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This is driving me crazy. My husky pup only eats about 1 cup a day MAYBE sometimes 1.5 cups for the whole day. This is after walks and going running with him. He is 13 weeks old and weighs about 12lbs. I had taken him to the vet almost two weeks ago and we found out he had tapeworm AND coccidia. He has been having diarrhea fairly often since we got him (for 5 weeks!). He is nearly done with his meds for the worm and coc., but he still has runny pudding stools. His coat is becoming very dull.

The vet doesn't think too much of it, but I don't think he has much experience with sibes.

I have changed his food twice and now he is on Artemis Med/Larg Puppy dry food. There hasn't been much improvement :brick:

please lend me your knowledge in this area :confused:

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awww ur poor baby i wish i cud help blaze had runny stools up until a few weeks ago and hes now 6 months old (they have VERY sensitive stomachs) he gets fed 3/4 times a day but dunno if he actually eats it as ive caught our other dog chompin on it have u gone 2 a diff vet for a 2nd opinion? maybe its just the tapeworm and coccidia (what is that by the way?) thats makin him not want to eat he is a gorgeous pup and i hope he gets better soon so sorry i cant help

also it might b his dramitc change in food what was he on when u got him? maybe go back to that as u r supposed 2 gradualy change his food addin a little more ov his new food n a little less ov his old food every few days

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First of all, he is much too young to go running with. A good rule of thumb is 5 minutes per day exercise for every month of age. Too much exercise too young puts excessive strain on young joints. Young pups need sleep much more than they need exercise.

As far as the runny poohs go, start off by giving him a day off food - as much clean water as he wants, but no food (or treats). Then, the next day, try him on a few raw chicken wings (you can get packs of a dozen or so from Tesco for about 1.50) each day in addition to his kibble (but cut down his kibble amount to compensate). Also, give him an unflavoured pro-biotic yoghurt drink (Yakult etc) each day - this will help replace any good bacteria that his meds might have killed.

The chicken wings are quite safe as long as they are raw and fresh not frozen.

Try that for a few days and see how he goes.

Mick

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Great advice there Mick added to rep.

I feed my pup - 14 weeks old 4 times a day, with Burns puppy kibble and a little natural yoghurt.

Agree with Mick about the excersie, start off slowly and build up gradually :)

I take Kaiser out for 15 mins he bounces around and wants to just keep going but less is more as they say lol

Your pics are fab, he's gorgeous!! so cute and fluffy, hope he settles soon, let us know how you get on xxxx

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I didn't know about the exercise issue. The puppy keeps terrorizing my older dog and so i thought it was because he is bored. I usually walk him for 30 min or run for 10 min and he still isn't tired. I didn't consider the joint issue so thanks for that tip.

I have been giving him plain (regular fat) yogurt for a little over a week with not much improvement in stool or quantity eaten. I also fasted him for a full day on two separate occasions. This helped a little in the stool department, but he still wouldn't eat much. His stool can very greatly. He goes from pure liquid for a few days to pudding for a few days to mildly solid for a day and then back to pure liquid. :confused:

It has been 5 weeks of this so I am not sure if it is a settling issue. Coccidia is a bad intestinal bacteria by the way.

I did slowly ween him off of his old food over a period of a week. He is at 30% old and 70% new right now.

I will try the chicken wing idea and see if it helps, but I am worried he is going to start expecting that and will stop eating entirely unlessl it is there.

Any ides on how many cups a pup should be eating at this age? The vet had no idea...

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I will try the chicken wing idea and see if it helps, but I am worried he is going to start expecting that and will stop eating entirely unlessl it is there.

Any ides on how many cups a pup should be eating at this age? The vet had no idea...

We have one day each week when all our dogs just get chicken wings. This tends to keep them "firm" but doesn't affect the way they eat their kibble on the other 6 days.

As to amount, it depends partly on the food. Some foods have better ingredients than others and the pups will need less of them. Lots of pups get the squits because they are actually eating too much. Most good foods will have a feeding guide on them. Bear in mind that sibes have a much more effective metabolism than many breeds and don't need as much food to extract the same amount of nutrition as other breeds do.

We tend to go by the "feel" of the pup. If it is too fat, cut down the food, if it is too thin, increase the amounts. With very young puppies, little and often is usually more effective than one big meal.

Mick

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I feed Kaiser 15-20 grams of kibble per meal - 4 times a day if that helps ??

You can feed him chicken wings instead of kibble if you prefer, well, i mean replace one meal with them?

Isis' brand recommends that she has 200g of food per day for her age - so we feed 30g for 3 meals and usually compensate her lunchtime meal with 1/2 a pedigree jumbone - which she loves as soon as they come out of the cupboard its as if shes on springs!

Isis used to suffer from runny stools but our vet told us that over feeding could cause this, and as we implemented the above dietry control, with raw meets replacing kibble 2-3 times a week - her stools have improved significantly! No more runny ones - unless she decides to eat the plants!

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suka always had the runs until we switched him to wainwrights salmon and potato think he is sensitive to rice.

one we switched the food his stools went to nice formed solid ones and have been ever since all i feed him is a covering on the bottom of the bowl 3 -4 times a day.

when we first brought him own he would only eat 1 meal a day after bout a week he started eating properly, now he scoffs his food down its gone in 5mins or less.

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hmm ok I am going to give this chicken thing a try. Do i need to take off the skin or prepare it in any way? I am assuming I should wash it. I have been taking a look at this BARF diet thing. Anyone have any links for me to read on what to feed/not to feed and how much for the raw diet?

I feed my pup twice a day. Should I try more frequent feedings? I don't think I am over feeding because I can easily feel his ribs. Oh and he does eat the usual plants/dirt/leaves from time to time. I do try to stop him but I don't catch him all the time.

The kibble i feed him is pretty high quality (Artemis) so I am going to give it a little more time and patience.

Thanks for the complements. He is extremely cute/pretty. Maybe I should formally introduce ourselves before I go ranting about his poop. By the way his name is Kaiser too! He also looks kinda like your dog Sarah. :icon10:

Thanks so much for all of your input so far. Let me know if any other ideas come up!

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ahhh good name!!!!!!

At his age, I would suggest small amounts 3 / 4 times a day, as for the chicken, i give with the skin on, i just rinse it under the tap for a second first.

For the barf diet, there have been a few posts on this - see below, hope they help :) xx

http://www.husky-owners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1065&highlight=barf

http://www.husky-owners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=866&highlight=barf

http://www.husky-owners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=838&highlight=barf

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hmm ok I am going to give this chicken thing a try. Do i need to take off the skin or prepare it in any way? I am assuming I should wash it. I have been taking a look at this BARF diet thing. Anyone have any links for me to read on what to feed/not to feed and how much for the raw diet?

As well as the links Sarah gave you it, it is very worthwhile to have a read of Dr Ian Billinghurst's books "Give Your Dog a Bone" and "Grow Your Pup With Bones" as well as the most recent book the "The BARF Diet". He is the vet who originally designed BARF and all the books are a worthwhile read - especially the last two listed above, puppies need a slightly different diet to adults as they are growing and you really need to read up on it to make sure you get it right.

Pups should be eating about 8% of their body weight, they will eat more now than they will as an adult who usually eat 2-3% of their body weight (Sibes often need less). Mick was spot on about a Sibe's slow metabolism, I have a beagle who is half the size of my Sibe and they eat almost exactly the same amount of food!

Artemis is a great dried food so you could keep feeding it as well as feeding some raw meaty bones - even before I fed my dogs on BARF they got RMBs almost daily! (i.e. chicken wings, necks, lamb necks etc).

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Well here goes nowt ( great advice BTW Mick )

This is just my oppion but 1 it depends on the size of the said cup and how long have you been trying to give said cup full to him ?

when I have pups here and when I had saskia as a pup she was getting nowhere near a cup full a day we used to feed them by tablespoon measure 1 spoon full 4 times aday and at 13 weeks as you say yours is it would not be much more now if I was you i'd go back to the begining like Mick said starve for 1 day just water given then go to one and half talespoon full 4 times aday see how you go + alot of us have found chappie is great for getting rid of upset tum only put 1 teaspoon with each feed, we have found if you follow this it will and does work.

When you got rid of the said shits slowly very slowly increase his food.

PS not being funny but do you have any children other pets or adults that might be feeding titbits to him ? I know it sounds a daft question but you'd be surprised how many times this is the problem .

You will find Huskys eat very little compared with a lot of dogs.

Hope hes ok and plz come back with updates on how you ( he ) gets on.

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Just to illustrate the metabolism thing. We have two 15 week old pups here at the moment. Diva, the sibe pup has a tiny amount four times a day, whereas Simi, the Leonberger pup eats more in one meal than any of our adult sibes do - and she gets this 4 times a day! She also weighs as much as our heaviest adult sibe.

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This was Diva and SImi three weeks ago. Simi is now huge in comparison with Diva.

On the chicken wings - leave the skin on. The fat on the skin is good for growing pups.

Mick

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aaaaaaaawwwwwwwwww mick, Simi and Diva are soooooo cute!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I got that bit done, great advise Mick, added to rep.

As mick said, the exercise is too much for a young pup. At your pups age, he should have only just started to have walks so you need to keep it slow, no running and not very long either (only about 5 mins to begin with). I thought Gizmo used to be bored when he first started having walks and instead of taking him longer and increasing risks of muscle and joint problems, I used to just play with him around the house let him play with some toys, etc. Remember you pup is a growing boy so by giving his too much exercise can cause him to use up the nutrition in his food for energy instead of growth which is more important for him.

Are you feeding him straight after walks? If so you really need to leave the feeding for about an hour first before you feed him to allow his stomach to settle after exercise. Also at his age he needs to be fed a little bit of his required daily amount about 3-4 times a day. I see you have already been told about the BARF diet, this is brilliant diet but I would advice that you read about it first (the books which smeagle recommended are brilliant books about the BARF diet). Ive recently changed to this diet with my boys, as they kept getting the runs and going off the dry foods, and Ive not had a problem since they are all passing nice solid poos and as they are having their fave every day (raw meat) they are not going off it either!

As also mentioned, Sibes do eat less than many other breeds and also have a very sensitive stomach. I would wait until your pup is off the meds and given the all clear first before looking at changing the diet as the meds may be what is giving him the runs and putting him his food.

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Thanks so much everyone! This is a great forum with some great members.

Ok so an update. Kaiser has been driving me absolutely nuts!

Last night I started fasting him per advice and so he only got food in the morning but didn't really touch it. By about 5pm he was SCREAMING his head off (man those husky screams are like nothing else) because he was hungry. So I basically withstood his whining and yelling the whole day and night. To calm him down so I could sleep (my head was about to explode) I let him cuddle next to the other dog on his bed. Kaiser is fairly potty trained and I have also trained him to only stay in the den and not to go elsewhere.

Well that was stupid!!

I was really tired and probably wasn't thinking. So I woke up in the morning to find several spots of pee on the kitchen/den floor. Hard wood floor so no big deal. Shoes were chewed and delaced, but oh well... Except there was grass and dirt EVERYWHERE. There were also these strange green foamy bits all over.

This was indeed perplexing because he had no way of going outside and there weren't any grass plants anywhere inside, or so I thought. Well it seems one of the family members had gotten an arranged flowers gift basket that night and had conveniently placed it within discoverable reach. Well basically he had eaten the vast majority of the grass at the bottom of the basket and he also had a healthy portion of the underneath green foam blocks the plants were grown/anchored on. WELL DANG! There went all of my ear splitting hours of patience and perseverance in order to allow his stomach to clear.

Well needless to say when I put his food down for him to eat he wouldn't touch it. He was already full. :brick:

So that night I put down 1 cup of his kibble along with two chicken wings. These were the party sized ones that are no bigger than a thumb. He hadn't had a nutritious meal for over 30 hours and when he had eaten it was so little that he was starting to loose weight. Well when I put that down it was all gone within 30 seconds. He swallowed the first wing whole! He didn't even chew it. So I calmed him down and made him eat slower. Well it seems now he ate too much because his sides are sticking out and he looks uncomfortable.

Double fail :brick: :brick:

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Thanks so much everyone! This is a great forum with some great members.

Ok so an update. Kaiser has been driving me absolutely nuts!

Last night I started fasting him per advice and so he only got food in the morning but didn't really touch it. By about 5pm he was SCREAMING his head off (man those husky screams are like nothing else) because he was hungry. So I basically withstood his whining and yelling the whole day and night. To calm him down so I could sleep (my head was about to explode) I let him cuddle next to the other dog on his bed. Kaiser is fairly potty trained and I have also trained him to only stay in the den and not to go elsewhere.

When I take food away from dogs who aren't hungry I always offer it again at the next meal time i.e. if they won't eat their morning meal, I will offer it again to them at night time.

It is mainly about teaching the dog that food will not always be there and that they must eat when you put food down for them - most dogs you only need to take their food away for one meal before they learn you aren't going to pander to them and this generally makes them eat with gusto. You could also try giving him half his normal sized dinner too and seeing if he will eat a smaller amount.

If he was that hungry at night time, I would have gotten his food out, made him sit and stay for his dinner and then I would have fed him :) I wouldn't fast a dog for more than 24 hours.

