Originally Posted by
CA Jack
Nash, I don't really like that diet much.
As Scratchin Dog pointed out, sunflower oil is a known allergen to many dogs. (Linseed oil is the same as flax oil and is good for a dog.) As R2L pointed out, each individual dog is different and one brother may be allergic while another is not. (For example, I am allergic to grass/pollen but my brother is not.)
Speaking of immune dysfunction and food allergies, really, a food allergy is a sort of immune dysfunction itself, in that it is an over-reaction of the immune system against perceived antigens. Other immune diseases are insufficiencies rather than overreactions.
Back to the diet, where are the bones? Where is the organ meat? And even though it says, "minced vegetables," that still begs the question as to what kind of vegetables (they don't all have the same value). I don't believe that is a nutritionally-complete diet at all, so your dog may simply have some kind of vitamin/mineral deficiency. (Hard to say what.) However, licking and itching repeatedly is generally a sign of allergy.
In the end, after raising more dogs than most people on the planet ever have, and especially since I have had a cancer-prone/BS-food-intolerant bloodline in particular, it is my absolute conviction that lousy diets are the #1 health problem in dogs.
As mentioned, why don't you just construct a homemade raw diet? You can do it for less money and provide a FAR better menu than that.
Jack