What do you prefer to give your pets? For me it depends from pet to pet. My cat for example won't touch dry foods, she needs to eat the canned and wet stuff, while my dog will happily eat the dry food and only has wet food when it's some leftovers from our own food. Is it just a cat/dog differentiation or have you had different experiences?
Like you mentioned I think it depends on the brand you get. You need to make sure it's a more natural higher quality brand of dog food than the run of the mill brand because any old brand can make your dog sick, that's what I've found. Plus I've read that wet dog foods have recalls at a higher rate then dry food. My dogs would probably like the taste of the wetfood better.
We used to give our dogs dry dog food, we have never given him the wet kind. Now we just feed our lone dog table food, because he really doesn't like dog food. As for my cat, I used to feed him dry cat food as well, he seemed to love it, but after he developed kidney stones from it after feeding him dry cat food for a year, I just feed him table food too, no more cat food for him.
I give my dogs dry dog food with some mixed can food. I suggest use Pedigree. I am a co owner of Sampsons Kennels for more than 20 years. Sometimes I would just use dry dog food and then put vegetables and chicken in with it, with a tablespoon of olive oil.
I feed my cats a mix of both. Wet food is important to them because as carnivores they don't really drink lots of water since in the wild carnivores get water from meat. So without wet food they can become dehydrated. Also it's more healthy for them. But I also give them dry food. One reason is it would be very expensive to feed 5 cats on wet food only but mostly because a wet only diet means they get less solid poops which makes cleanup much harder. You should feed just human food to cats, they need specific nutrients and will become malnourished and die if they don't get them.
It's so hard to decide....I do half dry, half wet, with powdered enzymes thrown in. She used to beg to go out and eat grass, but the digestive enzymes seems to have stopped that. I hear that you shouldn't give them table food...but, when they stare at you with that pitiful look, it's hard to say no. ( Mollie, chihuahua-10 yrs old).
It doesn't matter to me whether its dry or wet...the most important factor is whether it has the essential meats included. We like to make sure our dog had eggs, and heavy amounts of meat protein; also, if there were any fillers, that they were vegetables and not grains...I love what my vet said once, "You never see a dog harvesting grain in the wild". It put a funny image in my head of my 65 pound dog standig on his hind legs threshing.
In general I give him dry food, not only is it better for the dog but it lasts longer and doesn't go bad for several months. However as my dog had a sensitive palate I will sometimes mix in a little bit of unseasoned chicken or even some canned food to make his meal more pleasant.
We give a combination of wet, dry and table food for our cats. I've read that this is good for their overall health. Dry food keeps their teeth healthy as they need something hard to bite on to clean it. Too much dry food can cause kidney problems for them. Just like humans, they also need a balanced diet.
