Do you make your own shampoo?

Hi all, I searched but did not find a whole discussion on this topic.

Today we went to bathe the girls in anticipation of their flea treatment and upcoming visit to the vet, and we discovered that we were out of the oatmeal doggy shampoo.

We live far away from the nearest pet store, so I searched on the internet for homemade recipes. I know enough not to put people shampoo on them because of the ph.

I found a "recipe" that worked pretty well, but I wonder if others on the site have their own concoction that they could share? Or experiences that would lead me to never do this again? Our 'Mione has moderately dry, itchy skin and so I don't want to take a chance with irritating it.

The recipe I used was:

1 cup distilled water

1 tsp. olive oil

1 tsp. pure aloe

1 tsp. organic dish soap.

which had the value of being a recipe with all ingredients present in my house! It was certainly cheaper than the store-bought.

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Permalink Reply by John Wolff on June 18, 2011 at 2:39am

I've heard that baby shampoo works OK, but I tried a simple castile soap bar once (just plain soap, potassium salts of fatty acids) that left the fur so sticky I couldn't comb it and had to re-shampoo with pet shampoo. Just possibly, the very simplest pet shampoo formulators know what they're doing. Just don't buy anything scented, unless you can find 'Dead Earthworm' or 'Stale Squirrel Piss' -- scents that please us will likely terrorize our dogs.
Try warm water, or warm water with a very low concentration of simple soap. If there are any cattle nearby, the dog can soon undo the damage.

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Permalink Reply by Jane on June 18, 2011 at 12:57pm

I've never tried making my own, but I think in a pinch you can use human shampoo. Just make sure you dilute it very well and rinse the heck out of them.

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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on June 18, 2011 at 1:06pm

I use my Aveda and that works very well but it doesn't have a bunch of cheap junk in. I always use organic dish soap so I am glad you gave the recipe and maybe add a drop of lavender.

Thanks.