# advice: soaking kibble?



## Shawneeshep (Dec 26, 2004)

Fact or fiction? does it make any difference in ease of digestion, decreasing load on pancreas if the kibble is mixed with a measured amt of warm water, and let sit for a while to soften.

My Suzi is a month out from an episode of mild pancreatitis, overall doing well, but occasionally I'd see her swallowing hard....re-read all the volumes of info I had, and read that this most likely indicated that there may be something in the diet not being tolerated. Now, I keep daily copious notes on everything I give her (I define a retentive bent!), and noted that it started WHEN I weaned her off the rice and chicken I'd been blending with her kibble. So am back to the rice addition, and oh, I had added
a scant 2 tbsp of moist canned food; my notes also indicated that I saw the hard swallowing (only once or twice a day at most, and not every day) along with the moist food (I traded the rice and
cooked chicken for the moist food, only less moist and more kibble)

So now, like I said, I added back the rice and decreased the
moist food to 1 scant TBSP, and yesterday was fine.

I'll do anything for her, but also am in favor of not doing anything unneccesary---and she goes nuts waiting for the kibble to get soft.

Any opinion, experience or reference for the case to let kibble soften?

Thanks!


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## samralf (Dec 23, 2008)

Charlie has pancreatitis and I never noticed any difference in his swallowing. I did add water to his kibble because it helps with digestion. From what I read kibble is only 4% water. I just added warm water and gave it to him, I never let it soak. I'm switching to a raw diet with honest kitchen mixed in and giving him pancreatic enzymes and that helped a lot. I don't think he's had one episode since the raw. If you go raw though you have to make sure they get very lean meats, no fat, bones or skin. Not saying your going raw but just wanted to say that in case someone else who has a dog with pancreatitis wants to.


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## BuoyantDog (Aug 21, 2009)

It is important (I believe) not to soak the kibble if CITRIC ACID is used as a preservative in the kibble. Some kibbles use CITRIC ACID to preserve the animal fat included in the kibble. 

Although the study or its conclusions are not concrete or definitive (as I'm sure many dogs have sufficed perfectly by eating water soaked kibble that contains citric acid), Purdue University's veterinary team statistical study on large breed dogs and bloat has pointed to this as one possible contribution to bloat in large breed dogs. 

Just something to keep in mind.


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## Shawneeshep (Dec 26, 2004)

Buoyant Dog: thanks for the heads up on citric acid; will check label minute I get up

To the first person who commented (my mind didn't go back far enough to remember name.....big oops....but anyway, I am looking into Honest Kitchen's products. If you use it, please let me know how you/your dogster likes it.

Thanks!


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## mjbgsd (Jun 29, 2004)

I use warm water in all 3 of my dogs' food. I somewhat let it sit for a few minutes and then give it to them. They love it and actually prefer to eat the kibble with the water added.


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## Toffifay (Feb 10, 2007)

I use warm water for my dogs kibble, as well. For some reason, if I give it to her dry she tends to choke. Maybe she eats too fast, but she always hacks up a kibble or two. Also, when I add the water I don't let is soak for more than a minute or two, while I am stirring and adding the Omega capsules.

I think the warm water brings out the aroma of the food. They seem more excited to eat when it has been doused with warm water.


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## Ocean (May 3, 2004)

BuoyantDog said:


> Although the study or its conclusions are not concrete or definitive (as I'm sure many dogs have sufficed perfectly by eating water soaked kibble that contains citric acid), Purdue University's veterinary team statistical study on large breed dogs and bloat has pointed to this as one possible contribution to bloat in large breed dogs.
> 
> Just something to keep in mind.


I would like to see a reference to that study. Not having read the study (so I don't know what controls were used), there could well be other factors such as greater volume that may have contributed to bloat from the water soaked kibble.

Most of the high end, grain free kibble use citric acid as preservatives.

