Hey Everyone,

I am sure my question will produce a variety of subjective answers ust curious for others opinions. Kaia is 7 months old. I am currently feeding her 2x a day 2 cups kibble in the AM 2 cups kibble in PM. I feed her Blue Buffalo Freedom- for Puppies. Her vet reccomended feeding her 4 cups a day when she hit 40lbs and keeping her at 4 cups a day and just watching her weight and appearance. The breeder whom I talk to regularly said 4 cups should be fine since she is active and growing. She also reccomended I possibly mix her puppy food with adult food to incorporate more protein....

She currently weighs about 45-50 lbs and has an hour glass shape to her. She eats all of her food I give her without any hesitation. She does go # 2 three-four times a day with her stools being hard or semi soft but since having her on the BB Freedom runny stools havent occurred. I can feel her ribs thru her coat still and she looks healthy to me. Just curious how to tell if I am overfeeding her. She definitely is very active puppy as far as exercise is concerned- I live in a city so she gets walked at minimum 45-1 hr per day.

Her father was 65lbs and mom around 50 lbs. I am assuming she will be somewhere in that range full grown..

What Id like an opinion or advice on please is when should I switch her to an adult formula instead of the puppy formula. Is 4 cups a day and 45-50lbs at 7 months a healthy weight given what her parents weigh? Also, what are people's views on rotating food brands to introduce variety with kibble? I prefer raw diet but I dont have the means to do that with her right now. I don't want to switch from the Freedom and disrupt her digestive system. I am def aware that a food change or amount change will cause some digestive upset just curious if anyone has experience with rotating food options or the pros and cons of sticking to one brand?

Thanks everyone. Hope everyone's day is going well!

I would not rotate food brands, if she is doing good on her current food, I would not mess with it at all. Even switching different flavors of the same brand could cause digestive issues, and you would have to slowly switch.

4 cups per day seems like a lot of food to me. I only feed mine 2 cups total a day, and I use Taste of the Wild. I would not go by what the bag or the vet says, especially if they don't have experience in the breed. Nikko is 15 months old and I also give him at least an hour of walks per day and he weighs 55lbs.

4 cups a day for a 7 month old that size getting that amount of exercise sounds like too much. The fact that she's pooping 3-4 times a day further leads me to think she's being overfed as the excess is going in and right back out. Her body condition sounds perfect though, I would think 2-2.5 cups a day should be plenty for her.

You could switch to an adult food whenever you prefer. I personally would wait until 12-18 months but that's just me and certainly is not the way I would tell anyone else to do things.

As far as rotation, I strongly advocate rotational diets. I have posted the benefits of rotation diets many times, although I am on my phone now and don't have time to search out my past comments on it.

Here is one of my more recent postings regarding rotation:

Huskyluv wrote:

I highly recommend a rotational diet and it's benefits extend beyond keeping mealtimes interesting, although that is also a perk. Rotational diets also help fill in nutritional gaps and help keep your dog from developing allergies and food sensitivities.

Think about it, if you ate the same thing your entire life along with a multivitamin your body would become more sensitive to any changes in your diet and you wouldn't be as healthy. Let's face it, no food is perfect so variety helps keep everything in balance.

When it comes to what to rotate between, I consider it just as important to rotate between different brands as it is to rotate between proteins within the same brand. I say this because often times when rotating between different proteins within a brand, the ingredients besides the protein often stay the same and I think it's just as important to vary the other ingredients as the meat source. In simpler terms, do you eat the same food food everyday except only change the meat source from time to time? No, you also vary your fruits, veggies, grains, and carbs. We thrive on a varied diet as do our dogs. Please note, I am not suggesting that dogs need fruits, veggies and grains, that was just an example to explain how variety beyond just meat source matters.

Every dog is different and thus how sensitive they are to change will vary. With that said, how often is best to change their food is entirely dependent on the dog. Some dogs can handle daily change, some weekly, some monthly, and others who are very sensitive may only be able to handle 1 or 2 changes a year. There is no right or wrong answer.

Thanks Val,

Very helpful.

Scott, I should mention that if you do decide to decrease the amount of food she's getting that you should decrease it slowly so she has a chance to gradually get accustomed to eating less food. Abruptly jumping from 4 cups a day down to 2.5 cups a day will probably not go over very well with her. Anyway, that's if you decide to adjust portion sizes. 3-4 BM's a day is a bit excessive, 1-2 (sometimes 3) BM's per day is more typical.

Thanks for the great advice everyone. It didnt seem "right" for her to be having 3-4 stools a day at 7 months. I am going to knock her down to 3 cups a day for a few weeks then to 2.5 and see how she does.

Thanks again.

I have a quick question, my husky doesn't seem to eat as much as everyone else's, I feed her blue buffalo wilderness and she only gets in 2 cups per day. I asked my vet and she said that if she gets hungry then she will eat. Should I try to force feed her a little or just wait and see off she will eventually eat more?

