The Right Diet For Your Best Friend
So, which type of food is best for your dog? That ultimately depends on a variety of factors, including your lifestyle, budget, and your dogs health.
For the average dog, the best diet consists of both wet and dry dog food. Feeding both types of food allows you to take advantage of their benefits while counteracting the drawbacks of each variety. Plus, your pooch will appreciate not eating the same thing for every single meal!
If your dog cannot eat both wet and dry dog food, then we recommend speaking with your vet to ensure theyre getting all of the required nutrients from their diet.
Also, you may need to take some steps to combat the drawbacks of feeding only one type of food. For example, youll need to provide a constant source of clean water if your dog only eats kibble, and you may need to clean your dogs teeth more regularly if they only eat canned food.
With a little planning, youll have yourself a healthy, happy, and well-fed pup!
Feature Image Credit: Image credit: demanescale, Shutterstock
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They Have A Long Shelf Life But Once Opened They Must Be Used Up
While kibble also lasts a long time, canned dog food has a long shelf life and can last for years. This is good when you want to buy in bulk when you see a sale because you know that even if a long time passes, you will still be able to feed it to your dogs, provided that the expiry date has not yet passed. But once you open the canned dog food, you will need to have your dog consume it right away.
Cons Of Home Cooked Dog Food
The cons of home-cooked dog food are as follows:
- Your recipes should be approved by an animal nutritionist, considering how difficult it can be to meet all the required nutrients your dog needs.
- Home-cooked dog food could be more expensive depending on the ingredients you use. If by chance you choose ingredients that you already have, it may only be a little more costly because youll be buying more than usual. Otherwise, itll probably be pretty costly because youll be buying whole new ingredients for another person, which can get expensive quickly.
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Canned Dog Food Dietary Advantages
Due to the moisture content of canned dog food, dogs on weight management feel full and satisfied. Canned dog food provides comfort to senior dogs having difficulty chewing. Also, dogs with urinary tract conditions benefit from the moisture of canned dog food.
For the past months, Sugar has a reoccurring urinary tract infection. Ive been using Holistic Select canned dog food as a topper to her regular dry food. Holistic Select canned dog food recipes provide prebiotic support from chicory root extract for healthy digestion. to read our previous post: Prebiotics in Dog Food.
There are 6 Holistic Select canned dog food recipes: 1) Chicken, 2)Beef, 3)Lamb, 4) Duck, 5) Turkey & Duck, 6) Salmon, Mackerel & Whitefish. Every Holistic Select canned dog food also contains herbs and botanicals ingredients such as pumpkin, papaya and pomegranate. These ingredients combined with Holistic Select premium proteins assist in delivering optimum, natural nutrition for daily whole-body health of your dog.
What To Look For In A Quality Wet Dog Food
An excellent wet dog food can help keep your dogs proper fiber content up because the moisture required to process the food helps in digestion. It should have an adequate protein and fat balance to give your dog energy all day and help build muscle.
Omega fatty acids, especially those from natural sources like fish, can help keep the skin and coat healthy and shiny. Things like glucosamine promote healthy joints and bones. Whole fruits or veggies can provide valuable prebiotic materials and vitamins for immune system support and proper digestion.
For sensitive dogs, single sources of protein are better than multiple sources. Make sure the protein source is a whole, animal source and not a by-product meal or from legume sources, which can impede the production of taurine and cause issues.
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Most Dog Owners Have Heard Of Dry Dog Food And Wet Dog Food Formulas But Did You Know That Theres Also Soft Dry Dog Food Formulas
With all of the dog food options out there, choosing one for your dog can feel overwhelming. A good first step is deciding which form of dog food is right for your dog.
Dry Dog Food FormulasMade of crunchy, dry kibble pieces, dry food for dogs has many benefits. For one, its convenient. Its sold in larger portions than wet food, which means fewer trips to the store and possibly a cost savings. It also takes longer to spoil and does not need to be refrigerated after its opened, so it can be left out for longer periods of time. If you choose to feed your dog dry food formulas, it may be beneficial to his teeth, too, because crunchy kibble can help remove plaque from dogs teeth as they chew.
Wet Dog Food FormulasWet dog food formulas have the highest water content, so it is the softest of the three forms. It is a great choice for dogs that are picky eaters or have difficulty chewing hard kibble due to dental problems or illness. It can be fed on its own or as a topper on dry kibble to provide a boost of flavor and moisture.
Soft Dry Dog Food FormulasA category between wet and dry may be referred to as soft dry dog food formulas. Some dog food brands contain both dry kibble and tender, chewy pieces, which are the soft dry pieces. For example, most Purina ONE® SmartBlend® formulas combine dry kibble with tender, meaty morsels, which enhance palatability and add textural variety.