Kibble is only 10% moisture, it's basically well dried food. I would rather be sure that my dogs are getting enough water so I fill the food dish with water. I don't soak the kibble, I just want to make sure the dogs get enough water to compensate for the dryness of the food. They'll mix and soak inside the dog.


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## BuoyantDog (Aug 21, 2009)

Actually, only 3 "high end" (I'm not sure what your definition of high end is, so we'll say that "high end" means it's on the 6 star list on Dog Food Analysis - Reviews of kibble) They are Horizon Legacy, Orijen and NV Instinct. According to Dog Food Analysis, they state the following:

_"We note that chicken fat is the third ingredient in the food and that research at Purdue University has identified fat in the top four ingredients of dry dogs foods as a factor increasing the risk of bloat in large breed dogs. The presence of citric acid as a preservative means that this food should not be pre-moistened prior to feeding (pre-moistening of foods preserved with citirc acid has also been identified as a factor increasing the risk of bloat)."_

Instead of providing you with references to Purdue's study, please see the _actual _study....

e-Library Abstract

Citation/Abstract on ProQuest

Preview of actual Dissertation

I'm not sure if you are interested in purchasing the document, but the abstract may suffice for your purposes. Rest assured that your dogs are getting plenty of water in their system if you supply fresh water to them at all or most times. However, if you are worried about kibble being "dry," then it might be a good idea to feed something other than kibble. Maybe switch to RAW for instance? Dogs who are getting their kibble soaked are getting plenty of water, and dogs who do not get their kibble soaked are getting plenty of water, as long as their guardians provide them with fresh water.

Back to the study, I stated "_possible _contribution to bloat in large breed dogs." And again, the study was _based on statistics_, so it is not definitive and most surely up for debate if you think you have the means.
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...&gl=us&sig=AHIEtbQnOMb-guo_JKo9_9MqUCybuRwMow


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## BuoyantDog (Aug 21, 2009)

To add....it is highly unlikely that citric acid is the key culprit in cases of bloat. Purdue lists many possibilities and "watch out" situations, if you'd like to follow them. I would suggest...why not just switch to RAW? But there is danger in eating anything, as your dog is much more likely to choke on a RAW diet. So it is all up to you on what you decide to feed your dog!

I do not feed foods with citric acid used as a preservative, nor do I feed foods with FAT in the top 5 ingredients. This way, I can soak the kibble sometimes, and sometimes not. Sometimes my dog likes her kibble soaked in warm water, sometimes not.


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## Ocean (May 3, 2004)

Thanks for the information BouyantDog. Btw, relax.


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## BuoyantDog (Aug 21, 2009)

Ommmm...


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## GrandJan (Aug 11, 2006)

My daughter had a lab with mega-esophagus and she soaked her kibble for every meal from the time she was 3-months old until she passed away from cancer at age 7. When I say “soaked”, I mean that she put a cup of kibble in the food bowl, filled the bowl with water, and left the kibble to soak for 12 hours. Then she mashed it up like oatmeal. Then the bowl was filled and the process started again for the next meal.

Granted this was for a different medical problem, but it greatly reduced the occurrence of “big throat” and tummy upsets, and we saw no ill-effects from the soaking. I know the food we used, but I don’t know if it contained citric acid or if that was even a problem.


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## JKlatsky (Apr 21, 2007)

Not that this is any way scientific, just a personal observation.

Argos was going through some dental issues and was under vet orders for soft food for a couple months. I would just take his normal ration of kibble and soak it over night and mash it up in the morning. I noticed that he gained weight on it. I wondered if it was because he was getting more usable nutrition from the soaked food. I also couldn't believe how much more food 1 cup of soaked kibble looked like compared to dry...

On the down side, his teeth built up a lot more tarter.


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## GrandJan (Aug 11, 2006)

JKlatsky said:


> On the down side, his teeth built up a lot more tarter.


Yes, unfortunately, this was a side effect we had too.


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