First time husky owner all the way from Washington in the usa :)

[moonsibe]

Hi there my name's Jason and i live in washington state and this is my first time on any forum thought i'd give it a try

so i picked up this little guy about four days ago was waiting since the beginning of august till about four days ago when i finally got him, He's eight weeks old his mom was a full siberian husky and the dad was a malamute and that's where this little guy came from and i absolutely adore him!! I've always wanted a husky pup since i was in highschool and finally having gotten this little guy i am so thrilled, as for food he was taking this dog food i received in a little bag never found out what it was exactly but he ate it well but once he ran out since as it wasn't much i stopped by the petstore and was recommended blue buffalo and ended up getting the Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula Lamb and oatmeal recipe and he ate it so so but went to a different pet store the following day and was recommended Hill's science diet large breed puppy food and ended up getting that so having those two i put his bowl half and half and he eats more hills science diet than blue buffalo, another thing i did give him two pouches of pedigree little champs wet food that came in a pouch before i got the hill's food but was recommended to take him off it by the pet store employee who also happened to be a pet nutritionist, so he has that he did have quite some dandruff when i first got him that's why i got hill's science and blue buffalo was told they'd help his skin and coat i did take him to get a bath at petsmart it helped a little but they found and removed four fleas so monday i'm taking him to the vet to get his first official puppy check up and was told to try using this shampoo for him "espree aloe oat bath medicated shampoo" bought the soap the next day after his bath and bought some brushes at my local walmart brushed him got as much dandruff as i could brush and bathe him used the soap i bought and brushed him and so far he has about little to nothing at all of dandruff so i'm hoping i the food and the soap help him a little and hope his first check up on monday goes smoothly I was told from the person i bought him from that he had gotten his first shots and was dewormed but never got proof of that so i hope hit check up can help me with that and hope to be on here more to receive advice or be let known if i'm doing something wrong, tips and suggestions and see everyone else's amazing dogs and keep everyone updated on "Moon Moon" ^_^  

thank you!  

 

[robke]

 TO 

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

Welcome to the pack

[goingsolo]

Welcome Jason and Moon moon

[Emma]

Hi there and welcome to the forum.  

 

Dogfoodadvisor.com give a good review on dog foods so can help you make a decision.  Sometimes the pet food chains tend to recommend the expensive brand that's not good quality.  

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/hills-science-diet-dog-food-adult-dry/

 

[Jay]

Hello and welcome, such a cute puppy you have!!

[moonsibe]

Thank you so much for the welcomes And i have a question. What did you feed your husky puppies? any good recommendations for some food? or opinions on what i'm giving him?? this is honestly my first husky so any advice would help I don't mind buying expensive brands as long as my pup can be healthy  i really adore him and my family loves him ^_^ he's about 8 weeks going to be 9 on wednesday and weighed in at 10lb when i took him for his bath.

 

[Emma]

The link to the dog food advisor site I listed above is pretty good but I can tell you right here that hills science plan isn't that great. Sure they charge you the money but the quality you get in return Isn't anywhere near as good as a quality brand like taste of the wild.

I looked up blue buffalo and it scored marginally better than science plan but still nowhere near the same quality as taste of the wild.

Another good brand is orijin but the protein can bit too high for some dogs (they then can sometimes start to eat their own poop!)

I'm not trying to be snobby, we feed our dogs what we can, if people are working with a limited budget then you do the best you can with the funds available to you. I myself feed one of mine a very rubbish and cheap food because it's the only thing that doesn't upset his tummy. It took me a year to stop him having diarrhoea, so I'm in no rush to change what works for him! Lol.

Edit: I probably should have mentioned that huskies tend to do better with grain free kibble. As a breed they do seem to have more sensitive stomachs than others but of course there are exceptions and I have heard of huskies with cast iron stomachs! lol

[moonsibe]

Thank you for the link i checked it out and yeah i did noticed blue buffalo ranked higher than science hills and saw that BB wilderness was a full five stars and is a grain free kibble so i'm thinking about trying to put him on that and see how it works out for him  thank you so much and i'll be sure to keep updating and his dandruff the soaped helped a lot with that along with some time spent brushing 

[Mazz]

Welcome to both of you.  Here is my take on dog food and pet stores.  Employees at major chain pet stores, that work in pet food sections, are often employed by one of the pet food companies and not by the store.  When we got Zoya seven years ago, we went to a local PetSmart to get her some puppy food.  The "employee" recommended Nutro Ultra Puppy Food.  Just ranted and raved about its nutritional qualities.  So we started Zoya with that food.  Next time, at the same store, a different "employee" recommended another brand of food.  During our discussion, this second "employee" told me that she actually worked for Pedigree and the other gal did work for Nutro.  Point being, you really need to check things out on your own.  We then transitioned Zoya to TOTW, which is an excellent all stages of life grain-free kibble.  

There are three ingredients to avoid in any food you feed to your dog: corn, wheat, and soy.  Check the label on the Hills food.  Dollars to donuts the first ingredient listed is corn. Brewers rice is another one to avoid, but it's not as bad as the other three.  Corn does not digest well and dogs do not get much benefit from corn.  Corn, like wheat, are both in the grass family and a potential allergen for Huskies. Soy is used to up the protein content. However, protein from soy is not the same as protein from meat and is not metabolized as well.

i would recommend calling the breeder you got your dog from, and find out what they feed your pup.  Then pick up a small bag of that and a small bag of TOTW, or other grain-free food. Then donate the other food you have purchased to a local shelter.  Start with one cup per meal of the food the breeder fed, for one week, monitor the stools to be sure they are firm, then begin a transition to TOTW, taking a week to ten days to make the switch.  One of the nice things about TOTW, is you can usually switch between formulas without having to go through a transition period.

Now, there are grains that are fine in dog food, but not too many.  Barley is one. Rice is another.  One other grain, maize, is very similar to corn and should be avoided.

[Jay]

I agree with Mazz, I also feed mine Taste of the Wild, and can get it at quite a few stores and online. Amazon is the best for that. And yeah when you go to the pet supply stores those people are actually working for the pet food companies

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mellyp]

Welcome!!! Your little guy is so adorable!!

[Andy]

[Marc]

Welcome to husky owners. A long time since mine have been that small. Seems like a lifetime ago lol

[Dunc]

[Clare70]

Hello, I'm very jealous

 

Just one thing I noticed from your pictures, are you walking him in public? It's just that if he's not had all of his jabs he is open to catching diseases. Sorry don't want to alarm you but better to be safe.