Do You Mix In Canned Food?

Discussion in Pets started by Feneth • Mar 27, 2015.

  1. Feneth

    FenethActive Member

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    We used to feed our dog raw but switched back to kibble. He's been on strictly dry kibble for a few years now. He's 8 years old. Recently, he has been seriously restricting the amount of kibble he eats. He only eats a little at the end of the day when he's starving BUT he has plenty of appetite when we offer him human food or canned dog food. Mixing canned with the kibble gets him to eat more. The vet confirms that he's healthy for his age (some minor joint issues) and his teeth are fine but shouldn't lose any more weight. He suggested always mixing canned food with the kibble, topping the kibble with gravy, or feeding strictly high quality canned food or freshpet food.

    Do you feed your dog canned food? if so, do you feed strictly canned or mix with kibble? Are you happy with the way you feed?
     
  2. IcyFirefly

    IcyFireflyActive Member

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    Canned food is so expensive for me to afford. My puppy is already 50 lbs, and he is eating kibbles. I am thinking of making my own chicken and rice to mix it in his dry food. When he was sick, I did this, and he seems to love it.
     
  3. Aladar

    AladarWell-Known Member

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    Yeah, we do that for our cat. She doesn't really lke to eat dry food by itself, so we mix her dry food with some wet food, and she usually eats it all. Sometimes she just eats the wet food and carefully picks away the dry, heh.
     
  4. Adrianna

    AdriannaNew Member

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    Hmmmm. Dry food is best, clean healthy with no bad chemicals. Vets always recommend the rice thing. You want to be careful with that one. They are not really meant to have that. If it is a farm grown bulk rice not boxed or processed. Canned dog food is really not good for them; it twists their stomach eventually. The esophagus gets messed up too and they can't breath. A symptom will be coughing or throwing up a lot. Please don't give them this no matter how happy they seem when they eat it.
    You just have to retrain for the right food. They will eat it if that is all they get. Just like little kids. Mine is pretty happy about the dry when he's hungry. They don't have to eat it the moment you put it down. They are looking for the other and may walk away for awhile but that's cause they were spoiled a bit. The doggie will adjust, but the can will kill them or they will need an operation to fix the stomach that is expensive.
     
  5. chiofthenorns

    chiofthenornsActive Member

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    Canned food is much better (IMO) than dry kibble especially if you are giving your dog grocery store dog food. My fiancee is feeding his dog Taste of the Wild which is much better than other brands. Anyway, giving your dog canned food or mixing it kibbles is good especially because he is old. It will help his digestion.
     
  6. Diane Lane

    Diane LaneWell-Known Member

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    I've always been told by Vets and also have read, that dry food is dangerous, because it can have negative implications on their kidneys. I actually just stopped feeding dry here in the house, although I still give it, mixed in with water, to the strays. I can't afford better for the strays, but for my (indoors) cats, I feed them canned, mixed in with a little rice or oatmeal, additional protein in the form of meat or fish, a bit of veggies, a small amount of olive oil, water, and a little egg and cheese, as well as Missing Link formula, for additional vitamins and minerals.

    In addition to kidney issues, sometimes dogs and cats will shy away from dry food if their teeth or gums are hurting, which is the case with many older animals. I'm trying out the strictly wet diet for now, to see what differences I observe in the kitties.
     
  7. Pat

    PatWell-Known Member

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    When we had a pet we would mix the canned food with the dry food to give the dog a more interesting meal. I don't have a pet now but if I did I would probable continue to add the two together for a more complete meal for the pet.
     
  8. Diane Lane

    Diane LaneWell-Known Member

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    Yes, that's a good point, @Pat@Pat, I wasn't meaning to demonize dry kibble, but wouldn't serve it exclusively. I even occasionally mix wet in with the dry food I serve to the stray cats, in addition to mixing it with water. Since they're outside kitties, and are strays, their diets are limited to what I can give them (and one apparently lives next door, but stays and eats here for the most part), so the Texas Summer heat dehydrates them, and even though they have bowls of water out there, cats don't tend to drink as much water as they should.

    They really seem to enjoy the dry food, and at least one of my indoor cats does too, which is why I've stopped leaving it out all the time, because that's almost all he was eating. I noticed he seemed to be straining when using the litter box, so, although I might mix in a little dry with his wet food, I'm not going to leave it out, otherwise he'd rarely eat the wet, and would be dehydrated.
     
  9. Sue

    SueActive Member

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    My cats get a variety of dry and wet food. I don't mix them together. I give them some wet food twice a day. The bolw of dry food is just there for them to snack on between meals or through the night. They enjoy both types of food but they always look forward to their wet food. There are so many different flavors that you can switch them up often to give them more of a variety.
     
  10. sidney

    sidneyWell-Known Member

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    Our dog is quite picky and doesn't like to eat dog food. He prefers human food. I remember that my dad tried to not give him anything so that he has no choice but to eat the dog food. It worked and our dog ate it. But after the dog food ran out, he always just gave him human food.
     
  11. ohiotom76

    ohiotom76Well-Known Member

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    We mix the two together, or limit the wet food to only one can a day per pet, and let them eat the dry stuff throughout the rest of the day, or whenever they got the munchies. We've done this for both our dogs and our cats. I've always heard conflicting advice over wet food - some argue that it's better for pets, while other say it's bad for them - I never really know who to trust.

    In fact, in many cases we would actually split one can across all three of our dogs or cats, by mixing each of their bowls with a little dry food to stretch it out further.

    I always get nervous with dry food, that perhaps a bag we bought was really old and maybe has some sort of mold growing on it which could make our dogs sick.
     
  12. Corzhens

    CorzhensWell-Known Member

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    The mention of raw food reminds me of a friend in the province who attended a seminar on shih tzu - he is a shih tzu lover and has 3 at home. The seminar taught them to feed raw chicken meat to their dogs. That friend even uploaded a video of his feeding raw to his dogs. I shivered at the thought. But after a month, that friend stopped that and went back to ordinary dog feeding. He said one of his dogs developed skin rashes.
     
  13. Lushlala

    LushlalaWell-Known Member

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    I don't have pets, but whenever I am feeding my brother's dogs I do mix in the doggie pellets/biscuits with canned food to make it more palatable and less dry. I've seen dogs sniff and turn their nose up at dry biscuits, and I can understand LOL
     
  14. Peachdejour

    PeachdejourMember

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    My dog is starting to have this problem too. I just bought a food that has a lot of Omega-3 and protein because she has dry skin, but it seems dryer. I'm going to try mixing some rice in tonight. If she likes it, I'll have her daddy go run out for a bulk bag of rice. We each a lot of rice anyhow since I eat a from scratch raw type of diet because of my food allergies. She can eat rice with her fancy food.
     
  15. isabbbela

    isabbbelaWell-Known Member

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    I only give dry food to my cat, because he eats very well. No with my dog, he's up the key and spoiled eater. Sometimes he won't want to eat, he only wants treats and things that we are eating! So sometimes I'll put on some wet food with his regular dry food.
    Lately I haven't been using much wet food at all, because he has skin allergies and I am testing to see if it could be because of the wet food. His dry food is already hypoallergenic.