Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2011 7:45 am Post subject: Switching from dry to wet advice
Hi,
Our dog Elsie (one year old today!) is currently on dry food (originally it was Arden Grange, but she just seemed bored of it and often didn't eat it, so we changed her to Jollies Lifestage Nutrition, which she also picks at and often doesn't it). We have 2 cats, who are obviously on wet canned food and Elsie goes mad for that, it is a constant battle to keep her away from them when they are eating!
So, we have decided that she must be one of those dogs that prefers wet food, and over the last couple of days she has had a third of a tin of wet mixed in with her dry and it has all been eaten and Elsie absolutely loved it, you could just tell she was happy.
I now want to ensure that I am doing the right thing and get some advice on what is a good wet food, rather than just buying Pedigree Chum as that is what is on the shelf of the shop we were in.
Be gentle on me, hope I've not done the wrong thing by Elsie here.
If your going to go down the wet food route then I would look at something like Naturediet or Arden Grange Partners although I have a feeling she would eat the dry food if she felt nothing else was coming..it may take a couple of days but she certainly wouldn't let herself starve!
I would maybe perservere with the dry food abit longer as it will save you money..although a spoonful of wet food added to the kibble wouldn't hurt. I sometimes do that with my GSP pup.
Also I wouldn't leave the kibble food down for more than 10 minutes anything not eaten by then would be removed and nothing given till next meal, she won't starve herself she's just pulling on your heart strings
____________
_____________________________
Vikki, Ruby, Henry & Hector xxx
I always add water to the kibble to soften it a little. Maybe you could also try giving her a tin of sardines in with her food once or twice a week to see if that tempts her?
I feed them Autarkey (hollistic) dried food mixed with 1/3 tray of Nature Diet or Wainwrights (both really good wet food IMHO). They have that twice a day.
It's a dearer way of feeding than just kibble but my 2 love it (spoilt boys ) and personally I think dogs like/need the taste of meat
Mine eats dry but a couple of times a week he has some butcher tripe as he loves wet food too. Have you tried moistening his dry food with a little warm water to make a sort of gravy. That might encourage him to eat it.
and personally I think dogs like/need the taste of meat
I think it probably goes even deeper than that, in that dogs evolved to eat meat, so the need for it is virtually an instinct. I dont think it's that they "choose" to prefer meat, their bodies and minds are screaming for it.
I know dry complete has everything in a dog needs to survive and remain healthy, but it is totally unnatural for them. I'm sure if something similar was developed for humans, no one would choose to live off it and it alone, well not unless they had food issues.
As for what to feed if you wish to switch to wet food, then there is a fairly good range of processed wet foods now, such as Nature Diet. If you are only wishing to mix a little in with dried food, then something like Butcher's Tripe isn't bad and easily available. If you wish to go even more natural than that, then there are ready prepared Raw foods such as Natural Instinct, or you could go the whole hog and feed a BARF diet.
Thanks everyone for the speedy and helpful advice.
A few mention putting some warm water in the dry food to moisten in. Yes, we have been trying that for a while now. Sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, but certainly isn't a fix all solution for us unfortunately. She always seems to eat dry food with a face of resignation and sadness. She has looked so happy eating over the last couple of days, with the wet mixed in!
I am off to the local pet store with some of these suggested foods written down, let's see how we get on. If you're interested, I'll update over the next few days.
Thanks again to all.
Duncan
added: not sure how that icon ended up appearing at the top of this post, or what it is supposed to mean!
Like the others, I splash some hot water on the the dried biscuits to release the gravy; otherwise Frankie gets liver (sometimes cooked, so a bit of cooking water) or raw, or a raw egg a couple of times a week.
Its easier for us to do this rather than becoming a hostage to tinned food - I have to confess that the smell of it makes me a bit billious....
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You cannot download files in this forum