Quote :

I have a quick question, my husky doesn't seem to eat as much as everyone else's, I feed her blue buffalo wilderness and she only gets in 2 cups per day. I asked my vet and she said that if she gets hungry then she will eat. Should I try to force feed her a little or just wait and see off she will eventually eat more?

As you saw in the posts above your's, 2 cups a day is normal for a husky. I feed BBW and Karli is on two cups a day. I just followed what the bag said, which for this age is 2-3.5 cups. Karli never wants to eat more than 2 so she's good with that. Huskies are high energy and don't require as much food as other breeds do. You sound like you're feeding the norm.

Hello!

I know this is kind of an old thread, but I was hoping to get some advice too. I have a 7mth male. When i adopted him at 4mths, he was 35lbs. At 5mths, he was 40lbs. At 6mths, he was STILL 40lbs! A stool check confirmed that he had giardia. Poor guy wasn't gaining any weight for a month, and you could see his ribs! At the time, I was feeding him 3cups/day. Now, I have upped it to 4cups/day to try and help him gain some weight. But he poops SO MUCH! Is that bad? If he's pooping so much, does that mean that the extra food we are feeding him is just going to waste? Three weeks after we started him on his giardia meds, he has already gained 6lbs, and weighed in last night at 46lbs, so it looks like the giardia is going away, and he is starting to become a husky husky!

Anyways, i know 4cups/day is a lot. But if I am trying to get his weight back up, is it ok for now?

I'm sure some others will chime in, but it sounds like too much to me. Now that he's gaining weight again, I would cut him back down to 3 cups. He will probably continue the weight gain. My pup is 5.5 months, and I feed him 2 cups a day. He is significantly smaller than your guy though, weighing in at 33.2 lbs and he's a bit on the pudgy side.

Juneau is 1 yr and 3 months old and I feed her 3 cups a day of TOTW. She weighs 52.6 pounds. Some days she'll skip a meal, which is normal during summer months. Keep in mind, you don't have to feed as much with a high quality food as opposed to a lesser quality. http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/ is a good start.

I honestly think 4 cups is too much. You are correct about the big stools - most of it is going to waste. Standard males weigh from 50-60 pounds when full grown.

I would cut back also. Three cups a day is more than enough to keep him gaining weight and will help reduce the large volume of stool. As you guessed, he's pooping so much because he's not utilizing all that he's eating...which means you're creating very expensive stool for no good reason.

Thanks for all the input! I will definitely cut his food down. I am feeding him Orijen Large Breed Puppy formula, so it is a high quality kibble. So 4cups/day is definitely overkill.

He is a chowhound though! Never ever skips a meal. Always acts like I've been starving him for weeks when it's mealtime. Anyone else have that "problem"?

My puppy is like that too. He would eat until he puked and then eat some more if I let him!

TheBadGuppy wrote:

Thanks for all the input!  I will definitely cut his food down.  I am feeding him Orijen Large Breed Puppy formula, so it is a high quality kibble.  So 4cups/day is definitely overkill.  

He is a chowhound though!  Never ever skips a meal.  Always acts like I've been starving him for weeks when it's mealtime.  Anyone else have that "problem"?

Mine is definitely like this. I actually just cut back his 3 cups to 2 1/2 and will probably cut it back another 1/4-1/2 a cup. I'm going to record his breakfast and dinner antics one day for everyone to be amused. He loves his dinner time. Lol.

haha me too! I usually tell him to STAY in his room (just a gated tiled area) while I go fetch his dinner. The second he hears the bag, he's just zooming back and forth between his room and the bag. It's like he thinks that as long as he's back in his room when I walk back, then it's all good.

And if i'm holding his bowl, and i tell him to go to his room, i get a husky temper tantrum.

me: "Go to your room."
Gus: "Noo-roooooooooooo"

I'll admit I teased him a bit to get him to talk to me and act up but he's usually more insane than this.

he is so funny!!! and cute! What a fluffball!!! I'm hoping that Gus starts to fluff up after he's over this giardia. Gus does the same nose-to-the-ground thing. I love how Mishka shakes his head haha.

Lol! I love how he talks back when he sits. So 'husky' and so cute. Btw, I know you were asking in a different post about his weight, after seeing the video, he does look a bit heavy, but it could just be fluff.

rikku is the same way as mishka, she doesnt talk as much but shell run back and forth jump up and down, she'll even start going through her tricks sometimes just to get the food lol...

Yeah, Jen, I'm cutting another 1/4 of a cup from his diet. I have him down to 2 1/4 cup now. I think after another week or two I'm going to cut another 1/4 and just feed him 2 cups. He just acts like the end of the world when his food portions get less. Lol.

Yeah, Dizzy is the same way. He's getting really good at the sad eyes. It makes me feel SO guilty! Lol... He walks over to his food bin and stands next to it and looks at me like, 'um, i know you're very busy and all, but i think maybe you forgot a scoop or two in my bowl tonight, and i normally wouldn't bother you, but i'm just so very hungry and worn out from being such a good dog today. can i please have some more?'