Hi Everyone,

We have two 18 month old husky siblings (boy and girl). Up until the 9 month mark, the girl was eating Zignature kibble and loved it, then one day she stopped and wouldn't touch it and turned into a nightmare eater overnight. Since then, we have gone through half a dozen brands trying to find one that she's actually interested in eating - Orijen, Taste of the Wild, Fromm....ultimately settling for Blue Buffalo Wilderness.

We have literally tried all the additives and toppers on the market - canned wet foods by various brands, K9 boosters, sprinkling a little cheese or olive oil, mixing in cooked food from Fresh Pet, Pet Plate, Just Food for Dogs, Nature's Kitchen, Honest Kitchen...etc. She will show in interest in something at the beginning and then snub it a week later.

It's still a constant struggle and driving us crazy. She barely eats in the mornings, if at all and maybe a cup at night, if we're lucky. Sometimes she won't eat for a day or two. Fully checked out at the vet and is in perfect health and happy and pretty active. Getting her to be excited about food is nearly impossible, unless we boil a chicken breast, which is why now we're thinking of preparing a cooked ground beef recipe and adding it to her kibble.

Any thoughts or recommendations on recipes or feelings on the above would be greatly appreciated. She is approx. 45 pounds. It's also been quite warm here in Los Angeles, but they are inside most of the day with A/C.


Thanks!

Ok.. Stop with the worrying.  First, she's not growing at  same rate she was as a young pup and  doesn't need as much food.  Second, heat will  do in appetite.

If it were me, since s cup seems to be her preferred amount, I would put out 1/2 cup of kibble  20 minutes in the morning.  If she doesn't eat it, then  it away.  NO treats.  No toppers.  Then, at night, 1/2 cup kibble down for 20 minutes and remove.  Don't give in, no treats, no toppers.  See how it goes for a week.

For comparison, my 80 pound boy gets 1.5 cups a DAY plus 1/2 a cheese stick and a frozen beef bone  with a tiny  bit of meat and  fat.  My 52 pound male gets 1.25 cups plus half a cheese stick and a minties dental bone.

I have to second @amymeme dogs are predators, when they're hungry they'll eat anything edible and even sometimes things that will gross us out!

If she's eating a cup plus a bit every day then that's what she thinks she needs. Enticing her to eat more will result in either 1) an overweight dog 2) one on whom you spend the family budget trying to get her to eat what you think is right. She's telling you what is right for her - don't fight it!

Every dog is different. I have three, two who get two cups in the evening and one who gets 1/2 cup in the AM and a cup in the evening. You may find that one or the other of your two wants /needs more or less than the other - that's all too common.

I have to admit that one Amy made left me giggling: heat will definitely affect how much they eat, and since you don't mention whether she's been spayed, being in heat will also affect what she eats.

And one of my favourite lines "I have never seen a dogs starve themselves with a bowl of good dog food in front of them!" Sometimes a little "tough love" is in order to retain our sanity.

@amymeme @aljones, you said it perfectly!  We are doing our best to not keep adding toppers and pull her food away after 20 minutes (we still need to be more strict), but it seems to be the only thing that jumpstarts her appetite.  And now, the heat is just making it even harder.  She has been spayed.  But there's no consistency with her.  We just want to see her look forward to and enjoy eating something like she did as a puppy and we have yet to find it.  She's pretty skinny, so we just want to make sure we're keeping enough weight on her.  

Thanks so much for each of your input!

Heat...as in Los Angeles high temps.  Some dogs are just thinner  than others, just as in people.  And  from about 6 months to 18 months, these guys are like many 14 yr old boys who are skin and bones, almost like skeletons.  (All through high school,  youngest son had s BMI of 17  so.  Now, at 29, he's having to watch his weight and carries a  bit of a paunch

@Rubybear, I have two here who are undoubtedly underfed and unloved because I don't feed them enough, just ask them. (( usually, one of them is not well at the moment ))

The third, I've fed her separately from her bigger brother and it doesn't help. I've given her a couple of cans of dog food and that doesn't help. She just doesn't seem interested in eating much. I get a "Well, I will when I'm hungry!" the problem with that is that her older brother will probably have engulfed her meal as well as his!

Dogs are really funny people!!!

Even when Ami was down and out, refusing food, if Z'ev showed interest in his bowl, he was right there hovering over it..."I not be hungry but NOBODY is eating MY dinner!"

Picky eaters are so tough! I know because my boy Max went through the same thing. He's middle-aged now, but for the first few years of his life he barely ate, only grazing his kibble. We actually have a similar experience - I also tried Pet Plate, Just Food for Dogs, and Ollie and nothing worked. About a year ago I discovered The Farmer's Dog, which also makes fresh food for dogs. The food must be different or better quality because Max loooves it. I'm so happy that he's finally eating! It can definitely be a little pricey for bigger dogs, but after years of Max not eating it's worth it to see my boy happy. Its also really cute that they put his name on all the packs

This is super helpful! Thank you, @amymeme and @pawsitivelyhusky

Many thanks. I made them super lean ground beef recipe last night and it was gone in 30 seconds. 1.5cups! I'm happy with 1x a day for now.

