Hello to everyone on the forum...I have been reading here for a few days and decided to join...I have a 5 month old Northern Inuit puppy...you can see her here if you like :)http://myschievous.nexuswebs.net/keena-lakota/

Anyway I will try to read the older posts before asking to many questions that may have already been covered so as not to make to many of you cover old ground but bear with me if I repeat something that may have already been discussed.

My main question to do with feeding is I have just changed from feeding my pup Pedigree Puppy complete to James wellbeloved for puppies, mostly because my pup seems to have a fairly sensitive tummy and I thought she could do with less unessasary additives and colourings etc...So I will see how she goes with that for now...

But one thing I noticed is that on the package it is mentioned that calcium and all the minerals a dog needs are included in the food but when you look in the anaylisis there is no record of calcium...We phoned the number given on the packaging and the woman told us that it is not a must to include calcium in the anaylisis but that it is in the food none the less.  It just seems weird when most of the pet foods state the amount of calcium provided and so if it's in there why not list it?...It's probably a really dumb question to those who know more about these foods than me but it worries me that my pup may not get the calcium she needs for strong teeth and bones and even though 0.9% or whatever doesn't tell me much it tells me it is there if it is listed in the anaylisis and it is something to compare to the other brands...I just want to know that I am doing the best for my puppy and her development and that this food is going to provide the right help with that.

Thanks for any help ;) and you will probably be seeing me around in the other catergories here in the next few days or so, I know I have a question about excersise and some other things!

Also can anyone who feeds there puppies JWB tell me if the weight of dog in the feeding guideline chart is the weight of the puppy now or a projected adult weight like some of the companies do? because it doesn't say.  My puppy is 20kg right now so I have calculated the amount to give her for the weight she is now not the projected weight of 30kg to 35kg like I had to do with Pedigree. I am thinking that it is for the weight of the pup right now or else she would fall in to the giant breed weight on the chart if it is a projected weight and she will not be that big.  But I am just making sure.

I hope that made sense of some sort...lol

Thanks all ;)

jwb feeding guidelines are as to what puppies weigh now but in their own catergory mine being large breed (lab)

The labelling laws on pet food in the UK are quite specific there are some must haves and whether or not a company chooses to add other information to that required is entirely up to them.  So you will get extremes from Chum or Chappie that for example only mention the food is made from cereal/meat/vegetable derivatives giving you no actual information on the source to those such as Hills etc which tell you exactly what ingredients are included and breakdown my analysis.  Minerals are generally represented by "ash" content.

Although I am not a fan of commercial foods I think you can rest assured that as far as calcium content is concerned you really do not have anything to worry about; anyway it is not calcium per se you should be concerned about but the phosphorus:calcium ratio.  In the past more dogs were ruined by calcium supplementation than lack of it.

Can't quite remember but seem to think this is a Husky crossbreed and if so that may account for the sensitive stomach as I understand that some Husky lines do suffer from stomach problems. If this is the case I would suggest you feed as if it were a Siberian and take advice from this breed as that is probably the best way to avoid the problems becoming worse. Do you know the background of your puppy as if you know what lines it is from that may help to.

Hi,

I feed JWB to my Golden Retrievers ,not had problem with calccium and I don't give any supplements I have a large Male who has good bone and clean strong teeth.

As to the amounts use them purely as a guide some of my dogs ate more or less to what they suggested at different ages, look at your dogs condition and weigh him and adjust food accordingly, there as a guide thats all what is written on the bags.

Briony :-)

Thanks for the replies so far...I just wondered why they wouldn't mention the calcium, phosphorus content in the anaylisis seeing as it is a good thing?...

Jackie your kind of right...But my puppy is a pure breed, her parents both being Northern Inuit dogs and grandparents and so on, dating back 20 years...But they do have Alaskan Malamute, Siberian Husky and German Shepherd in the bloodline.  So your definitly right about the sensitive tummy perhaps being influenced by the Husky gene. They are a rare and new breed and there is alot of snoberry against the breed, because some so called pureists don't see the original point of the mix of breeds mostly people who have not encountered them before, but although a reletively new breed in comparrison to others I always remind people how most all breeds we have today started, you only have to look at the Doberman for an example.

