Owning a majestic creature like a Siberian Husky is a point of pride for dog owners –and why wouldn’t it be?
Your pooch is a beautiful animal with a luxurious coat and amazing strength that other dogs simply don’t possess!
A lot of dog food companies know how to hook people’s attention with ads and promises about what’s best to feed dogs. It’s hard to know what to give an amazing animal like yours to prolong their life and make sure they’re as healthy as they need to be the whole way through.
But guess what?
You don’t have to worry about if you’re buying into the hype all the pet food companies are slinging at you anymore.
We’ve got a list of the best foods for your husky from puppy stage all the way to when they are a senior right here.
Read on to see exactly what to feed them and which foods give your dog what they need.
But First…Some Dietary Ground Rules
There are a lot of foods you won’t want to feed your husky.
Most vets, breeders and other articles will tell you at least a few of these.
Petsworld has a comprehensive list of foods you should Never feed your dog, which we have broken up for you to make it easier to sift through below.
Vicious Veggies
- Onions, Shallots or Scallions
- Garlic
- Avocado
Fruit Fouls
- Raisins or Grapes
Sinister Snack Foods
- Salty Food
- Cooked Bones
- Chocolate
- Macadamia Nuts
Bad Beverages
- Soda (diet or otherwise)
- Coffee (Decaf or otherwise)
- Alcohol of any kind
- Milk
Evil Extras
- Xylitol (an alcohol-based sweetener)
- Aspartame
- Moldy Foods
- Bread Dough
- Hops
- Raw Eggs and Undercooked Meat
There’re a few caveats here we didn’t include.
For instance, Petsworld listed raw meat while Huskies benefit greatly from a raw food diet.
Also, they had listed bones in general as being a big no-no, but to be honest, your fantastic furball would more than likely love to chomp on a raw bone, and their teeth would reap rewards from that.
With that being said, never give a dog a cooked bone because cooked bones have lost a ton of moisture and are prone to splintering and shattering into shards that can get stuck in a dog’s throat, esophagus and trachea or puncture their intestines.
This could result in pricey visits to the vet and some serious consequences for your dog.
When in doubt, toss it out!
Your Huskies Special Dietary Needs
With a Husky, it’s not all cut and dry though.
Siberian Huskies are a lot different and can have delicate digestive systems.
So you’ll need to keep in mind that these lovely animals are both lactose and gluten intolerant.
Most owners and breeders out there assert that you don’t want your Husky to have any grains in their diet (except for rice, if anything at all). So that means no soy, wheat, corn or otherwise.
Don’t give them ANY cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese, yogurt, milk or other dairy products, gluten, wheat, soy, corn or any other grain unless you want a pup with a seriously sore tummy.
Trust us or feel the wrath.
Don’t do this to your beautiful bow wow.
What Can You Give Your Husky to Eat?
Sounds like a lot of rules, we get it.
Really, it’s more of an instinctual thing here.
You just want to give your Husky the kind of diet they would have had back in the days of the old Arctic.
This glorious dog is a working breed that prefers a simple eating style.
What’s the low-down?
Snowdog.guru puts it best: use a dog food that includes: “protein from whole meat and meal…, primarily use[s] fish, fowl or other grassland animals as a protein base, use[s] a source of complex carbohydrate from legumes, seeds, fruits and vegetables, and include[s] whole sources of fruits or vegetables.”
Yes, it’s really that simple. Fruits, Vegetables, meat and grain/dairy-free.
What is the Best Husky Dog Food?
The best dog food really depends on dog owner perspective.
Are you looking for affordability?
How old is your husky?
What is their activity level?
What kind of diet do you prefer to feed them?
There are a lot of angles to approach this from.
When you have an amazing animal like this, it’s simple yet not.
Not a problem! We’ve got you!
We’ll break it all down so you can see which is best from each side of the cube so you can make the best decision for your gorgeous Siberian Husky and feel comfortable with your choices.
So here we go!
