10 replies to this topic

[Sashababy]

Hello everyone. just joined up so please forgive me if I make some mistakes before finding my feet on here. I will get a profile picture when it decides to let me upload one. dont know where i have gone wrong on that one! I am a first time Husky owner and up to now its going good but any advice will be most welcome.

[Awesome Bikerbabe]

Hiya welcome to the forum. Don't worry about making mistakes, i have been here nearly a year and i still make them lol.
What sort of advice are you looking for and congratulations on becoming a new owner to a wonderful and amazing breed.
Bev

[Steve]

Welcome to the forum Theresa, look forward to hearing more about you and your family member.
I wouldn't worry about the profile picture for now, could be due to the major upgrade that is taking place. We'll help you with that later if need be.
Chat soon,
Steve

[Sashababy]

Thanks Steve and Bev.
Sasha is now 10 months old and an absolute character in every way but we are finding it difficult to settle on a diet that suits her stomach. We graduallly introduce a new food and stick with it for at least a month to see if she goes ok with it but she has never had a solid bowel movement since stopping her puppy food that she was on when we got her.(dry pedigree puppy food!) I have considered a raw diet for her but like most people are on a bit of a budget and can't afford to splash out too much. I would like to give her some raw and some commercial food but not sure if this is advisable and what ratio I should try this. The internet is a minefield of useless confusing info on this so I am hoping you can shed some light on it all for me. I am also worried that a raw diet will increase her prey drive. Any suggestions on this would be most helpful.
Thanks guys. x

[Amon]

Welcome Theresa

[Awesome Bikerbabe]

A raw diet will not increase her prey drive at all.
A huskies prey drive is there, it is bred into them (i don't know how they do that ) but it is simply there, you can't put it in and you can't take it out lol.
Feeding a mix of commercial and raw is not always best because mixing raw and ki**le can cause the food to ferment as it stays in the stomach longer than it needs to, however i am not an expert on that one but i am sure that is what it does.
Feeding one husky shouldn't be seriously costly.
Paul and Ivan and a few others on here use supermarkets to source their raw food, so they might be able to give you a better idea how much it costs to do it like that.
We have a chicken factory here in my village so it works out cheaper for the main part of their food which is the chicken.
A local butcher should be able to get you beef hearts, ox liver and pigs feet pretty cheap (if you have a large freezer doing it in bulk works out cheaper).
I get my red meat from Asda in bulk and i also get my Mackerel from Asda at night time as they often have that on offer. that's about all i know about supermarket buying. Occasionally they have pork and lamb on offer but not very often.
Do you have a game keeper in your area as rabbit is good but it is very low in fat so don't feed it too often, leave the skin, head and legs intact and just remove the stomach. They must be frozen for a week first though, i remove the stomach while the rabbit is still frozen too that way you don't get knocked out by the smell.
Hope that helps a little.
bev

[Benno_Bro]

Welcome to the forum

[Chris_Heilong]

Welcome to the forum, what Bev has said about mixing food is actuate, you may not even notice your dog beginning to have cramps(sometimes followed by farts) but it really does them no good to mix Raw and ki**le.

[Sashababy]

Thanks, I may have to have a rethink about the raw diet as we have tested the waters yesterday with venison ribs and she hasn't looked twice at them. I may just have to find a tinned commercial food that has a much higher meat content than what she is currently on. I looked at the tin today which advertises 'easily digestable' and was disgusted to find it has no meat in it apart from chicken at a measly 6% and 14% is fish. It has a high content of rice and grain/wheat in it which as far as I am concerned shouldn't be in a carnivorous animals diet at all (feel free to correct me if I am wrong on this).She also gets dry mixer in with this. This is all a bit new to me and I am shocked at how much of a delicate art it is to find something that suits her. At the moment she gets 6-7 miles walking a day, mostly off lead with her 'exploring the woods' so we may just be feeding her a bit to much for her activity level. Any advice on how much she should be fed for her age (10 months) would be very much appriciated. Sorry for all the questions and begging for advice but I know people on here want the best for animals instead of making money off it like most pet food stores do and so will give me honest advice.

[Steve]

OK Theresa Venison ribs might not be the best thing to be starting off on and you don't mention how much meat was on them.
As this is your introductory post it would be better answered in the 'Raw Feeding' Advice section.
Please read 'Twelve Commandments of Raw Feeding', the info in there should be enough to get you started but if you're still stuck then we can advise further.
I'd personally start her on Chicken and see how she likes that. Get a chicken and quarter it and give her a quarter and see how that goes. Don't feed her her usual food that day and stick that stuff where she can't see it or smell it if possible. Leave the chicken quarter down for 15 minutes tops and if she hasn't touched it remove it, stick it back in the fridge and give it to her for her next meal. If she doesn't eat it again take it away, stick it back in the fridge and give it to her again for her next meal the next day [assuming you feed twice a day]. She will eat when she's hungry.
Please read the Raw Feeding posts, you'll be amazed how much info is actually there. If you're unsure about anything stick a reply on whatever thread that's baffling you and we'll get back to you.
We're all here to help you but you must do some reading. Your dog will thank you for it in the end.
Let us know how you get on in the Raw Feeding Section [start a new post] and we'll go from there.
~Steve

[Sashababy]

Thanks so much for all your help. Will try what you suggest.
Thanks again.