As we have found dog nutrition to be quite a taboo subject, the information on this page is purely based on our own experiences and what we believe to be best for our team of huskies. It does not pretend or intend to demoralise any other view or what others believe in as to be right.

Note for Animal owners

We advise anyone that is pursuing a food type other then commercially recommended for your pet, to seek the advice of a licensed veterinarian to verify the right nutrition.

We have gone through many ups and downs with regards to sled dog nutrition, starting of with our first husky on a complete kibble diet, leading into a full natural diet as recommended by Dr. Tom Longdales, author of the Raw Meaty Bones book and Dr. Ian Billghurst’s book, titled Give Your Dog a Bone, although not recommend by our own vet and to where our experiences start…

In the Summer of 2003, I attended one of Dr. Tom Longdales seminars, which I found to be a real eye opener at the time, a really interesting seminar to say the least; where he was expressing that dogs need only Raw Meaty Bones as a major part of there diet, and very little else in the food department, besides the odd leftover table scraps and grass cuttings.

Interested in the diet, I followed up the seminar with reading his book and applying the diet to our team. For a couple of months we continued feeding the diet and found no immediate problems, but it did seem to us that the dog’s energy levels where deteriorating, especially when running them in harness on the trail, and as time went by, it did not improve.

Although the Raw Meaty Bones & BARF diet is not written purely for working sled dogs in mind, as most northern breeds have a high requirement for fatty acids and a relatively low requirement for carbohydrates when compared to other breeds, but our own experiences on feeding a mostly meaty bone base diet with some table scraps and liquidise vegetables, led to sled dogs that lacked energy, sometimes sick and lacked enthusiasm to run in harness. So in light of this, we temporarily went back to a full kibble diet where the dog’s energy levels where restored over a period of three weeks.

Now, after further research, we applied a half truth in the books and a half truth in the commercial food chain as recommended by most vets, and now feed a meat and kibble based diet and have found the dogs to be absolutely fine. Yes, we don’t agree on the mark up of the manufactured foods, when you consider the price of the ingredients, but we do believe they do well along with meat and fat as part of a complete diet for racing sled dogs.

Water is the most important and often ignored and cheapest element of a diet. Always make sure that your dogs are well hydrated. Dehydration will only lessen performance and the dog’s health, bait water with treats if necessary to encourage drinking.

Our basic feeding program on average consist of 47.5% meat, tripe/raw meaty bones, 47.5% kibble (28/18) and 5% fat (Cod liver oil, Lard, Animal fat, Flax or Wheat germ oil). The average nutrition values this would achieve are as follows.

34.07% Protean
30.86% Fat
24.88% Carbohydrates
07.08% Ash
03.11% Fiber

25.27% Protean
56.27% Fat
18.46% Carbohydrates

Depending on the environmental temperatures and work level, we tend to vary the level of fat and/or meat to achieve the appropriate protein, fat and carbohydrate ratios required; usually increasing the protein (achieved by meat) and fat levels, decreasing the level of carbohydrates when environmental temperatures are best for working sled dogs.

Note: We are not animal nutritionists; research into what you decide best for your dogs’ nutrition thoroughly.