[Todd]

i was thinking about making a dog shampoo to sell and use on my own dog. i have found several different recipes online including chamomile, apple cider viniger, lemon juice, and aloe vera. asll the recipes had a basis of dish soap or some sort of sensitive skin soap. are those things ok to use dilluted with other ingridients? if not what other things should i use. thx

[Lara's mom]

I have no idea. I use baby shampoo on my dogs.

[DoggieVogue]

I don't think I would ever use dish soap on my dogs.

[Bacis Dad]

As far as dish soap goes I would personally avoid it... I do know that A lot of places do use Dawn though, for animals, but im sure there are a lot of other better base's you could use. Possibly a hypoallergenic/ scent free soap, (pretty much baby shampoo). As far as adding in different ingredients, what are you trying to accomplish w/ the shampoo? A clean smelling dog, a gentle formula, dry skin relief, medicated etc?

[Todd]

i am just trying to create a shampoo which is very natural and easy of the dogs natural oils. do you think some baby shampoo as a base, chamomile, vitamin E, aloe vera, and apple cider viniger and lemon juice would do well? the thing i am most interested in finding is some sort of baby shampoo or something as a base. also, what about using a natural fragerance? what exactly does that entail? thanks

also, is there any ingriedent that i can use to get that lather/soapy effect that shampoo get without any type of soap? how to herbal shampoo/natural shampoo companies do this? thx

[Bacis Dad]

To do an herbal scent you may want to look into actual herbal liquid extracts to scent the shampoo (like lavender). But before you do, research what scent you want to infuse.

As far as a base baby shampoo is fairly safe, I would still be a little careful. A dogs skin has a different ph then humans do! So a lot of the times human shampoo is formulated around our PH and not a dogs. I believe that baby shampoo is normally ok on dogs bc it has such a limited amt of ingredients.

Im sure if you wanted to get technical im sure you can test the ph of these products. Humans generally hold a PH of 5.6-7.1 where dogs can range from 6.7-9.0.

Actually when you are using a high quality herbal/natural products most of them dont sud up! They dont use an ingredient called sodium lauryl sulfate, which is what causes the foaming, but the big downside to this ingredient is that it strips and dries out your natural oils.

The formula you are thinking about making sounds like a formula for irritated skin. I also havent seen/heard of apple cider vinegar in shampoo, I know its amazing if ingested but topically im not sure? But if yopu want a formula that is good for the skin and natural oils, I would add tea trea oil, and green tea extract, with some vitamin e and vitamin c.