# my husky is a finicky eater



## MarieJoe (Oct 31, 2008)

Okay, this is our second husky. 
Our first died last summer after living almost fifteen years, the last two with kidney disease.

Emily, our current Siberian, is now fourteen months old.
She refused kibble almost six months ago and I have been home-cooking for her since.
She also gets a multi and yeast/garlic tablets daily.

The last few days, she has been more finicky than usual, turning her nose up at almost everything but cheese and peanut butter.
She hasn't had a full meal in three days. Although she does nibble.
Could she be on an adult schedule now and needs less?

Now, I know this happened with our first and it freaked me out...until the vet told me she'd eat when she's hungry.
So, we quit worrying.

But, Emily has more stomach issues. So, I worry more.

She acts normal in every other way. She looks okay, too.
Normal feces. No vomiting.

Any other Siberian husky owners with any insight would be appreciated!!!


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## Northern_Inuit_Luv (Aug 26, 2009)

I know exactly what you are going though. My husky did the same thing. I must have tried 100 different things to do when she was on kibble and none of them worked. 

I guess before we go into "fixes", the first question should be, could she be going into heat? I know many dogs will have a light-to-no appetite right around that time.

Ami is spayed, so she never could use that as an excuse...she would just get picky and turn away from it. 

Over the summer we switched to raw food and she did really really well at first, but after about 2 months she started to show signs of not being interested anymore. I read a few different books on raw feed/natural diets, and they suggested that adult dogs eat only 1-2 times a day. Well, Ami will not finish all of her day's worth of meal in one sitting, but we were able to effectively cut her down to 2 meals a day (it was always 3). 

Then I read another book that suggested that one day a week they should "fast" to "heel themselves" or something like that...well, I didn't really need her heeling herself, but I gave it a go and it has worked when nothing else has. So one day a week she'll just get her vitamins and whatever training bits she earned, but no actual meal. I change the day, but its usually monday-wednesday, since doing that, she has put on the weight that she needed and she always eats everything that is put down for her. When we visited the vet a few weeks ago, she said that Ami is PERFECT when it comes to her weight...wouldn't put any on and wouldn't take any off...

I don't know if that would work for kibble too, but it wasn't something that I ever tried. The worst thing to do is to let her control you with it though...if she doesn't eat it, pick it back up. Otherwise she'll start begging for food at random times of the day, and since you feel sorry that she didn't eat, you'll feed her. She should eat when you feed her, not just any time that she feels like it. I fell into the trap, and had to climb my way back to the alpha spot again, because she decided that I wasn't doing a good enough job...but thats just a struggle between me and her, she's got such an alpha personality that she keeps me on my toes.

Good luck with everything!


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## Donna5503 (Mar 13, 2009)

Hi......I have a picky eater too. 

When I first got him - the adoption shelter gave me a bag of kibble that they were feeding him so I could wean him onto whatever I wanted to feed him -- I started out w/Purina One - he actually picked out the Purina One & left the Shelter kibble.


After about a month - he started leaving the Purina One....then I found this site and started researching dog foods -- found out that most kibble sold in supermarkets, like Purina, Pedigree, Iams are all unhealthy. I went to Petsmart and settled on Blue Buffalo Wilderness -- www.bluebuff.com -- and he loves it & it has awesome ingredients.

I also give him boiled chicken, grilled steak, peas, carrots, broccoli & sweet potatoes (not all at once)


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## MarieJoe (Oct 31, 2008)

@ Northern
Emily is fixed, so she cannot use that excuse either.

Fasting sounds promising, but Emily eats grass....sticks....etc.
What about rawhide and tendons? Would those be removed from her, too?
do you remember the name of the book, Northern.

LOL, she may be playing us, cuz I gave her a piece of MellowMutt.
She ate that chicken with relish, but would not touch the roasted chicken that was her meal.

[more]

Anyone else have a ksuky appetite story to share??

How many days have you had the finicky eating go on?

