Feeding Advice for a Husky/Blue Heeler Mix Puppy

[InarisKitsune]

hello~

My friend and I are going to be getting two sibling puppies some time this year (really depends on when mommy goes into heat, though hopefully it'll be soon), and I'd like some advice....

I'm a little more experienced as a dog owner than my friend, since this will be my second puppy, and it's fallen on my shoulders to be the go-to on everything about raising and training them. The mother is mostly husky, though with a tiny bit of wolf in her lineage to help bolster them against some of the more common genetic issues that tend to plague the purebred members of her breed (with really great success, my breeder has breeds the healthiest huskies and husky mixes in my region), and the father is a brilliant and amazingly healthy husky/blue heeler mix.

This is going to my first time working with this particular mix. I've researched both breeds as much as possible, and know to be prepared for an extremely smart, extremely energetic dog that will love to be put to work. As my dog will be trained as a service animal for myself, and my friend is looking into doing Schutzhund with her dog as a hobby, these were definitely the right traits for us to look for. Where I really hit a brick wall is food.

I know huskies tend to have some impulse control issues when it comes to eating and they tend to be worse than other breeds, so it becomes necessary to feed them a little less than you would another breed. I also know that in general dogs tend to be much healthier and happier with a high protein diet, and plan to use a brand that supplies this. But I haven't found any real information on how much and how frequently to feed a husky at each stage of puppyhood, or if the same feeding rules for purebred huskies apply to mixed breed pups.

Do you have any advice on this, or should I just stick to the general feeding guide that's listed on the side of my bag of puppy food? Proper diet is really going to be crucial for these dogs. I really want to ensure they get the best care possible from day one, and that I'm not leading my friend astray or harming our dogs with my guessing.

[Erica]

Are you sure the mom has wolf in her? Wolf mixes cannot be service dogs in the US. Because the rabies vaccine hasn't been approved on wolves, it doesn't really count for wolfdogs either, and therefore they are not allowed to be service dogs (here's a call to the ADA asking if wolfdogs can be service dogs). It is also fairly likely (without seeing the dog or knowing the breeder, but just knowing the general culture of America around "wolfdogs") that there isn't any wolf in the mom at all and the breeder is telling untruths to make their dogs seem more exotic and pull in a higher price. Lots of "wolfdogs" are husky/GSD mixes, but representing dogs as wolf mixes leads to a lot of unnecessary strife - like the huskies who were shot by a wolf hunter recently because the hunter had seen huskies represented as wolfdogs throughout their life; the German Shepherd mixes who get put down in shelters because their owners claim they're wolfdogs and the shelter cannot legally adopt them out; the true wolfdogs that people acquire after meeting and loving a mixed breed that is claimed to be a wolfdog, but who did not represent the difficult behaviors wolfdogs have, leaving the new true wolfdog in the hands of someone who did not want this experience. There is a reason domesticated dogs behave differently than wolves - wolves do not behave in a way that makes living with them in a human environment easy.

As long as it's a healthy, balanced food, it should be fine to start out at the recommended amount. There's no way to predict how much food will be ideal for your puppy; it's better to start out at the recommended guideline and feed more if they're too skinny and less if they get chunky. You want to be able to feel the dog's ribs on their side; that's the easiest way to know your dog is at a good weight!

[InarisKitsune]

Thank you for the tip on feeding~

Don't worry, the first thing I did was go through the mother's detailed family records as well as check my local laws on the subject, and she has such a low grade of wolf in her that she's considered a normal husky and any of her offspring are good for service dog work. The added advantage of having a wolf dog as a relative (her great-great-great-great-great-grandmother was the true husky/wolf mix) has made her family far less prone to the genetic problems that huskies tend to suffer as a breed.

Which is one of the many reasons why I sought this particular breeder out. They're very responsible about their breeding practices; only having one breeding female at a time and retiring the mother to a happy house pet after only a handful of litters. They provide a safe back-up plan for potential service dog handlers should the puppy or adult dog wind up washed out for any reason, which makes me feel a lot safer as I take this leap of faith again. They keep in contact with and visit all the owners of the puppies on a regular basis long after they're taken home and all grown up to ensure they're well cared for, and keep excellent records on all the members of the mother and father's family and medical history for potential owners to review before committing to one of their dogs.

[Nettle]

What do the breeders recommend for feeding?