Well, it only took me like 4 YEARS, but i finally know what makes Jetta itch.
A couple years ago she was red and inflamed with hotspots and ear infections, so I started switching her food to higher quality ones. No change. Then I tried allergy formulas like Natural Balance and Z/D, and she was still itching every 10 seconds. She got a blood test to confirm environmental allergies, but i was convinced a lot of it was food related since certain kibbles definately made her itch more than others.
I have always known she can't handle barley becuase she went crazy whenever I fed a food with it, but that was all I could narrow it down to.
Then I started homecooking and she improved loads, but i was worried she wasn't getting what she needed and she had started to gain weight. On homecooked I fed her all sorts of things, even wheat and brown rice so i knew those weren't the problem. When I tried dog food again, she itched and got red eyes. I tried grain-free foods too, but those didn't help.
Then it hit me! What was the only thing different in a chicken and rice kibble and chicken and rice homecooked? It was the little things like brewers yeast and flaxseed. Some people on here told me that dogs can be allergic to more than just meat and grain,she could be allergic to the vitamin mix, but I thought no way were the same offending ingredients in all the foods that made her itch. Well, I checked the labels and was shocked to find that flaxseed is in nearly every food, even the allergy ones!!! And brewers yeast was in the supplements i would give her that were supposed to help stop her itching.
So now I have her on barley, flaxseed, and brewers yeast free dog food--Go Natural Salmon and Oatmeal (which I had tried before but she must have had treats with flaxseed so she still itched on it and I blamed it on the food). She also gets fresh food added to her kibble each day.
She is doing GREAT and has loads of energy and isn't itchy and teary-eyed. I am so excited to finally know what makes her itch. All this time I was looking at the big ingredients like corn, beef, dairy, etc to blame, but all along it was those sneaky little ingredients.
I'm glad I can feed kibble again cuz i didn't trust myself to make proper food. She likes to rotate her kibble, so I was looking at other foods that don't have these ingredients but i could only find certain Royal Canin Mini formulas and TOTW.
Sorry for the super long post but I am so happy right now!!