hey everyone
My name is Drew and i just recently adopted a beautiful red and white 3 year old named Akino. for a little background on him and a little on myself. my family and i have own 3 dogs, first a golden retriever name Maggie, who passed away a few years back, and now we have a beautiful black lab, Libby, and a stray we found in Gatlinburg, appropriately named Gatlin, who looks half husky, half german shepherd, have of everything other dog known to man.
well since ive been out of my house and in school on my own, i decided i wanted to get myself the husky ive always wanted. well i followed a few breeders and waited for them to have a red and white husky, but none of them seemed to meet my standards, so i kept waiting, until one day when i thought i would take a look at the lexington humane society for giggles. well the very first dog on their list was this beautiful red/white husky. i had to have him. since they were closed i couldnt go get him, so the next day, im waiting at their door for them to open. he ended up being at a Petsmart through the humane society, so i traveled across town, got him out and just fell in love. i dont know much about him, but he is very well behaved. they told me he was a stray, not neutered and he had been there for 4 weeks with no one interested in adopting him nor anyone claiming him. well i went through the whole procedure and less than 24 hours after deciding i was getting him, he was on my way back to my house with me. i have found out in the few weeks ive had him, he is crate trained, house trained, but cant sit. he goes everywhere with me, including work. since i work at a shirt company and we have a nice big shop, he just lays around.
i have noticed though, one of his back legs is shorter than the other, and sometimes after he wakes up and starts walking around or standing he will hold the leg up. it happens very rarely but has happened once or twice. has anyone else seen this before?
also everyone keeps telling me is very underweight. even the animal control who found him when he got away. the only problem is, its him not eating. i always have his food out for him whenever he wants and he just doesnt eat. i do take him for multiple walks and at least one run a day.
if anyone has advice for me please let me know.



akino libby and gatlin


thanks
Drew and Akino

OH MY GOD THAT FACE!!!!
i want to squeeze him! what a handsome boy! from your pictures he does not look over weight?... what is his weight? have you neutered him, i know that is required from most shelters. how did they come about guessing his age? have you taken him to a vet for a check up and have you asked about the leg? i don't have much to offer on the leg but he could have hurt it while out on the run. what are you feeding him, he might just not like the food. huskies are a "lean" breed and a lot of people tend to think they are under weight but really they are not.

congrats on new husky ownership, have a look around our great site and have some questions answered

Welcome, and kudos to you for adopting!
Akino is very handsome!

I once met a husky at the dog park where one of his hind legs was shorter. Didn't seem to bother him much. At first I thought he hurt his leg, because it appears to be he was limping. But when we met up with his owners, they said one of his lind legs was shorter, so he skips. \

Have you taken him to the vet to see if he has any discomfort with that leg?

As far as not eating, that is to be expected for the first few days. But if you've had him for a few weeks now, I would expect he would be eating some by now. Have you tried different foods? What are you feeding him?

he is 43lbs. so i know he isnt over weight, i believe i said underweight. he is neutered, they did it when they got him. and im not really sure how they went about his age. it doesnt seem to bother him, he does have a tiny bit of a skip.
the shelter said he wouldnt eat what they were trying to give him so the switched over to purina pro plan. which is what i got. when i took him to my house for a visit, my mom feeds her dogs exceed from sams club and he seemed to like that a lot. so she gave me a bag of it, but ive been finishing off this purina first which is now gone.
i havent been able to take him to a vet yet, bc of some money, but i will be taking him in the next week or so.

there is a good chance he is younger then 3yrs, huskies do not start to fill out till they are 3yrs and i know my boy was in the 40's from a yr till about 2.5 and he then hit the 50's and has been holding 56lbs for the last yr. we adopted both and have had them 2yrs now i don't know about the food from sam's but please check out our nutrition-and-feeding section and read the what are you feeding your husky page and its a good crash course on good brand foods to feed and the options of food you can feed
cant wait to see more pictures

Welcome to the forum! Take a look around to answer questions.

Don't mind Jenn, she's the typo queen (but we love her!). She meant underweight

And I agree... he doesn't look underweight to me at all, but I'd have to see a shot from above and a shot of his side. Can you see his ribs? You should be able to easily feel them but NOT see them. He should come in at the waist, but not be able to see the hip bones. Most people think huskies are under weight when they are really just a lean breed.

I would just take him to the vet as soon as possible. It's probably fine but those things should always be checked out. Hopefully he doesn't want to do X-rays if money is an issue though.

Congrats on Akino! He is seriously adorable.

you can feel his ribs, but i dont believe you can see them, he has a pattern on his hair that make it look like ribs.. here is a picture


thanks for all the comments! i appreciate it

Welcome Drew and kudos to you for adopting! All your dogs are gorgeous, what an adorable pack!

Looks like most of your questions have been answered so I will not repeat what has already been said. He does look fine from the pics you posted, although a few different angles of him in a standing position would paint a better picture. Although even that can be deceiving since their fur can hide it well when they are a little underweight. As Tori mentioned your best bet is to go by how he feels. You want to feel the ribs but not see them, you want to see a tapered waist (which he has from that top down photo you posted) and you also want to see a tuck at the abdomen when viewed from the side.

How tall is Akino? 43 lbs is normal for smaller adult male sibes and if he's actually a little younger than 3 he might still fill in a bit. Our adopted male sibe (22 inches tall at the withers) was 44 lbs when he was two and he had filled in to 55 lbs by the time he was 3 yrs old.

