Any Husky owners? food?

[Bacardi]

I re-homed a husky for a friend last year and having trouble with her diet. She had been just grazing on dry food but I thought I’d try her on what I have fed dogs in the past, a mixture of tinned food and biscuits, which she loves and scoffs the lot. My thought about dry foods is they might be boring for the dog, after all, I wouldn’t want to live on Wheetabix for every meal and my human instinct thinks she might like a bit of soft meat and gravy as well as some crunch.

However, unlike my past dogs, she is a bit on the loose side so need to explore other feeding options. Googling has taken me to some Husky forums and it seems Huskies and snow dogs in general, are a breed apart from the more common dog, their particular traits (which I have now become more familiar with), as well as digestion. It’s possible that I’m over feeding her, although she is not at all overweight and more athletic than all other Huskies we meet on walks.

I’ll give her breakfast, a snack, dental chew or similar and her main meal in the evening. She does get rewards and treats out on walks, gravy bones etc. which is all pretty dry. Apparently, some owners give a small meal of dry in the morning and then raw meat in the evening, although what brand of dry or what type of raw they don’t mention. One owner said occasional raw chicken wings cured his dog of the squits, I assume deboned.

So any thoughts as what I could try would be appreciated. I guess in the wild they would feed on arctic rabbit, fox or Reindeer, but I might have trouble finding them in Sainsbury’s!

[moorx]

You can feed raw chicken wings without removing the bones. It is cooked chicken bones that are dangerous.

I am sure some people will encourage you to try raw feeding (I have considered it but never tried) but it might be worth looking at CSJ dog foods. I have fed them in the past:

http://www.csjk9.com/

PS - I should say that I'm not a husky owner....

[Huskyman]

I owned two Huskies for many years(hence my user name!) and found that while my Alpha could eat most foods the other Husky would get an upset stomach easily. I used to feed them a mixture of cooked rice and minced beef when they were feeling off, but a good quality dry and tinned food was ok. They love fish in their diets for the coat condition, I used to give them tinned Sardines as a treat once a week. Varying their diets is a good thing, and given I banned the use of salt in the coking of the veg for a Sunday dinner I used to give them potatoes, meat and peas which used to vanish once the bowl was put down.. It might be worth asking a vet about certain foods but avoid buying the super expensive stuff some vets try and sell. I hope this helps.
Have a look here http://www.sos-srf.org/SibernetL.html there are some good tips on there and good support

[Pickled]

Not a husky, but I own a Malamute and he's fed a raw diet - chicken carcasses, mussels, salmon, tripe, etc. plus some raw veg (loves carrots) and has a decent size marrow bone (half a cow femur) once a week.

No looseness and the amount of mess to clear up is very little.

Edited by Pickled on Sunday 10th January 08:40

[whippy930]

Never owned Husky's so no specific advice on your breed but keep, have breed and train working GSD's.

Just one thing to comment - dogs don't view food the same way we do, what I mean is, they don't have taste buds per say and don't need to be sensory stimulated with a different diet daily or weekly. In actual fact, once you find a food stuff that suits your dog well (what ever that may be) they much prefer the same thing all the time.

Personally I use and hugely endorse a dry food called Eukanuba. It's more expensive than most but very high in nutrients and concentrated in volume - the great benefit of this grub is the big decrease in (very solid) litter to pick up. Maybe give it a try and keep a good look at coat - it's always a great indicator of how a feed is performing. As with all dry foods (particularly highly concentrated ones) - lots of available water is essential.

[Autopilot]

We don't have huskies but we do raw feed and have fed them like this since pups. One thing we've noticed is that they produce less waste when on raw and they behave better! The few times they've been fed on dry food they behave like dicks all day! It's no coincidence, they genuinely behave differently if given dry food.

Most of the food we get is minced and comes in frozen tubes so looks like big sausages so easy to stack in the freezer and easy to serve up as you just defrost, squeeze in to a bowl, add veg and serve. They also get stuff you don't want in the house as it can't be served in a bowl such as venison necks, chicken carcasses, beef ribs (huge!) and all sorts of things. Some of it looks horrible and not as easy to store as it needs to go in a large chest freezer.

