Hi All,

This past Monday my 2 year old male, Cloud, was sick and I had to take him to the Vet.

He was having Diarrhea, was lethargic and refused to eat. He was on Blue Wilderness Chicken for the last two months and has never had solid/normal stools. I should mention I recently adopted this fellow about two months ago and he was on Wellness which also had a poor impact on his stool.

After going to the Vet, he was prescribed Hill's Prescription Diet w/d Digestive/Weight/Glucose Management Chicken Flavor Dry Dog Food. His stool is now more or less perfect, he is more energetic and is eating all of his food with little to no problem (except in the morning when he knows finishing his meal means I leave for the day).

My question is, what other food can I try to feed him that would mimic or replace Hill's? While ultimately I don't have a huge issue buying Hill's all the time, it is a bit pricey and more difficult to obtain than other foods. I am also open to a raw food diet if I thought it would produce similar results.

Thank you!

Hi and welcome to the forum!!

I am not a big fan of Hills and Blue has negative effects on many huskies. How much is the hills so I could give you an idea on what price range you are looking for, and also an approximate location so that we don't recommend a food not available in your area.

Thank you for rescuing, huskies are such a rewarding breed their goofy and unique personalities always gives you a smile even on the ruffest haha, of days. We love pics here so can't wait to see your guy!

Hi and Thank you for the welcome!

I live in Central NJ and for an 8.5lb bag of Hill's it is ~30$. My roommate currently feeds his dog raw food which he gets for about 1$/lb in bulk (Just for some extra info).

Thank you for the quick reply and I will be sure to get some pictures up ASAP!

haha. I feed a partial raw diet, and if I had better resources I would feed all raw, the results are great on raw. That is a lot of money for not a great food. My girl is extremely sensitive to foods, and I feed her TOTW, many do well on it and it's about the same price as hills but for 15 pounds. Then the better ones will be more expensive such as Acana, Orijen, and Fromm, being the top 3, imho, as the best out there, but are quite a bit more.

I have no idea what I was laughing about. Currently potty training an almost 12 week old pup, and 4 hours of sleep is catching up. I think I meant to say NP. Anyways we have a great group of people here and any more questions ask away.

My roomies dog seems to do very well on the all raw diet. I am going to pick up a week or twos worth and see if he does well on it. The place he gets food from is raawenergy.com (if you wanted to have a look and recommend anything).

Do you know if TOTW sells any high fiber foods? That was sort of the whole reason he was even on Hill's is because its a high fiber food to help with his stool.

Thank you for the advice!

All of the food I mentioned is formulated for dogs, based on protein:fiber:fat ratios. many of us feed in the 28-32% protein to 14-18% fat, so that fiber ends up being in the 3-5%. Huskies issues stem quite often to excessive grains in the more typical food. I haven't looked at Hills in like forever, but I guarantee that corn is listed in the first 2 places on the ingredient list.

with raw, we have a great raw feed section here on the forum, you do want to get your ratios correct, and you must include raw meaty bones, some prepackage places include ground bone, which for the most part is great for their system but not great for their teeth. I highly recommend raw, and the best protein to start with would be chicken or turkey. I having limited resource have started my 12 week old on beef. I feed her 4 times a day, and one of those meals is raw.

Keep asking questions, if I didn't answer them all.

Let me also add, I did take a look at hill, and yes it's filled with grain. Are you trying to have your dog loose weight? I don't think feeding 4 cups of grain food will help. Most adult huskies will eat about 1.5-2 cups of kibble daily of quality dog food. Vets are not trained well in nutrition of animals, they recommend what their dealers recommend, so in your case they work with hills. What is the height and weight of your dog?

Edit To Add: was the fiber for his stool to firm up or loosen? Most huskies that eat grain inclusive foods have loose stools. Or those who over eat have loose stools, and this would be my guess as to why your vet recommended high fiber food.

MiyasMomma wrote:

Let me also add, I did take a look at hill, and yes it's filled with grain. Are you trying to have your dog loose weight? I don't think feeding 4 cups of grain food will help. Most adult huskies will eat about 1.5-2 cups of kibble daily of quality dog food. Vets are not trained well in nutrition of animals, they recommend what their dealers recommend, so in your case they work with hills. What is the height and weight of your dog?

Edit To Add: was the fiber for his stool to firm up or loosen? Most huskies that eat grain inclusive foods have loose stools. Or those who over eat have loose stools, and this would be my guess as to why your vet recommended high fiber food.

He was having very loose stools and diarrhea at times. Which is I guess why it was recommended by the vet. But I had an inkling that maybe this food wasn't the best option anyway because of the grains.

Cloud is 50lbs exactly (last weighed monday) and I am unsure of the height currently. I do want him to maintain his weight but the last two days he has looked some what skinnier in the back area.

50 pounds is good, and I would have to say vet is incorrect in prescribing grain inclusive foods. His system will work itself out once you put him on a grain free quality food or raw. Blue is ok quality, however there has been some legal issues on where they source their food, regardless, many huskies have loose stools on Blue. The ones I mentioned earlier or raw is the best way to go. Again on the quality kibble 1.5 cups a day should be sufficient, winter months or days where he exercises a lot 2 cups. I hope I helped....

a wail back ago Leo had an upset tummy and the vet prescribed hills for helping with his stool. vet said it would stiffen it but it did the opposite and made it worse. i then did my own sloothing and just gave him boiled chicken and rice for 3 days and he was back to normal, of course i slowly transitioned him back to his kibble which at the time was taste of the wild high Pierre puppy.

i also would stay away from hills and blue buffalo, hills has a lot of grain and fillers (like corn) and blue has questionable meat sources.

I've actually been weening him into a raw food diet the last few days. He seems to love the food, now I just need to monitor his stool for a few days and see how he reacts. Thank you all for the help, sorry it took so long to respond.