So luna is 10 weeks and proven to be a very fussy water already. On taste of the wild but seems do granite towards the Pomeranians wet food! Can't blame her lol. Anyway, was wondering if anybody here mixes a little wet food with the dry just to moisten it up. I tried it and she devoured her kibble in inder 1 min. Anybody else do this every meal? Would this be ok to start feeding her this way?

Yep, I feed wet mixed with kibble at every meal. The more moisture in the food the better, but canned tends to be cost prohibitive when feeding larger dogs which is why I feed a mix. Plus by mixing wet I can rotate the canned portion a lot more frequently than the dry. The dry food gets changed every 2 months but the wet food changes every 3 days. But don't start mixing wet unless you plan to do it long term.

Ok great, yes I do plan long term. Do you stick with same brand for wet and dry? Also when you switch foods do you stick with same brand?

Nope, I switch both within a brand and to different brands as well for both wet and dry. Rotation, rotation, rotation. I am always looking to keep my dogs' diets varied not just for their long term health but also to keep mealtimes interesting. I enjoy my food and I want my dogs to enjoy theirs too.  

You switch cold turkey or weekly transition of new food ?

Thanks again for your help !

With canned food, since it is not the majority of a meal, I switch cold every 3 days to something new. The kibble, the majority of the meal, I switch over a week or two depending on how the dog does and I change that about every 2 months.

Every dog is different and you can follow whatever schedule you prefer as long as it agrees with your dogs stomach.

I was wondering if anyone else was doing a wet/dry food mixture.
When my boy recovered from parvo, the vet sent us home with his meds and six cans of Purina Veterinary Diets EN. He was eating that stuff real good then after a week of wet food only I introduced hard food again by mixing it in. He would still eat everything on the bowl.
Anyway fast forward to now…sometimes he doesn't even want anything to do with the kibble
(Dr. Tim's Kineses) unless the canned EN is involved.
I have a issue with the canned food because the first ingredient is meat by product.
Should I continue the canned EN food longterm? He seems to be used to it already.
Or should I switch to another good canned food to keep mixing in? If so what would be good?
I really like Dr. Tim's and I want him on that kibble.
I actually like the idea of a wet/dry mix since it makes it more tasty I suppose.

Using canned food as a mixer is fine if you want to use it long term. Although I wouldn't use the EN from the vet. I would switch to something of higher quality, there are so many foods to choose from in varying price ranges. My long time favorites are the Natural Balance LID cans, but there are so many other and better options. I always mix dry and wet when I don't feed raw, just a personal preference.

I know the EN isn't of great quality :/ and Yeah I've been looking at those online. I'm considering the chicken one. I might just order some and make a transition that since they are on sale on chewy. I hope my boy loves it.
Is a wet food transition done the same as with kibble?

If you are only using canned food as a mixer then you may be able to switch faster. However, as with anything, transitions will depend on the individual.

Like others have already stated, the only disadvantage of mixing wet and dry are 1) cost per day to feed goes up 2) once they are on it, it's really hard to get them back off, which is why everyone is asking if you plan I doing it long term. I'm my opinion, if you want to mix something into the diet try adding some freezes dried raw and mixing it with water. It's much healthier and ends up being similar in terms of cost per day to feed. Stella and chewys makes a great one and they have several meat proteins to chose from so you can rotate though them. These patties are 95% meat so they are not only higher quality than canned food, in terms of ingredients, but also higher calorie so make sure you don't over feed

Yeah I'm committed to do a wet/dry mixture for the lifetime of my boy. At the moment he now has more dry than wet on the bowl but I mix around the wet as much as possible. Sometimes I try to give him a kibble but he wont take it or drops it out of his mouth. But when it's kibble on the bowl with the wet food spread around…he's crunchin' and finishes everything without hesitation. I've thought about switching to another dry food but I don't think thats an issue cause he was eating that well before the canned vet food. I already ordered a new much better quality canned food to mix in with his kibble. I really hope he likes it more than the Purina EN vet food…he loves that stuff. And ohh I'll look in to the patties..thanks!

Although I am not familiar with the freeze dried food, I will point out, you do not want to mix raw food with dry kibble. Feeding raw is great, imho, better than anything else. Kibble and raw digest at a different rate, so you need to feed kibble approximately 6-8 hours apart from raw. If you are using the wet can food to mix in with the kibble so he eats his kibble, I would stick with the can. If you are feeding separate then switching to freeze dried raw is better than can, again imho.

Makes sense that the raw and kibble digest at a different rate! I'll definitely keep going on the little bit of wet with kibble mix I've been doing then. I would love to do a raw food diet but I couldn't do it right now. I'm determined to do it for sure when my girl and I get our own place with a future 2nd pup.

David, there are some great threads here in the raw feed section of the forum. There's a group of us who feed partial raw and kibble, so the expense is not felt so hard in the pocket. Take a look and if you have question ask away, there's plenty here who can help.

