Hi everyone, I'm new to the forums. I've been following it for a few weeks now and I really liked what I saw and all the information you guys know. Anyway, I just picked up my first Sibe, Loki, a few weeks ago at 8 weeks and he is now currently just a little over 10 weeks old and the breeder had him on Purina Puppy food. Now, because of you guys I was researching food and decided to switch him to Blue Buffalo Wilderness Puppy. I know there is already a forum currently on this, but I thought maybe I have a specific situation. I took Loki to the vet for his second round of puppy shots the other day and the vet recommended he be put on BB Large Breed Puppy food because they said he was very large for his age (17.4 pounds at 10 weeks 2 days). Again I already did search the forums for this topic and found something similar, but I was just wondering because the vet said he was very large for a Siberian. If anyone could please point a new member in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it!

Vets seem to think sibes are always large for some reason. I think he sounds about the right weight, Yuki was about 12 pounds then. I wouldn't put him on the large breed food, since sibes aren't a large breed.

Thank you! I just wasn't sure who to listen to because I do realize they aren't a large breed dog, but he seems like he's going to be on the bigger side.

All puppies grow differently; a vet cannot say they is one precise "size" any breed should be at a certain age. Sheba is 14 months and is 30 pounds; while other females her age are 50 pounds or more. Your puppy's weight sounds just fine. As long as he isn't fat, I wouldn't worry.

Like Megan said, Siberians are NOT large breed dogs and should not be fed as such. I don't think "large breed" food should exist anyway; more often then not, the puppy formulas cause pups to grow faster then normal. You're doing just fine .

90% of the time, DON'T listen to a Western vets advice on anything nutrition related. The only vet I would ever listen to is my holistic vet, because she actually knows what she is talking about. In Vet school, the only nutrition training they get is from Hills Science Diet; which as we all know is one of the worst foods out on the market. Anyway; no. Don't listen to your vet .

Again thank you for the reply. I'll stick with the regular puppy food and yeah Loki isn't fat at all I'm actually wondering if I should be feeding him more! But he's pretty much just big boned and very muscular.

glad to hear your puppy is growing, and good for you on reading everything on this forum. everyone is right you DO NOT have a large breed dog so what your feeding is fine what i have learned from vets is they know a lot of stuff but only know so much on all that stuff, it takes owners like us here asking questions to get down to what is good info and what is bad. google is a good friend on seeing what is being researched and talked about in the dog world.

Yes, this forum is very very informative for me and it's great to read all the posts that are just about everything you need to know about owning a Sibe.

He doesn't sound particularly large for his age. As has been said, stick with the regular, large breed is unnecessary. Unless a vet is recommending raw then I don't generally listen to anything the vet says about nutrition or feeding.

Okay thanks! And do any of you feed BB?

Maxhockey wrote:

Okay thanks! And do any of you feed BB?

I used to but quite honestly the food did not agree with my pups stomachs. Yuki is allergic to chicken, and all of their foods either have chicken or grain in them, so no BB for me. If it works for your pup that's fine

I do not feed BB. I tried it for awhile, but it did no good for either of my dogs at the time. It's not one of my personal favs either, but that's neither here nor there.

The only difference between Large Breed and what you are feeding (aside from protein and grain) is Glucosamine and Chondroiton(sp?).

Don't be fooled by marketing schemes - the wilderness is much better for your dog when comparing ingredients.

I used to do BB but koda had a hard time with it si i switched also.. Honestly any food you try is going to be better than purina. I would start with a small bag a BB and switch him slowly before you buy a big bag to see how he goes

I am not currently feeding BB, but I do add it to my rotation every now and then. I only feed Wilderness when I do use it and although I did get a bad batch years ago, in recent years I haven't had any issues with it.

Alright sweet thanks guys. Loki seems to be doing fine on it, he really downs it once I put it in his dish. But I've noticed he has some gas. I wonder if its just from the treats tho.

What treats are you feeding?? I noticed mine were very gassy on BB as well. They also had almost brittle coats.

Mine had nice coats with no gas on BB - lots of gas on Acana, which i think is a great food. Every dog will react differently, but I've noticed more protein = more gas. We call those the protein farts.

I honestly wouldn't go off what the vet considers to be large. Our vet thought our red girl was going to be a huge dog weighing at over 60 lbs full grown, but here she is right around 40ish lbs. Granted she is still a pup and has very little growing left to do, but I was expecting her to be a beast from what our vet described.

Everyone has already given good advise, so I don't really have anything else to add

When I feed him treats it's either Beggin' Strips or BBW Salmon Biscuits. The gas is probably being caused by the strips, I heard they aren't healthy at all but he loves them. Also, the vet said he will be in the 70 pound range so hopefully he stays in breed standard and stays around 50-60 range.

Yes, Beggin Strips are awful for them. Please think about feeding something all natural and healthy . I am a BIG NO Purina person, and I can get a little pushy; so I'll stop right there.

I agree with Kelsey on that one, just the fact that it was commercialized so much made me not want to feed it lol. My dogs never really got treats as I never knew what was good for them and what wasn't so I just used their food as training treats.

Edit - you could try and make your own dehydrated chicken or something along those lines. Safer and healthier!

Haha, what treats do you recommend?

Maxhockey wrote:

Haha, what treats do you recommend?

I said above but I used my food as their training treats so thats one thing you can look into, as well as making your own dehydrated chicken jerky or something along those lines, there's tons of recipes of treats you can bake at home and you know the ingredients you're putting into it that way, I also freeze all-natural peanut butter in the freezer in a bone tray thing and give it to the pups frozen as treats. Yuki's so sensitive to treats I never knew whats bad for her and what shes going to react to so I've found making it yourself is a lot easier when you know what you're putting in.

Check this thread out

https://www.itsahuskything.com/t9435-best-treats-bully-sticks?highlight=bully+sticks

I am a BIG all natural, healthy, USA made food/treat pusher.