question about coat and weight

Question
Hi! I have 2 sisters, both solid white blue eyed opinionated and very active 13 month old Sibe's. My problem is, one is very skinny, and losing her hair, and has some kind of dermatitis(which is healing nicley) and the other is just fine. Could the weight/coat problem with Shae be because of her diet?? I feed her and Simone the same food (usually Dog Chow) and Simone doesn't seem to have any problems at all. But my poor Shae looks horrible!! They've both been vet checked and seem to have no other problems... any suggestions on feeding or grooming??  please help!!

Answer
It isn't uncommon for dogs to have food allergies that do result in skin/coat problems - and these can vary even within individual families, so having sisters wouldn't be a limiting factor.  I would suggest switching to a premium diet (slowly introducing the new food) and that might help.  Siberians have extremely effective metabolisms and often do very well on high fat/high protein/high energy diets, although they don't need much food at all.  I feed mine a super-premium puppy food even though they are at 3 years old.  We supplement that with a little meat now and then, and they only eat about 1 measuring cup of food per day (1/2 in the morning, 1/2 in the evening).  A 33 lbs bag lasts us 6 weeks or more.  Your vet also might have some diet recommendations that might be the culprit.  As for grooming - don't shave them, bathe as often as they needed (usually no more than about 2 or 3 times a year), brush often and that's it.  There is never a need to cut Sibe fur and in fact, according to the AKC standard, it's illegal to cut anything but the fur between the toes.  Hope that helps some!