This is a lean breed that is known for self regulating food intake. Some (not all) sibes eat only what they need and it's not uncommon for them to skip meals every now and then. It sounds like you are free feeding which can make it difficult to monitor how much he is eating and when. Do you have an idea of how much he is actually eating on a daily basis? Are his stools formed and firm? Sam's Club's Exceed food is pretty low quality so it's not something I would recommend but if you are on a budget and it's what works for you and Akino then that's your choice.

Not sure if I missed it somewhere but how long have you had Akino?

he looks fine and im gonna err on the younger side, he looks puppyish...

I just wanted to chime in to say how incredibly handsome he is! Can't wait to see more pics!

He's adorable! Look at that face!!!

Comparing him to my 2 he looks just fine as far as weight. My 9month old male is at 44lbs and everybody seems to think that he's on the skinny side. I get that comment a lot. You used to be able to see his ribs until about 2 months ago, but he's filled out just a little. My 5yr old female is at 62lbs after dropping 10lbs. She was a chunky monkey

When I would leave her food out all day she wouldn't eat and just guard it, but now that they have scheduled feeding times she eats it right away. Huskies are picky eaters so maybe he just doesn't like his food?

I used to feed Blue Buffalo Wilderness and she loved it! It's not too expensive. I believe it was about $16 for a 5lb bag.

Welcome and once again he's ADORABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome! Kudos for adopting and giving him a loving home. He is beautiful. I can see how easy it would be to fall in love with him.
There is a lot of great info and resources on this site. Hope you find it helpful.

Congrats on your new addition.

He may look a tad bit thin, but that could also be due to the condition of his coat. If anywhere, he looks thin on his back end (hip area) this is where Cheyenne is so skinny too. She'll be 3 in Sept. and for the LIFE of me, I cannot get that girl above 45lbs. She seriously eats only what she needs and if she isn't exercised for that day she will regulate herself and leave bit of food behind. I would try controlled feeding times, it's much easier to see how much they're eating and it give's you an advantage in the "getting them to eat" category.

What a lovely find at the shelter, truly meant to be! And I would also take a guess at 3 years or younger, very puppy like features!

arooroomom wrote:

What a lovely find at the shelter, truly meant to be! And I would also take a guess at 3 years or younger, very puppy like features!

Very much agreed.

i watch when i fill it up, i just leave the bowl out and when it gets empty i put more in it. it has ranged from 1 to 3 bowls but no more. i only went with the sams club brand bc he was eating it, and i was just wanting him to start eating it.

i appreciate all the comments, i look forward to learning a lot more about huskies.
thanks for all the help guys

1-3 bowls being how much??? That sounds like he's eating a lot to me!

Koda (my 60 lb male) gets 2 CUPS of high quality food a day and Hailey (my 45 lb female) gets 1.5 cups!

If your concerns about eating remain, however... I would also suggest scheduling his feedings and purchasing a higher quality food.

hurley9 wrote:

i watch when i fill it up, i just leave the bowl out and when it gets empty i put more in it. it has ranged from 1 to 3 bowls but no more.

How big is your bowl?

If your bowl is a big bowl that holds 2 or 3 cups of food and you fill it up between 1 to 3 times a day, does that mean you're feeding anywhere between 2 to 8 cups of food a day?

If your bowl only holds 1 cup of food, then you're feeding up to 3 cups of food a day?

My female at 58 lbs only gets fed 1.5 cups of food a day....

Sibes were built to go long distances on small amounts of food....feeding guidelines on dog food bags are usually way too much for the average Sibe unless you're working them hard....just my 2 cents...

it holds about a cup and a half if that, they are relatively small bowls.. three times is the most ive done it and that happened once or twice. its mostly 2 bowls, which i would say is roughly 3 cups.

THANK YOU FOR RESCUING!!!! Akino is one seriously handsome dude! He looks fine in the picture as far as his weight goes but as has been said the hair can hide what we can't see. I would get your pack on a feeding schedule if you can. When I rescued Ranger he was 37 pounds at 10 months old. He's now 2 and around 50-60 pounds, it fluctuates depending on the season, he's lighter in the winter when we're more active and heavier in the summer when it's so hot we all just lay around like sloths in the air conditioning!

Getting them on a schedule is relatively easy. Feed them when you get up and put something tasty in their food, like canned tripe, and they will gobble it down.I had some issues getting Ranger to eat several months back and he could not resist the canned tripe. Feed again at around 6pm. They will get to the point where they know what time of day it is, LOL!

You can't go wrong with a good premium food. Yes it's more expensive outright, but they eat less of it. Ranger eats 1.5 cups of Taste of The Wild twice a day. My malamutes, who range from 85-100 pounds only eat between 1.5 and 1.75 cups twice a day.

This is Ranger when we brought him home.


He's not as fluffy as Akino, so you can see that all his points, hips, shoulders were protruding alot. He was so skinny when I picked him up that I kept my hand on him on the drive home, so afraid he was going to die before I even had the chance to get some food in him!

Ranger today


He's a tad heavier in the second picture than I like him to be.

Right now we're battling to get our 14 year old husky mix to eat. For the last week or so she's been eating less and less. I just got back from the holistic pet store with some tripe. Prior to going and getting the tripe I couldn't even get her to eat a cup of canned soft food of any flavor. I just mixed up about a cup of her kibble, water to soften the kibble, a package of moist and meaty(generic brand, no ethoxyquin, still absolute garbage but at this point...) and about 3/4 cup of the tripe....she ate every bit and then licked the pan clean! I have no idea why they like this stuff so much, it's so grosssss!