Most Affordable Husky Dog Food:
It’s hard to strike a balance between a quality dog food that doesn’t skimp on good ingredients but will still offer up the same benefits as the other top-shelf foods out there.
A lot of dog owners spend up to a third of their Husky’s life thinking the more expensive grocery store brand pet foods are best only to find that there are dangerous additives in them or that their pet’s skin or gut ailments could have been avoided by spending a few extra dollars per bag at a pet store on something better.
Outweighing risk vs. reward is what it’s all about.
Here’s the more affordable food we found that wasn’t loaded with horrible ingredients that don’t bother most dogs.
1) Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream Canine Recipe with Smoked Salmon
Protein Content: 3.5/5
Fat Content: 5/5
Ingredients List: 4/5
Texture: 4/5
Price: 5/5
Flavor: 5/5
Overall Rating: 4.4/5
Perfect for: Affordability, Picky Huskies, Dogs who Need Lower Protein Content.
Taste of the Wild has become the gold standard in foods for Huskies when you look at affordability in conjunction with the quality of ingredients.
Supplemental nutrients like zinc and selenium for a healthier coat were a huge plus for us when we looked at the guaranteed analysis while the flavor seems to also be a hit, being that it’s smoked salmon.
The drawback we found was an obvious one.
The lack of whole meat proteins as sole protein source was an issue as was the lower protein content.
Also, salt is a lot further up in the ingredients list than we want to see.
Really, it would have been nice to see other ways of delivering protein, more of it and having less ingredients all around.
It still does a fantastic job for what it is with Crude Protein Content of 25%, 15% Crude Fat, and you can get a 30 lb. bag for $50.
See the breakdown of its ingredients and a guaranteed analysis here on the Taste of the Wild site.
Best Puppy Food Pick for Huskies
Husky puppies are super cute and although everyone thinks growing a robust animal means shoveling the food in, it’s important to note that they still have little bellies not yet primed for stuffing full of kibble.
How often should you feed your puppy though?
Huskypuppiesinfo.com notes that keeping a feeding schedule with small meals evenly distributed throughout the day is best for Siberian Husky pups.
Kind of like how we would eat a small breakfast, lunch and dinner, weaning down to two meals at 4-8 months old.
By the time your Husky is 9 months old, they should be working on eating once per day like an adult dog would.
What is the best dog food for them to eat?
2) Nutro Grain-Free Puppy Dry Dog Food
Protein Content: 5/5
Fat Content: 5/5
Ingredients List: 4/5
Texture: 4/5
Price: 4/5
Flavor: 5/5
Overall Rating: 4.5/5
Perfect for: All Stages of Puppy, Affordability, All-around Nutrition.
Nutro does a fantastic job of keeping their ingredients simple enough to be gentle on sensitive stomachs, which helps with the Husky digestive system.
Fat content is relatively low while crude protein is in perfect balance with the Omega fatty acids and other nutrients in this brand.
This formula also helps prevent sensitive skin issues that often arise for Husky puppies.
Pups love the flavor, and the crunchy kibble is great for forming strong jaws.
The big con?
The price, which is especially an issue at first when feeding a growing large breed puppy small portions three times per day.
The alternatives simply don’t measure up, so it’s worth it!
Nutro’s Grain-Free Puppy Dry Dog Food comes with 28% Crude Protein, 17% Crude Fat and a ton of other nutrients like DHA, EPA, Omegas 3 and 6 and vitamins and minerals.
Have a look on the Nutro website to learn more.
Best Wet Dog Food Choice
As the Jerusalem Post echoes, “ [Huskies] get easily bored if they eat the same kind of food for a long time.”.
That’s right, they don’t eat a ton because their species is innately able to go long periods without dining, but this doesn’t mean they aren’t a picky breed when it comes to what they eat.
They go on to recommend that Husky owners don’t abruptly change their diet, but they do suggest mixing it up every once in a while by slowly introducing new foods (commercial or natural) to keep your dog’s palate excited about what it’s encountering.
How do they do it?
You can do so by giving them a raw diet, which shouldn’t be mixed with too much kibble as Foreverhusky.org cautions.
They believe this is because doing so can cause digestive issues with the already sensitive Siberian Husky’s stomach.
However, you can try mixing wet and dry food together for interesting differences in texture and flavor.
Check out the best wet food for Huskies we found here:
3) Merrick Backcountry Grain-Free Wet Dog Food
Protein Content: 3/5
Fat Content: 3/5
Ingredients List: 4/5
Texture: 5/5
Price: 4/5
Flavor: 5/5
Overall Rating: 4/5
Perfect for: Picky Eaters, Pet Owners Looking for Variety in Diet.
Given that we’re betting that you’re going to want to mix this wet food with dry food, we aren’t too concerned about the extremely low protein and fat content in it.
What we do like here is more that the ingredients are a lot better than with other wet foods and it comes in so many flavors.
Backcountry also has a great texture for wet food.
Any Actual Cons here?
We just feel like it would be best mixed with a main source of protein and fat like a dry food of some sort so your Husky is getting an optimal diet.
This food’s Crude Protein Content ranges from 7-9% depending on the flavor while its Crude Fat measures at 4-5%.
So you can see why it is good as a mix-in and not a main meal.
Look at all the flavors and stats on Merrick Backcountry Grain-Free here.
Best Certified Organic/Raw Diet Husky Food
A larger majority of Husky owners are opting to place their pets on a raw diet.
A raw diet consists of raw meats in addition to safe fruits and vegetables, which mimic a Husky’s natural diet like that of their ancestors.
Raw diets have also come to include pet foods that consist of these ingredients in freeze-dried or another less-processed form that cuts down on meal prep time for owners while sticking to high standards.
Freeze-dried foods are much closer to fresh than dry dog food and are typically made with all-natural ingredients.
Usually, these foods have fewer ingredients too, which makes for less chance of something being harsh on your pooch’s stomach –and we all know how easy that is with a Siberian Husky.
Here’s the best one on our radar.
4) Primal Freeze-Dried Nuggets For Dogs
Protein Content: 5/5
Fat Content: 5/5
Ingredients List: 5/5
Texture: 4.5/5
Price: 4/5
Flavor: 5/5
Overall Rating: 4.75/5
Perfect for: Raw Diets, Pet Owners That Buy Organic Only, High-Protein Diets.
It’s hard not to love this food. It’s a raw diet dog’s dream.
It’s got an amazing amount of crude protein, the fat content is right where it should be, the ingredients list is full of good things that are human-edible and it’s as close to fresh as it can be for being a ready-to-eat raw diet choice for Huskies.
There’s also a large variety of flavors for the dog who bores easily. And it’s all Certified Organic!
One downside?
I guess it would have to be the texture not being as crunchy as one would like for keeping that Husky jaw strong, but when the health benefits of Primal’s line are so great, it’s hard not to try to find ways around that like feeding a raw bone or some dental chews the price is an issue too.
Crude Protein Content on this food ranges from 40 to 45% depending on which flavor while Crude Fat Content also moves around some from 20-25% with a massive list of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients to back it up.
Have a look at all the choices Primal has for you in their Freeze-Dried Nuggets selection online now.
Top Protein Content Dog Food
It’s obvious by now that having a high-protein dog food for your Husky is key. High-protein with a nice amount of fat.
But why is that, and does it always need to be that way?
According to Huskyrescue.org, Huskies “require a higher than average protein in their diet.
That means if you are feeding kibble, the protein content should be close to 30% to 40% (depending on the activity level of the dog). The fat content should be around 18% to 20%.”.
But not so fast…
That isn’t necessarily always the case.
The AmericanKennel Club has its own caveat to add here, pointing out that during the Summer, some dogs don’t require a whole lot of protein at all and do quite nicely on as little as 20% crude protein in their diet.
