So with the whole lawsuit Blue Buffalo is going through we decided to start transitioning Klaus over to Merrick puppy. The protein dropped from 36% in blue to 28% with Merrick. This also means we have to feed him an extra cup of food. So I'm just curious how much a husky needs? He is 7 months and 48lbs. Merrick's adult forumla is in the 30% range, not sure why the puppy formula is lower...

I'm not sure how much protein they're "supposed" to get but just for reference, we feed Nature's Doman which is 24% protein and Bode gets 2 cups a day (3years old,52lbs at his last check up). He maintains at a healthy weight and never seems to be starving to the point where he's begging for more food.

I've gone to strictly Natures Domain myself, i was mixing it with "Freedom" which is made by Blue and its protein content was in the 30's in the puppy formula atleast. My dogs are doing good on the Natures Domain though.

With our working (and non-working) dogs we prefer a food that is at least 32% protein and 18-20% fat.

Haley, Merrick is an excellent food. I would contact them and ask for the calcium ratios for the adult dog food. Most adult dog foods are actually an all life stage food. I looked around Merrick's website, they list calcium ratios for their puppy formulas but not their adult. Since he is a puppy you need to feed a good ratio of calcium, I believe it should be around 1-1.5% to 1 ratio with phosphorus. Because of his size, you can feed a large breed puppy food, can't remember if they had a large breed puppy food. I agree with Huskymom, I too feed about a 30-32% protein level, and about 18-20% fat, however puppies need the calcium.  Again, Merrick is one of the very best dog food manufacturers out there(Orijen, Fromm being the others, off the top of my head), they should be able to give you the info you need. I do know that their grain free puppy food is at 28% protein, so perhaps you could switch over to the grain free, since it sounds like you are feeding their classic line. also, I would contact about their puppy line that is called back country, 30% protein, but again I could not find their calcium percentages. All of their puppy formulas seem low in the fat percentages. If I were to choose I would go with their grain free line, a little higher in the protein levels, around 38%, and a little lower in fat around 17%, and I would ask what % their calcium was for that line, or do they not recommend that line as an all life staged food? I like the line because they have a huge variety of meat sources. Hope that helped you out a little.

Well if some huskies do good on 24% I don't see why Klaus wouldn't be fine on a 28% protein diet. He is on the grain free puppy formula... that is 28%. The calcium is 1.7%.

http://www.merrickpetcare.com/dogs/products/recipe?title=Merrick%20Grain%20Free%20Puppy%20Recipe&id=207

The backcountry puppy formula is higher in protein. We didn't do the backcountry just because the regular grain free is already pretty pricey, and the backcountry as an adult is almost 10 dollars more a bag. Their adult line has more protein than either of the puppy formulas which is what I think is weird it's 38%.

Originally we were going to do Earthborn because the amount of cups would have stayed the same and was more cost efficient, but for some reason their puppy line isn't grain free :/

Also, how do you know if their adult food is considered an all stages food? I assumed if they had a puppy line they didn't have an all stage food.

Haley, Merrick lists their food as all life stages. I know several companies offer both, when you can indeed feed an all life stage dog food to puppies. I believe, and someone can correct me, it's all about the calcium. Adult dogs do not need as much calcium as a puppy, so adult dog food, if not an all life stage, probably doesn't have sufficient calcium for puppies. For example TOTW offers an all life stage dog food, suitable for puppies, but also offers a puppy formula, I'm sure it's based on people's need to feed a food that says puppy, rather than reading labels to make sure it is suitable.

I did find it odd that with Merrick's puppy food that they recommend feeding so much food. Since it is grain free, meat based, high quality food, I was shocked to see that feeding guidelines had something like 5 cups of food per day. What you could do is feed the puppy formula and perhaps, if you don't already, feed a raw meaty bone several times a week to make up the protein difference. I still think 28% is an alright amount, as far as protein is considered.

Now this is just a personal side note, take it or leave. Since Klaus is so large I would stick to a puppy formula, with the higher calcium percentage(unless you get word from Merrick that the adult food comes with a good calcium ratio), until he is 18-24 months old. His bones are still growing to accommodate for his size and weight. So watch his growing and weight at a year, year and a half. If by 18 months old he is at a height and weight that is the same at 8 months to a year switch to adult, if it is different keep with the puppy until 24 months. I think he will be a large husky, which means he will be a slow grower, and his bones may not seal until 18-24 months old, smaller dogs tend to finish growing at 12 months. Puppy formulas with the higher calcium ensures proper bone growth, and stronger bones. Again this is imho. My girl is also larger, and had I understood feeding of puppies better, she would have stayed on a puppy formula until she was 18 months old, I did the switch when she was 12 months old.

Thanks for the information Renee

We already started mixing the grain free puppy food into his diet so if things go well and his weight stays healthy we'll probably just keep him on that for now. He has been gaining about 5lbs a month so if that keeps up yes he's going to be quite large!