In the interest of not getting too far off topic and avoiding hogging the "What Are You Feeding Your Husky" thread, I have decided to start a new topic in hopes of tracking Brewer's progress and getting feedback from fellow husky owners...

Background - Brewer is a 2-3yr old male husky rescue. For approximately three months we have struggled to find a diet that Brewer consistently ate and his tummy agreed with. Below are the different kibble options that we have fed Brewer...

1) Nutri Source - Chicken & Rice Blend - 1.5 cups 2x per day with varied interest and softer stool. We discontinued due to amount grain / fillers.

2) Natures Domain - Salmon & Sweet Potato Blend - 1 cup 2x per day + Wellness Core - Ocean Blend - .25 cup 2x per day with a bit more consistent interest but still not eating every meal and probably a bit softer stool than straight up Nutri Source

3) Natures Domain - Salmon & Sweet Potato Blend - 1 Cup 2x per day + Innova Evo - Salmon & Hearing Blend - .25 Cup 2x per day with consumption and stool being pretty similar to #2

4) Natures Domain - Turkey & Sweet Potato Blend - 1 cup 2x per day + Innova Evo - Salmon & Hearing Blend - .25 Cup 2x per day with decreased consumption and similar stool to #3

In addition to the kibble combos, we were providing brewer with a number different treats as well. Needless to say, one of the pieces of advice we received on the initial post was to limit to one kibble and one treat for a period of time. By taking this approach, we are hoping to identify what ingredient(s) doesn't sit well with Brewer's system.

Update I:

-Nature's Domain Turkey & Sweet Potato 1 Cup 2x Per Day
-Herbsmith Smiling Dog - Dry Roasted Beef Liver 1-2 small pieces Max Per Day
-Limited Peanut Butter and Yogurt

Brewer started his new scaled back diet on 01/27/2012 and I will comment through 02/05/2012. Aside from the first morning (1/27) and the last morning (2/5), he consumed every meal with a level of excitement that we have never witnessed before (18 of 20 meals consumed). As for his tummy, it took a couple days to see any changes in his MBs, but on the third day we started to see firmer results. Overall energy levels appeared to increase a bit and he just seemed to be a happier dog in general. another positive side effect from his newly found appetite, was that he put on some much needed weight (up from 50lbs to 51.5lbs).

Of course, this adventure was going to include a few bumps in the road! We decided to get out of the house and enjoy Super Bowl Sunday...5hrs later we had a severely mangled metal crate and a not so happy furball!!! As you might have guessed, separation anxiety is just one more hurdle we are trying to tackle with Brewer.

Sorry for the long initial post. I will plan to keep the subsequent updates to much more manageable length...

As always, thank you for taking the time to read and any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Regards

I'm happy to hear that overall you're seeing positive results. I hope that only continues for you and I'm eager to hear your future updates.

Well, after a good 6-7 weeks of experiementing with Brewer's diet, I can confidently say that we have made some progress. He is eating his food much more consistently, has plenty of energy on his runs, and the stool has firmed up quite a bit.

Brewer's tummy seems to be doing best on kibble offerrings having a 35 / 20 / 35 dry matter nutrient content ratio (Nature's Domain, TOTW, Fromm, etc...). Not entirely sure if this really has to do with the content ratio, or more to do with the actual ingredient list???

Current Menu: 2 cups of Fromm's Game Bird recipe, 3-4 Evo Wild Cravings treats, and limited peanut butter and yogurt.

Next up: Looking to start supplementing the kibble diet with a freeze dried / dehydrated food. This would help reduce the kibble intake and increase the quality and quantity of valuable nutrients. I'd be happy to hear any advice on how to best introduce "raw" foods to a sibe who has been on a 100% kibble diet for ~3yrs. I've looked at Nature's Variety, Stella and Chewy's, and ZiwiPeak...any others worth mentioning?

Thanks

MicroBrewer wrote:

Next up: Looking to start supplementing the kibble diet with a freeze dried / dehydrated food. This would help reduce the kibble intake and increase the quality and quantity of valuable nutrients. I'd be happy to hear any advice on how to best introduce "raw" foods to a sibe who has been on a 100% kibble diet for ~3yrs. I've looked at Nature's Variety, Stella and Chewy's, and ZiwiPeak...any others worth mentioning?

Dehydrated and freeze dried raw foods are a nice stepping stone into the world of raw, that's what I did.

MicroBrewer wrote:

I've looked at Nature's Variety, Stella and Chewy's, and ZiwiPeak...any others worth mentioning?

Those are great but they are the more expensive foods in the dehydrated/freeze-dried class. Some other cheaper, but still quite good, options off the top of my head also include Grandma Lucy's, The Honest Kitchen, and Addiction.