Hi wondering if the type of food our huskies eat affect there coats. When we just got him i tried blue wilderness for pups and he wouldn't eat lost weight and i was worried. I stopped by Walmart an bought him puppy chow an he loves it has gained weight again but his coat changed. The lady at petco told me to try something else because the food i fed him would cause health issues in the future. Is it true that puppy chow causes health problems and his coat to be sleek? Or was she just trying to sell me her product.???

The diet absolutely affects overall health and coat condition. Just like what we put in our bodies affects our personal health. We could not expect to eat low quality foods all day every day and stay healthy, so why would we expect anything different with our dogs?

Often, what I have seen through rescue and switching dogs onto the diet we keep our dogs on (which is Taste Of The Wild High Prairie) is a drastic change in a variety of body systems. I wil share my experience with my 3 Tumnatki racing siberians who came from RedPaw 32K (a high carb high performance working food) and went onto our quality 'pet' food. We did see a drop in weight initially as the body switches from a carbohydrate burning metabolism to a protein burning metabolism (we see this also in working dogs early season if they are on a carbohydrate based food and increasing running mileages until their bodies switch modes). The reason is carbohydrates are more readily burned and utilized as energy by the body than protein is. Carbs are a 'fast burn' where as your proteins will be your 'endurance burn'. The next thing we saw was the coat condition almost seemed to deteriorate, then they had a MAJOR coat blow. They lost everything from undercoat to a large portion of guard hair (not all at once it was just a normal looking coat roll)….what came in was softer, richer in color, thicker, overall just healthier looking. What had happened was the body detoxed and pushed all the dead and dying coat out to make room for the healthy coat to come in, the weights leveled out, and overall the health of the dogs is optimal IMO (as well as my vet). These are my observations and opinions anyway-

Similar to the above poster, we've noticed that huskies on a raw diet have softer, shinier coats in general. That's why we kept our guy on the raw diet his breeder had already had him on. We've also seen it in mutts and a Coton de Tulear (various in-law's pets) who have had Kibbles n' Bits thrown into/removed from their diets.

Puppy Chow is not a high quality food. There are lots of good quality kibbles out there, not just Blue, so if that one doesn't work for your pup, try something else. Check out dogfoodadvisor.com and try to pick a 4 or 5 star rated food.

I'll give you our experience of food changing coat. Bode, our Sibe, has been on a good food from the start. We had our cat for about a year before we got Bode and didn't know about the importance of quality food. Myles (cat) has a sensitive tummy so our vet recommended Science Diet Sensitive Stomach. His stools were better on it, so we thought it was fine. I finally decided that I wanted to switch to something better for him because the Science Diet was greasy and gross. We switched him to Nature's Domain cat food (grain free) and it sat well with his tummy, so we stuck with it. Almost immediately we could see a change in his coat. It was smoother and shinier, less dander, and less shedding.

The food definitely makes a difference. We have kylah on Authority and we've been very happy. It gives her a very nice coat. I did my research on it and think It's the best quality in its price range (about $31.99 for 34lbs).

I agree with everyone above and I'll share my experience too. My pup is on raw. I recently tried to put him back on kibble for convenience sake, but even with a super high quality kibble (orijen red) I noticed immediately some issues pop up that I hadn't seen when he was on raw. First of all his eyes got really gooey and gross. Not just sleepies in the morning, there was brown gunk coming out of them all the time and he was getting tear stains. His stool dramatically increased, and he got this really awful looking hotspot. So I switched him off of orijen onto diamond naturals and the stool got even bigger, eyes got better, but hotspot did not. So he's back on raw and I can tell right away he feels better. Also after two days of raw, the hot spot shrunk and is less painful. He doesn't react when I clean it. So, I guess for us, raw is the way to go. He wasn't on it long enough for me to see a coat blow, or any changes in coat.

My female pup Winter is a terrible eater - she would barely pick on her food and at over 10 months old she barely weighs 17kgs (35lbs). I tried what ever good quality kibble we have available in Australia - TOTW, Canidae Pure are best we get here that are grain free. She clearly didn't enjoy her food. I tried raw and she liked it but selectively - she would eat beef or lamb but no chicken or organs at all - this could cause issues in he future so I finally decided to try Ziwipeak - raw food but air dried and packed as kibble and very convenient to feed. She not only LOVES it but i noticed changes in her immediately. Her coat looks better, she is excited for her meals and has more energy. I cannot be happier with Ziwipeak and will recommend it to all. The only downside is that it is a little pricey....

wpskier222 wrote:

I agree with everyone above and I'll share my experience too. My pup is on raw. I recently tried to put him back on kibble for convenience sake, but even with a super high quality kibble (orijen red) I noticed immediately some issues pop up that I hadn't seen when he was on raw. First of all his eyes got really gooey and gross. Not just sleepies in the morning, there was brown gunk coming out of them all the time and he was getting tear stains. His stool dramatically increased, and he got this really awful looking hotspot. So I switched him off of orijen onto diamond naturals and the stool got even bigger, eyes got better, but hotspot did not. So he's back on raw and I can tell right away he feels better. Also after two days of raw, the hot spot shrunk and is less painful. He doesn't react when I clean it. So, I guess for us, raw is the way to go. He wasn't on it long enough for me to see a coat blow, or any changes in coat.

I've heard that it is very hard on their bodies and their systems to go from raw to kibble, regardless of how good of quality the kibble is.  

Going from kibble to raw is easy enough and you can see the improvements right away, but their bodies really react badly once they are used to raw and the switch is made back.  

I can't make any comparative analysis with Link because I can't remember when he was on kibble at all....and it was only month 3-4....but the most common comments from pet store folks and dog folks is that 1), his teeth are exceptionally white and clean and shiny, and 2), his coat is shiny and healthy and bright.

I'll get to meet his twin brother this summer when we drop Link off for our vacation and he eats Purina Pro Plan I believe, and it will be interesting to compare the kibble vs raw in how they look on the surface of things.

Yep. Definitely won't be making that mistake again. Is that Brody? If so, keep in mind Brody's coat will be in a different condition than Link's because he is a show dog and gets constant washing and grooming and products on and off his coat. Not saying it's a good or bad thing, it will just make his coat appear differently.

Also, honestly no amount of grooming or any type of food will have a drastic impact on coat. It won't make a sleek coated siberian suddenly have a huge fluffy coat. Food definitely has an impact on coat health but the biggest factor is genetics.

All noted. Yes, Brody. They have more or less the same genetics