MiyasMomma wrote:

David, there are some great threads here in the raw feed section of the forum. There's a group of us who feed partial raw and kibble, so the expense is not felt so hard in the pocket. Take a look and if you have question ask away, there's plenty here who can help.

Would you happen to have the link for that thread? I plan on feeding my pup Orijen, but am also interested in feeding raw. Partial raw and kibble would be great

Sue Ellen, there are a bunch of threads, go to the raw feed section, sub category of the feeding section. Since I saw your other post I will relay the extra info here.....I know you have limited space, I do as well. To keep things simple, I buy slightly more meat than I feed me and my husband. I also will buy bone in meat, and my meat department will save me bones. I have a standard size refrigerator with the top section freezer and save half the space for my girls(I feed the cat this way too), so for instance I buy 2 t-bone steaks for me and my husband, I debone it giving generous amount of meat left on and give to Miya, and I feed miss kitty just the meat. I can get cuts of meat pretty cheap, t-bones have been running $4.99 a pound, I give her one and freeze the other. Over all she will get approximately 2-4 ounces of meat. Chicken leg quarters I can often times get at 49 cents a pound. That's when you stock up a little, you just have to be mindful of space and sales. with the chicken you can give a thigh and drum stick or separate, and give thigh one night and 2 drumsticks another night. I end up feeding raw dependent on sales 3-5 times a week, when I feed raw I might feed one cup of kibble(half cup on slow days, as far as how active she is), and I feed up to 2 cups kibble with no raw day(1 cup on slow days). Since you have a pup you may try using my high end amounts until yours is a year, so for you 1 cup raw days, and 2 cups non raw, and adjust from there. If weight is at a good amount for pups age, and no pudding poops you are feeding the right amount, make adjustments to kibble increase as well as decreases an 1/8 of a cup at a time. I would, imho, feed no more than 2.5 cups of kibble per day with out raw since Orijen is a high protein food, many times when we give our pups closer to 3 cups we will notice pudding poo, and that's a good indicator that you are feeding too much and you will want to cut back....hope that helps.

Renee, you are amazing!! Thank you! I will definitely look into sales around my area. Also might stop by some local butchers to check out their prices.

suepatt22 wrote:

MiyasMomma wrote:

David, there are some great threads here in the raw feed section of the forum. There's a group of us who feed partial raw and kibble, so the expense is not felt so hard in the pocket. Take a look and if you have question ask away, there's plenty here who can help.

Would you happen to have the link for that thread? I plan on feeding my pup Orijen, but am also interested in feeding raw. Partial raw and kibble would be great

Why raw and kibble?

That's an unusual desire in and of itself. Usually people feed both because they fear a flat out transition and feel their dog needs a gradual acclimation--which isn't the case if switching from kibble to raw, especially.

Jeff, for me, I can't speak for any one else, although I have seen others at the raw feed section here do the same, it's a matter of ease, price, space and making sure she gets all the proper nutrients, vitamins and minerals. I do not want to spend the money, and research to get proper supplements. In a true raw feed diet, as in a wolves diet they would eat the fur for the benefit of fiber, most insides(excluding intestines and such), and the part I can deal with meat and bones. To get the proper portion of liver and such I don't really want to figure out, and also certain organs are very expensive, then add in the whole science of essential oils as in fish oils, and for me it gets complicated. I truly believe a raw diet is absolutely the best way to feed, but there are certain nuances, that I just don't want to delve in. I do applaud those of you who do feed raw only, for me though, I don't think I could actually mimic the wolf diet 100%.

"Usually people feed both because they fear a flat out transition and feel their dog needs a gradual acclimation--which isn't the case if switching from kibble to raw, especially.' Jeff agreed, transition to raw, imho, there is no need for a gradual change over. Again, though, for me, I feel she is getting everything she needs the way I do it, not for everyone, and if I had everything that I need at my disposal, I would feed raw exclusively.....So for me it has nothing to do with that fear.

Fair enough. I was just curious.

It strikes me as odd to specifically want to feed kibble from a rational, nutritional point of view outside of anything related to convenience and cost.

Let it be known though: I am not proselytizing, nor do I feed my dog anything like a wolf diet.

I am just infinitely curious about peoples' motives.

No problem Jeff, I agree I do feed in a strange way and I am not proselytizing, as well. Miya had a very hard and long road diet wise, and I found with the combination she is most successful and very healthy, I can't say she was 6 months ago. A friend of ours commented just recently that she no longer looked anorexic. My only motive was to have a happy, healthy husky, who had the energy that so many of you had mentioned. She was extremely ill, and very low weight, and zero energy most days, I was at my breaking point in not knowing what to do for her. I tweaked a lot of things in her lifestyle, but the biggest tweak was her diet.

Jeff, I would eventually love to feed raw only, but I don't have enough space right now and you're right, kibble is convenient. I know I want my dog to experience raw every now and then.