whitehusky3 wrote:

Lucy, my personal philosophy is it doesn't matter much what brand you're feeding your dogs as long as they are doing well on it. It doesn't help much to spend $50 on a bag of high quality dog food if your dog hates it and refuses to eat or is allergic to it. I have heard of dogs who refused to eat anything but Alpo or Pedigree despite the owner trying to get them on food like Solid Gold or Blue Buffalo. Not ideal, but at least the dogs were fed.

I get that. Believe me, if I could get my family to switch, I would. Not that I think there's a whole lot wrong with the brands we've always used... it's one of those things where if it were in my control, I'd do things differently. She did really like the nutro and I got two huge bags of it free (I worked at a pet store for over a year while applying to vet school), but I don't know that I could convince my family to buy that on a regular basis. That being said, my parents have raised multiple dogs on these foods and they've all lived long, healthy lives.

Unfortunately not everyone is as nice as you are about these things. Thank you for being reasonable. I've been chewed out before and accused of abusing Kiba because I don't constantly badger my family to change her food. Somebody asked me how I slept at night :p

Interestingly, there were a number of brands represented at a vet conference I went to this past weekend, and not just the brands everyone accuses vets of peddling (they were present, but they weren't the only ones). Nature's logic was one, Dr. Gary's was another... primal pet foods (got two coupons for free starter packs of their commercial raw diet... gonna donate those to an auction for a shiba inu rescue)... blue was there advertising their new line of prescription diets. Lots of these brands gave out free samples, which I'll be bringing home to my girl this weekend Royal canin gave out giant tote bags (but so did everyone else) and I won a small stuffed dog from the blue people. Purina was giving out books, but I got there too late :C

My personal experience has been similar to yours. People get into this groupthink mindset and parrot what others are telling them. "Drinking the Kool-Aid," so to speak. They don't take the time to realize that every dog is an individual and high quality kibble may not work for one here and there. I try to be more understanding. If it's a situation where a person is feeding low quality because they don't know much about dog food other than what they read on the packaging, I'll try to offer them more information about what to look for and gently encourage them to try something higher quality. But if it's a situation where the person already knows all this but they can't buy the high quality kibble for some reason (whether the health or tastes of the dog or for financial reasons), that's different. I leave those people alone. They already know and don't need to be harped on about it. I think it's counterproductive to be rude and say nasty things because they aren't doing what someone else thinks they should be doing. It's their dog, after all. People need to just provide information and then back off and let the person make their own decision.

One of the things I take pride in on this forum is our openness and friendliness about our different choices. I have witnessed the degradation of other members who don't do as the majority does on other forums and I have left. I refuse to be a part of such petty behavior and am happy that we are free of that here at IAHT. I hope any and everyone here can feel free to use/feed/share whatever they feel comfortable using/feeding/sharing.

Huskyluv wrote:

One of the things I take pride in on this forum is our openness and friendliness about our different choices. I have witnessed the degradation of other members who don't do as the majority does on other forums and I have left. I refuse to be a part of such petty behavior and am happy that we are free of that here at IAHT. I hope any and everyone here can feel free to use/feed/share whatever they feel comfortable using/feeding/sharing.

You have a good heart Val

Huskyluv wrote:

One of the things I take pride in on this forum is our openness and friendliness about our different choices. I have witnessed the degradation of other members who don't do as the majority does on other forums and I have left. I refuse to be a part of such petty behavior and am happy that we are free of that here at IAHT. I hope any and everyone here can feel free to use/feed/share whatever they feel comfortable using/feeding/sharing.

This is what I love about this forum. Everyone is very knowledgeable, but they're not pushy about it. They provide the information that's needed and leave the owner to make their decision. It creates a wonderful environment to be a part of.

I have also been on forums where people were downright nasty because someone didn't do something with their dogs the "right way." I once posted a question on a forum about some symptoms one of our old dogs had. I was concerned and needed peace of mind. Before I could even check my thread for responses, I had gone to the vet with her and discovered she had Lyme Disease. Afterward, I went to the thread to update everyone, and when I read the responses people had made, it was like poison. They were so unhelpful and venomous. They yelled at me for asking medical questions on a forum and not taking my dog to the emergency vet. I'd been looking for peace of mind, not a diagnosis! I told them what happened and then said I would not be back to their forum, and I never returned.

I just wanted to say thank you for all who post here.  We have a four month old husky and this site has been most helpful.  He had Giardia When we brought him home from the pet store and loose stools for a month after we cleared him of the Giardia.  I switched his puppy food from the Sam's club puppy food (Simply Right brand) and tried the Taste of the Wild puppy food.  It's small kernels are easy for him to eat and digest.  He likes it just fine and he has PERFECT stools now that he's switched over completely!  I am so pleased.  He eats 3-4 cups per day and I find it at our local tractor supply store as well.  I recommend it if you have a puppy with loose stools.  Our pet store owner kept telling me he had loose stools due to high stress levels in huskies but he just got back from being neutered and in the kennel for 3 days while we were out of town and his stools are still perfect!  

I just ordered a bag of Taste of the Wild since i heard good things about it. Just didnt know if we could get it in the Netherlands and Yuka doesn't really like what he has now which the breeder used, his stool is a bit wonky .. one time it looks fine and the next time it will be mushy, the puppy food is called smolke. So i googled Taste of the Wild and guess what ? One of the few places that sells it here is only a 15 minute drive away. Still ordered it though because it doesn't cost anything extra XD

Ordered Pacific Stream Puppy, i hope he will like it

My six currently eat Orijen during our working season and Acana/Nature's Logic on the off season. When we go on road trips to events I switch Ame to dehydrated raw bars/patties, mainly Primal Raw, for the convenience and it helps keep her hydrated.

