Nordic Breed Information and Help

Nordic/Wolf Nutrition

Here you will find information on how to feed your Malamute/Nordic Dog or what you can do to spoil them with the best diet.

Nordic dogs are thought by some to have a primitive digestive system. The general idea is that that their colon is supposedly a bit shorter than the modern dog. It is said that because of this reason mainly, that they can handle raw meats better. An ordinary domesticated dog will also benefit from a nordic type diet however, but care must be taken to introduce the diet slowly so their digestive system can get used to the change.

A Dogs stomach is designed to handle many sorts of bacteria, much better so that humans. Salmonella will die in the stomach of a dog. Bacteria present on rotting decaying meat will not live either. A dogs stomach is very strong when it comes to assimilating raw meats and bacteria's. It is advised that you get your dog used to this slowly before you try giving it something that has been decaying for a lengthy period of time or something that is suspected of being full of bacteria.

Maintaining the proper weight is critical to ensuring good health in your dog. Underweight dogs often suffer from poor muscle tone, delayed healing, loss of energy, and metabolic and reproductive disorders. Overweight dogs, which are much more common, suffer from arthritic problems, an increased incidence of metabolic disease including diabetes and liver problems, as well as a lack of energy, and an increase in skin problems. They may also have a shortened life expectancy. The health benefits from providing proper nutrition in the correct amount are immeasurable.

Alot of people opt for what's called a B.A.R.F. diet. This is other wise known as the Bones and Raw Food Diet. If one were to adopt this type of diet, you would be feeding your dog strictly uncooked raw meats, other raw foods such as vegetables, and bones. It is thought that this is the healthiest diet you can give any breed of dog by alot of scientists and veterinarians. This diet should be also given to any dog that has cancer. This diet alone has the potential to cure cancer if you give it food with high enough antioxidants and include a full supply of vitamins.

A good cancer diet of raw food is raw organic never-frozen chicken wings, and a mixture of ground never-frozen turkey, blended broccoli, wheat germ, and flax seed. Also a daily array of vitamins/minerals and supplements such as a double dose of vitamin c, a double dose of vitamin e, vitamin b complex, vitamin a, calcium, magnesium, CO-q10 enzyme, selenium(1/3rd dosage), flax seed oil, and other high antioxidant measures such as grape seed extract, and pycnogenol (french-maritime pine bark extract) both found at GNC and other good health supply stores. A good well rounded antioxidant formula is called "Cell Protector" found also at GNC and contains small amounts of Pycnogenol and Grape Seed Extract which should help keep tumors in remission I believe. If you wish to administer these to your dog you must insert the pills into the ground turkey, or buy a "pill popper" from your local pet store and fill the tube full of pills, wet them down in the sink so they aren't too dry going in, then insert them.

If you feed your dog a dry based dog food, then you have basically 2 choices when purchasing this dry dog food. The first choice is commercial dry dog food, the second choice is premium dry dog food. The commercial diets are most commonly found and are inferior to the premium diets. I trust Pedigree and Purina Dog Chow as being the ONLY options in commercial dry dog foods. As far as premium diets, there are many choices. One i particularly like which is relatively less expensive is called "Authority" and is found at Pet-Smart company. This is about the least expensive premium diet there is. Eukanuba and Iams are still in question, and Iams has been accused of animal cruelty as well, and Eukanuba is basically made by Iams i believe. Science Diet is supposed to be a good diet, and NutroMax i have personally used as well, not for long term, but i believe it is a good diet.

Lamb and Rice is not supposed to be fed to your dog, it is reserved for the case that should a beef allergy surface in the form is skin problems and constant itching, then you should go to a chicken based diet. If the allergy still persists then we have Lamb and Rice. Its supposed to alleviate the skin allergies, but is not intended for a mainstream diet. I always try to keep the dogs on a chicken based diet, there is less allergy problems overall when using chicken/vs./beef.

IF you don't use a premium diet for your dogs health, and have a Wal-mart nearby, then check into the Purina Dog Chow. It is usually the cheapest choice per pound vs. health needs. It is "Always" good to supplement a dogs diet with raw meats and a variety of fruits and or nuts and other healthy human type foods and the like when keeping your dog strictly on a cheap commercial dog food type diet. Just pay close attention to keep down on the fatty food intake.

Wetting down the dry dog food now and then is always a good treat for them, especially if its with hot water. Try not to wet their food down all the time as it is counter productive to clean teeth, leading to eventual failure of the teeth mouth to take in enough nutrition to stay healthy unless its thoroughly wet, eventually leading to starvation, then premature death in old age. Healthy teeth is important to longevity.

Human food is good for dogs, and is ok for dogs to eat, but try to stay away from dairy products especially, and always opt for un-cooked whenever possible, as un-cooked foods are always healthier than cooked foods. Also, as mentioned previously, when buying meats try to avoid frozen meats as there is something that happens to the fatty-acids and or other components and they supposedly become "useless" after being frozen.

Specific items that are good to give the dogs as treats can include sliced pieces of fruit, sliced nutritional vegetables, nuts such as walnuts, pecans, almonds, and cashews. Left over sandwich pieces, and hot dogs and the like are always ok as well, just try to pull out any cheese before you give it to them, and they always love leftover steak.

Bones is another topic. I give my malamutes every single bone that comes out of the house. This isn't always recommended however, since cooked bird bones in particular can be a danger to some dogs. There has never been a single incident in over 30 years of giving big dogs these bones. Always monitor them to be sure they get the bones down if you must give them these types of bones as they splinter easily and can lodge in their throat and cause an immediate vet visit. Every year for the holidays the dogs get the turkey carcass and leftovers and they literally inhale the sternum of the turkey, how, i do not know. They seem to know their limits once they have experience eating bones. If the bones are uncooked then any bone is generally ok, such as raw chicken bones and other birds. Beef bones are always ok, so they don't really need monitoring when eating these. Bones are excellent for dogs, especially when uncooked. Once cooked they lose alot of their nutritional value, but still serve as excellent teeth cleaners and stomach fillers/treats for the dogs. If your dog has white stools after eating bones this is a healthy sign of good stomach acids, where the bone is completely broken down before passing into the intestines.