Hello all,

This is my first post! I'm excited to be here and hope to be an active part of this husky community. ^^

I was hoping someone could hear my question and perhaps give their opinion. I just recently acquired a beautiful husky puppy named Drogo. I love him with all my heart and want only the best for him. I've been feeding him Blue Wilderness Salmon formula (grain free) but want to switch him to Orijen. Though Wilderness Salmon seems to be a good food, it's not the best... so I'm looking to upgrade. My only confusion is which formula to get: Orijen LB Puppy or 6 Fish. The salmon formula I'm feeding him now is not a puppy formula; I've read conflicting views about calcium/phosphorus lvls in dog food, especially for LB puppies (he's approximately 20 lbs at 3 months. His paws are huge, so I'm assuming he'll be around 60 lbs as an adult). Both the LB puppy and 6 Fish formulas seem great....I really wanted to keep him on something fish based; he loves it and I know that's originally what the Chukchi fed huskies.

Any opinions on what I should do? Is the calcium/phosphorus in the 6 Fish not appropriate for a 3 month old? Please advise!

Couldn't resist uploading some pictures of him for everyone to see. Thanks again; I look forward to making friends here! ^__^

Thanks,
Kimberly

I'm hoping someone else can find the thread that we recently talked about phosphorus levels in puppy food in, because I can't find it. I'm sure that someone who remembers will be along soon!

I just wanted to say welcome and I LOVE the Game of Thrones Reference! AWESOME name Welcome to you and Drogo

Thank you!

I'm surprised people recognize the name. I remember trying to talk to people about the books a few years ago and no one ever knew what I was talking about! The HBO series must be pretty popular.

You have beautiful huskies, btw. ^_^

Here's a detailed breakdown of Ca:P rations, quoted from Huskyluv:

Huskyluv wrote:

I think there is some confusion here with regard to Calcium:Phosphorus ratios.

hmhershy wrote:

I don't think that it is labeled 'Adult' but when we switched to TOTW we were advised against getting the pacific stream. The calcium/phosoporus levels are too high for a puppy to handle. We are sticking to wetlands formula until they are at least a year, then will probably make a change to pacific stream.

You actually are CORRECT and I'll explain why below.

All of the TOTW formulas are labeled as ALS (all life stages) which Tori and Jenn were correct in stating. However just because a food is labeled as ALS that does not mean that the Ca:P ratios in said food are appropriate for puppies. Such is the case here with the TOTW Pacific Stream formula and it also holds true for Innova Evo which is a different brand but it is labeled as ALS and certainly does not contain Ca:P ratios that are appropriate for growing pups.

I just checked ALL of the TOTW canine formulas the you are correct, all the formulas EXCEPT the Pacific Stream formula do have appropriate Ca:P ratios for puppies. Pacific Stream's ratios are a bit high so I would advise not using the Pacific Stream formula for pups. I am actually quite to surprised to find that TOTW Pacific Stream's ratios are even higher than Evo's formulas which I don't recommend for puppies either.

CrazyDogs wrote:

The wetlands formula has higher calcium/phosphorus levels than Pacific stream. Just thought you'd want to know. And ALL TotW food is labeled as "All life stages".

I think you are getting confused as to what the issue is with the Ca:P levels. The concern is not how high a percentage is in the food. The issue is with proper Calcium to Phosphorus RATIOS, not percentage.


Alright folks, I'll break it down for you now to clear up any questions or misconceptions and show why Pacific Stream's Ca:P ratios are too high to be appropriate for a growing puppy. Prepare to be amazed! Just kidding.

Okay let's start out by defining what Ca:P ratios a growing puppy should be getting in their food:
Small to medium breed puppies should have a ratio of Ca to P of 1.2:1 respectively.
Large breed puppies should have a ratio of Ca to P of 1.5:1 respectively.

Siberian huskies are a medium breed but we'll assume that they should have a Ca:P ratio of somewhere between 1.2-1.5 (Ca) to 1 (P).

Now let's look at the formulas in question and see how closely they come to the above mentioned guideline ratios.

TOTW Pacific Stream has Calcium: 1.9% and Phosphorus: 1.1%
So that makes a Ca:P ratio of 1.72:1 which is pretty high, hence it is better suited for adult dogs NOT puppies.

TOTW HIgh Prairie has Calcium: 2.1% and Phosphorus: 1.4%
That that makes a Ca:P ratio of 1.5:1 which is fine for large breed puppies.

TOTW Sierra Mountain has Calcium: 1.6% and Phosphorus: 1.0%
That that makes a Ca:P ratio of 1.6:1, starting to get a little high there.

TOTW Wetlands has Calcium: 2.1% and Phosphorus: 1.4%
That that makes a Ca:P ratio of 1.5:1 which is fine for large breed puppies.

For comparison I'll show the ratios on Evo formulas which are not really appropriate for pups but it is labeled as ALS.

