When it comes to food allergies in our furry friends it can be such a worrying time for many pet parents. Working out what exactly your pooch is allergic to can be a very timely and tricky process, but do not worry, here at Butternut Box, we have recipes that can help support your dog and their allergies.

Due to there being many ingredients in highly processed foods that we know can cause irritation to our dogs, here at Butternut Box we avoid them. You will never find wheat, corn, soy or sugar added to any of our meals.

Seeking advice from your vet when it comes to allergies is always the first thing to do. Your vet will be able to take a full history of your pet and also carry out a thorough physical examination and take a look at your dog’s symptoms. The vet may need to carry out further tests such as skin scrapes, tape tests or fur plucks to fully investigate what is going on and rule out any infections or any signs of parasites. Once any potential causes have been ruled out then the Vet may then advise an elimination trial.

An elimination trial is a process where one ingredient is fed to your pooch at a time over a period of 8 weeks to see if any reaction is seen. It is really important that your pooch is only exposed to one suspect allergen at a time over the period of 8 weeks as a dog can have a reaction up to 8 weeks after being exposed to the allergen. Our meals here at Butternut Box are perfect for carrying out a food trial as we have mentioned above that our meals do not contain any ingredients which we know commonly cause a reaction to our pooches, therefore this means we can then test the meat protein in our food for an allergic reaction. As five of our meals (chicken, turkey, beef, pork and lamb) contain single meat proteins these recipes are perfect for elimination trials.

To start an elimination trial, you would choose just one of these meals to trial over the 8-week period. If your pooch shows a reaction then it is likely that they are allergic to the meat protein. If they do not have a reaction then this is great news and your pooch can enjoy this meal in the future.

Finding out what exactly it is that your pooch is allergic to can be very difficult and mind-boggling. Keeping a diary of what your little one eats and where they walk daily will help to identify any trends to help work out what it is that is causing your dog to be irritated or unwell.

For dogs who have trouble with food allergies, feeding them novel proteins can be a really good idea. A novel protein is a protein that does not commonly appear in dog foods. Here at Butternut, we have two meals that contain novel meat proteins and these are the Pork this way and the You’ve Got Game meals. Our game recipe contains venison and duck. We also have 1 recipe that does not contain any meat proteins so great for those pooches that are allergic to a lot of meat proteins. Our Veggie meal contains cheese and egg protein.

While highly processed dog foods often contain ingredients known to cause irritation, hypoallergenic meals totally avoid them. In a Butternut Box pouch, you'll never find (deep breath here) wheat, corn, soy, sugar, or salt added. We know these can upset tummies, cause flatulence and make skin itch so we just don't go there. Instead, our recipes are made with veg, lentils and delicious meats. To top it all off, we gently cook our meals to kill bacteria, meaning they're extra gentle on sensitive tummies.

Sometimes if an allergy is very severe and hard to manage the Vet may recommend feeding a diet that contains hydrolysed proteins. When a protein is hydrolysed, the protein changes, and therefore the pooch does not have an allergic reaction as the protein is no longer recognised as an allergen. Usually, feeding a hydrolysed food is the last resort if controlling the symptoms is proving quite difficult and an elimination trial and feeding novel proteins and hypoallergenic foods have not worked.
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Our friendly team of Vet Nurses are always on hand to lend a paw and answer any questions you may have.