We got a husky a few weeks ago now, she is currently 11 weeks and we love her to pieces. We have come to a problem though, for the first couple weeks she did fine on the food we gave her. Well just the last couple days she's been throwing up, from what I can tell she isn't chewing her food at all? We are using Nutro Max Natural Chicken Meal and Rice Puppy Chow as a lot of people on husky forums seemed to like their stuff. So I'm looking for a new food to try, we've considered going fresh food as well but haven't made it to the butcher to see how much trimmings and what not would cost us. For now I think we just want to try another dry food that maybe is softer? I am always leery of the big name brands like Purina and such and have no issues ordering online as I have an Amazon prime account. Thanks for any help you guys swing my way! We are just wanting to make sure our baby is well fed.

I am not familiar with that dog food brand, but just be advised, it only hit 3 1/2 stars on dogfoodadvisor.com ... 3 1/2 stars isn't bad, but there are way better brands. Another thing about that brand, I noticed a lot of grain, wheat etcetera.... typically (not all) huskies have a hard time digesting grains (Mine actually has an intolerance to grain)... Huskies digestive systems are genetically different than most breeds of dogs, so they require a more high quality food with more protein, because of the extra amounts of exercise they get per a day.

There is a thread that has a lot of comments in it that I am sure you could get a lot of honest feedback on many brands, and make your own choice from there, or ask more specialized to your needs questions...
https://www.itsahuskything.com/t174p600-what-are-you-feeding-your-husky?highlight=What+are+you+feeding

It is such a wide ranged topic, so dog food is highly an opinionated thing to ask about fyi, you will get answers from all over the spectrum

If you are looking for a personal answer.
I used to feed a few different brands till we found the one that works for us.

Okami came to me on Purina (EWWW)
I was obsessed with trying Native brand (5 stars on dfa). She ended up not liking it at all. So I tried the next brand... I think we tried both ToTW and BB pretty close together (Every time I switch foods I do it right though) and she was having issues when she was on one of them... went to the EVet and found out about her intolerance to grain... was suggested a few Grain free brands to try... So we tried 4 Health Grain Free Turkey and Potato... We have been feeding that for over a year now, and we can't be happier with it. It is a brand you can only purchase at Tractor Supply... but honestly, it is high quality, but half the price of the big brands such as Blue Buffalo or Taste of the Wild...

When we got Loki he was on a Merrick puppy formula. I honestly can't recall which one it was, which is sad given that he is only 9 1/2 months old. Nevertheless, we really weren't happy with his stools and he didn't seem very enthusiastic when eating.

We switched to Orijen Large Breed Puppy at about 11 weeks and have been incredibly happy with it. I honestly couldn't recommend it more and scores of people have felt his coat only to ask us what we feed him. After just a few days of mixing it in with the Merrick formula, we noticed a considerable change in the quality of his stools. Quite humorously, when we fed him he would go through and eat all of the Orijen first and then, and only then, he would turn to the other food. We have, since, tried a few other formulas in an attempt to give him a little variety, namely, those from TOTW and Fromm. I know a lot of people really like these brands, but we were honestly not much of a fan of either.

Orijen will, however, set you back a little in terms of price. Several months ago I ran a cost analysis that broke down the daily feeding cost for Orijen, Fromm, and TOTW, and even with Orijen's smaller portions you are going to be set back .30–.80 cents a day in comparison to the others. It adds up, but I think it is worth it.

For softer food, I think most people just suggest soaking the kibble in water before feeding.

Has anything else changed in your pups diet? Because if she was on that food with no problem before and is all of a sudden vomiting, it could be a medical issue. You may want to consult your vet.

Nothing else has really changed, she vomited maybe once before and it was sort of similar. When we first gave her this new food she tried to chew it and now I dont hear her even chewing it. She went to the vet aabout a week ago and everything checked out, she got reworking shots and what not.

