Hi All,

Sherlock is our 8 month old sib and he always looks as if he is sniffing for food. When we feed him he eats so fast that we had to get him one of those "fun" dog bowls, but after several months he's figured out how to basically use his tongue as a straw and finish eating in less that 45 seconds.

We feed him 2 cups of orijen puppy dog food a day (1 cup in the morning / 1 cup at nigh).. any more and he will have loose stools. Also, when we are out walking or at the dog park, anything that looks like food he will lunge for it. Its gotten very difficult with him to even give him chew treats (bully bones, Himalayan dog chews. etc) because he will just try to swallow the entire thing whole instead of taking time to enjoy/chew it.

I know usually people see the opposite behavior with huskies being picky, but I feel like I'm living with a chocolate lab

Does anyone have any advice for this? maybe this is just a phase? (I hope).. maybe we really aren't feeding him enough and should just bite the bullet with loose stool? any advice will help, thanks!

Ami is one, archer is one and Z'ev, most particularly, Z'ev is one. All have varying.levels of voracious appetite. So much so that I changed to a lower calorie food as they all were getting chunky.

Orijen is a great food but it is rich and often too much so for puppies and non working dogs. Many pups do eat more than 2 cups a day. how is his weight? If he weighs right then you may look at a filler or topper like green beans. They are low calorie so he shouldn't really gain anything from eating them but they will give him something more in his stomach to help feel more full. Or swapping to a food like Acana where you might be able to feed more without the loose stools if you can do that without his weight becoming an issue.

I second going over to Acana, many puppies can not handle Orijen because it is just too rich. 2 cups a day at 8 months may not be enough, especially since most adults eat at the 1-2 cups a day range, he is still growing, although not much more left in that department because of his age, but he may indeed need more food. Green beans is a great way to add more bulk, but at the same time he may still need more kibble. I will also ask.....how is his weight?

He weighs about 44lbs last time we checked. He doesn't have any exposed ribs and I would say he looks very healthy all around. We have had him on zignature, California natural, and taste of the wild and they all upset his stomach and never had hard stools.

Eventually we got him on horizon legacy puppy food and he did awesome on this, but I can only buy this online and popular dog food estores always have fluctuating stock of it so I decided to get him on something comparable which was Origen or arcana. Guess We will try to make the move to arcana on both of your recommendation, plus it will ease the burden on the wallet. I will also definitely take a look into adding some fillers on top and trying to increase his food. What would you all recommend would be a good amount to feed him? We do keep him very fairly active.. about 1-1.5 hours at the dog park and a 3 mile walk/jog
daily.

Once you do a transition, I would imagine 3 cups a day split up into 2 meals will work, eventually going back down to the 1-2 cups a day once fully mature. I can't really say about my husky girl, because I fed her crap food until she was just over a year old, but with my gsd who is pretty close to adult male husky weight, ate 3-4 cups a day until she was about 10 months old. So I think it would be safe to say feed 3 cups and access body condition and weight after a month on the new food and new amount. I would not be ok with loose poops forever, not healthy for a puppy or adult dog.

I like Orijen so I wouldn't be quick to jump off of it if you have found a balance that works for him...i.e. the 2 cups per day.

My late dog, Faith, was a voracious little thing for her size. She did the same thing all the time throughout her life, constantly looking for food and eating it in no time flat. Essentially acting like she was beyond starved all the time. My sibe is always looking for food too (he also eats trash on walks EVERY chance he gets) but he's nowhere near as intense about food as Faith was.

I would definitely recommend a more filling, low-calorie topper in addition to the Orijen. I like green beans, carrots or even sometimes using a dehydrated raw pre/base-mix such as The Honest Kitchen Preference or Kindly formulas or one of Grandma Lucy's multiple different grain-free pre-mix options. The pre/base-mixes will have more calories than green beans or carrots but they will also add more beneficial vitamins/minerals to the diet in the process. I think a healthy mix is always a good thing. Just be aware that all that extra fiber will result in an increased stool volume. What I like about carrots is that, at least with my boy, they seem to pass right right through him. So he feels fuller but they come right back out the other end (in tiny, chewed up pieces of course) without affecting his stool firmness in any way. And if your boy isn't exactly thrilled with being given veggies, try boiling them just a little in some chicken broth. That always works even with my pickiest eaters.

