So Kyra is my first pup. After lots of research I knew I wanted her on Acana food. When I went to the pet store before I got her they didn't have any large breed puppy food but the lady said acana is so similar in ingredients that we would be ok to feed her the regular Pacifica and it wasn't much different to the puppy ingredients.. Needless to say I took her word. So for weeks Kyra had only been getting 1 cup of food per day (even though tho it said 3/4 cup for her weight) and always still seemed hungry, she was also never filling out and I can see every bone in her body she's so skinny to this day.

I took her to the vet the other day and she was concerned to because you can honestly see her ribs and hip bones. she said that she needs to get on puppy food as she is missing nutrients and still hungry probably.... I'm SOOO mad.. The puppy food is double the amount to be given then the Pacifica!! The kibble is bigger aswell. Could this actually be the sole reason why she isn't filling out at all?

Since she's been so underfed is there anything else I can do or give her to help her fill out finally? Right now she's getting 1 1/2 cup a day but she's at approx 19lbs. The bag says to go up to 2 1/2 cups once she hits 22lbs.. Should I just start her on the next feeding level now?

This is a good example why I don't trust pet store employees. I was at PetCo trying to find TOTW, which I decided on after it was recommended by quite a few people on the forum, when the lady tried to get me on 'Purina Pro Plan' saying her husky pup was doing 'pretty good on it' and only has 'runs every couple days'. Needless to say I didn't listen and found TOTW, which Yuki does great on. ANYWAY the point is I would consult your vet about these type of things. If you even started to see the ribs, increase the food, and I personally would take a stool sample to the vet to rule out any parasites. Each pup's food intake is different, and definitely don't follow the guidelines on the food bag either xD

And Yuki gets fed 2 cups a day at 6 months and shes perfect. She has been for a couple months now. I'd stay on 1.5 cups a day, especially if you're switching to the puppy food (which I hope helps)

Don't be too harsh on yourself!! As a general rule, I don't pay much attention to the feeding guidelines on bags. Usually they have you overfeeding anyways. If she's still acting hungry, offer her more food. If she doesn't seem hungry at all and isn't overeating, then you could probably still keep giving her that same amount. If she's a food hound and eats until she gets fat, then you'll have to restrict her some, but huskies are generally self regulating and she'll only eat what she needs.

If you're giving her 1 1/2 cups a day now, how is she acting? If she's acting hungry or asking for more food, go ahead and give her more. If she's acting fine, or you offer food and she doesn't eat it, then stay with the same amount.

Did the vet run a fecal on her? You might want to make sure that she doesn't have any worms or anything (if that hasn't already been done.)

edit after Megan's post - A lot of times its hit or miss with pet store people AND vets, nutrition-wise. Its rare, but you can find a pet store person who knows their stuff. Vets usually know crap about nutrition and just push Purina and Hills. I can't tell you the number of times that my boss has made me recommend Purina to clients at work, and I've gotten in trouble several times for trying to tell people about different foods that might be better (especially if the dog is having recurring issues that could be fixed if it ate better food). Its hard to find good input on dog food! lol

Were you feeding according to the adult reccomendation? It sort of sounds like it? When you feed all life stages, puppies should need more. Anyways, mistakes happen, and hopefully she'll put on some more weight And don't beat yourself up You're fixing the problem!
Like everyone said above, I'd check for parasites and give the girl more food if she's acting hungry.

Personally, I'd be giving a minimum of 2 c. at that age. These are prime growing months. Acana is a great food and it doesn't matter if it's puppy food, it matters if its the right amount of calories. The ALS foods are perfectly fine for puppies. I always fed Cato according to the weight I expected him to be as an adult. With Pacifica, if you expect your pup to weigh 44lbs, you feed 2 1/3 c.

Mature weight is different then growing weight.

Does that help?

You know what's really good food for her, and also my opinion? Give her boiled chicken breast with white rice and boiled carrots.

The reason I am telling you this is because a few months back my Polar was having stomach problems she was throwing up and having bad diarrhea everywhere and it was because it was the kibble she was eating. For some reason I tried many brands of kibble and they were making her sick and bloated and cause her the bad diarrhea.

It's funny because my mom recommended to me that I should give her boil chicken breast for her along with carrots and also white rice. Mix it all together and give it to her and after doing that for a couple a day she got better and stopped being sick. I guess it was all my moms long years of being a dog owner lol and also that food is a great and healthy way for your dog to gain weight.

Michael made a great suggestion, but you don't have to use rice. I'm assuming you want to stick to grain free, since you went with Acana?

I feed raw, but if you want any pointers let me know. I don't like to pressure people into feeding it, but I think it's a good choice.

Thanks everyone!
When we went to the vet she got her last set of shots and a fecal and it came back negative

When I started seeing her ribs that's when I did start feeding more and when she went to the vet a few weeks ago the vet said she is growing so fast and could be a factor why she's still skinny and didn't recommend anything to do. But our last vet visit is when the vet finally said ok, let's look into this is little because she's still really skinny.

I'm perfectly fine with the kibble for now until she's older. Then I do plan to look into feeding raw but want to make sure I know what I'm doing first haha.

