Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a 4 month old male siberian husky puppy. im currently a petco employee so im pretty knowledged about dog food quality. the only problem is, im not so sure about what to feed my SH puppy. so far i've been feeding him the Nutro Oltra puppy food (we dont carry the large breed puppy formula for that brand).but lately i've been thinking about switching him to the large breed puppy solid gold dog food.

anyone have any recommendations as to whats good for him? i dont want any corn or by-products in the puppy food.

whoops, i meant im feeding him the Nutro Ultra puppy food

Ive been told by a few husky rescues, and breeders that Timberwolf Organics is possibly the best dogfood, and not too badly priced. Next I would say Innova Evo, or at least the same as the timberwolf organics, just a bit expensive. Another is Canidae all life stages (good price, great dogfood). The next would be "Chicken Soup for the puppy/dog lovers soul".
After seeing what is available at chain petstores for dog or catfood, I would never buy them. Even Nutro was recalled because they were using the same base product as the storebrands.
Usually you have to go to petfood specialty stores to get real good dog or catfood.
Personally I would never use dogfood on my dogs, but you have to make your own choice.

It was recently discovered that Timberwolf Organics have been essentally scamming the customers for a while. They decided to raise the price of TO and reduce the quality of the food, however they did not change the labels on the bag. They only changed the labels on their web site, so most people never even noticed until someone did a week or two ago.

Their food is pretty bad now.

The Siberian Husky Rescue of California is completely in love with Solid Gold Brand food. I feed Ollie Solid Gold Barking at the Moon and he's never been healthier. I will eventually try raw feeding, but I can't imagine feeding him anything else. His coat has never been shinier, softer, and fluffier. His #2 is perfect every time, no lack of energy.

I also feed my cats Solid Gold Katz-n-Flocken, and my cat which has been fighting Kidney Failure for 2 1/2 years now suddenly turned into a healthy cat. I've never seen her so white, with fur so soft and not dry, and active in 2 years until I changed her to it.

So I can't be more impressed with the brand, but it's my humble opinion.

His fur befoore:

His fur after:

I think it speaks for itself.

Not just Duke, and Koda, but also our raw fed tabby cat Scooby.
The one compliment beyond all others these 3 are given (aside from their nonstop energy, crystal white teeth, and their eyes) is that they have the most amazing coats, so soft, full thick, theres no comparison with any dogfood, confidence is the biggest step.
In these pictures you can count every piece of fur.

Frankly that looks pretty much exactly like Ollie (except his tail, which is still healing) and my kitten and cat do on Solid Gold. I'm by no means saying which one is better, that is best left to professionals.

But your dogs are beautiful, as always.

Really, I dont see any similarity in your pictures by the appearance of the coat. Like I said if you saw a raw fed dog of any breed and any dogfood fed dog of the same breed, theres no mistaking them.
I had a few people who deal with many many huskies from rescues, and they keep a few of their own, some of these people feed raw only, when I was at a fund raiser event this summer these people walked up in a field with hundreds of sibes around, everyone of them said the same thing, "that pretty boy must be raw fed, I could see that from way across the field among all of these other sibes. By the way I feed raw to, theres is my sibe".
You know I could see what they meant also, from across the field their sibe stood out, among the hundreds of others from almost 500ft away.
Seeing is believing.
Once you go raw, you could never subject you babies to dogfood ever again.

Well yeah, for one thing, his coat is black. It's not easy to take well defined pictures of black dogs and cats because cameras do not react as well to it.

Second issue is that my pictures are lower resolution than yours (intentionally, so detail is lost.)

Third issue is, his coat is not 100% recovered from what his old owners did. And I don't expect it to be for another year or so. But it's a good 95% by now.

But to humor us both and share some of my photography, I'll post a few more examples.

This is from a decent distance and a nearly full body shot, not up close. You can see his white and gray furs are well defined, even at this distance, and that his black turns textureless. That's photography for you, can't really be helped.

Up close like this it does show a bit more.

Even from this distance, his coat is shining and there is good texture and a uniform color. And this was taken before the pictures I posted, his coat is even better now.

Or how about this one? It's closer to the up close shots you gave, and despite the obvious fade from the whole black fur effect, it looks identical to the face shot you provided.

But seeing is believing, I can explain this all day long and yet, these are just photos, and Ollie is still recovering from his damage. I have no doubt in one year he will look like a completely different dog.

Again, it's not me saying that raw is worse or better. But I have been to the Siberian show in North Cal that occured about 5 months ago or so, and I've seen a few raw feeders, as well as a few other brand feeders. The raw feeders standing out from 500 yards? Not quite, but if you looked up close, you sure could tell the difference if you knew the dog is fed raw. But just looking around? Not so much of a difference.

