What your westie eats directly affects their skin. The wrong food triggers inflammatory responses that show up as itchy skin, hot spots, and ear infections. The right food strengthens the skin barrier and reduces flare-ups. If your westie has skin issues and you haven’t addressed diet, start here before spending more money on medicated shampoos.
Ingredients to Avoid
Common food allergens for westies include chicken, beef, wheat, corn, and soy. Chicken is the single most common food allergen in dogs, and westies react to it more frequently than most breeds.
If your westie has persistent skin problems, eliminate chicken-based food first. And this means everything – not just the kibble. Check every treat ingredient list. Many popular dog treats contain chicken meal, chicken fat, or chicken digest. One chicken-based treat per day is enough to keep a food allergy active. I learned this the hard way with Sami. I was so focused on his main meals that I completely overlooked what was in his training treats.
Look for foods with novel protein sources: duck, salmon, venison, or rabbit. “Novel” means a protein your westie hasn’t been exposed to before, which means their immune system is less likely to react to it.
Grain-free is not automatically better. Some westies do fine with rice or oats. The issue is specific ingredients, not entire food categories.
What Works: A Quick Reference
Good choices: Duck, salmon and fish (omega-3 supports skin health), venison, rabbit, sweet potato as a carbohydrate source.
Use with caution: Rice (generally tolerated but monitor), eggs (fine for some westies, triggers reactions in others), dairy (many westies don’t tolerate it well).
Avoid if skin issues exist: Chicken and chicken meal (most common allergen), beef (second most common), wheat, corn, soy.
The Elimination Diet
If you suspect food allergies, the only reliable test is an elimination diet. No blood test, saliva test, or hair test accurately identifies food allergies in dogs – despite what some companies will try to sell you.
The process: feed a single novel protein source (one your westie has never eaten) for 8-12 weeks. Nothing else. No treats with different ingredients, no table scraps, nothing. If skin improves, slowly reintroduce ingredients one at a time, waiting two weeks between each new addition. When the skin reacts, you’ve found a trigger.
This requires patience. Eight to twelve weeks of strict single-protein feeding feels like forever. But it gives you definitive answers that no other test can match.
Right now I’m keeping Sami away from all his known allergens – chicken, beef, pork, lamb, wheat, corn, soy, even eggs and rice. I switched him to home-cooked food recently. As a general rule, I split his plate into thirds: a third protein, a third carbs, and a third vegetables. Sometimes I add fruit because he loves it.
Dealing With a Picky Westie
Westies are notorious for food boredom. A westie that devours a new food for three days and refuses it on day four is not broken – this is standard westie behavior.
The solution is not constantly switching the base food. That makes pickiness worse and can upset their sensitive stomachs. Instead, pick a food that works for their skin and stick with it. Add variety through safe toppers: a spoonful of plain pumpkin puree, a sardine, some cooked vegetables. The base stays consistent while the toppers rotate.
One trick that works surprisingly well with Sami: change the location, not the food. Sometimes he refuses breakfast in his usual spot. I move the bowl to the yard and suddenly the food is acceptable. When we travel and he eats in a hotel room or airport, he never refuses his food. Nine times out of ten, a new location solves the pickiness without any menu changes.
Omega-3 Supplementation
Fish oil supplements providing omega-3 fatty acids support skin barrier function and have anti-inflammatory properties. This isn’t a cure for allergies, but it’s a useful supporting measure. Discuss dosing with your vet – the amount depends on your westie’s weight and the concentration of the supplement.
For the full skin management protocol beyond diet, see our westie skin and allergies guide. For the complete feeding guide including puppy feeding, see our best food for westies page.
Watch: Sami’s Story
Our video on foods that trigger westie skin allergies:
Dealing with Sami’s food sensitivities and diarrhea:
