# Mixing Wet into Dry food..



## Andrew (Jun 16, 2010)

http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/diet-nutrition/136585-best-canned-food-2.html

Basing off that thread, is anyone else/is it common having problems with their dog not eating the dry food unless mixed in with something?

I currently mix in a spoon of some Halo Beef canned food, and add a BIT of warm water, making the spoonful into a gravy/soupy like mixture, and my dog will eat the food..

I also sometimes mix in a spoonful of plain yogurt w/ no corn syrup, and w/ active cultures, and she likes that too.

My question(s) are..
- Any tips/suggestions on what's safe to "mix" in besides canned dog food/yogurt? 
- Can she gradually be fed less and less wet mixture, and probably eat 100% dry kibble?

Just trying to see alternative methods because buying canned food (even with coupons) is quite expensive as it adds up for a broke college student just wanting the best for his dog. 

Thank you~


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## Dawn (Jun 23, 2010)

I use Blue Buffalo dry with a 1/2 can of blue buffalo wet.
it is very expensive though...I sometimes cringe at petsmart. Raven loves it though. Stools are good. 
I do give her beef rib bones. I tried it raw and she would not touch it ( she is a dork, she kept looking at me like what is this?....lolol So I did cook it just a few minutes...and she thought it was christmas.....lolol

dawn


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## Sir_Henry (Jun 26, 2010)

We were mixing wet with dry as well, and he liked it. Then he seemed to prefer the crunchiness of the dry - so we've been reducing the amount of wet with the dry.

I keep hearing about Blue Buffalo but the price tag is a little scary!


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## Relayer (Apr 29, 2010)

You can mix with real beef or chicken and it's cheaper than BB canned.


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

i mix my dogs kibble with
some combination of the following
at every meal. sometimes i'll give my dog
a can of food without anything mixed in.

raw ground beef. <
cooked boneless&skinless chicken breast. <
apples, pears. <
organic plain yogurt. <
cold pressed salmon oil > <
cold pressed flax seed oil. <
rice, quinoa, millet. <
fish. <
veggies. <
table scraps (depending). <


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

when i mix can food with the kibble
i give my dog 2 table spoons of can. i'm
usuing the can food for flavor.



Dawn said:


> I use Blue Buffalo dry with a 1/2 can of blue buffalo wet.
> it is very expensive though...I sometimes cringe at petsmart.


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## Equus5O (Apr 27, 2010)

Axl's on 2 cups Diamond Natural dry mixed with 1/3 can Blue Buffalo, twice a day. The noon meal is straight dry.

Blue Buffalo's $1.99 a can for me at TSC.


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## Andrew (Jun 16, 2010)

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I was hoping someone would say something like "I mix a little bit of chicken broth in with the dry food" or something along the lines of that.

I guess I'll wait until the next sale on Halo/Wellness/Merrick/BB canned foods..

For now, I'll stick to mixing in some plain yogurt, and talk to my parents about getting some beef.


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

sometimes we'll cook a whole chicken
in the pressure cooker. my dog gets all
of that. i strain it to make sure all of the bones
are broken down. i put the strained part and what's
left in the pot in several containers and freeze.
if you have enough room in your feezer you can
freeze ready to serve portions.

fresh chicken broth. i perfer giving that to my
dog as oppossed to can broth.



Andrew said:


> Thanks for the replies everyone!
> 
> I was hoping someone would say something like "I mix a little bit of chicken broth in with the dry food" or something along the lines of that.
> 
> ...


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## Samba (Apr 23, 2001)

I don't usually mix anything in with the dry food. All five dogs are nutso for the dry. 

In the past, I have had dogs be finicky about the dry food, but finally came down to just standing my ground with them on it. All eventually got with the eating thing really well. 

I don't feed regular meals much. They get their kibble during training sessions and as rewards for requested behaviors throughout the day. I think the lack of predictability and the working for it may help make it pretty valuable to them.


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## JazminsMomSami (Jun 29, 2010)

I wouldnt use canned chicken broth as it has a lot of sodium. But what doggiedad said to do is what i would do. I mix wet puppy chow into the dry kibbles...what a mistake! Jazmin used to eat dry kibbles.... now she wont eat unless it has the "good stuff" in it.


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## WGSDlover (Mar 25, 2010)

Has your dog never eaten straight dry food? How long has your dog been on its current food? I recommend standing your ground with your dog. They will eat when they are hungry. If they really just don't like the dry food, then try switching brands or flavors. I switch my dogs dry food (Slowly though, I will mix whatever I previously used with whatever new I am going to use for the next month, switch over takes about a month) every couple of months to keep them from getting bored. Because no matter how much they liked the food on the first day I brought it home... they are tired of it by month 3. Plus by rotating their food you eliminate most of the picky eaters that are just bored. Plus from my understanding that by rotating dog food you can prevent some (definitely not all) allergies and sensitivities to other foods. If a dog has been eating chicken all his life and they stop selling that dog food and you have to switch him over to fish or something else for some reason, his stomach may not be able to handle it. I don't know if this is the solution for everyone or all dogs but it definitely helps out with my dogs. I also supplement with RAW at times as well or ground turkey or beef and mix it with the dry. If your dog is a puppy still I would caution against using large amount of yogurt, cottage cheese or anything dairy. The dry dog food is already going to have calcium in it and increasing their daily calcium intake is not good, it has show to cause hip problems and large breed pups growing too fast. If you have to stick with wet dog food, some kind of meat RAW or cooked, or if you can make your own chicken stock with no MSG and no salt then I think that that would be fine. Sorry so lengthy. Hope that helps.


