Hi I am new to this site and I am posting about my girl Reyna. She is 19 months old and has been progressively lost her appetite. She has the same activity level as usual. I am a college student so I don't have a lot of money for high quality food. She seems skinny. I can feel her hips but can't see her ribs because she is so fluffy. I have experimented with wet food, dog syrup on her food, and even grease on her food. What could be causing this? Should I be concerned even if her energy level has not changed?

a little more info would help, what are you feeding her now, and how much? pictures of your girl from looking down and side view. also she is at that age where huskies do tend to look starving but are not, its just a faze they go through.

I don't have any current pictures available. I will take some tonight. She is currently just eating purine dog chow. Not the best I know but I'm a college student working part time. She used to eat 3 cups divided into 2 servings at morning and night. Now she eats about half of that. She just picks at her food and makes a mess. She will pick it up in her mouth and will drop it on the and not eat what she drops.

One thing to consider is if you were to get a better quality dog food, you would not need to feed her as much as you are feeding Purina Dog Chow. So if you feed 3 cups of food now on Purina, you might feed only 2 cups on a better quality dog food. So even if a better food cost more, it would last longer because you need to feed less.

If she needs to put on weight, you might consider spending a little more money. I don't know what the price point is for Blue Buffalo, but it is a better food than Purina Dog Chow, and you wouldn't be feeding 3 cups.

Another thing you could do is add boiled eggs to her Purina and mix it in. Egg are good and relatively cheap, even if you added just one egg. That might make her eat a little more.

As Jenn said, it's hard to say if your pup is skinny or not without pictures to help.

As a guide, you should easily be able to feel their ribs, spine and hips, but you should not see them through their coat.

Send us pictures when you can, top view and side view. It'll help.

If I can make a suggestion - as a fellow college student working part time...it is worth it to spend the extra $10 on a better food. Perhaps you could try 4Health, Nature's Domain (Costco) or Taste of the Wild.

I know it's not what you want to hear, but it is doable, it just means one less drink or one less meal out. I have had to do the same thing.

Agree a picture will help. Any issues with gas, stool, or vomitting?

Thanks for the suggestions about the food. I'll crunch some numbers tomorrow and see how prices work considering the fact that I will likely feed her less. I will also post a couple pictures tomorrow. Any suggestion on better quality brands that are moderately priced?

Megan's food suggestions are good for low cost but decent food. If you're a member of Costco, the Nature's Domain can't be beat for what you get for the price.

She's not having any issues with stool. Other than she can't stay still when she poops buy she has done that since she was little and I've had x rays done of her hips to make sure there is no problems in that area. I was just worried I might be missing signs that there could be something seriously wrong. She is basically my one and only friend so I tend to get a little paranoid about her.

well speaking as an x college student i seemed to have more money as a college student then i do now as a working adult owning a home with 2 huskies! can you tell us where you live as well as that may help people give you store names to check out foods and prices.
i also agree with the nature domain from costco, its what we feed and they have 3 flavors so its good to rotate it around for them.
you can also look at the more local mom and pop pet stores or smaller chains that may offer discounts or offers on pet food. chuck and doms had a rebate program and some foods like earth born holistic i think offers a free bag after 8 bags or something like that.

https://www.itsahuskything.com/t174-what-are-you-feeding-your-husky
just go to the last page and read backwards if you want the most resent food options.

again for her hips it could be the age, huskies "fill out" after 2yrs old

As a college student but has a full time job. I recommend taste of the wild or actaully cadidate is a a great food too!

I also agree. I only work part-time and don't make much at all between the loans I have, I feed TOTW for my pups and as Claudia said a better food will require less cups. Link was eating 6 cups of Pedigree with his old owners, he only eats 2 cups of TOTW with me.

You wrote "She just picks at her food and makes a mess. She will pick it up in her mouth and will drop it on the and not eat what she drops."

I think this behavior is classic in sibes. They get bored with their food. It is as if they were saying: "This is what you give me to eat? You have lavish meals in my presence while I must exist on dry cereal"? One of our girls had this down to an art, and always made sure we were looking when she spit out the food.

With our girl Myka we need to "dress up" her food (we feed her Blue) to get her to eat when she gets in one of these moods. Sometimes a splash of yogurt, or some gravy mix and water added to her food will do it. Sometimes if there are some left over table scraps that we can add to her food we will do that. Also, presentation is everything: sometimes my wife will sit down with Myka and hand feed her.

I think the bottom line however is that they will not starve themselves, and will eat what they need to stay healthy. All the tricks to make them eat eagerly make us feel better about it though.

Mobezilla wrote:

I also agree. I only work part-time and don't make much at all between the loans I have, I feed TOTW for my pups and as Claudia said a better food will require less cups. Link was eating 6 cups of Pedigree with his old owners, he only eats 2 cups of TOTW with me.

6 cups?!   

wpskier222 wrote:

Mobezilla wrote:

I also agree. I only work part-time and don't make much at all between the loans I have, I feed TOTW for my pups and as Claudia said a better food will require less cups. Link was eating 6 cups of Pedigree with his old owners, he only eats 2 cups of TOTW with me.

6 cups?!   

Just goes to show how low-quality the food was, because he was skinny even eating 6 cups.

He was a growing boy though

I'm also a college student, but I work two jobs so I have a bit more money, but I'm sure with 2 extra Huskies it evens out lol. I spend about $45 on a 30lb bag of Taste of the Wild. With 3 dogs, they each get 2 cups a day, if they're in the mood for eating and that usually lasts me 3 weeks.

One thing to note, Huskies control their own metabolism, she'll eat if she's hungry.