Wet Vs Dry Dog Food: Advantages & Disadvantages
Picking out dog food can be a fairly complicated venture. With so many different benefits and flavors, it can be hard to decide which type of dog food is right for your pup. Then theres the whole conversation of dry dog food vs. wet dog food, and the balance between the two. Heres everything you need to know about wet and dry dog food next time youre shopping for a delicious meal for your pup.
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Whats Good About Dry Food
Dry dog food is generally what most owners favor as it is usually more convenient, but there are also many health benefits to dry food that do wonders for your dog. A big plus to feeding your dog a dry diet is that it can support their dental health. The texture of dry kibble encourages your dog to chew before they swallow, which improves their digestion and also helps to clean their teeth. All Eukanuba adult and senior diets use an S-shaped kibble that can help provide a brushing effect. Our adult and senior dry diets are also coated in sodium hexametaphosphate, which helps bind calcium in your dog’s saliva to help slow the formation of tartar between meals.
Wet Versus Dry Pet Food: Is One Better For Your Pet
This article was first published in The Skeptical Inquirer
From improving their joints to making fur shine, dog and cat food companies load their products up with bold claims and flashy buzzwords. Even if youve managed to avoid the often-pseudoscientific trends such as raw diets, organic pet food, or vegan kibble, you may still have some questions about the best practices for feeding your feline and canine friends. One of the most fundamental is: Whats better, wet or dry food?
The good news is that either type of pet food can provide your animal with the complete nutrition they need to grow, run, play, and be merry. You can be sure of this by checking the statement of nutritional adequacy that will be found on any pet food. In North America, these statements are regulated by the Association of American Feed Control Officials , and there are equivalent authorities in Europe and elsewhere. The statement of nutritional adequacy will read something along the lines of: for all _____ where the blank is filled in with the type of pet this food is for , and the bracketed part may be omitted.
If your pets food bears this sentence, then you can be sure that if you follow the feeding guidelines on the package , your pet is receiving all of the calories, nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and protein they need. Many companies will also provide instructions for if you want to feed your pet both wet and dry food.
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Should You Consider Giving Your Dog Both Dry And Wet Dog Food
Combining both dry and wet dog food means you can benefit from the budgetary and logistical benefits of kibble while providing your pup with the added flavor canned dog food brings.
Whether you opt for dry kibble only, a wet food diet, or a mixture of both, consistency is essential.
Its best to stick with a regular diet for your pet as any sudden change to your dogs diet can cause an upset stomach and result in your pup not eating their meals.
Canned Food Benefits Dogs With Diabetes Cancer And Other Diseases
Particularly if your dog is already dealing with health issues that tax vital organs such as the kidneys, including cancer and diabetes, you should be doing all you can to reduce the stress your pet’s organs are experiencing on a day-to-day basis.
Diabetic dogs, which deal with kidney stress, will be healthier eating a moisture-rich diet. Switch to canned from dry food for your diabetic dog, even some of the time, and you can successfully reduce organ stress.
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Whats The Best Option For Your Dog
When it comes to choosing what type of food to give your dog, keep in mind different factors, including their age, breed, size, health, and personal preferences. Also, remember that your dog needs a lot of nutrients to stay healthy, so try to choose food that will provide those nutrients.
If your dog is perfectly healthy and has no problems at all, you should use dry dog food, as it contains more nutrients than canned food and is much easier to store. Plus, you can use interactive feeders, such as the one on Amazon.com.
The Outward Hound Fun Feeder will help prevent your dog from eating too fast, which can cause problems. It comes in four sizes and six different designs, so youll be able to find something that suits your dog and its eating style.
However, while dry dog food is the most-used type of dog food, it has many cons. It doesnt have a variety of flavors with a lot of chemicals and preservatives. Regardless of that, dry dog food is still likely a better option depending on your dog.
If your dog is a senior dog, has mouth problems, and/or other health issues, theres a chance that canned dog food will be better for your dog. Canned dog food is softer, easier to digest, and has fewer preservatives and carbs than dry dog food.
All in all, it depends on the dog and your preferences. Remember to consult a vet if youre unsure of what type of food will best suit your dog.
Should I Feed Kibble Or Canned Dog Food
There are some dogs who simply absolutely must have canned dog food, but these dogs have an obvious reason. Dogs that are missing vital chewing teeth, for instance, need canned dog food. Dogs that are raised completely on canned dog food are not likely to make the switch to the effort associated with dry dog food later in life. This is sort of like asking someone who has eaten oatmeal every morning for the last sixty years to suddenly wake up and start chomping down peanut brittle for breakfast. There is comfort in the softness and ease of a puddled meal. There is something disconcerting in the effort of crunching, at least in the mind of the sixty year old man and the dog who has lived solely on canned dog food.