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## Lilie (Feb 3, 2010)

Andrew said:


> Thanks for the replies everyone!
> 
> I was hoping someone would say something like "I mix a little bit of chicken broth in with the dry food" or something along the lines of that.


 
When Hondo is going through an 'everything offered isn't good enough for me' stage, I'll mix in chicken broth with his Diamond kibble. 

Hondo gets a table spoon or so of canned food with two cups of kibble twice a day - I admit that each time I purchase canned food, I'll buy six cans at a time. I try different kinds each time. Hondo likes the variations, and I don't feed enough to make a difference to his system. I don't buy the dirt cheap ones (Alpo) and the only one I have found that Hondo doesn't like is the Chicken Soup brand.


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## Andrew (Jun 16, 2010)

doggiedad said:


> sometimes we'll cook a whole chicken
> in the pressure cooker. my dog gets all
> of that. i strain it to make sure all of the bones
> are broken down. i put the strained part and what's
> ...


That sounds like a good idea, thank you doggiedad.




Samba said:


> I don't usually mix anything in with the dry food. All five dogs are nutso for the dry.
> 
> In the past, I have had dogs be finicky about the dry food, but finally came down to just standing my ground with them on it. All eventually got with the eating thing really well.
> 
> I don't feed regular meals much. They get their kibble during training sessions and as rewards for requested behaviors throughout the day. I think the lack of predictability and the working for it may help make it pretty valuable to them.


I wish my dog went "nutso" for dry..




JazminsMomSami said:


> I wouldnt use canned chicken broth as it has a lot of sodium. But what doggiedad said to do is what i would do. I mix wet puppy chow into the dry kibbles...what a mistake! Jazmin used to eat dry kibbles.... now she wont eat unless it has the "good stuff" in it.


Now that you pointed that out, it's true. I also think I made the same "mistake" as you. The first couple of weeks I brought Katie home, she was on Dry kibble Iams puppy. She would NEVER finish it. I then transitioned her to Wellness Puppy, and she ate it all. Her stools were off and on diarrhea on Wellness..



WGSDlover said:


> Has your dog never eaten straight dry food? How long has your dog been on its current food? I recommend standing your ground with your dog. They will eat when they are hungry. If they really just don't like the dry food, then try switching brands or flavors. I switch my dogs dry food (Slowly though, I will mix whatever I previously used with whatever new I am going to use for the next month, switch over takes about a month) every couple of months to keep them from getting bored. Because no matter how much they liked the food on the first day I brought it home... they are tired of it by month 3. Plus by rotating their food you eliminate most of the picky eaters that are just bored. Plus from my understanding that by rotating dog food you can prevent some (definitely not all) allergies and sensitivities to other foods. If a dog has been eating chicken all his life and they stop selling that dog food and you have to switch him over to fish or something else for some reason, his stomach may not be able to handle it. I don't know if this is the solution for everyone or all dogs but it definitely helps out with my dogs. I also supplement with RAW at times as well or ground turkey or beef and mix it with the dry. If your dog is a puppy still I would caution against using large amount of yogurt, cottage cheese or anything dairy. The dry dog food is already going to have calcium in it and increasing their daily calcium intake is not good, it has show to cause hip problems and large breed pups growing too fast. If you have to stick with wet dog food, some kind of meat RAW or cooked, or if you can make your own chicken stock with no MSG and no salt then I think that that would be fine. Sorry so lengthy. Hope that helps.


Katie has eaten "straight dry food" a FEW times when I had her on Wellness Puppy. Other times, I just added some water, but that didn't really change much. It wasn't until Halo had a "free trial of canned dog food" coupons then I went out and got some of those. I believe from that day onward, I think I enabled her to be the boss of me, telling me what SHE wants to eat, not me..

I'm actually on my last can of Halo Spot's stew today. I think I will try your and Samba's recommendation of "standing ground." If I am correct, I am supposed to put the bowl down, and if she doesn't want to eat it, I take it away, and try again in ~30 minutes correct?

I went from Iams Puppy --> Wellness Puppy --> Innova --> TOTW Ocean.
Iams because... that's IAms... I transitioned her from Wellness to Innova because Wellness kept giving her loose stools (1 month of Wellness). I was STARTING to transition from Wellness to Innova when I found out Innova (Naturapet) was bought by P&G. There's no proven facts yet, but I don't want to feed her something from the IAMS company. Now I transitioned her to TOTW, and she's finally having solid poops. I'm still concerned about the 1.9% CA level, and the not 100% guarantee of not using ethoxyquin by the TOTW company. I'm just so glad to be finally able to clean up her poop with a scooper opposed to having to hose off her wet loose stools..