I do smell bias

I posted it purely because its that obvious. I see a few raw fed dogs on a regular basis, these are from several breeds, all stand out like a neon flashing sign compared to dogfood fed dogs of the same breed. Its just that the dog (canis lupus familiaris) was designed by nature to eat raw meat and bones, raw organs, and partially digested raw prey item digestive system contents, that is why.
After getting the confidence to try it myself, and give it time to take its effect on the animals I couldnt agree more. SEEING REALLY IS BELIEVING, only doing is reality.
By the way your sibe is very pretty, a nice looking dog with an owner that cares greatly. Sometimes some people take it wrong when you discuss the raw diet with those who dont use it, and its huge benefits.
Dog owners many times get offended when, in their minds they believe they are being accused of not doing the absolute best for their dog. We can all do better in some ways in all things.
I try to get others to see the benefits, and hopefully more to try for themselves. Once you would try it and see how great it works you would be telling others of the benefits also. There really is that big of a difference in person.

Oh, no, I know. I don't get to talk dog much, and show pictures of Ollie even less so. So when opportunity presents itself, I like to make conversation. So I know you were not being critical.

I do what I can to feed Ollie currently, my only standing point was that I believe Solid Gold to be most likely the best all-around dog and cat food. None of the other diets ever gave the results Solid Gold gave me.

And as I mentioned earlier in the discussion, I am interested in switching to raw, however I am the type who needs to "know" what I'm feeding and doing. I'm not quite so good at just simply making a plunge. I am sure he will do just fine on it, but I can't give him a deer and let him decide which parts to eat to know he's getting a complete meal.

After I have done enough research, I will probably make the switch. Not for my older cat, though, because she is old and has been through enough already, Solid Gold is doing excellent for her and I can't risk her already fragile life by attempting a switch so late in the game, natural as it may be. She's already getting 100mL sub-Q's twice a day, which is quite uncomfortable as is.

Our 6 month old Kitten, which by the way you can see playing with my Husky a lot in my Youtube videos, I may do so however not quite yet. I've researched raw for dogs for 3 months now, I expect a similar amount of research to be done for the cats as well.

But anyway, long story short, I just wanted to talk and share pictures, not put either of us on the defensive or offensive. Most people locally are toy dog owners, none that work their dogs like I do (sledding, bikejoring, skijoring, etc) and are afraid of him, and everyone else is up north where the snow is. So I make what conversation I can

They get stuck in their ways. The best diet for cats is to start with a tiny kitten and teach them to eat whole animals, such as mice, chicken peeps, quail, etc. Raw is not too bad to switch to, but either way you need to not offer anything else until they start to eat, then give them time.
Dogs it is easy, they seem to dive in and eat as if they have been doing so their whole life.
What made me switch to raw with nothing else was finally reading through Dr Ian Billinghursts Give Your Dog a Bone. He makes it so simple, with huskies they eat so much less than what is typically fed to many similar sized breeds. I fed both raw and dry at one time, my only regret was to not go raw only right away with Duke. I did so with Koda, and would never go back.
Their diet is rounded out over 2 weeks or less. Being carnivores it is easy to give a complete diet, with huskies and a few other similar breeds 80% of the diet is meat and bones, about 10% is organ meat, then you can add the last 10% as some veggies and fruit (processed for a few minutes in a processor to break them down like a prey animals digestive system would). I also add green beef tripe (they go nuts over it) to their diet.
Add a touch of salmon oil, apple cider vinegar, glucosamine complex, brewers yeast, vitamin C, and plain yogurt in small amounts as supplements over 2 weeks time.

I think by-products are fine. We are talking DOG FOOD! A dog would eat all of a prey animal, so by-products should be no problem. In fact, they probably contain protein, fat, vitamins, fiber, minerals ... all the good things dogs need.

I really don't think you can go wrong with any quality pet food. I'd try to avoid Ethoxyquin as a preservative, since there were problems with this years ago.

I personally feed Purina Pro Plan (puppy for our 6 mo old, and adult/senior for the older dogs). They love it and I've never had a problem. Purina One should also be great. I've heard of previous problems with Nature's Recipe, and we had probs with that too, so I'd stay away from that.

Good Luck,

Walt

I suppose by-products are OK if you're fine with feeding meat from diseased, rotten meat.

Not to mention the high corn content in the two brands you listed.

Hey... Purina is made here in St. Louis, and they have been known for superior feed. Their facilities are top-notch, they do tons of research here on animal care and feeds, and are highly respected. They are probably the number one in the world in feeds for all types of animals.

