Hi,

I have an 11 and a half month old Husky that is very skinny. I have noticed this is nothing to stress too much about as she will fill out. My issue is her eating habits. She will smash down her food like normal for a few weeks then for 1 to 2 weeks will hardly eat a thing. I try changing food but she ends up eating again when she decides. Her hip bones stand out quite a bit and you can feel how skinny she is when patting her. She is up to date with worming and she is still her hyper self with personality in tact so I don't believe she is ill. I haven't spoken to the vet but I had to pick her up from there the other day as she got out and they never mentioned her weight nor did they the visit before when getting spayed. I am hoping someone has some advice or ideas as I am getting to become one very worried Mum!

welcome to the forum Kayla!! We are having a similar discussion, thread titled Not eating....right, erm....properly. The info on there may help you and feel free to chime in, the more the merrier. It makes it easier keeping to one thread that is similar.

Renee

From what I've seen in pictures on this forum - being skinny and bony from 6-7 mos to a year-15 mos may be normal...

I get that they are normally quite thin, but it's the fact she is hardly eating anything that worries me. Because she isn't eating, her weight bothers me but more the not eating part is the issue.

Kayla, has she lost weight? What's her height and weight? My girl will fast once a week and is not a big eater. Has she had other tummy problems and lastly what brand food are you feeding?

What is your feeding routine. Often Siberians that are not on a schedule will develop these poor habits. Siberians, by nature, are opportunistic feeders and were designed to be enthusiastic eaters at that.

She is 62.5cm tall and I am not sure of her exact weight but she would be about 12kgs or thereabouts. I have used a couple of brands as I switch brand every time she stops eating. I have used pedigree, supercoat and chum. I will also cook her up some pet mince with vegetables when she stops eating to try and persuade her which helps for a couple of nights before stopping again. At the moment she is eating again and it is the dog food rolls and the brand is vip. She has her tea at around 5 but this can vary depending on when I finish work and I used to give her a cup of dry food for breakfast but she hasn't eat any of that in quite a long time.

Hi Kayla and welcome!

Keep this in mind, a healthy dog will never starve itself. Besides which, huskies are notorious self regulators in eating.

On the other hand, though, you are reinforcing her not eating by switching her food whenever she doesn't eat. In essence you're giving her exactly what she want...something new.

Many times i've seen the phrase 'picky eaters are created' in some way, shape or form here on the forum.

More later...gotta get back to work.

Hi and thanks ,

Yeah she is healthy and happy as far as I can tell so are there things that happen that trigger them to stop eating or do they just kinda do it and there is nothing we can do?

Oh okay I will stop switching food then and make her eat what she has in front of her. It is so funny how child like dogs and especially huskies are haha

Hi Kayla

Sorry I had to cut myself off short like that on my first post. Many of us are fans of scheduled feeding and not so much free feeding. This means give her a meal, leave it down for about 10-15 minutes. If she eats, great. If she doesn't, pick it up and give it to her again at the next scheduled feeding time. Eventually hunger will force her to eat.

The first tme Dakota refused her food it freaked me out. I've learned over the years that they know their needs better than we do. If they're not hungry, they're not going to eat. As long as she's happy, healthy, peeing/pooping normally, drinking normal, you've got nothing to worry about. If she starts really losing weight, then consult a vet.

Good luck! And yes, they are really very child-like.

That's okay, thank you so much for your advice! I am still trying to learn everything. Akira is my first ever husky and the first dog I have owned. I have always had dogs growing up but it is a bit different when you are the only one responsible. I will follow everyone's tips and hopefully all goes well!

I've switched my dogs kibble many times trying to figure out which one they liked the most and did the best on. We eventually realized that a raw diet worked best for us. One thing I can say is that, when fed raw meat, the dogs NEVER walked away and left any, unless they were completely full. There were brands of kibble that I would put down at a scheduled feeding time, and they would just sniff the bowl and walk away. I was shocked. Now that they're on raw, that has never happened. I've never cooked any food for them. Raw meat is just that: fed raw. It can be fed frozen or thawed. They'll eat it no matter what. If you're worried about her NOT eating, start researching a raw, uncooked diet, and see if that helps. If you need help, let me know. There are plenty of other raw feeders on this forum as well. Good luck!