Soaking kibble: is it dangerous?

"Words have meaning."

--> "I sometimes wonder if the people writing these posts have even a shred of instinct or intelligence."

Your words have a meaning too... and they're not very nice.

@dundee

I can’t really remember how it went with my previous dogs at the start, but Pho has always had his dry food with a bit of water.

It doesn’t get mushy; it just looks shiny with a bit of "gravy" at the bottom while staying crunchy because it’s quick service!

And he has no problem with it at all! ^^

Once he’s finished his meal, he goes to his water bowl for a few laps just to rinse his mouth out 🤣 so the water is only really to help after exercise or in the heat, etc... not to make up for the dryness of the food!

I’m quite keen on the idea of freeze-dried food; it’s so easy to store, lightweight, and you just rehydrate it to help with their water intake ^^

It’s a bit pricey though 🤑 (mind you, if it’s just every now and then over the summer as a meal topper, it might be worth a go... hmmm ^^)

I've always moistened my dogs' dry food at every meal.

You've got to remember that it’s an extremely dry food (around 15% moisture or even less, whereas fresh food is over 70%).

In my opinion, it’s not right to feed them kibble without immediately making up for at least some of the water deficit needed for digestion, absorption, and natural hydration. You shouldn't just leave them to try and compensate on their own with just their water bowl.

Dry food was created to make storage and shelf-life easier, not to be a balanced source of hydration.

One part dry food to half a part water (personally, I just give it a quick blast with the spray head on the kitchen mixer tap and serve it straight away).

Jyrkhos just inhales his food like a greedy guts

She 'ballooned' a bit when I started mixing wet and dry food, but being spayed played a part too. The wet food was probably too rich and the dry food was quite high-calorie as well (I haven't found a light range that I’m happy with).

Wetting her dry food didn't go down well because it stuck to her teeth (maybe I should soak it properly and then blend it to make a sort of kibble soup? It doesn't sound particularly appetising, but maybe she'll like it?)

She’s always eaten like that ^^

What’s this topper? I’d like to give Gally a bit of wet food but wet food makes her put on weight…

I was picturing her eating one bit of dry food after another, really slowly 😂 Does she have any dental issues or anything else at her age?

With dry food on its own, that’s exactly what Maya does: she takes one, chews it, then takes another. And sometimes she decides it’s gross and spits it out across the floor. Hence the addition of gravy (yes, yes, I give in to her fussy eating, I have no shame 😂)