The only downside maybe is that there are no dogs of her own kind locally to compare her too as there would be if say she was a labrador.  I think it reasures you when you have a puppy and you have dogs around of the same breed to compare say their growth etc plus the vet doesn't know anything about the breed as they are new to her, Keena being her first Northern Inuit puppy she has dealt with.  Though I do keep in verbal / written contact with the breeder we got her from and the society for our breed.  The plus side is that my puppy is the only one of her kind for miles and people are just fascinated by her. 

Basically I have always loved and admired Huskies but I realise that there are some problems encountered with owning one.  I don't have personal experiance so I am speaking from the reasearch I did, but I did find out from many owners that you wouldn't be able to let a Husky of leash for example and how they love to escape from home and will scale tall fences and or dig under them etc etc and responsibly I didn't think I had the right enviroment to offer a Husky with those tendancies and so I did research into other breeds and came across the Northern Inuit Dog. The have a similarity to Huskies looks wise, aswell as looking wolfish, but the biggest plus points for me is that the traits are to less of an extent...They have a character all of their own with a unique temprament. My little one wouldn't leave the yard without me with her even if I left the gate open (although I'm not about to put that to the test...lol) but you get what I mean, She has also been easy to train....As long as she gets her walks and play sessions she is content being in my smallish back yard without trouble and unfortunatly I don't think I would have got that with a Husky...When I have a big garden where I am able to lay concreat foundations and have 8 foot fences to contain my pride and joy I would love to have a husky but right now I think I made a responsible choice ;) Needles to say my Northern Inuit Puppy is completly gorgeous and gets so much attention while we were out, people love her...

But back to the topic!...Keena (the puppy) is still having a mix of loose and firmish poops right now...When she began with this some weeks ago we did take her to the vet, she was wormed and given some pro-biotic paste and some sensitive diet for two weeks and it did clear the loose stool problem, except while out walking and then they are always pritty much soft :( lol (I hate picking those up!)...I am into the third day of introducing the new James Wellbeloved food into her diet now, so time will tell...I did have to soak the dry food today though because she has pritty much been off her food in the last couple weeks also...She just turned 5 months old and is teething pritty hard right now and I did some reading on the boards here and see that they can go off their dry food because of sore gums so I softened it this lunch time and low and behold she did eat her whole meal so I was pleased, I did the same for tonight and she wasn't quite so interested so I poured a smidge of fat from some chicken I cooked earlier and she ate every bit of it...I hope she doesn't expect that every time now?!...I don't want to make her to picky, but for now I just wanted her to eat because she has only been eating a third of her meals for the day lately...I'm pritty sure it is the sore gums though as they are bleeding alot...poor baby.

;)

Well I see else where on the board here that GSD's can also have sensitive stomachs and she has German Shepherd ancestory so that combined with Huskies having sensitive stomachs and also being part of her ancestry this may be what I am facing here. She is now on the last day of introduction to her new JWB food (I introduced it over five days) but today she had such bad diarrhea (sp?) worse than ever.  Like I said I did put some chicken fat over the dry food and softened it with water yesterday and so that probably did it.  Now I will quit trying to add a little flavor and she'll either eat it or not because it will just make things worse.  I can't scoop up a poop again like I did just out on our walk a little while ago, it was awful :0...lol...and right on someones drive way, she couldn't have picked a worse place and she couldn't have gone on the lovely patch of grass that we walked on just one foot before hand...lol...Some teenagers were walking pass at the time and being the assholes they sometimes are they had to have a comment (like not one of them has ever gotten the shits before) but anyway I was not enjoying my clear up so it made me a bit snappy and I glared at them and help the scoop forward and said 'do you want this!' which promptly fell on deaf ears and they did not say another word...lol...I was ready to hit one of them in the head with my puppys poop sack...lol. 

I just hope the JWB puppy food works out ok as I would hate to have to change her from it so soon because that is not going to help.  Other than this she is very lively and fine within herself.  She hasn't lost any weight but she is putting on just a 1lb a week or so now, she grew rapidly between two and four months so perhaps because at 5 months her growth spurt has slowed down for now...she is I belive to be about female german shepherd size and weighs around 45lbs at the last weigh in a few days ago and is about knee high.  I will have to ask the breeder if she is on par with her breed though. 

Well I guess we'll see how things go!