Is it OK to feed my dog both canned and dry dog food?

There are all sorts of arguments among dog owners, veterinarians, and other dog experts about what sort of food is best for dogs. Often, it gets split into two categories – dry food or canned food. Although there is no real “correct answer”, as there are superb quality foods in both categories, dry tends to be the easier, more convenient choice. The calorific density of dried food is much higher than canned food, because canned food (or “wet food”) has a very high water content. This means that for a dog to receive the same number of calories from a canned food as he does from a dry food, he'd have to eat a much larger volume of the canned food. For large breeds in particular, this can be a problem, since eating enough canned food to provide their bodies with the right amount of calories can be difficult. It's generally not such an issue with smaller breeds, but it's still worth bearing in mind, especially when you bring the cost factor into it! The amount of dry food you need to feed your dog is smaller than the amount of wet food you need to feed him in order to give him the correct amount of nutrients, so dry food can work out to be a lot cheaper in the long run. This also applies to the debate about which brand to buy, incidentally – the amount of high quality (more expensive) food that a dog needs to eat on a daily basis is going to be much smaller than the amount of low quality food he needs for the same nutritional value. So over time, you'll find that the expensive brand might actually end up being cheaper after all, since you need to buy less of it.

 

Of course, despite these arguments in favor of dry food, there's the obvious factor of wet food appealing much more to the dogs themselves. The variety of canned food is enormous, with many different flavors and textures, which are all closer to the taste, smell, and texture of real meat than dry food can be. Because of this, dogs do tend to enjoy canned food more, which puts some sensitive owners into a quandary. They want to give their dog the very best for their health, and believe that dry food is the answer – but they also want their dog to be happy and enjoy what they give him to eat, and believe that canned food is the answer.

So why not combine the two? There's really no problem with doing this. Use a high quality dry food for the bulk of the meal, but mix in a little canned food for extra flavor, variety, and texture. A recommended ratio is 75% dry food to 25% wet food. Just remember when you're doing this that you'll have to reduce the amount of dry food, as with the extra nutrients contained in the canned food, you'd be overfeeding him if you just added that in on top of his regular portion of dry food. Cut down the amount of dry food, and make it up with canned food. Canned food is not without its benefits, also, so you're likely to be making your dog's meal even better for him as well as more enjoyable! It contains much more moisture, for example, which benefits the urinary tract and helps to keep dogs hydrated.

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