It’s more over the winter and if your Husky is putting in work in a harness or outdoors that they should be having the 40% protein according to their nutrition guidelines.
Regardless of the professional opinion, the protein source is most important, and we found the best one.
5) Ziwi Peak Daily New Zealand Venison Air-Dried Dog Food
Protein Content: 5/5
Fat Content: 4/5
Ingredients List: 5/5
Texture: 4.5/5
Price: 2/5
Flavor: 5/5
Overall Rating: 4.25/5
Perfect for: High-Protein Diets, Quality ingredients, Flavor and texture.
This dog food is superior when it comes to its 45% protein, and it has an unmatched flavor thanks to the air-dried preservation technique and pure venison it uses.
The texture is also a winner because of the moisture content being that ‘just right’ number between a dry food and a not-so-dry one.
What’s the problem then?
The serving size recommendation on Ziwi Peak’s dog food is extremely small because of the crude protein and crude fat content, so your dog might not be so happy about having so little volume for the whole day.
It’s also extremely expensive. We’re talking hundreds of dollars for a month’s worth of food.
Some people will use it as a mix-in supplement, which we would recommend unless you think you can get your Husky accustomed to the small portions for a whole days’ food and are willing to pay the price per bag.
Ziwi Peak comes in at Crude Protein Content of 45% and Crude Fat Content of 25% and also includes 1300 mg/kg of Chondroitin Sulfate for joint health.
Check out all the stats and ingredients on Ziwi Peak’s delicious and high-protein Venison dog food here.
Supreme Senior Husky Dog Food
Senior dogs have special needs –that’s for sure!
Thenest.com cites that your Siberian Husky has a multitude of things to consider that range from an increasingly sensitive digestive system to weakening dental health and the need for more attention to be paid to joints.
You may have focused on protein in your Husky’s food up until now too, but as your Husky gets older, you’ll need to drop this in favor of easing the load on their stomach while absolutely focusing on giving them a higher quality food.
This is the best food we can recommend for your aging Husky.
6) Orijen Senior Dry Dog Food
Protein Content: 4/5
Fat Content: 5/5
Ingredients List: 5/5
Texture: 3.5/5
Price: 4/5
Flavor: 5/5
Overall Rating: 4.4/5
Perfect for: Senior Dogs, Joint Health, High Quality Ingredients, Flavor.
Orijen prides itself on giving your pet top-notch ingredients that are all-natural, uncomplicated and cater to your dog’s age, which is fantastic given the fact that they will need maximized focus on joint health and preventative care for all the other ailments that can sneak up with old age.
The flavor of the food is perfect with whole meat –and for the caliber of food, the price is spot on.
What’s the catch here?
The protein content is a tad high still for a senior dog, and if your dog is starting to have dental issues, the kibble might be a bit hard, which can be helped with good oral hygiene habits and vigilance on your part.
Orijen’s Senior Dry Dog Food has Crude Protein of 38% with Crude Fat Content of 15% and a nice blend of 1400 mg/kg of Glucosamine with 1200 mg/kg of Chondroitin for joint health.
Have a further look at their website for a good breakdown of ingredients and their feeding guide for your senior Husky.
Best Dog Treats for huskies!
Dog treats are tricky business!
They can be loaded with tons of bad stuff like unhealthy fats, salt and other additives no one would want their pet to ingest regularly, but we often overlook this because we give them in such small doses and so sporadically.
But is that really the case?
Think about it. If you give your dog one or two treats a day every day for a year, that’s anywhere from 365 to 730 bites of things you might not really want them to have.
It can be alarming to see what is in those ‘treats’. Even if they’re something your dog is begging for.
Pet owners that run the site ShibaShake.com ran a fantastic taste and health test on treats you can look at here that went through all the different treats to see which were more beneficial and which were just junk food for their Shiba Inus and Siberian Huskies.
What did we find out?
Everything we’ve read –including ShibaShake’s test, kind of summed up what most Husky owners already knew.
