Wetfoods

[fenboy]

Hi
I was wondering why hardly anyone seems to feed wet foods in place of or along with dry complete types.
What are the reasons ? , surely these meat based products are closer to a natural diet than the dry foods ?

I should point out that I have worked for one of the major petfood company's for 22 years now with my particular factory producing the wetfoods (both dog and cat).
I personally feed my cocker on a mixture of wet and complete and have had no issues.

[vicky payne]

Most wet foods contain no more meat than dry foods; the 'meat' is often made up of grain shaped and dried to look meaty. Wet food is more expensive to buy as it's more expensive to ship (heavy) per meal and people have got into thinking they are 'paying for water'. That said there are a few superb wet foods (natures menu is 80%+meat and my travelling raw food alternative). People also think/hope kibble will help clean teeth but with most foods the effect is neglible.

[Nonehpets]

There is all the convenience aspect of carting it home/getting it delivered but the main thing that puts me off wetfood is the smell when it comes out the other end.

I can usually tell when passing uncollected dog poo if it has been fed wetfood because the smell lingers (and that is without having my nose to the ground!) - it is when I know I have to be on my guard since my GSP seems to recognise the smell too and be partial to semi digested wetfood!

Cathy

[mandy-b]

I feed my Pointer on both dry and wet foods and he does fine on this combination.
He's a bit of an odd one though as due to many allergies he can only tolerate lamb and after much trial and error over many years, we now stick to Wainwright's lamb & rice dry and Wainwright's Lamb & rice trays of wet food. At one stage he was exclusively on the trays but I added in the dry in an attempt to bring the costs down slightly as he was needing 3 trays a day just to maintain his weight. Have to admit he still goes back to just the trays every time he gets an upset tum as they contain much less cereal.
I tend to buy online so stock up when it's on offer.

[bollibop]

hi

I do Natures Menu and a complete food and have done so for years.

Use the natures menu to make a nice tasty gravy in the bottom of the bowl and then add the complete - dogs love it and they do well on it - no wind or nasty poo


Ruth

xx

[suerey]

My two cockers get Nature Diet Lamb and Rice wetfood and Skinners Salmon & Rice for breakfast and then Nature diet and Skinners Duck & Rice for dinner. Sometimes I get Natural Instinct Turkey or Chicken and they have that in place of the Nature Diet. They love both and and are both fit and healthy (if slightly overweight) and as bollipop says - no wind or nasty poo!

[HeidiK]

Elmo has Nature Diet, with a few Burns biscuits for crunch. He had been reared on complete food (Arden Grange) but I found that his poos weren't very scoopable! So I tried several other well known brands, but found with the Nature Diet we had instant scoopability!

My previous Springer, Buster, had Pedigree Chum, cans and mixer biscuits for lunch, Complete for tea. He made it to 15 1/2 so it did him well, whatever some people may think of it!

[Bryn]

had Bryn on packs of kind of pate as that's what he was started on but at about 4 months he started toturn his nose at it so he's now on a kibble, which as mentioned above is easier to transport and store and usually cheaper. Our working collies have always been on dry food, now kibble and generally live to 16 or 17. With the longer days our hens are back on full production so Bryn gets a raw egg over his kibble in the morning and the collies get the surplus that we can't give away, not safe to visit except in winter or you'll have eggs foisted on you

[Judy]

Heck of a way to go for free eggs.

[andyshaw]

We tried mylo on wet food, pedigree, pets at homes own, butchers etc, as a pup he was on natures diet, which is costly but he did well. The butchers etc was tbh awefull (for my dog) he was having 4-6 tins of either a day, and loosing weight, it went straight through and stunk. The same happens with wagg kibble, expept he wouldnt eat much so he really lost weight. I see no reason why if you going to give a dog wet food, why not give them raw, I use to get raw from my local pet food supplier, which was made by prize choice, they did a tripe, beef, chicken, turkey or lamb one and was pre mixed with brown rice, and a load of veggies and fruit, so it was a 'complete' one, prize wise, it worked out cheaper on the whole, and without a doubt closer to natural then wet food in tins.

However this was just my dog, i now choose kibble over wet, as its cheaper, more convenient, contains better ingredients prise wise, and he seems to better

All the tins i found such as pedigree seemed to contain animal derivatives as opposed to 'meal', im on the assumption meal is better quality, so for price, e.g. 4 tins of pedigree a day, =im getting better ingredients, at a better price?

How ever if a dog does well on tinned, and performs well I see no reason why not to give it to them, but i dont think its close to 'natural' then the alterntatives what so ever. (that is however talking about the main branded tins e.g pedigree and the like, this excluded nature diet)