Is your pup a rescue or did you get him from a breeder? If a breeder, how good of a breeder? Did you visit the facilities?

My husky was a rescue. He was abandoned as a puppy and lived on his own for some time prior to being 2 months old. He was found and turned into a shelter at 2 months with mange.
We adopted him at 3 months.
He'd eat so fast he'd make himself sick. You could literally see his stomach expand and contract while eating. We tried a couple bowls until we found some with thin enough grooves to limit his eating speed. He ate literally ANYTHING on walks. Pinecones, bugs, grass, rocks, rotten fruit, leaves, sticks, dead animals, feces, dirt. If it fit in his mouth he was going to eat it.
He's now approaching a year and a half old. He still eats as fast as he can, and you can't distract him from his food, but eating on walks has diminished. Live and dead animals are still on the menu, but everything else is ignored. He still checks everything out just in case it's edible, but he sticks to edible organics now.

Our other dog was also a rescue. He was a year old when we got him. He was found living as a member of a pack of nearly feral dogs. He ate fine at home, but walks were a nightmare. Anything even resembling food was eaten. Every puddle of water, no matter how small had to be drank from. After a year, he stopped that behavior all together.

For my dogs, I venture it was a starvation behavior that they learned. Eat everything and anything cause you never know when you'll see food/water again.

It may just be a very curious pup too. He sniffs around a lot. That's pretty normal for a dog. A dog's nose is equivalent to our eyes for sensing things. They literally see the world through their noses. He's checking things out. Huskies are somewhat self sufficient animals in that they like to hunt for food, and that includes digging for animals under ground. He might be smelling prey.

If he's an appropriate weight, and more food = loose stool, I'd lean towards it just being a phase.

We got him from a fairly reputable breeder that came recommended and got him at 8 weeks old, so I don't know if this was a learned behavior. When we first got him he hated Any and all treats and ignored kibble up until he was about 12-15 weeks and since then the "eat anything and everything as fast as possible" switch has been flipped. At one point he was fairly resource possessive towards high reward treats and high value food (ground beef). But luckily with some training this isn't an issue any more. Initially I thought the same thing that he was eating so fast so that nobody else could steal it, but I'm not sure that's the case. I'll try adding fillers to see if this stops him from constantly looking for scraps, and hope that this is just one of his many many phases (: thanks all for your help!

Hey guys,

We have been noticing the same eating behaviour with Loki along with the soft stool. For the carrots and beans advice for filler, what preparation (if any) do you guys recommend?

Right now, we are feeding him about 1-1.25 cup of kibble 3x/day. The vet said that he's in great shape and weight for his age (14 weeks, last weigh in a few days ago at 28lbs) Previous posts said that maybe the three cups split between two servings is better, why is that?

You can feed low sodium can green beans, or better yet frozen green beans, check salt but shouldn't be as significant vs can. You can feed raw, I just have issues on feeding raw vegies, since dogs gain little to no nutritional value when eating raw vegies. The fibrous outer shell of vegies can not be broken down for proper absorption, however if watching calories, then yes feeding raw goes in the same way it goes out.

As far as feeding 3 cups split over 2 meals is really for older puppies and adults, if one wants to feed their adult dogs twice a day. Young puppies under 6 -8 months old really benefit more from eating more often. Under 4 months four times a day, 4-8 months three times, and over 8 months 1-2 times a day. I found stools to be harder feeding more often, instead of feeding the same amount but less meals.

Ryan, most younger puppies eat 3 meals a day. Older pups are generally dropped down to 2 meals a day and often adults fed one main meal a day. That's where the split feeding recommendation is coming from for the OP's older pup.

As for veggie prep. I feed carrots raw, no prep needed. Although I feed baby carrots simply because that's what I normally buy for us humans but you can feed regular carrots just the same. For green beans I use the canned no salt added variety but you can use raw green beans or the frozen version thawed out. I just typically have more canned green beans on hand so that's why I use that most often...not because one is better than another, plus I don't have to thaw frozen beans.