I'll share my endeavor into feeding.
I bought a 2 year old . The dog had severe allergies. Incessant itching, loss of hair, sores from chewing, etc..
My city dwelling, female, liberal, high priced, (and very, very good) veterinarian of the formerly wealthy, suggested it was the food, the hormones in the chicken of my choice of Purina Pro Plan Performance. I read all I could find and concluded that a minimum of a month, preferably longer, was required to do a test to identify a food allergy. I switched her to the lab's food, lamb based, no chicken. Did that for a few months, no change.
Next, the vet suggested it was the grain. Grain is a big target of the goochi designer dog foods recently. Well, I had a freezer full of game birds that needed eating faster than I could eat them. So, I started cooking for the dog. Wild and pen pheasant and chukar. Cooked rice, carrots and some other stuff. Our kitchen looked like a restaurant kitchen. The fridge was packed with containers of meals. I did that for a couple months. I'd beg birds from friends on hunts, in the name of finding out what was wrong with my dog. I got good cooperation, mainly because people shot a lot of birds over my dog.
All the while, we were trying various suggested antihistimines, etc. In the end, none of it mattered.
Fortunately, a new drug came along that was effective, Apoquel. Like a miracle drug for my dog. Unfortunately, it's been hard to get or impossible to get at times. The availability has gotten better. Still expensive. Also, technology for testing dogs has improved to where a blood test will identify allergies and antigen serums can be developed to target the allergens. We now do both Apoquel and the serum injections and the dog has a brighter and more comfortable life.
Grains or added chicken hormones were not identified as an allergen to my dog.
