Thrifty Eater

Huskies, as a breed, tend to be 'thrifty eaters'. One would think for such an active and high energy breed, they would be big eaters, fueling all that activity, but they aren't.

Kodi has been true to his breed, hardly eating at all. I'm amazed that he has the energy that he has, that he's able to walk twice a day for an hour or an hour and a half each time, to play in the yard for a half hour to an hour at a time, several times a day, seeing as how he sometimes really only eats once every two or three days.

He has never preferred canned dog food, nor has he liked kibble.

We started him with a well known, highly recommended brand as a puppy, he didn't care for that, we tried a Veterinarian recommended prescription diet, but he wouldn't eat that. We tried mixing canned food with kibble, which worked a half dozen times or so, but then he stopped eating that.

A year ago, the Veterinarian said that they weren't concerned about his weight, though he's in the lower acceptable range for the breed standard. He's lean, lanky and apparently some Huskies can be that way.

We talked to the Vet a couple months ago about whether we could put him back on the vitamin supplements he was on when he was a puppy. They didn't feel that was necessary, but suggested trying another flavor of the same brand of dog food, saying that Huskies can be finicky.

We changed to a lamb flavor, from chicken and he seemed to be willing to eat a little more, but he started begging for canned cat food when I was feeding the cats, so I offered him a teaspoon of cat food each time I fed the cats.

When we recently saw the Vet, this time, they said they weren't 'concerned', but would like to see him put a pound or two on. They recommended taking that little bit of cat food and smearing it all over the bottom of his food dish and up the sides, then putting his dry kibble in on top of that, so that to get to the flavor of the cat food on the bottom of the dish he has to eat through the kibble.

We tried it and it worked! Kodi's eating twice a day. He's not finishing all the food, but he's eating about 3/4 of it each time, which is more than he was eating in two or three days.

They also suggested a spoonful of peanut butter was a good source of protein, fats and carbs, since Kodi LOVES anything peanut butter flavored. I've always treated him at least once a month to some plain cooked pasta with a little browned hamburg as a treat.

He's so active, has a high metabolism and burns up everything he's eating, so a little indulgence won't hurt him.

I can't imagine what he might look like if he puts a few pounds on. He's going to be an incredibly intimidating figure of a dog.