De-worming shots***

I feed Dr. Tim's Pursuit. It's a 5-star rated food, and Wolf seems to really like it. He's a pretty enthusiastic eater, though. Wolf has been on this food since I got him at 8 weeks, and is doing very well. I order from Chewy.com, and have had good luck.

http://www.chewy.com/dog/dr-tims-pursuit-active-dog-formula/dp/37811

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/dr-tims-dog-food/

Everybody gave some great suggestions. There is one thing I will point out and it's most people and many vets view huskies as a large breed dog and they are not. They are a medium breed dog and you should avoid large breed puppy formulas. From what I understand, and maybe someone else can explain better than myself, feeding large breed puppy food encourages rapid growth of the bones, and you want to avoid that, to prevent injuries later on.

Hmm well that's interesting. Well we're going to get some new food of some sort soon. If we go fresh foods is there a list of recipes people are using and what not? Just curious at this point.

That dogfoodrating site is a bit daunting lol. Even in just the 5star section there is a large list.

When you say "throwing up" do you mean she vomits a partially or wholly digested meal not related to feeding time or is this a kind of eat too fast, gagging, swallowing the food whole kind of thing as she is eating?

If it is truly vomiting, that is a medical issue.

If it is the latter, hand-feeding piece by piece will slow her down.  Also, try putting water on her food, that will also slow her down as well as soften the food.  In the winter because Ami won't drink free water I poor slightly warm water on his food, let it set for maybe 10 minutes and give it to him.  The kibble is very slightly softened on the outside but still crunchy on the inside and floating in water - he both laps the water and chews the kibble.

It's the second one, it happens when she's eating. I've started adding a bit of water to her food to soften it though and so far that's worked.

MiyasMomma wrote:

Everybody gave some great suggestions. There is one thing I will point out and it's most people and many vets view huskies as a large breed dog and they are not. They are a medium breed dog and you should avoid large breed puppy formulas. From what I understand, and maybe someone else can explain better than myself, feeding large breed puppy food encourages rapid growth of the bones, and you want to avoid that, to prevent injuries later on.

I've seen some people say this but am honestly confused by it. For one, it assumes that the food manufacturer (or Vet for that matter) has the AKC definition in mind when it describes something as a "Large Breed Formula". Fromm, for instance, recommends the LB formula for any dog over 50 lbs.—the upper limit for females, but just right for males. So it seems more likely that the distinction being drawn is that between "food proper for little dogs" and "food proper for big dogs", rather than a rigorous AKC standard. Surely a Husky, in this sense, has more in common with a German Shepherd than a Beagle.

But ignoring that, as far as I am aware, Large Breed formulas are designed to foster slower bone growth and to help the puppy keep a lower overall weight so as to remove pressure to the developing joints. For instance, compared to their standard puppy formula, Orijen's LB formula has a lower calcium amount (1.2%–1.5% vs. 1.3%–1.6%) and a better Ca:P ratio. So to help prevent injuries it actually seems like one should feed a Husky a large breed puppy formula, all the while paying careful attention to the amount of food that the puppy is being fed.

Hopefully the above disagreement is read in a friendly spirit. While I use these forums a lot, I don't comment much, so I feel a little out of place just jumping in and voicing disagreement.

Robert, as I said I would love more knowledgeable people her on feeding puppies to hop on and explain why feeding large breed puppy formula is not a good thing. I'm pretty knowledgeable on feeding huskies, but the technicalities I am uncertain on how to explain. My reasoning is large breed dogs are 60 pounds and up, yes huskies fall in between medium and large and there is a debate whether it should be 50 pounds and up. It is in a friendly manner, so no offense was taken. For an example a lab is a large breed and if you put a lab next to a standard husky the husky is considerably smaller. The standard for large end male huskies is 54 pounds. I do understand that the growth plates in huskies are different than in large breeds, some huskies continue to grow past one year of age. As far as feeding a growing husky I would stay away from all grains, many do not tolerate grains well. Feeding raw, if you have the time and patience, imho, is the best way to go. I have always fed a partial meat based, raw, and some kibble diet. There is a thread on here, that Val, our resident nutrition moderator that mentions no to large breed formula and explains why, if i find it or she see's this thread I will relay the info.