A lot of these treats have stuff in them that upsets our doggy’s stomach, messes with their digestion can cause dental damage and contains wheat or something else we can’t or won’t give our pup.
So which ones do we recommend based on what we’ve found out?
1) Greenies Grain-Free Large Dog Dental Treats
Protein Content: 4.5/5
Fat Content: 5/5
Ingredients List: 4/5
Texture: 5/5
Price: 5/5
Flavor: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4.6/5
Perfect for: Dental Hygiene, Affordabilty, and Fighting Bad Breath.
It seems almost too common sense, doesn’t it? But your vet is totally right!
Greenies Grain-Free Large Dog Dental Treats have a good texture for cleaning teeth but not causing a dental disaster or choking hazard like antlers, bones or rawhide chews can.
The other awesome thing is that these dental chews are available in a grain-free version, so your Husky isn’t going to have digestive issues from chewing on them.
The drawback?
Greenies do have a lot of additives in them.
If you like to follow a raw diet with your Husky or prefer a lot of naturally-sourced ingredients for your dog, these aren’t going to fit the bill.
They’re available in 8, 17 or 24 Count packs and have 30% Crude Protein Content with only 8% Crude Fat.
You can have a look at their complete ingredient list and guaranteed analysis on their website.
2) Orijen Tundra Freeze-Dried Treats
Protein Content: 5/5
Fat Content: 3/5
Ingredients List: 5/5
Texture: 5/5
Price: 3/5
Flavor: 5/5
Overall Rating: 4.3/5
Perfect For: All-Natural and Whole Food Husky Diets, Picky Pups.
Orijen is a massive proponent for feeding your Siberian Husky as if it were back in the wild, and they want all dog owners to remember that huskies are indeed the descendants of wolves.
They make all their foods and treats according to that standard, which means natural ingredients, whole foods, and no additives.
With these treats, there is a catch!
Yes, they’re delicious.
Your Husky would probably devour them like they were food instead of treats if they could.
The issue here isn’t ingredients, but it’s the fat content, and that’s why they don’t score as safe as others might.
Fat content needs to come from a dog’s primary food source.
Orijen’s Tundra treats come in 42.5 and 92 g packages, have Crude Protein of 45%, Crude Fat Content of 35% and are made of 100% meat, so no meal in these.
If your dog is super active, these might actually be a better fit.
Get your paws on their nutritional and other info on the Orijen website here.
References
Siberian Husky Feeding Guidelines, Kritesh Anand, Petsworld 2018, accessed 6 January 2019,
Husky and Malamute Diet, Snowdog Guru 2017, accessed 6 January 2019,
Healthy Dog Treats –Reviews from My Shiba and Husky, Shiba Shake 2019, accessed 6 January 2019,
Feeding Siberian Husky Puppies, Danny Bainbridge 2018, Huskypuppiesinfo.com, accessed 6 January 2019, https://www.huskypuppiesinfo.com/feeding-siberian-husky-puppies/
Best Dog Food for Huskies: Don’t Give Your Dog Underrated Foods!, The Jerusalem Post 2016, accessed 7 January 2019, https://www.jpost.com/PromoContent/Pets/Best-Dog-Food-For-Huskies-Dont-Give-your-Dog-Underrated-Foods-445986
What Should I Feed My Husky?, Forever Husky 2018, accessed 7 January 2019, https://foreverhusky.org/husky-101/feeding.html
Siberian Husky Appropriate Diet, Husky Rescue SA 2017, accessed 7 January 2019,
Siberian Husky Fact Sheet on Care, American Kennel Club 2019, accessed 7 January 2019,
How to Care for an Elderly Siberian Husky, Yvonne Ward 2018, accessed 7 January 2019,
Hello Leslie,
Your article is great. I have a Husky puppy, I couldn’t take good care of it and didn’t have a good idea of how much to give or when to give me some food. Let me take good care of him now. Thank you for share this article.