Just beef. If you feed APFP Raw mixes than you would feed Beef and Bone, Raw Green Tripe, beef organ blend and use our single ingredient beef treats such as Beef Lung or Beef Heart. That’s all you have to do! 

Observe your dog – does the itching go away? Does it stay the same? Does it worsen overall? Lots of questions can be answered. 

If the dog is at least marginally better you can pretty much assume that beef is not the culprit so you move on. Now you feed your dog chicken only – no supplements, no veggies, no biscuits. If feeding APFP Raw mixes you would feed Just Chicken, chicken necks, chicken backs, chicken organ blend and use our Nothing But Chicken Liver as a treat (along with some oh so good chicken feet!). Observe.

In this manner you are going to be able to determine if your dog is indeed allergic to one of the protein sources that make up his raw diet. There is every chance that none of them will come up the culprit and that it is actually a supplement you have been using, a treat that you have been feeding, a veggie perhaps. By adding everything back slowly, it will become evident in time what the culprit is if it is indeed food related. Easy, straightforward and one of the many benefits to feeding raw!