Evo Turkey/Chicken has Calcium: 2.55% and Phosphorus: 1.57%
That that makes a Ca:P ratio of 1.62:1, starting to get a bit high.

Evo Red Meat has Calcium: 2.09% and Phosphorus: 1.26%
That that makes a Ca:P ratio of 1.65:1, which is pretty high.

Hopefully that clears up the confusion on this subject and in my personal opinion I would not recommend feeding Pacific Stream to puppies due to the high Ca:P ratios in it.

The above info should help you figure out if the Ca:P levels are appropriate for your puppy when you're looking at different brands of dog food.

I feed my 4 yr old female Honest Kitchen Zeal, which is a fish based forumla, and Orijen as a topper.

I do know Honest Kitchen is an all life stage dehydrated dog food, and several of here on the forum feed THK.

Huskies aren't considered large breed, but if I remember correctly, the Orijen LB puppy kibble just has bigger kibble size. I don't think Orijen 6-Fish is an 'all life stage' kibble, but you can check if the Orijen LB Puppy is labled as such because of the size of the kibble being bigger than usual.

I do know Taste of the Wild is ALS, and believe some on this forum feed their puppy TOTW.

I do like Orijen 6-Fish because my female has slight food intolerances and does really well on fish protein based formulas, and for kibble, Orijen was the only brand (out of 5) she did not go soft poop on.

toyszruskid wrote:

Thank you!

I'm surprised people recognize the name. I remember trying to talk to people about the books a few years ago and no one ever knew what I was talking about! The HBO series must be pretty popular.

You have beautiful huskies, btw. ^_^

Thank you

My fiance is a big fantasy series fan. He had just finished reading all of them when HBO announced the creation of the series. I basically read for a living which ruins it as a hobby for me (unfortunately because I LOVE BOOKS) so the series has been quite the pleasure for me because I love fantasy as well

Aevyn is on Orijen LB puppy. When we spoke to a representative at the store, because of the average adult size of huskies we were told they do count as a large breed. Im not actually sure if there was a difference in the formulas, because we returned the puppy bag before we had much of a chance to study it. However~

I can offer that Aevyn is doing very, very well on Orijen. He gets two cups a day at 6months and he's very healthy. We've been very impressed with the Orijen and we'll be keeping him on it, I would absolutely advise the switch.

I also LOVE the name! I was halfway through the first book when HBO announced they were making a show out of it. Welcome!

Yep, Kody is on Orijen now as well for his kibble and he's done great on it! If you want something a little less expensive Blue Buffalo Wilderness is grain free and I've heard it's good food also. I had Mya (my female) on it for a while and she loved it! I switched her to a reduced cal kibble because she needs to loose a few lbs. My chubby girl =)

Well, not so chubby anymore! She's down to 62lbs from 75lbs. She gained almost 20lbs after getting spayed 2yrs ago The spay plus the fact that I wasn't feeding her the best food wasn't a good mix. Before I joined this forum I didn't know anything about doggie nutrition. I've learned a lot!

Sibes are a medium size breed, check the AKC breed standards if there is any question about it. That does not mean they can't be fed large breed puppy formulas, it just means it's not necessary.

If money is no issue then I'd definitely go with Orijen as the best option in the kibble class. I believe 6 Fish is an adult food. The Ca:P ratio in 6 Fish is about 1.14-1.16:1 which is a little low. The Ca:P ratio in LB Puppy is about 1.21-1.25:1 which is just about right for a medium size breed. All things considered I would stick with the puppy formula and hold off on the 6 Fish until closer to adulthood.

Thanks for all the input everyone!

If it was up to me, I'd feed Drogo a raw diet....though attempting to convince my boyfriend of that one seems nearly impossible. After getting into a rather heated argument over the issue, I decided to just drop it and started looking at very high quality kibble as an alternative.

toyszruskid wrote:

Thanks for all the input everyone!

If it was up to me, I'd feed Drogo a raw diet....though attempting to convince my boyfriend of that one seems nearly impossible. After getting into a rather heated argument over the issue, I decided to just drop it and started looking at very high quality kibble as an alternative.

Hubby and I started out that way until I showed him some info on raw feeding and pointed him to a couple links that helped him along to at least agree to try with a small chicken wing....and now, he's feeding our 2 chicken quarters for dinner.

This is the closest topic that kind of matched my question.

So I know this is a long shot as I'm from a different region than most, so I don't know about the shipping, but has any had trouble with their Orijen lately? I bought a bag last week and my dogs will not go near it this time! They always gobble up their food at night, and since the new bag they sniff it and walk away, same variety as always! Then when Siku actually ate it, he threw up in his crate, and had massive diarrhea in the house and outside for like an hour. I've been feeding the honest kitchen since then, and I'm going to buy a new bag today, and see if she has had anyone else complain about the food that was delivered last time to her store, but this has never happened to us on Orijen. Has anyone else had this problem recently with theirs?