I feed Echo Orijen Large Breed Puppy. He's 5.5 months old now and gets 2.42 cups a day. He weighs 24.4lbs & loves his food so much he inhales it, no chewing at all......He's a bit small for his age...so I'm trying to up the feeding a bit, but his poops just get loose so he just wants to stay small. I'll try again gradually this week...

For treats we do freeze dried liver. I just go to Costco and get a huge bag of it. He shares with all his friends at the dog park.

Old topic hope it's still going, I currently have Rachel Ray's dog food but I'm thinking about switching to Blue Buffalo. Has anyone had experience with it?

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Blue Buffalo is a bit of a sour note for many of us. They've been in lawsuits for lying about their ingredients and have had a few recalls. The consensus for many of us is that you aren't getting what you are paying for with them. A few far better and honest foods out there for the same money or less are Taste of the Wild, 4Health, Pure Balance, Diamond Naturals and Victors are all dog foods that are as good of quality (better in some cases) in my opinion for the same money and often less. Huskies tend to do better on grain-free.

Thank you, I'll look into those other brands. I'm glad I found this forum

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RAW...RAW...RAW...RAW...RAW...

=P

So taste of the wild has tested positive for heavy metals and so has blue buffalo but my dogs wont eat either brand anyway. I have seriously tried every grain free high protein diet they have at tractor supply and the onlything they sell that mine will eat and is high protein is the merrick backcountry raw. That said during rabbit season they also get whole rabbits and spider seems to have developed a taste for magpies and crows

Lol the crow diet seems legit. I'm thinking of going with Victor dog food. Anyone have luck with this kibble recently?

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FWIW- We feed Nature's Domain from Costco. Switch up flavors now and then. Currently have Salmon.

So this morning I learned just how dedicated Nick is. He got into some pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread) that grandma brought for the other (human) kids.
He ate about 4 breads. I didn't feed him in the morning and we took our walk as normal.
My question is if he gets into something should I do what I did and skip his first of two meals?

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I get the impression that this thread is a discussion about particular brands of dog food, but since the most of you guys seem to be in the USA, I'm not going to talk about what brand we use. Instead I'll talk about what type of dog food we feed Yuki and hope that's ok.

When we first got Yuki, she was happy enough with kibble, although we did have to change brands several times, but after a while she seemed to tire of it and we got tinned food to mix with the kibble. After a while of that, she got fussy again and we just gave her the tinned food on its own, which she ate. I wanted her to have kibble as well and discovered somehow - I forget how - that she preferred to eat the kibble out of a separate bowl to the tinned food!

Does anyone else's husky behave like that?

Gillian

Spider takes all the kibble out of the bowl piece by piece eats the freeze dried raw pieces out of the bowl then eats the kibble off the floor. When i dont want kibble on the carpet i mix it into hamburger meat and give them doggy meatballs seems to work for my 4

Mannuel wrote:

So this morning I learned just how dedicated Nick is. He got into some pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread) that grandma brought for the other (human) kids.
He ate about 4 breads. I didn't feed him in the morning and we took our walk as normal.
My question is if he gets into something should I do what I did and skip his first of two meals?

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Just play it by ear. And be careful. I've heard horror stories about dogs who ate themselves sick (or worse). When Max got into the food container, I didn't feed him for 24 hours. Of course, we were also battling diarrhea due to him gorging.

Mannuel wrote:

Lol the crow diet seems legit. I'm thinking of going with Victor dog food. Anyone have luck with this kibble recently?

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Victors is a good food. We have a couple members who have had good results on it.

Has anyone tried timberwolf and also i know people are really into feeding huskies raw but what about whole animals (goats are cheap at the auction) currently ive been looking into raising rabbits for dog food and also looking at roosters since i can get them free (still alive) i ahve no intent on letting the dogs kill said animal before they eat it but curious on opinions. All three of my vets are against raw feeding because of not being nutritionally complete but whole animal is different then shopping in the meat section

Mannuel wrote:

Lol the crow diet seems legit. I'm thinking of going with Victor dog food. Anyone have luck with this kibble recently?

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I switched to Victor Hi Pro Plus about 4 months ago - I was in a jam, my Chewy shipment of TOTW High Prairie was delivered during a heat wave and, I think, because I ordered just before the weekend and arrived on a Monday, I'm guessing it was maybe sitting on a loading dock somewhere - Ami wouldn't eat it right away and the other two started to shun it also (my guys normally eat until I stop them!) My local garden store stocks the Victor and, turned out to be cheaper: 40 pound bag instead of 30# and the calorie content is almost 100 more per cup so I feed less. Since the garden store is between me and my preferred grocery store, its no biggie for me to pick up a bag every 6-8 weeks (depending how much Archer is visiting )

I've been happy with the victor - the dogs love it, the place I buy from has high turnover so its usually a very fresh bag. Oh - and the sell it for about 40/bag (don't know how long that will last, owner says distributor wants them to price it higher.)

If you are feeding whole prey then it will be complete IF your dog will eat whole prey and not just pick out the good stuff and leave the necessary stuff. I feed a portion raw but not whole prey. I feed based on the 80/10/5/5 rule and have had no issues. With raw you have to make sure they get their organs and that they get a variety of different proteins to insure dispersal of vitamin content. Not a lot of vets will be for it because they automatically assume that people won't do it right, and a lot of the time they would be right. Raw is a lot of work and not done correctly can do a monumental amount of harm to a dogs health in a fairly short period of time. That said, with proper research and time dedication raw can make for a very healthy and fulfilled dog.

@amymeme thanks I think I'll give it a shot seems to be good. I'll update with what I learn.

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