I'm clueliss on feeding puppys but I can tell you that even feed normal for any age under 2 a husky will always look "skinny" unless they are way over fed. You don't want to SEE ribs and hips but you do want to feel them. Most huskies don't fill out till after 2yrs of age. Hope you can get your girl back to a healthy weight. As adults ours gets 2 cups of food a day of nature domain.

If she is still a pup, you want to also make sure the calcium:phosphorus ratios aren't too high. Typically, for a husky pup, we would like to see Ca:P ratios closer to 1.2:1. Higher ratios would be considered for adults.

I don't know the ramifications, or long term effects of higher Ca:P ratios fed to puppies - I haven't gotten that far in researching.

The bag of food that I use says that for his weight I need to feed him 1 cup of food 3x a day, but he NEVER finishes it. So now I offer him 1/2 cup of food 3x a day, and sometimes he eats it all, and other times he leaves a few tablespoons left.

Ya right now I'm feeding her 1/2 cup 3 times a day and she demolishes right through it. We just got a bowl to help slow down her eating. We also give her treats throughout the day. When we give her beef sticks the minute she makes it a little soft she will swallow 3/4 of it whole and she never chews her food even if given to her piece by piece she just inhales it all.

my pup wasnt very interested in her food when we first got her which led her to be small too. Not the same problem but a suggestion my vet gave might help y'all too. She said in addition to her regular food we could use a kong with treats and/or peanut butter to give her some extra calories and also to help with crate training. two for one! Also she gave me a feeding chart to follow that says age and how many cups per age per size of the dog. Its not the exact same chart but i found a similar one (link below) of course im sure its all different for raw.

http://www.purina.ca/images/mypuppy/img_nut_how_PC.gif

omaha715 wrote:

You know what's really good food for her, and also my opinion? Give her boiled chicken breast with white rice and boiled carrots.

The reason I am telling you this is because a few months back my Polar was having stomach problems she was throwing up and having bad diarrhea everywhere and it was because it was the kibble she was eating. For some reason I tried many brands of kibble and they were making her sick and bloated and cause her the bad diarrhea.

It's funny because my mom recommended to me that I should give her boil chicken breast for her along with carrots and also white rice. Mix it all together and give it to her and after doing that for a couple a day she got better and stopped being sick. I guess it was all my moms long years of being a dog owner lol and also that food is a great and healthy way for your dog to gain weight.

It's funny because my dog has no interest in kibble. We've tried different kinds and she'd eat it because there was no other option, but we literally had to coerce her into eating it by hand feeding her the first few bites - even then, she was not enthused about it and approached the bowl skeptically. We also tried putting her on a raw diet (chicken backs - my parents' dog does very well on this diet) and she had absolutely no interest in it. The next day we fed her some lentils because we had some plain ones cooked up, and she gobbled them up like it was the best thing since sliced bread. She had the same reaction to being fed scrambled eggs, and plain cooked oatmeal. She loves rice, lentils, vegetables, etc. which is weird but we'll go with it since she seems to love it... The only thing is, I have no idea how much of it I should be feeding her. We're doing roughly 1 1/2 cups morning and night. She seems to be doing fine but if anyone has had any experience with this kind of diet, please let me know!

Balon is 11 months old and I was just told to increase his food from 1 1/4 cup twice daily to 1 1/2 cup twice daily. He eats BB Wildnerness Salmon. The vet said he looks good until you get to his shoulders and then he's a bit thin lol. He is still young and filling out so I didn't worry but I did increase the food.

huskynewbie wrote:

It's funny because my dog has no interest in kibble. We've tried different kinds and she'd eat it because there was no other option, but we literally had to coerce her into eating it by hand feeding her the first few bites - even then, she was not enthused about it and approached the bowl skeptically. We also tried putting her on a raw diet (chicken backs - my parents' dog does very well on this diet) and she had absolutely no interest in it. The next day we fed her some lentils because we had some plain ones cooked up, and she gobbled them up like it was the best thing since sliced bread. She had the same reaction to being fed scrambled eggs, and plain cooked oatmeal. She loves rice, lentils, vegetables, etc. which is weird but we'll go with it since she seems to love it... The only thing is, I have no idea how much of it I should be feeding her. We're doing roughly 1 1/2 cups morning and night. She seems to be doing fine but if anyone has had any experience with this kind of diet, please let me know!

Are you putting your dog on a homecooked diet? If so, I follow the feeding amount for raw diets as a starting point and adjust as necessary. Also, if you are doing a homecooked diet, have you researched it to ensure your dog is getting all that it needs and isn't lacking key things? I am all for homecooked diets but they must be done correctly. The same way things can go terribly wrong by not feeding raw correctly, it can go wrong by not doing homecooked correctly also. You may want to start a separate thread on this so it doesn't take away from this current thread.

I have increased Kyras food intake again. I started giving her 1 cup 3x a day. For a couple days she had diarrhea but its starting to get better now, and she's slowly starting to pack on some thickness. Still can see some bones but not as much as before. Still notice her hips more then anything