Wet vs Dry food

DeadlyByDesign

So I have started Buddy out on a dry food at 23% protein 3 times a day. I have flirted putting some high quality wet food in with it just so he does not get bored of it. I am not sure whether to do so or not as I have heard wet food is not good to feed them? Can comeone advise here please?

TooManyDogs

It depends on how much wet food you're planning on giving and what quality it is.

Feeding only wet food is a disaster for their dental care. Most dogs only on wet food have huge plaque problems and their teeth look years older than they are. You'll have to be extremely consious of giving them hard chewy treats to help clean their teeth or get them professionally cleaned regularily.

A lot of the freely available cans of food aren't great quality so is the equivalent of feeding them mc donalds every day. Very tasty but not much nutritional value.

Mixing a small amount of wet food through his food wouldnt harm him if he got it occassionally but you'd run the risk of him not being interested in the dry food only if you mixed it through every day because the wet does taste far nicer for them. Also if you are going to mix wet food in regularily you'd probably have to look at using a mixer nugget rather than complete so the protein balance doesn't exceed what he should be getting. He's a newfie isn't he? Those who have giant breeds would be able to give you more info on that but that's my 2 cents worth anyway, if he's happy eating dry food then i'd leave him at it!

DeadlyByDesign

Nah he's a Dane. Just asking because the sitter said that she mixed some wet in yesterday and I nearly had a heart attack (new daddy syndrome). I generally feed him brekkie in the morning, she feeds him in the day and then i feed him again the evening.

tk123

He's still a baby - give him a few weeks to get greedier and you won't have to worry about him getting bored with the dry food lol You could always mix in some veg? I try to stick with dry for our guy so it cleans his teeth and so he has nice firm poos but since he's been on crate rest I've started soaking some of the dry food in water and mashing it up to put in his kong to keep him busy - at least this way it's all the one brand of food so I don't have to worry about upset tummies!

lrushe

If I don't have any raw meat to add to my dogs dinner I will heat up a spoon or 2 of wet food and add it to their dry food just to make it a bit more appetising, no harm

RubyGirl

Try mix a tin of tuna with sunflower oil thru it or raw egg will make it tasty.

Zapperzy

DeadlyByDesign wrote: »

So I have started Buddy out on a dry food at 23% protein 3 times a day. I have flirted putting some high quality wet food in with it just so he does not get bored of it. I am not sure whether to do so or not as I have heard wet food is not good to feed them? Can comeone advise here please?

Which wet food are you thinking of using? I use naturediet but applaws (it's not complete so cannot be fed on it's own), nature's harvest, bozita, burns and forthglade are all of very high quality. Tbh I wouldn't bother adding wet food if your going to use something like brandy or pedigree.

I don't buy into the belief that dry food keeps your dog's teeth clean (unless it's specifically for cleaning teeth such as hill's prescription food) so I would have no worries about feeding a completely wet diet (it would however be expensive, especially for a dane :eek:) or a 50:50 wet:dry diet. The best thing you could do for your dog's teeth is to get them used to brushing their teeth with a toothbrush and toothpaste (not human toothpaste) from a young age.

I have no experience with giant breeds so can't comment on protein levels. I would just watch out for him becoming fussy if you do decide to mix in some wet, if he starts picking around the dry food just stop the wet food for a while. And as with all new foods start out small and build up the amounts.

TentCrasher

lrushe wrote: »

If I don't have any raw meat to add to my dogs dinner I will heat up a spoon or 2 of wet food and add it to their dry food just to make it a bit more appetising, no harm

Ive never gave my dog raw meat, must try that out. Normally give him dry with a mix of either rice, carrot, tinned wet or just water and small amount of honey.

lrushe

TentCrasher wrote: »

Ive never gave my dog raw meat, must try that out. Normally give him dry with a mix of either rice, carrot, tinned wet or just water and small amount of honey.

Given the choice I rather give them raw meat or tinned mackerel than commerical wet food, I also add veggies too. If you are giving them raw meat you don't need to give them a dry food with a high protein % as the raw meat will be high in protein and too much protein can make a dog hyper.

The Sweeper

Be wary of adding water to dry kibble. The ingredients in kibble can go off very quickly if it gets wet, so if you're wetting it and giving it to the dog immediately that's one thing, but I wouldn't wet kibble that'll be lying down all day.

I would definitely look into raw food for a Great Dane, even as one of his three puppy meals a day. I certainly don't have a giant breed dog, but I have a large breed (I have a bull arab) and at approaching 8 months he's a pleasant 25kgs and he's doing extremely well indeed on a raw diet. My pup was severely underweight when I got him, and I managed to get the weight on him and good condition into his skin and coat (he had ringworm and a wormy, wiry coat and bald knees and belly) - I used human-grade raw meat.

I started my guy on raw chicken necks, with fatty beef mince to help get the weight on him, plus some raw lamb or beef liver every other meal (not a lot of it though). As he's grown, he's graduated to chicken legs, lamb ribs, lamb necks and so on. Raised on mostly raw, he's used to dealing with bones and he takes his time and chews and crunches instead of gobbling and gulping. He has a magnificent head of white, white teeth (that's the 'bull' part of the bull arab - he's got a big set of landshark jaws on him) and his weight and his coat are good.

As summer's setting in here, I will feed dry food, but at the moment I feed Canidae, which is a higher-protein dry than you might want to use, but it's grain-free, which I like. He's not as fond of it as he is of his raw though!

luvdogs

He sounds like a good eater so i wouldnt worry about him getting bored, be sure to add sunflower oil to his din though!
i wet my dry food using hot...not boiling...water and feed after it soaks, say 20mins. it warms the food up which makes it more appealing too.
the more stuff you add the fussier you could make him which in danes, as they need to eat such a quantity of food while they`re growing, can make meal times a worry.
i really wouldnt give him any raw meat etc till hes out of the fast growing stage...you want the growth slow and steady.
i`ve always reared my danes this way with great results
dont forget the sunflower oil and 1000mg vit c every day too