@Donna

You're lucky yours will still eat kibble. 
How long have you had him?


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## Donna5503 (Mar 13, 2009)

Hi again...

I adopted Chubby on September 2, 2008 ....they said he was 6 months old. So I've had him a little over a year now - and he's 18 months. 

I've had dogs my whole life...but this is my first Siberian Husky. Alot of people tried to talk me out of getting a Husky (they all said I was asking for trouble -- and lots of shelters won't even let you adopt a Husky unless you've had Husky experience) 

But I can't imagine my life without this guy....HE'S GREAT! When I think of all the Huskies out there that need homes I want to adopt them all!....and I don't know why people think you need experience -- it's a shame cause' so many dogs are probably missing out on good homes because of lack of experience? I'm glad the Shelter that Chubby was at didn't have that rule --- or who knows where he would have wound up!

As far as kibble goes --- He loves Blue Buffalo --- maybe you should give it a try!


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## Northern_Inuit_Luv (Aug 26, 2009)

I mostly read out of three books (I flipped through others, though...) But I am not sure which one it came from. One was Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats, by Kymythy R Schultze, another was Switching to Raw by Susan K. Johnson, and the one I liked best I don't think they sell in stores or online...its from my friend's nutritionist vet called Real Food for Dogs by Beth Taylor and Karen Shaw Becker


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## nico8 (Jul 16, 2009)

My Husk is the definition of a finicky eater. She won't touch any brand of kibble unless there's canned food/ground beef/ some type of topping on it. She usually loses interest in dry kibble within a couple weeks. I've gone through Blue Buff, Wellness Core, TOTW, and now I'm on Evo. But she won't touch the large bites...only the small. And she will only eat if she's locked away in a quiet, peaceful room and only if I'm in there with her. It's frustrating because our Lab and Rottie will eat anything at any time but from everything I've read it sounds like this is just par for the course when it comes to Huskies. Sorry I don't know of any quick fixes for this but just know that you're not the only one in that boat...good luck


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## Michiyo-Fir (Jul 25, 2009)

nico8 said:


> My Husk is the definition of a finicky eater. She won't touch any brand of kibble unless there's canned food/ground beef/ some type of topping on it. She usually loses interest in dry kibble within a couple weeks. I've gone through Blue Buff, Wellness Core, TOTW, and now I'm on Evo. But she won't touch the large bites...only the small. And she will only eat if she's locked away in a quiet, peaceful room and only if I'm in there with her. It's frustrating because our Lab and Rottie will eat anything at any time but from everything I've read it sounds like this is just par for the course when it comes to Huskies. Sorry I don't know of any quick fixes for this but just know that you're not the only one in that boat...good luck


Lol I don't have husky. I have a Papillon but she does the exact same thing. Every time I feed her if it's not for training and by hand, I have to put her in a quiet room and lock her in there to eat...

I've found Orijen works quite well with picky eaters. It seems to taste quite good to most dogs.


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## MarieJoe (Oct 31, 2008)

Northern_Inuit_Luv said:


> One was Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats, by Kymythy R Schultze, another was Switching to Raw by Susan K. Johnson,


Thanks.
I'll have to look into those books, although the one on raw, I'm not sure.
Because of Emily's stomach, I've been advised to avoid raw.



Northern_Inuit_Luv said:


> and the one I liked best I don't think they sell in stores or online...its from my friend's nutritionist vet called Real Food for Dogs by Beth Taylor and Karen Shaw Becker


found it online for those interested:
http://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DN303


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## Easywolf (Jul 21, 2009)

Huskies are smart they wont touch kibble unless there's other goodies with it, but dont give them any food for 1-2 days and I guarentee you they will be eating every last bit. Very smarty dogs lol.

"She refused kibble almost six months ago and I have been home-cooking for her since."

Ahahaha no wonder.


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## Northern_Inuit_Luv (Aug 26, 2009)

They are all books on Raw diet/barf diets, even if you don't plan on feeding raw, they have some interesting information in them


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