Siberian Husky Diets

[Blistering Wind]

To those that have owned Siberian Huskies........what on earth can you feed them to KEEP weight on? My dog is a full Husky, Male Intact. But getting weight on him is like pulling teeth. Currently he gets Purina Kibbles and Chunks...only kind he'll even EAT...with Old Roy Canned Food mixed with an egg. I leave out hard food for him to MUNCH on in between his mix. He gets this TWICE a day, and STILL doesn't gain weight. You can feel his ribs and his hip bones. He is now 4 yrs old. There is no female anywhere nearby, and I don't want to breed him until he gets some weight on him, which has been an ongoing fight since he was 6 months old. We did have a female who lived with him, and after she left, we thought that would solve the issue.

Had him vet checked, and nothing is wrong with him physically. Went ahead and dosed him for worms just to make sure.

Any ideas of what else I can do to get him to bulk up?

He is a house dog 90% of the time, so I figured he should be fat and a rolly polly as much as he gets fed. My shephard that I had in the past fattened up on less.

He refuses to touch science diet or any other kind of hard food, mixed with ANYTHING. So changing to Iams or Science Diet or anything else is out of the question. He will literally STARVE himself.

[lou3]

firstly Old Roy is not great stuff, a better quality canned food may help a little normally i would not recommend feeding canned food at all but if you have to feed it to keep the weight on then go for something with a little more protein and a little less filler.
Secondly, science diet - yuch - if you dont have a problem requiring one of their "specialties" like kidney failure dont touch the stuff - your dog has good taste!
Huskies are naturally lean dogs so it would be useful if you could elaborate on his BCS. A husky shouldnt have a fat covering like a healthy lab, if they do they are overweight. You SHOULD be able to feel his ribs, same concept as with horses you should be able to easily feel the ribs and maybe even see the outline of one or two if the dog is very fit (although maybe not through a husky coat).
If you would BCS him lower than a 4 (on a ten point scale) then you might need to think about feeding a higher-fat diet. Dogs digest animal fats very well and can also utilise a certain amount of carbohydrates. You may like to offer him a little pasta on top of his regular feed, and i know all my dogs love a little melted lard on their dinner (this may also help to encourage him to eat) avoid too much vegetable fat as this can cause stomach upsets and diarrhoea. (none of the corn oil we would give a horse )
You can get conditioning tablets for dogs, while these are primarily thought to help the coat they can also help with weight gain.
I feel your pain, i have such a hard time keeping weight on one of my pointers i have resorted to simply stuffing her full of as many treats as i can force down her throat. (the nice teeth-cleaning kind of course!)
Hope this helps
Lou

[Trace]

Does he eat all that you put down for him?


Is he an only dog?

[Blistering Wind]

He is an only dog....he shares the house with a cat and the yard with a horse. (separated...)

I'm not a fan of Ol Roy either. But it does contain higher fat contents, which is why I went ahead and feed the can version of it. He refuses to eat just plain dry food. So it is a sacrifice I have to do. I'm always telling clients not to feed canned, and here I am feeding my brat canned just to get him to eat!!

He does finish the canned/dry mix. It comes up to about 4 cups dry and 1 full can wet. Per feeding. It is a LOT. He is only 42 lbs. His body score is closer to the 4.0 side than the 4.5 side. This is the BEST he has ever been. And that is all by touch, as you can't see anything with his coat.

But to touch him, If I had a dog come in and felt like this, I'd be questioning the owner about feeding, etc. Something I always get from the clinic. He starves himself if we board him, so he ends up going on vacation with us since he won't eat the clinic food and for some reason, kennels and clinics in this area have a burr up their butts about feeding what THEY Want, not what the dog will actually EAT!!

THough lately, I've broken my number one rule, NO TABLE S*****! He eats them. From Chili to Pasta without any digestive upset. How I end up with these animals that can do that, I don't know. But he'll scarf down any table scrap I lay out for him. I'm at my wits end about getting just a tad more weight on him. But I HATE giving table s*****.

I definitly don't want to change the purina food, as I know it is good. Do you think he might benefit switching to Puppy?? Instead of Kibbles and Chunks? Don't know if he'll eat it though......

As for science Diet, I'm with ya'll. I haven't met a dog yet that likes it unless you mix it with AD or the maintenance canned.

[Dawn]

You could liken feeding old roy to feeding your horse all stock. It has does not have many availble calories. I would suggest getting something a bit more expensive and trying that, canned or dry. I would also suggest a fecal float to see how many worms he's picked up from the old roy.

[Blistering Wind]

No, he is completely worm free. I've NEVER heard of a dog getting worms from eating a specific kind of food. Where did you hear about that? He just had a float the other day.

[lou3]

puppy or at least junior might be worth a try, do they have a working dog mix you could try instead though? That would probably be the preferable option to a puppy food.
Lou

[Trace]

Originally Posted by Dawn

You could liken feeding old roy to feeding your horse all stock. It has does not have many availble calories. I would suggest getting something a bit more expensive and trying that, canned or dry. I would also suggest a fecal float to see how many worms he's picked up from the old roy.

Why would he pick up worms from Old Roy?

[Dawn]

I have known many dogs that have picked up worms (inside only dog dogs), the only link being old roy. There is always a fairly high possibility with canned foods anyway.

[Blistering Wind]

Dawn, even my vet looked at me funny when I mentioned that. He said that all dogs gotta go outside, and it only takes one nose in the right place and WHAM, they got worms, which many worm eggs, as you well know, can lay dorment in the yard for YEARS. So I doubt very seriously that worms were acquired from dog food.