Canned dog food is almost always more appetizing to dogs. There are plenty of suggestions to help explain this, but none that are based completely in fact. Some people believe that it is so much more attractive to dogs because it isnt as healthy for them. This depends entirely on which line of dog food youre plucking off the shelves. If you are filling your dog up on filler in the form of a hard dog food, there are plenty of high real protein filled cans out there that would shame the hard food at the nutrition counter.
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Canned Food May Contain Fewer Preservatives Than Dry Food
If you are concerned about added preservatives in your dog food, canned food may be for you.
Due to their air-tight packaging, canned dog foods contain no synthetic preservatives, according to Dog Food Advisor. So, fats and oils sealed inside dont easily become rancid.
Always read labels to know for sure what is in your canned food. Its not impossible for there to be unwanted preservatives in a product and reading ingredient labels is the only way to know for sure.
Wherase canned food is preserved by the process of canning, most kibble is preserved artificially, according to Dogs Naturally Magazine.
Can I Mix Wet And Dry Dog Food
Mixing wet and dry dog food or wet and dry cat food is fine as long as both options are of high quality and meet your pets nutritional and other health needs. Quality wet and dry foods are formulated to provide your pet with all the protein, fat, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients they need to thrive.
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Wet Dog Food Vs Dry Dog Food
This article is written by Pet Circle veterinarian, Dr Carla Paszkowski, BVSc
With so much going on in our lives, we want things like our pet’s food to be convenient. One of the easiest ways to feed our pets is to simply purchase a big bag of dry food, as it provides food for weeks to or even months to come. But could this be detrimental to your pet’s health? Is wet food better than dry, or vice versa?
Whole Dog Journal Explains The Differences Between The Two Types Of Commercial Food
Caring guardians of companion canines often wonder whether one form of commercially prepared food kibble or canned is better than the other. The truth is, both types of food have relative advantages and disadvantages in terms of palatability, digestibility, and necessity for preservatives or other chemical additives.
While they generally meet the same chemical composition standards in terms of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, these types of food provide very different nutritional value. Canned foods contain more protein and fat than dry foods, and they typically contain a greater percentage of animal-based ingredients than dry foods . There is a limit about 50 percent to the amount of animal-based products that dry foods can contain the machinery that mixes and extrudes kibble gums up if less than half of the dry food ingredients are carbohydrates .
More whole ingredients, such as meat and poultry appear at the top of the list in canned foods, because they are high in natural moisture content. Lower-quality canned foods utilize meat by-products, which contain no muscle meat, but consist of organs such as intestines, spleens and lungs, and other parts of the carcass that are undesirable or unfit for human consumption. Chicken or poultry by-products may contain a little bit of muscle meat, but are still mostly guts.
Canned food is usually more palatable than dry, and may be more successful in tempting a sick or fussy dog to eat.
-By Jean Hofve, DVM
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Supplementing Your Dog’s Dry Food With Canned Food
If you are currently feeding your pet a straight dry diet, I hope I’ve already convinced you to include canned at least on a part-time basis. There are countless benefits of canned dog food!
Your dog’s diet should include a variety of different foods, so including wet food, even if you continue to feed kibble primarily, will benefit your pet.
This way, your canine will have the benefits of both kibble and canned diets and fewer of the cons associated with either feeding method. Check out What Should I Feed My Dog for more tips to help you find the best diet for your dog.
If you are shopping dog food in Canada find yourself wondering, is there tax on dog food in Canada, the answer is yes. All dog food must be taxed.
Is Wet Dog Food Good For Puppies
Canned food also has higher water content, which can be beneficial for doggos with certain health considerations. Fat and protein are more prevalent in wet food, so this may be a good option if your puppy requires a higher protein diet, but not a good choice for puppies who need to watch their fat consumption.
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Whats Wrong With Preservatives In Dog Food
But whats the problem with preservatives? For one thing, many preservatives in cheaper pet foods are not naturally derived.
Theyre non-foods that would never naturally occur in your pets diet. Most provide no other nutritional benefit to your pets food other than making it last a long time on the shelf.
Most of the time, a long shelf-life isnt even a real convenience for you. Generally, you probably buy dog food and use it up within, at most, a few months. This benefit is for the pet food manufacturer and the pet store, instead.
They can have the same food stored in their warehouses, back rooms, and shelves for sometimes years before having to check for expiration dates and refresh their stock. Business-wise, the longer the shelf-life, the less money is lost through expired products that cannot be sold.
Other than providing no real benefit to you or your dog, preservatives may actually harm your pet. Some common preservatives, such as nitrates or nitrites, are known carcinogens.
There are other options out there. Choose foods with natural preservatives whenever possible, or go the no-preservative route with canned foods.