Try Switching From Poor Quality Kibble to a Higher Moisture Diet
Adding water to your dry dog or cat food can go a long way to keeping your pet healthy. And if you’re interested in trying out other hydration-increasing foods, we’ve provided some alternative diet options that are considered more moisture-rich below:
Increases Your Cat or Dog’s Hydration
Dehydration is a common problem for dogs and especially cats. In fact, many pets don’t drink enough to properly compensate for their dry food diets and as a result, suffer from chronic, low-grade dehydration.
Hydration is the ticket to the rest of the benefits in this section as it’s the starting place to ensure your animal can process its food, maintain a healthy weight/metabolism, and avoid the health risks associated with dehydration.
Combating dehydration is important, especially if you have a pet that rarely drinks water. Soaking kibble in clean water increases the likelihood that they will get enough water in their day-to-day diet. However, there are other food options that contain more moisture from the get-go.
When rehydrated, dehydrated pet foods are incredibly high in moisture since you add water when preparing the food. Wet foods are also typically high in moisture, as the name suggests.
Can Help With Weight-Loss Goals for Your Pet
The water you add to the dog or cat food will help create that “full” feeling in your pet’s belly. The moisture fills the stomach, encouraging less overeating and the consumption of fewer overall calories. This can be especially effective in successfully executing a weight loss plan for your dog or for your cat.
Additionally, your dog or cat might be bloated due to their diet. When dry dog food or cat food comes in contact with moisture, it swells. If this happens in the digestive tract, it can increase the risk of bloat or gastric torsion, causing dangerous swelling and bloating.
Allowing the kibble to soak before your pet eats the food reduces this risk and helps your pet stay at a healthy weight.
The added water also helps improve your pet’s regularity using the bathroom, which can lessen problems with constipation or water retention.
Soaking Puppy Kibble with Water: Questions Answered!
Dog food labeling can be confusing, misleading, covered in marketing claims, and full of acronyms and mysterious ingredients.
There are eight pieces of information that are required, by law, on pet food packaging in the United States. They are:
But everything else, well, it can take some research to understand exactly what’s going on. Take moisture content, for example.
According to the Pet Food Institute (PFI), sometimes considered a lobby group for the pet food industry, but nonetheless a robust source of information on the ins and outs of pet food, dry pet food contains 10 to 12 percent moisture content, while wet pet food contains 75 to 85 percent moisture.
You can find the amount of moisture reflected in the Guaranteed Analysis (GA) on a pet food package. A GA means the pet food contains what it says it contains and has been through a food trial or a lab test.
Clearly, wet food contains more moisture than a dry kibble — it’s readily apparent in the food itself. Canned and wet dog food can be used interchangeably, and here both refer to dog food packaged in cans.
Moisture content doesn’t actually mean much on its own in terms of the quality of one specific dog food. Dry and wet food can both be nutritious for a dog.
People may choose wet food if their dog doesn’t drink much water because it’s a handy way to keep their dog hydrated. Others prefer canned food because it’s easier for their dog to eat, or their dog really loves it. Senior dogs with dental issues may find canned or wet easier to eat.
To further complicate things, there is a category of dog food called “semi-moist”. Semi-moist food contains 14 to 34 percent moisture. It’s not as popular as plain old kibble or canned food.
The problem, for pet owners, is comparing the overall nutritional profile of dry food to wet food. Comparing wet and dry food packages is tricky. It’s far easier to compare canned food to canned food.
Because of the wildly different moisture levels between canned dog food and dry dog food, it can be hard to compare the nutritional value of wet food to dry food in order to determine what might be the best option for your dog. Food needs to be compared on a “dry matter” basis. You have to pretend both foods don’t contain any moisture at all.
Calculate the percentage of dry matter in each pet food by subtracting the percentage of moisture reported in the GA from 100 percent. For example, the GA for moisture in a can of food might be 70 percent, which equals 30 percent dry matter (100 percent minus 70 percent).
For each product, divide the reported nutrient level you are interested in comparing by that product’s dry matter percentage. Using the example above, if that same product GA reports 10 percent crude protein, then the product has a dry matter protein level of 33 percent (10 percent divided by 30 percent).
You’ll need to follow those steps for each product or ingredient you’re comparing to determine what is the best option for your pet. You probably weren’t expecting to do the math to figure out what you should feed your dog! But doing this enables you to compare things in a more apples to apples way, and less apples to oranges.
But actually, it reflects the natural moisture of the food. Meat and veggies contain water, although, sometimes water is added during the canning process.
Dry food has most of its moisture removed, even if moisture from the meat and other ingredients had originally been present. This helps it last longer and be shelf-stable, as well as give it that distinctive crunch dogs seem to love.
One thing you can always do to make things a little easier on yourself when it comes to selecting high-quality food is to look for a product that lists specific animal protein as the top ingredients. Generally, foods that have animal proteins in the top ingredients contain fewer fillers and are more nutritious. This is because ingredients are listed in descending order of weight.