Hi,
I am a brand new dog owner with a 9 week old husky puppy. Thor is doing great in the two weeks we have had him, but I have been told by many that we need to vary his diet. Can you all give me suggestions as to what that means, how often we should switch, and what is best for him? Right now he is on American Natural Premium Exhibitor's Choice. I also give him little salmon jerky treats from Tricky Trainers. Thor also seems very hungry all the time, but I'm feeding him 1/2 C three times a day. Two weeks ago he was 13 pounds, but he has grown since then.
Thank you for your help.

I don't feed my dog kibble, but when I used to, I used www.dogfoodadvisor.com

Check it out - I think the recommendations that get 4 or 5 stars would be the best.

i'm sure others who feed their furbabies kibble will chime in about the other questions.

The dog food advisor gives ANP 4 stars, which is good.
If you don't feed your husky kibble, what do you feed him? and why?
I'm still learning a lot, and would love any experiences or advice given.
Thanks,
Jessica

A Cup and a half seems low for a puppy.

in terms of what food. You can always check

Dog food advisor

Dog food Analysis

For ideas as what is considered a quality food, and why.


You can also check into what our members like to feed Here, note however that the most recent information would be at the back of the thread.


And we have a section on Raw Feeding if you want to go that route.

Quote :

but I have been told by many that we need to vary his diet. Can you all give me suggestions as to what that means, how often we should switch, and what is best for him?

I think they mean to vary the protein (Poultry, Fish, Meat, Ect) as it just helps to stay interested in food and makes it less boring.. Switching the brand itself often isn't recommended as you could potentially be dealing with digestive issues. We switch when ever a bag is empty, but we waited until both our dogs were solid and doing well on a brand before switching proteins.

Best of luck
~Chris~

JessicaK wrote:

The dog food advisor gives ANP 4 stars, which is good.
If you don't feed your husky kibble, what do you feed him? and why?
I'm still learning a lot, and would love any experiences or advice given.
Thanks,
Jessica

I have Stark on a raw diet. Like Chris said, there's a section here devoted to rawfeeding and that's where I got the idea from. It may seem overwhelming, but I found a good palette for Stark pretty quickly. That's not to say raw is for everybody, but my pup didn't do well on (any kind of) kibble, so I decided to try out the raw diet, and it works for him.

I have mine on Taste of the Wild, High Prairie formula. As others have suggested I would check out the sites they listed if you are interested in switching, but the brand you have seems pretty good, and if he is doing well on it then I wouldn’t necessarily feel the need to switch if I were you. I would not recommend changing foods often either as others have stated because it will affect their digestive system. I have learned that huskies have very sensitive stomachs!

1 ½ cups per day does seem kind of low, I have always fed mine 2 cups per day. And at his age you are right to feed him 3 times per day. They can go down to twice per day around 6 months of age, although I still feed Yukon 4 times a day and he is 8 months old, so it all depends on the dog. Yukon’s stomach is especially sensitive and he pukes if he goes too long without eating.

As a raw feeder I would suggest Raw. This is my own (written by me) raw guide.
Raw feeding guide

But I realise that raw isn't easy for everyone. So I would suggest:

Taste of the Wild
Acana
Orijen
Millies Wolf heart
Eden

Of course The issue there is that I'm an ocean away and you may not be able to readily source these where you are.

The rule of thumb with dog food is to avoid those with high grain content. The way to do this is to see where the grains are listed - if they are first or within the first 5 ingredients then I would avoid it completely. I have to avoid food with grains in completely because I have a dog with possible grain allergies/intolerances so things like beet pulp has to be avoided too. So we have TOTW in the cupboard for him.

Hi, I got my girl when she was 9 weeks and is now 14 weeks..She was on Nutro Max puppy when she came home but her stools weren't great and it is fairly low rated so I decided to change it to Blue Buffalo Wilderness puppy which has 5 stars. There is a thread on the forum talking all about Blue Buffalo if you want ot check it out but I highly recommend it. Her stools are now firmed and I even changed my cat after 9 years to it and her coat has never been so smooth and shiny in her life! I feed her 1/2 cup 3x a day as well, however..if she is still hungry after a feeding she will stare me down and I will offer her up to another 1/2 cup. My vet recommends 3x a day up to 3 cups total while these guys are pups.

