Hello everyone and Sibs!

My name is Chris from south Florida and I am a proud daddy of a this little girl below. Her name is Akira, she 9 weeks and is the sweetest! She is my first Husky (and dog), so I have A LOT to learn. I read a few books on Huskies before I picked her, but the funny thing is, I didn't expect to have one so soon. I was planning on adopting sometime in the summer, but a random visit to the pet store led me to my beloved Akira.

Other than Akira being so cute, the reason why I adopted her because she looks exactly like my late kitty, fluffy. Sadly, she passed away at the age of 16. It was really hard on me because I grew up with her all my life. What's also interesting about Akira, is that she has the SAME birthday as fluffy. Call me crazy, but I think is definitely a sign!

Anyway, now that she is settled into her new home, she has some quirks we're gonna have to work out.
- She doesn't like dry food at all, I tried mixing wet/dry food together, but she will just lick the wet food off the dry pebbles.
- She also has some type of irritation and constantly scratches and nibbles at her skin. I brought this up at first vet visit, and the doc said it is too early to tell what it could be. My assumption is she may have an allergic reaction to something.

I hope to chat it up with you all and can't wait to start researching!

Hello and welcome to the forum! YAY another south floridian.....there are a few of us on here.

Congrats on your new addition, she is beautiful. Her eyes are amazing.

what kind of food are you feeding her, what was she being fed before?

There are some people on here who have awesome feeding tips and will probably be a lot more helpful than me. Welcome and congrats!

I have to agree with Dee on this one!

Dee&Frankie wrote:

There are some people on here who have awesome feeding tips and will probably be a lot more helpful than me. Welcome and congrats!

I would guess the skin irritation and itching is a sign of an allergy. Maybe food... Maybe enviromental...
So I'll just add my own questions to the really smart people on the forum. Have you ever heard of a dog being so insightful that he knows he's allergic to some food (like Akira and her dry food) and just won't eat it? I remember a pediatrician telling me that often toddlers who will not drink cow's milk are making that choice because they know it makes their mouth itchy. Just thinking aloud...

Welcome, Chris!!

Welcome to you and Akira! She's very beautiful

It could be a number of things, and because she's a pet store puppy, it's even harder to tell as the likelihood that she came from a puppy mill with no concerns over proper breeding is very high. So I'd say start with the obvious... what food are you feeding her? Huskies are notoriously picky eaters. They also tend to have very efficient digestive systems and often food that is over-processed won't appeal to them.

Lisa- Although I have no idea for sure, I would think that babies and dogs would have that same instinct/intuition. It wouldn't surprise me one bit, but I honestly have no clue! I'd be interested to find out though

Yay another Floridian! Whereabouts in s. Fl? We're in Davie and there's actually a Husky meetup this saturday!

Welcome Chris and congrats on your new puppy!

You've got some great advice already so I will try not to repeat. As for picking out the wet and leaving the dry food, that is quite common and it's something that I would nip in the bud as soon as possible. Catering to her pickiness will lead to a picky dog and in the end, picky dogs are created, not born! If she's picking through her food then stop mixing it and feed what you want her to eat, wet or dry, take your pick. When she's eating normally like you want her to you can start incorporating the mix slowly making sure she is not favoring one over the other. Or if you want to feed both maybe feed the dry in one meal and the wet in another.

SabakaMom wrote:

Have you ever heard of a dog being so insightful that he knows he's allergic to some food (like Akira and her dry food) and just won't eat it?

Yes! My sibe, Dakota, is like this! He knows he has an intolerance to rice from experience so he refuses to eat it even when offered rice. Very smart dog when he wants to be.

Wooohooo another South Floridian!!!! I'm in Miami also so I'm a bit further away from Kristina and Dee who are both more up North =(

Congrats! She's adorable!!!

Thanks everyone!

I live in the Palm Beach area. I would love to join the husky meet, but my weekend is already planned . Akira and I would love to meet up with you guys!

She is currently on Natural's Choice. Few people (including the Vet) said it's not a good brand of food. The Vet gave me Science Diet, but Akira won't eat that either. I called the Vet today and she said what Vel mentioned, to just put out the dry food and she will eventually eat it. I guess my concern giving her young age, that her health would be jeopardized if she skipped a few meals.

I went to Petco today and talked to a lady whose dog had the same irritation. She switched to Merrich food and the irratation stopped. I decided to get a small bag of Merrich along with some canned food and will transition to the new food. Hope that will get rid of it. (figures crossed)

Check out www.dogfoodanalysis.com for suggestions for food.

You'll learn quickly here that the majority of vets don't know what they're talking about when they advise on nutrition. Animal nutrition is not a required course in veterinary school and most don't know a thing about it. Science Diet is crap.

Merrick is a good brand, but in my humble opinion, there are better brands. However, see how she likes it. If she does well on it, no sense fixing what isn't broken, you know? If she doesn't, I would start to look at grain-free foods and anything rated 4* and above on the website above.

Koda wrote:

Check out www.dogfoodanalysis.com for suggestions for food.

.

Thanks for the suggestion, the website is very hopeful. Well, Akira is eating the Merrich! It takes her a little while to eat it, but atleast she is eating the dry food. Now hopefully her itchyness will go away.