To the OP, there is a wealth of info in the raw feed section on the forum, if you decide to go that route. I wish you the best on your new pup.

Again Robert, this forum is here to share opinions, just because we don't agree doesn't mean I'm right and you're wrong or vice versa. It's simply a discussion, I shall try and dig up the info so we can compare the pros and cons of feeding pups regular or large breed formulas.

Hmm, well this forum should sticky threads with important information like that as it can be very difficult to find them in all the rest of the stuff lol. I'll have to check out that section. This bag of food is almost gone so I think for now I'm going to just wet it down as she's been eating it that way and doing better. In the mean time I'm going to figure out what I'm going to replace it with.

Eresh another member here posted this...." the calcium:phosphorus ratio is important for growing pups (actually, it's excessive calcium you need to watch for). Look at your current bag. If the calcium:phosphorus ratio is close to 1, then it's fine. I'm not familiar with your brand, but most all life stages food has the proper ratio. [EDIT] I looked up your current brand, and the calcium level is fine at 1% with .8% phosphorus.
Also, the large breed kibble is unnecessary for a husky, which is a medium size breed. If you're worried about your pup eating too fast, try one of those dog bowls designed to slow them down."

I think that will help as far as ratios go, if I find an in depth thread I will post it up too. I too had unwittingly fed large breed puppy food to my girl because her first 2 vets said, she will be a solid 100 pounds, and the other said she will be a solid 80 pounds, then I did breed specific research and discovered that breed standard was considerably less. We have stickies here, however, there is not one on large breed vs regular breed kibble, <sigh> there would be too many stickies I guess, to sticky every possible scenario.

That's when you make a sticky that's got a bunch of links to threads with important info.

And thank for all that, all our family and what not seemed to think huskies are huge as well, I knew they didn't really get any bigger than 60lbs but hadn't looked into it THAT much. I'm going to research some more like I said and figure out our best path, the raw diet interests me I just have to get some local pricing to see how feasible it is.

Hdale, I stumbled upon another thread similar to this one, no useful info, but the argument was huskies are medium sized and growth plates were basically done at 12 months (a good refresher for me), any ways, I would keep calcium levels down to the 1% range as stated above, Robert and I actually said the same thing low calcium, but for different reasons, lol. An all life stages food is perfectly fine for a puppy as well, so don't need to box yourself in to puppy only formulas. We do have very useful info in the raw feed section here. Again, I wish you luck with Sona, what a pretty name.

Welcome HDale! Looks like our husky puppies are very similar in age. I think you have gotten a lot of good advice here. I would just like to agree with the recommendations to go grain free. However, my main reason for commenting is to second the advice you got about slow feed bowl. They are a wonderful tool to slow down the little chow hounds and encourage them to chew their food better. Petco has a lot of different choices. We got the blue target-type bowl, but on second thought, I wish I had gotten the pink flower pattern style. It looks like it would slow down the feeding process even more. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Well just wanted to update that it's been about 2 weeks since we switched foods, we went with Blue Wilderness Natrual Evolutionary Diet with Lifesource Bits Salmon Recipe. She absolutely loves it and is jumping at me when it's meal time. Currently I'm feeding her 3 times a day and one cup per meal I'm not sure if this is too much but she seems pretty hungry at those times. It was quite a bit more expensive than I was expecting though lol. I bought it at Petsmart because I looked on Amazon and surprisingly the prices were pretty close if not a bit cheaper at Petsmart. I think I paid 30 something for the medium sized bag I got.