We feed Fromm Gold to the dogs as none of our animals did well on Taste of the Wild, any flavor. (three cats and Nunya at the time) It's a little pricey at $42 for a 33 pound bag, but the dogs like it.

Tika wrote:

A Cup and a half seems low for a puppy.

Agreed.

Tika wrote:

Quote :

but I have been told by many that we need to vary his diet. Can you all give me suggestions as to what that means, how often we should switch, and what is best for him?

I think they mean to vary the protein (Poultry, Fish, Meat, Ect) as it just helps to stay interested in food and makes it less boring.. Switching the brand itself often isn't recommended as you could potentially be dealing with digestive issues.

I highly recommend a rotational diet and it's benefits extend beyond keeping mealtimes interesting, although that is also a perk. Rotational diets also help fill in nutritional gaps and help keep your dog from developing allergies and food sensitivities.

Think about it, if you ate the same thing your entire life along with a multivitamin your body would become more sensitive to any changes in your diet and you wouldn't be as healthy. Let's face it, no food is perfect so variety helps keep everything in balance.

When it comes to what to rotate between, I consider it just as important to rotate between different brands as it is to rotate between proteins within the same brand. I say this because often times when rotating between different proteins within a brand, the ingredients besides the protein often stay the same and I think it's just as important to vary the other ingredients as the meat source. In simpler terms, do you eat the same food food everyday except only change the meat source from time to time? No, you also vary your fruits, veggies, grains, and carbs. We thrive on a varied diet as do our dogs. Please note, I am not suggesting that dogs need fruits, veggies and grains, that was just an example to explain how variety beyond just meat source matters.

Every dog is different and thus how sensitive they are to change will vary. With that said, how often is best to change their food is entirely dependant on the dog. Some dogs can handle daily change, some weekly, some monthly, and others who are very sensitive may only be able to handle 1 or 2 changes a year. There is no right or wrong answer. I like to change things up frequently if I can. I feed a variety of foods including raw, kibble, freeze dried and dehydrated raw, homecooked, and wet. Every week I work in a variety of different things so. Each time I buy new food I like to buy something different whether it's a different brand or same brand but different protein source.

Ultimately what is best is whatever works best for both you (financially, time wise, and availability) and your dog (sensitivity, palatability, performance, health).

Wow. Thanks for all the great advice. I am looking into a raw diet, but am concerned that I will not want to do the work it takes. I may be interested in adding some raw to his diet of kibble, that way I'm not tied to it for all of Thor's needs.
The food Thor is on seems fine, and he's growing like a weed, and his stools are fine (a little pumpkin after the move worked wonders), so I will look into everyone's suggestions while we finish this bag. I am interested in trying to vary his diet as often as he will tolerate, and I guess I'll just have to try to see what happens.
I think I will also increase his food as you all seem to think he not be getting enough food at 1 1/2C a day. I am unsure if his system is sensitive, as we haven't tried anything new yet.
Thanks for all the input.
Jessica

I recommend Orijen or Acana if you are going the kibble route. I fed my pup 2.5 cups a day until she was 7months then lowered it to 2 cups a day.

We've had Roxy on EVO for a few years and she loves it. We mix a bag of the Salmon/Herring formula with a bag of weight management formula.

I tried swapping her to Taste of the Wild last year, but she didn't seem to care for it so we've stuck with the EVO. She's never shown any aversion to eating or seemed disinterested in her food, her stools are great so we've stuck with that.

I am glad I stopped here to read. I also have a 9 week old Husky pup and was getting ready to ask the very same things. I am feeding him 1 and 1/2 cups a day as well and felt it was borderline not enough food. ..1/2 cup 3 times a day. The package says 1.5 to 2 a day. I am currently feeding him Kirkland Brand puppy food. It gets really good reviews and he seems to like it but he has some bad gas, not sure if it is the food or not. We would like to switch it to the Kirkland brand grainfree one...I forget the name. Just reading up on Fromm though and that sounds like a great choice and a 33lb bag is not much more then the large bag of the Kirkland grainfree one. I would love to do RAW but like you I am afraid I would not follow through on it.

