Saturday, January 22, 2011

Feeding your German Shepherd Husky

What to feed your German Shepherd/Husky?

There is a lot of info out there on what is best to feed your dog. Some even go all vegan, and then there is the all raw food diet. Commercial foods have the advantage that they are already calculated to be balanced...but their ingredients are often questionable. There is a budget consideration also.
I figured to have a mix of commercial soft and kibble food, a more or less daily vitamin, a sardine and egg for the oils and biotin and other nutrients and some bones and meat - plus treats - might be a good way to go.

So ok, she is about 1 year old and weighs 59 lbs atm. (up 3 lbs from a few weeks ago)
After some experimenting and observation of her likes, dislikes and eating habits as well as sensitivities, I feed her more or less this:

- 1 to 1 1/2  cans/d of soft commercial dog food
- about 1 cup/d of lamb based kibble
- a meaty bone or a soup bone (she LOVES this) - best for her work beef neck bones.

I know  - the small bones. The loose ones I take out, and she chews well. I figure, wolves eats all kinds of bones - but then, their live span is not that long. In any case, I think dogs are basically equipped to handle raw meat and bone.

- 1 sardine/d - for the oils, and I might up that to 1-2/day.
- 1 raw egg about 3-4 times/week

- and she gets  lots of treats during training
Since she is not very food oriented - I kept having to upgrade from kibble, to hot dogs to meat cubes and now to cheese and cooked carrots and I use the sardine as a treat as well - because she LOVES it. I use it all in the course of the day...only during training.
OH she gets 2 large dog biscuit/d from someone else.

I found when I feed her more, she looks like she gains too much weight. So I adjust it week to week. She gets more when it is very cold outside (she is an outside dog).
So far she's been fed twice a day - after early morning and late afternoon/early evening training...plus the treats during other training sessions.

So far she is happy, healthy and vigorous with this and has a nice shiny coat.
These photos are from this morning playing in the sun.



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