It's pretty cheap to feed like this also. The stuff you get from shops like Natures Menu or Natural Instinct is great but works out so expensive. To feed our two dogs used to cost a fortune but get everything from here:

http://www.davidsdoggiedinners.co.uk/the-dogs-butc...

He delivers and covers quite a wide area. We order about one a once a month and typically spend about £120 to feed two large dogs for the month and includes treats such as pigs ears and other bits. We bough raw from shops for a while and reckon to feed our two must have cost about 300 quid a month!

[thebraketester]

My mate feeds his raw chicken carcasse. Great dogs (Apart from the moulting)

[whippy930]

Autopilot - would it not be fair to assume that any food change will take a dog maybe, 3 or 4 days to acclimatise to, before the "dickey" calms down? Obviously you know your animals well so I'm asking a question rather than making a statement here.

Have you ever experienced a touch of IBS with the raw feeding - maybe when changing over? I'm very interested and must try it out. It's obviously much more like what an animals grub would be in a natural habitat. Interesting stuff.

[Autopilot]

whippy930 said:

Autopilot - would it not be fair to assume that any food change will take a dog maybe, 3 or 4 days to acclimatise to, before the "dickey" calms down? Obviously you know your animals well so I'm asking a question rather than making a statement here.

Have you ever experienced a touch of IBS with the raw feeding - maybe when changing over? I'm very interested and must try it out. It's obviously much more like what an animals grub would be in a natural habitat. Interesting stuff.

We've planned our food orders badly on a few occasions and have had to rely on dry food for a number of days until the raw stuff arrived. The behaviour thing has been pretty consistent each time we switched over and consistent for the duration of days they've been on dry food. Our male is very highly strung so it could be a case of him protesting because in his eyes he's gone from fine dining to weetabix for every meal (yeah, I nicked that from a post further up). As it's unwanted behaviour, we always have a number of weeks food in backup just in case as he's so unbearable to live with.

We've found that the dogs do produce significantly less waste on raw food. They've been on raw diets since pups so apart from when we'd previously run out of raw, they don't tend to switch between raw and dry, but it's been an ok transition and not really had any IBS related issues as such. Although they haven't had any dry food in easily a year, they do both occasionally get poorly tums. There's no real rhyme or reason, they can have the same stuff for months and one day it can affect one of them.

The downsides of raw feeding is that too much chicken bungs a dog up so need to keep it varied.

[Autopilot]

I forget to mention that there are some raw foods we won't give them. Our male is very alert and never really relaxes so we used to give him beef knuckles as he'll focus on gnawing on those for ages. Trouble with those is that he's more of an inhale the food kind of dog rather than eating it. He breaks the knuckle up very quickly until it's small enough to swallow, so in his world, if it fits in his mouth then that's good enough. Obviously this isn't good for him so we won't give him anything like this anymore. Our female was ok though. They both still get bones, but nothing the size of a football as any big bits that break off, although not sharp, he'll just try and swallow them.

[Jasandjules]

Well, as above, I feed raw. Much better for them. You don't need those dentstix and all the other stuff as the bones clean their teeth up. Their poos are much smaller too as they don't waste as much (because it is better food for them)

[Bacardi]

Thank you chaps

moorx - Haven’t had a dog for 18 years so knew about cooked chicken bones was a no no, but didn’t know they were safe to eat raw. Thanks also for the CSJ link. I had heard CSJ mentioned elsewhere but wasn’t clear it was food as some people on forums expect everyone to be clairvoyant. I went back to another mystery TOTW, which I now know is Taste of the Wild.

Huskyman - With a name like that you must know what you are talking about! Another owner I walk with (not Husky but Podenco pointer cross) feeds her dog sardines so will give that a go. I’m sure she enjoys variety, If I feed her just dry, she leaves some of it, but if I feed her same quantity but less dry mixed with tinned, she wolfs it down. I also save some left overs and she will clean the plate. Thanks for the link, will have a look.

Pickled - I think I need to look into the raw more. Closer to what they would eat in the wild.

Whippy930 - Yes I know what you mean, I’m sure they are just grateful for any food… I’m just a bit soft I’ll give Eukanuba a try and yes, she always has access to plenty of fresh water.