We feed two of our Huskies raw and our newest puppy (18 weeks) is on kibble as of now and we give her Nutri Source grain-free bison. We've had great success with it and she's gained weight like crazy. They have a lot of flavors to choose from as well.

Trailtoad1 wrote:

I am glad I stopped here to read. I also have a 9 week old Husky pup and was getting ready to ask the very same things. I am feeding him 1 and 1/2 cups a day as well and felt it was borderline not enough food. ..1/2 cup 3 times a day. The package says 1.5 to 2 a day. I am currently feeding him Kirkland Brand puppy food. It gets really good reviews and he seems to like it but he has some bad gas, not sure if it is the food or not. We would like to switch it to the Kirkland brand grainfree one...I forget the name. Just reading up on Fromm though and that sounds like a great choice and a 33lb bag is not much more then the large bag of the Kirkland grainfree one. I would love to do RAW but like you I am afraid I would not follow through on it.

I was comparing the formula to BB puppy and afew others - and it appears that the Kirkland is lower in kcal/cup. If feed to mature weight, I would feed 2.5 a day. At 452 kcal/c. blue suggest 1 3/4 to 2 1/2 - With the Kirkland being about 357 kcal/cup I would increase the suggestion.

Did that make sense?

Make total sense. I was looking through the posts and found someone posted a formula to figure out how much to feed him. I weighed him too, he is more then I thought, anyway the formula show he should be getting about 2.5 cups.

Where do you get raw food from. Do you make it or buy it

You can buy pre-minced things of raw from a supplier online or a local pet store that has it but that typically is much more expensive than feeding raw on your own. Many people here on the site get their raw for less than .99cents a lb, just by shopping at costco/sams club, buying in bulk and getting things on sale. Also shopping at ethnic markets or a butcher for things that people don't typically buy may get you a pretty good price.

Liz what kind of raw stuff do you buy. I have a Costco card I have no clue what to buy. Can you do both raw and Kibbles or should it be one or the other. I appreciate your feed back

you can do pretty much anything that is raw meat. Chicken is a good start. and btw chicken bones that have been frozen will not splinter and are a good treat in summer months.

I currently don't feed raw on a regular basis. I every once and awhile I'll pick up two whole chickens from costco. If you wanna start feeding raw I would definitely check out the raw feeding threads on the forum, and also join the raw feeding facebook group. They have a lot of guides on what and how to do everything, but they are strictly all about raw meat there, so they wouldn't recommend any type of kibble. I know some people feed kibble a couple days a week and then raw on a particular day. The biggest thing with a raw diet is you want to make sure it's balanced. Typically if you feed a whole prey model (like a whole chicken etc.), it has the correct portion of bone:organ:meat ratio.

I feed raw I switched her over from day one (she liked it better than the kibble) I looked into it for months and was felt overwhelmed, honestly I was over thinking it and it is easy as long as you keep the ratios right. I spend a few hours a day bagging/weighing and freezing (it last a few months) all I have to do is pull out a bag the night before to feed the next day. I have a holistic vet that agrees with my raw feeding but suggested since she's a puppy to add a supplement to make sure shes getting enough calcium so she get nupro sprinkled on her food.

I'm also confused. I was feeding my puppy Blue Buffalo but he had loose stool, now my boyfriend bought Solid gold wolf cub to see if that will help but his stool is watery now. Its been two days we changed his food but I'm concern. I just want to make sure I'm feeding him correctly. In the future we will to feed him raw food but not sure what age we should start.

ischamooshabad wrote:

I'm also confused. I was feeding my puppy Blue Buffalo but he had loose stool, now my boyfriend bought Solid gold wolf cub to see if that will help but his stool is watery now. Its been two days we changed his food but I'm concern. I just want to make sure I'm feeding him correctly. In the future we will to feed him raw food but not sure what age we should start.

Are you making the switch slowly? If you make the transition immediately from old to new food his stomach will get upset. And if you are going to switch to raw, I would do it now. Plenty of puppies go to raw right after weaning off their moms milk. Check out some threads and ask some advice on what to start with, you'll probably want to do chicken but not sure on which part of said chicken to start with for a smaller puppy.