I like your comment on the rotation system. I'm just not sure if she's picky, or maybe it's that I'm spoiling her.

I COMPLETELy forgot about the fact that yogurt has Calcium in it (duh!). I think I'll just try the "standing ground", because if she IS hungry, she will eat, if not almost anything right? If there's a disaster, and I'm trying to feed her kibble, I doubt I would have the resources/time to feed her the kibble AND wet food.

If I were to transition from putting in wet food to none at all, should I do it gradually? I currently put in 1 spoon of Halo's Spot stew, and add in some warm water (just enough to make the spoonful soupy), and mix it in. Should I gradually decrease the amount? 1 Spoon -> 3/4 spoonful --> 1/2 spoon --> a dab --> none?

Thanks for your input everyone!


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## WGSDlover (Mar 25, 2010)

I don't think you neccessarily need to decrease the wet food. You are giving so little that it shouldn't matter much. Ya I will usually put my dogs food down for 5-10 minutes, if they don't start eating it or anything I will usually pick it up, put it on the counter and walk away. (It's so funny when I do this, usually my dogs are chasing cats or wrestling around or something, and that's why I have to take it up. But the look on their face whenever they see that you are going to take up their food and they have to wait 20 minutes.... it's priceless lol. They eventually come to realize you are the distrubtor of the food they receive and meal times are on your time, not theirs. I find that my dogs respect me more and listen to me more now that I do this lol) Then I will come back 20-30 minutes later and try again. I don't know how many times you feed a day, but if you feed twice a day, don't freak out if she doesn't eat at all the first meal. Usually by the second meal at the end of the day, she will have gotten the point and is willing to eat because she is hungry. But do make sure you are giving her the full daily amount of food (like meal 1 and 2 combined). Of course eventually she should start eating the earlier meal. You could still add some warm water to the food and let it sit a bit before giving it to her. I would be careful feeding her TOTW, but that's just my opinion. I would go more with Orijen, Wellness, Blue Buffalo, something along those lines. On Wellness it may have just been the flavor something so you could try giving her the adult version of any brand and see how she does. But only go with an adult food with calcium levels below 1.5% is preferred. It's hard to find grainless food to feed to pups that have appropriate calcium levels. Hope that helps!


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## Andrew (Jun 16, 2010)

WGSDlover said:


> I don't think you neccessarily need to decrease the wet food. You are giving so little that it shouldn't matter much. Ya I will usually put my dogs food down for 5-10 minutes, if they don't start eating it or anything I will usually pick it up, put it on the counter and walk away. (It's so funny when I do this, usually my dogs are chasing cats or wrestling around or something, and that's why I have to take it up. But the look on their face whenever they see that you are going to take up their food and they have to wait 20 minutes.... it's priceless lol. They eventually come to realize you are the distrubtor of the food they receive and meal times are on your time, not theirs. I find that my dogs respect me more and listen to me more now that I do this lol) Then I will come back 20-30 minutes later and try again. I don't know how many times you feed a day, but if you feed twice a day, don't freak out if she doesn't eat at all the first meal. Usually by the second meal at the end of the day, she will have gotten the point and is willing to eat because she is hungry. But do make sure you are giving her the full daily amount of food (like meal 1 and 2 combined). Of course eventually she should start eating the earlier meal. You could still add some warm water to the food and let it sit a bit before giving it to her. I would be careful feeding her TOTW, but that's just my opinion. I would go more with Orijen, Wellness, Blue Buffalo, something along those lines. On Wellness it may have just been the flavor something so you could try giving her the adult version of any brand and see how she does. But only go with an adult food with calcium levels below 1.5% is preferred. It's hard to find grainless food to feed to pups that have appropriate calcium levels. Hope that helps!



Thanks for your input WGSDlover. I've done the "take food away" a few times, and I know that "face" you are talking about. I'm also wondering if it's a psychological thing? She watches me "scoop" some wet food from the can. She watched me "Scoop" some yogurt from the cup to her bowl. Sounds a little mean, but I wonder if a placebo would work? I would scoop "something" from an empty can, pretend to mix it in, only add a bit of water, and give it to her. I will try this tomorrow, and post some results.

I am aware of the higher than recommended levels of Ca/Phosphorus in TOTW, but she's FINALLY having firm poops, and it's grain-free.. Like you said, it's so hard to find food to feed my puppy that has the appropriate %ca level, and something she will like. Orijen is quite a drive away from me, and the price is somewhat out of my range for a non-working college student. I might try Wellness again because I feel confident about their stand on using ethoxyquin-free preservatives in their food, opposed to how suspicious Solid Gold/TOTW is about the "e".

Thanks!


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## mayastig (Jun 4, 2010)

what about mixing water with the kibble to make a gravy? how much water exactly should you put and how long?


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