Good to hear! The wilderness brand is rated highly on dogfoodadvisor.com, which is the closest to a non-biases dog food rating site that I know of. The only reason you might want to look at switching is to go with a company that is even more meat based like Orijen. Also, as some people have already said on here, you might want to check our the raw feeding section of the site. In my opinion, it's healthier and better quality than even the highest quality kibble on the market. I have switched my dog to a full raw diet now and she is doing great! In regards to the large breed vs normal puppy food it's a little confusing with huskies. Because they tend to fall in the medium breed category, sometimes it's better to feed large breed puppy and sometimes it better to feed standard. If you know the parent's adult weight that is really the only decent way to decide which to feed. If you know that the parents were 60lbs or over, I would go with the large breed formula, if they are on the smaller side the standard puppy food would be fine. If you don't know the parent's weight you have to base your decision on the standard adult weight of each sex. If you have a male you might lean toward the large breed side if she is a female then standard puppy is a safer bet. There are always exceptions to the breed's standard weight range but at least it's a start. My female husky ended up weighing in at 65lbs, I started off feeding standard but as I saw her grow faster than expected, I switched to large breed at about 6 months to help slow her growth down a little so she had time to develop stronger bones and muscles.

Well last visit with the vet we had she weighed 24lbs, so we'll see how much she weighs at todays visit but I think what I have is working pretty good. The only complaint I have is she definitely has gas once in a while now and it's pretty darn stinky lol.

As for the raw food yeah I've been considering it, there is that subscription service I saw that we're thinking about. We can't do it right now due to a few things but sometime next year we may switch over to it as I think it ends up being like 25 bucks a week or something.

I was also looking at Natures Variety RawBoost foods which have freeze dried raw meats in them, for some reason on dogfoodadvisor it lists no controversial ingredients, a pretty high protein count, and really says nothing negative about it at all but it only gets 4 stars? So I don't really get that. I looked at it at the store the other day though and holy balls I thought the Blue Wilderness was expensive but that RawBoost is like 90 bucks for a 24lb bag.

Ha ha! Diz had bad gas on salmon food as well! I had to get him off of it, it was so bad... I don't stick with one brand, I rotate and always try new things. I've gone through two bags of zignature turkey and potato. Diz loves it and it's a pretty good price. It's $50.49 on chewy.com for a 27 lb bag. Currently, I'm mixing that with Nature's variety Prairie Venison and Barley. I'm not thrilled with it though. I tried the rabbit with the raw boost and that went over really well, and stools were the best I've seen outside the zignature. I like to try different things not only because it keeps him interested, but also just to know what else is out there and agrees with him. I used to feed canidae, but the raised their prices last year and i thought they were a bit crazy! I also fed raw for a while, but didn't have a very reliable source so I switched back to kibble. Also, he is intolerant of chicken so that made raw quite expensive.

Long story short, there is a lot of great advice posted by others, and you've just gotta find what works best for her...

Oh, for the vomiting, this may sound odd, but the kibbles might just be too big for her. My cat used to always scarf and barf and I finally found a kibble that I can give to him where he can scarf (this will never change), but doesn't barf. The biggest difference is that the kibbles are tiny. about a fourth the size of normal cat food kibbles.

I have used Nature's Variety in the past and I agree with the stool consistency, it was definitely the best out of all kibble she had been on. To saves some money you could try getting the normal instinct without raw bites and just buy some of the Stella and Chewy's freeze dried patties to crumble up to put on top of the food. It ends up being cheaper that way and you control how much of the freeze dried raw they have in each meal.

Ok, so the first time we took her to the vet I'm pretty sure she was something around 14lbs. About 3 weeks later we took her back in and she was 21lbs, now it's been about a month and her visit yesterday she was 27.4lbs. Does this sound like pretty good growth?

Good Morning all,

So I read the thread and we have a 16 week old and he keeps throwing up. He had his shots and was seen at out vet (which is a husky lover) and they have given him a clean bill of health. When looking at what come out it's mostly un digested food. We bought a food bowl that makes him slow down and that works. He changed to IAMS puppy formula from kibble and bits puppy formula. We had been feeding him 1 cup three times a day. Is that too much I know they don't need too much. He seems fine other wise. He can hear his belly nosies and don't give him too many treats and they are very small.

Any suggestions.

Ho BTW his name is bandit and will post up a picture later on.