I think your dispersions on their products are baseless and unfair.

Also, the brands I listed are predominantly made with rice, not corn. Rice is the most digestible grain, and much better for sensitive Siberian stomachs. I feed chicken/rice, beef/rice, or lamb/rice and have switched between all these to give the dogs a variety of taste/smell and they just love Purina.

Walt

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=1400&cat=all
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=1392&cat=all

I would suggest reading this, if you feel my argument has no basis.

Purina is rated 1 star and 2 star food, the worst of worst. I would suggest checking out Solid Gold Barking at the Moon and comparing the ingredents and reviews.

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=892&cat=8

Solid Gold Barking at the Moon? Are you kidding me?

Where the heck can you buy THAT?? There are like 10,000 foods on that site. Unless I live in Norway or something, I doubt I can stumble across any of them. What do you recommend from Petsmart?

If you want to go natural and healthy, you could feed your dog whole mice and rabbits, but I doubt most people would do that. Despite whoever the "editors" are of that single obscure web site you reference are, I think most folks shopping at their local Petco or Petsmart are doing a lot better than my parents did feeding a single "Gaines Burger" once a day. That thing was loaded with sugar and basically a candy bar for dogs. Even so, their dog lived a long, happy, healthy life, so what can you say?

Uh, I buy it from Petco and Petsmart...

Oh, and a easy way to find a good brand on that website is check out reviews, then 6 star foods. Blindfold and pick from that list, they are all good. If your local petsmart or petco don't have Solid Gold (I have yet to be unable to find it at either place out of maybe 15 stores I've gone to), then find another on the 6 star list. There's bound to be something at your petco or petsmart.

Also I'm sure some dogs can do fine on horrible diets. But extremes don't make for good averages.

And BTW, I am feeding Ollie raw now.

I feed raw only. I know what the ingredients are in my dogs food, you cannot say with any percentage of fact that you do with any storebrand dogfood.
The laws that cover truth in ingredient labels cover "for human consumption items only", animal feed has no laws to protect it except the law saying that you cannot sell animal feed in CA that has rendered meat in it.

Purina is made all over the country, in my state several purina mills exist. One makes dogfood, the cats and groundhogs are knee deep around the place. They bring the ingredients in on trains (covered cars) at night, cook it off (and the neighbors for miles almost puke from the stench).
Those who work there wont even tel the truck drivers what the ingredients really are. Purina is CRAP, it c is a brand that as many vets will tell you cause so called protien source allergies, its not the protien source, but the crap thats in among the ingredients (ie remains of dogs and cats ie rendered meat, rotten animals, rotten fish, chemicals, medicines, etc) that cause the allergic reactions to the ingredients. But dogs and cats are allergic to corn, it is the most common ingredient in all storebrand dog and cat foods, why its cheap.

yeah at the petco where i work at we do sell the Solid gold Barking at the Moon brand. but now i have switched him over to the solid gold large breed puppy(wolf cub!!) and he's been one healthy/happy puppy and his coat's been nice and shiny and starting to look adult-ish.

On the advice (and actually requirement) of our breeder, we started our husky puppy out on Nutro Large Breed Lamb and Rice Puppy Food. She did pretty well on that, but I noticed that both the Nutro Puppy "Pouches" of food, as well as some of their canned foods, seemed to bother her stomach (i.e. make her gassy). That led me to wonder how good this food really was. After the time had passed in which we were required to keep her on Nutro, we experimented with other foods. I was hoping to find one that contained fish. She liked the Natural Balance Fish and Sweet Potato at first, but kind of seemed to tire of it. Also, it was not strictly a "puppy" food, so I wasn't sure if I should be feeding her that as her main source of dry food (She does get some canned food as well). We then tried Solid Gold Wolf Cub, which contains Salmon and Bison, and I have been very happy with it. I have not yet found Solid Gold canned food locally, but have experimented other canned foods to give her some variety. For the canned I use mainly Natural Balance (especially the Fish and Sweet Potato) and some by Merrick, especially ones containing fish. I would like to try her on a raw diet honestly, but my husband has not yet given me the "go ahead" to do that. But as far as store-bought foods, the Solid Gold Wolf Cub dry puppy food has been my favorite so far as far as dry foods go, and those canned foods I listed I have also been pleased with.

Wellness just recently released their Ocean formula of the CORE line of their dry dog food. I've read several things suggesting to make fish a part of a Siberians diet because that was the main part of their diet from their origin. I made the switch from Iams to Wellness puppy formula recently and Kaiser loves it.