I'm not telling you this to have a go at all, just so that next time you might know how to manage it a bit differently. A good tip for encouraging him to eat bones slower (if you are worried) is to hold the chicken wing in your hand or feed him something a bit bigger like a chicken frame.

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Oh dear, sounds like you had a really tough night!!

I an totally agree with the screaming lol must be in the name as my Kaiser does it as well - normally when we go in the car lol

Agree with smeagle on the feeding points, I leave the food down for 10 - 15 mins if they've not eaten by then (hmm yeah right!! lol) then it's removed and they don't get chews or anything until their next meal.

Keep going, it will get better I promise xxxx

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oh dear, talk about a rough night! Sibe screams can defiantley leave you feeling deaf afterwards!

I also agree with smeagle. If he doesn't eat his food within a certain amount of time, take it away and then dont feed him any treats between meals and offer him the same meal at his next meal time and repeat again if he doesnt eat it in a certain time.

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I also agree with smeagle. If he doesn't eat his food within a certain amount of time, take it away and then dont feed him any treats between meals and offer him the same meal at his next meal time and repeat again if he doesnt eat it in a certain time.

i also have to agree with this as i think i said on a earlier post suka would not eat his meals after a few days of using this method he was scoffing he is 14 weeks old now

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First of all, he is much too young to go running with. A good rule of thumb is 5 minutes per day exercise for every month of age. Too much exercise too young puts excessive strain on young joints. Young pups need sleep much more than they need exercise.

As far as the runny poohs go, start off by giving him a day off food - as much clean water as he wants, but no food (or treats). Then, the next day, try him on a few raw chicken wings (you can get packs of a dozen or so from Tesco for about 1.50) each day in addition to his kibble (but cut down his kibble amount to compensate). Also, give him an unflavoured pro-biotic yoghurt drink (Yakult etc) each day - this will help replace any good bacteria that his meds might have killed.

The chicken wings are quite safe as long as they are raw and fresh not frozen.

Try that for a few days and see how he goes.

Mick

Great advice and added to rep;)

Mick's absolutely right, when i give my girl chicken wings AND kibble, she always has nice firm stools!

5 mins per month, so now he's 3 months? >>he's can go for a 15 min walk ...not run...about 3times a day max!

although i feed raw and think it is the best way, we do have a dog we still feed kibble, alaska was weaned onto James Wellbeloved kibble >>> and her brother still eats this and i have to say the results are fab...not as good as raw but at least on 1 grade down:

http://www.wellbeloved.com/products/dog_food/duck__rice_kibble/junior.aspx

<< we feed our 9 month old sibe the duck and rice junoir selection, your pup should have puppy food until 6 months then switch to junoir! he is a big boy and weighs 22kg and he only eats 2-3 cups a day MAX!!!

[ATTACH][ATTACH]1018.IPB[/ATTACH][/ATTACH]

the gril >> alaska, who we got first was not a huge eater, she would eat just about 1 cup of dry food a day until she was about 4-5 months and even now on dry she will only eat 2 cups MAX >> so she is on raw food and seems to wolf that down.

Give the food a rest for a day and keep supplying fresh, cold water, then the next day give him a good dry puppy food like james wellbeloved (nothing the vets give though..like science plan << it's crappy and is more likely to give the runs:confused:) and with the food add some plain boiled rice with a little warm water, the rice will coat the stomach and ease the runs.

I know so dont worry, alaska was like this, we got her and she didn't eat loads and this worried us but then we found out that sibes really dont eat a lot, a grown male in harness can eat 3 cups a day and it's actually normal:eek: with alaska she got dihydrated and had to go to the vets and stay over night (she needed a drip) they did a stool sample and it came back clear>>so no worms, they gave me meds for an infection but still she had runny poo, so i found the rice to be a life saver...even today if she ever gets the runs i'll give her plain boiled rice and within a day sometimes it workes a treat, for your little one i would give the rice for 3days and im sure it will work.....

if your interested in raw feeding check out this earlier post:

http://www.husky-owners.com/forum/showthread.php?p=17596#post17596

i would say for now until he is like 5-6months i would stick to the puppy dry food, raw feeding takes a lot of research and commitment, and after that it's a breeze lol....good luck!:byebye:

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i went with the charts of the back of the bakers puppy food chart found out the expected weight she would roughly be being an adult and then looked it up on the charts works out tht she gets bout 3 cups of bakers per day and clears her bowl every time.

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