What are the main benefits of First Mate dog food? Explore its simple, quality ingredients.

Okay, so let's talk about this FirstMate dog food thing. My dog, Buster, was scratching himself raw. Seriously, it was non-stop. Kept me up at night sometimes with the jingle-jangle of his tags.

I tried a bunch of stuff before this. Changed his food like three times. Went grain-free, tried that fancy lamb stuff. Nothing really made a dent. Same old scratching.

Then someone, I think it was my neighbor, mentioned FirstMate. Said they used the fish formula for their itchy dog. I figured, what the heck, gotta try something else.

Finding and Trying It

So I went and found a bag. Got the Pacific Ocean Fish one, the limited ingredient kind. Seemed simple enough, mostly fish and potatoes, not a giant list of weird things.

Getting him to eat it wasn't the problem. Buster will eat almost anything. The trick was switching him over without messing up his stomach. I did it real slow.

• Started with just a little bit mixed in his old food. Like maybe a quarter new stuff.
• Did that for maybe 3-4 days.
• Then went half and half for another few days.
• Finally switched him over completely.

Took about a week, maybe a bit more, for the full switch.

So, Did it Work?

Here's the thing. It took a while. It wasn't like magic overnight. But after maybe three or four weeks on just the FirstMate, I noticed he wasn't scratching as much. Like, way less.

His coat started looking a bit better too, maybe less flaky? Hard to say for sure if that was the food or just wishful thinking, but the scratching definitely improved. That was the main thing I wanted.

His poops were fine once he got used to it. No issues there, which was a relief.

So, yeah. Been feeding him FirstMate fish formula for, I don't know, six months now? The crazy scratching is basically gone. He still scratches sometimes, he's a dog, but it's not that constant, frantic stuff anymore. It worked out for us. Simple food, seemed to do the trick for his itchy skin.