I'm so glad to see this thread! My 5 year old husky has decided to snub his kibble. He's been getting slower and slower with eating, picking at it halfheartedly until he stopped wanting to eat it altogether. I got him a different type and he ate it the first night and then started to snub that as well. If I give him something special (a touch of peanut butter, the dinner leftovers that got dropped and covered in fur that I couldn't eat anymore) he happily ate that up, but still snubbing his kibble.

It's been an unusually hot and miserable summer, and while the temperatures are finally starting to cool down, I could see him being done with it all, the same as me, and that could very well effect his eating.

I'd been leaving the food down for him, but from this point on I'll pick it up after 20 minutes or so, and I'll stop worrying quite so much on him skipping a meal or two.

My pup, now 5 months old, is a binge and starve eater. She is on a raw diet and wants 5 lbs one day, then nothing the next two days. I offer food twice a day but, she wants to gobble up 5 lbs all at once then, refuses it for 2 days. She is a wolfdog so, she's just eating like a wolf, she's healthy and growing properly, she just doesn't see a reason to eat daily when she can hold enough for 2 days at a time.

My adults will do that too, if I can feed a whole deer (during hunting season) They eat all of a deer in 1.5 days then won't eat for 2-3 days after. Normal, natural, wild behavior.

Even if I were feeding kibble, I wouldn't fret if a northern breed preferred the gorge and starve eating pattern as long as they did well that way.

Well, it's been a full day and a half, Jasparr seems to be over his hunger strike and back to eating his regular meals.

Hi rubybear

Echo is over a 1.5years now and I will tell you he's become less and less interested in his food lately. I've cut his raw food down to just 1lb a day when he used to get over 1.5lbs, and even then he's still dragging his feet to eat. As many members have mentioned it's been soooo hot this year, and he's not as active and I think that's made him require less energy and therefore food.

My rule of thumb is food goes down and if it's not eaten in 10 mins no more again until his next meal. I have a zero tolerance of catering to his picky needs. No toppers, no treats throughout the day, no human food until he eats again. What I have done is change up when I feed him though. I find after coming home from the park or a long walk, he gets super hungry and he'll eat his food again. So instead of breakfast/dinner now I feed him more like lunch and late night snack.

I'm pretty sure come winter things will go back to normal.

My advice is don't cater to your dog. It's ok if they don't eat for a couple of meals. If he's been eating something fine before, don't over worry and start putting in food toppers, or sprinkle treats or change his food up. As long as they have water they're fine. I would refrain from filling them up throughout the day with treats and scraps of food too until they're back to eating. This is how they start learning bad habits and expect their food to come sprinkled with liver treats etc...

Good luck!

Glad I found this thread...my 1.5 yo 60lb male ate 1.5 cups 3X/day as soon as I put it down and then just stopped. He loved his TOTW at first then became disinterested. He now eats 2 cups at night but I do add some peanut butter to get him going.

I was going to ask about different brand to try but now I think I will stick with TOTW.

Siberian Huskies can and are picky eaters. I think all of us went through this with our dog at some point or another. Keep in mind that huskies have a completely different metabolism and will eat when they are hungry and will not starve themselves. They are breed to withstand some harsh environments when food is scarce. Sasha my Siberian when I got her would never eat out of a dish as a pup and I had to feed her on the ground, but of course she was abandoned at 10 weeks, so I had no idea what she went through. Eventually I got her to eat out of the bowl. Keep in mind as a general rule that this breed is a working breed. And the more you exercise them the more they will eat.

I feed Sasha Nutri-source Super Performance simply because it's made in the USA and contains over 30% protein and 21% fats. A dog her size gets about 1.5 cups of dry food. If she eats fine if not no big deal. If you are concern about getting your dog to eat this is what I do?

I like to boil up boneless skinless chicken breasts.

I add a couple handfuls of kibble to her bowl. I warm up / microwave about 3-4 oz of the chicken with a couple tablespoons of organic chicken broth (Costco sells it) sometimes I'll add maybe a small amount of steamed rice. About a fork full. I mix it in with her kibble and she polishes it off.

After she is done I set down another bowl of kibble for her so if she is still hungry she can eat that. I also started adding NuPro Joint and Immunity to her food, but not a full scoop. Maybe 1/4 scoop, because we walk a lot and I think this is a good way to help her from getting sore if she even does. It's all goodness.

The thing to remember is if you give your dog anything other than her kibble do it separately so she knows it's something special. If you don't she'll expect you to doctor up her food all the time.

Sometimes tough love hurts, but have to do it. Remember your dog won't starve herself.