Autopilot - Again the raw needs exploring, I like the idea of less mess and better behaved! Thanks for the link and he covers where I live, I think, so will try some, cheers!

thebraketester - Tell me about the moulting! They are interesting dogs, that’s for sure and a bit different from the breeds I have experience with in the past like Labs, Collies, Spaniels, GSD etc. I’ve always wanted a Flat Coat retriever, something obedient, lol, but knew this dog from a puppy so I guess it was just fate...

Jasondjules - The raw does make sense when you think about it, although my cats like pouches of wet as well as dry hardly ever eat mice they kill. I think you may well be right about dentstix etc, just marketing...

Thanks again to everyone, it’s given me some things to try. I did speak to another Husky owner today on a walk and they said it took them a while to find a food that suited their dog, they were feeding Harrington’s dry food. Another owner said theirs was on a mixture of dry and raw. Other dry foods that seem to crop up as recommended are Arden Grange, Chudleys and James Wellbeloved.

One thing my dog does eat is, unsurprisingly, Fox poo and since it’s been wetter, she seems to eat mud or grass roots, which I’m not sure does any favours for her digestion although someone said the Fox poo was a replacement for some mineral. She is very possessive about a patch of mud and will show her teeth to any other dog who comes near, but not possessive about food at home. i can take back any treats, no problem.

I appreciate it may take some time but will report back for the benefit of anyone else mad enough to take on a Husky… one thing is for sure, i’ve taken the Prune and Sprout vindaloo of the menu…

Cheers all.

[thebraketester]

Just asked my mate.

"She has raw chicken carcasses and bakers (dog biscuits). She malts once or twice a year-it can take months! Loads of fur but when it's done she doesn't shed any fur"

His dog mia... She will eat anything. Fox st, dog st, Human st the lot. Lovely dog though, very calm temperament.

[ph1l5]

Mine has Wainwrights wet and dry food, more biscuits than meat. But then we add raw carrots, Parsnips, various vegetables too. He eats everything except stuffing and Wasabi nuts

[Bacardi]

Thanks thebraketester, Where does your mate get the carcasses from? Yes, they are a hair and fur factory. I took her on in July and for the first 3 or 4 months could rake out handfuls of fur with a Furminator. For the last month or so the shedding has abated… which is nice, for now…

Thanks ph1I5, I remembered I was wrong about the other Husky owner feeding Harrington's, it was Wainwrights which apparently is a home brand of Pets at Home, but seems to get good reviews. Mine likes stuffing but have not tried wasabi nuts… although she is not so keen on horseradish sauce if she licks the plate after a roast.

Found this website but not sure how good it is http://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk

Anyway, I’ll try a few dry foods for crunch and mix it with some raw meat and veg and will try an occasional tin of sardines into the mix. I have reduced her evening main meal by 25% and for the last 3 days it has been dry food with raw meat and a lot less poo and she hasn’t been after more food, so may have been over feeding her a bit. Although she was eating less than my last dog of similar size.

[thebraketester]

Somewhere online i believe. They come frozen in a big polystyrene container.

[Pickled]

Bacardi said:

Thanks thebraketester, Where does your mate get the carcasses from? Yes, they are a hair and fur factory. I took her on in July and for the first 3 or 4 months could rake out handfuls of fur with a Furminator. For the last month or so the shedding has abated… which is nice, for now…

I haven't used one so have no personal opinion - we've always used an undercoat comb and a fur blaster (powerful hair drier for dogs), as this is the coat that mainly sheds, but regular use of a furminator brush is considered, by many, to cause damage to the guard (top) coat hairs.

[moorx]

You should be able to get chicken carcasses from a butcher. Mine used to give me them for nothing.

Yes, sardines are great for variety, my dogs love them.

I've seen that dog food website recommended before, so I think it's okay.

[Jasandjules]

moorx said:

You should be able to get chicken carcasses from a butcher. Mine used to give me them for nothing.

Yes, sardines are great for variety, my dogs love them.

I've seen that dog food website recommended before, so I think it's okay.

I wish butchers gave stuff away. They know about raw feeding these days, even some of the scraps are minced as pet foods.

[twinturboz]

Arden grange here, gets the dry stuff for lunch and the wet food for dinner, was warned by the rspca he had a sensitive stomach but I've had no issues when feeding him that.