Nutrition
You are what you eat - a carefully balanced meat-and-dry-food diet, with hot winter soups, fresh summer water and supplements tuned to every dog's needs.
What the dogs eat shapes how healthy and happy they are, and how well they can run. Sled dogs have special food requirements and huge appetites. A normal dog might get by on 1,500 calories a day, but a sled dog can easily consume up to 10,000 calories per day.
- Sled dogs can consume up to 10,000 calories per day vs ~1,500 for a normal dog
- Winter: hot meat or dry-food soups morning and after running, with hundreds of litres of hot water daily
- Winter daily intake ranges from ~2000 to ~7000 calories depending on mileage
- Summer: smaller portions (~500-1000 cal/day) with fresh water changed daily
- Stainless steel bowls, bones from local hunters, and supplements like psyllium as needed
Meat, dry food and winter soups
We feed a mixture of meat and dry food. The dogs love fatty meat, and good dry food adds the nutrients elite athletes need. Winter water would freeze in the bowls, so we push fluids with hot soups and teach the dogs to drink rather than eat snow, which can actually dehydrate them.
A meat or mushed dry-food soup comes first thing, at least two hours before running, and another after, unless it is very hot, when blood ice cubes cool them instead. We go through hundreds of litres of hot water a day. With the evening feed of dry food and meat, the total runs between 2000 and 7000 calories depending on mileage.
Summer feeding and fresh water
In summer the dogs have water at all times, changed once a day so it never stagnates, and the adults eat at the close of the day, usually meat and dry food. They burn c. 500-1000 calories a day now, so portions shrink. Pups start on a high-quality puppy food, then blend into the adults' feeding system.
Bones, supplements and individual needs
Soft food serves dogs recovering from illness or with tooth trouble, and supplements go in as needed, psyllium for instance to steady digestion at the peak of the client season. Bowls are stainless steel, so no rust reaches the food. In elk hunting season locals bring us bones they can't otherwise use. Circle dogs keep theirs freely, while cage pairs are separated for a couple of hours a day to eat in peace. Every dog is an individual with its own eating habits.
Good to know
- Winter daily intake
- ~2000-7000 calories (by mileage)
- Pre-run soup
- At least 2 hours before running
Ready when you are
Real wilderness, 200+ huskies, eighteen winters in.