Can You Add Water to Dry Dog Food? What You Need to Know!

Reviewed & Fact-Checked By

Dr. Paola Cuevas

Vet, MVZ

The info is present and up-to-date in accordance with the newest veterinarian analysis.

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Many canine house owners feed their canine a mix of moist and dry meals, although dry meals is certainly extra frequent. Why? Because dry meals is cheaper to purchase and it’s a lot simpler to arrange.

However, canine of all ages do have sure moisture necessities that should be met every day, which moist meals does an ideal job of fulfilling. So, are you able to add water to dry meals for this moisture requirement? And in that case, how do you do it?

Let’s focus on.

Can You Add Water to Dry Dog Food

It’s pretty frequent for canine house owners so as to add water to their dry meals kibble. Not solely does it improve your canine’s hydration, nevertheless it makes the moist meal far more palatable and pleasant to eat.

If canine might speak, they are going to possible let you know that they really want moist meals over dry meals any day–particularly if they’re weaning puppies. Wet meals merely smells higher and tastes usually higher to them.

Are There Benefits of Adding Water To The Dry Food?

Yes, there are a number of advantages. Let’s check out probably the most notable ones.

Aids In Digestion

Sometimes dry pet food may be pretty tough for canine to ingest. This can undoubtedly be the case for weaning pups and canine who’ve digestive points or are sick. Water merely helps the meals go down higher.

It may even assist the absorption of the entire vitamins throughout the meals. It’s necessary to notice that smaller canine could also be extra vulnerable to digestive points. So, should you discover that your pup has bother downing the dry kibble, take into account including clear, ingesting water to the combination or attempting moist or contemporary meals to see if it handles it higher.

Improves Hydration Levels

Adequate every day hydration is totally important for each canine’s well being, whether or not it’s younger or previous. Dogs’ every day physiological capabilities depend upon every day vitamins and water consumption.

Your canine ought to have at the least a correct bowel motion each day. If your canine is missing hydration, it could actually wrestle with passing stools, which might result in different digestive points. If you discover that your canine already has these points, including water to its dry kibble could assist to replenish moisture misplaced all through the day.

Prevents Potential Health Issues

When canine are dehydrated, they’ll run right into a ton of various well being issues. Not solely are they not getting the every day hydration that they should operate, however they might additionally expertise points with eliminating waste, urinating, and blood circulation issues.

It’s frequent for dehydrated canine that suffer from UTIs or have hormonal imbalances attributable to a lack of electrolytes. This in flip can result in weak point, ache, seizures, and respiration difficulties.

Wet Kibble May Help Appetite

Wet kibble can be identified to be an ideal stimulant to enhance a canine’s urge for food. If your canine isn’t consuming sufficient meals each day, attempt including a little bit of water to the combination. Water may also help to boost the flavour and aroma of dry kibble, which might in flip spark curiosity in your pup, and should assist with its low urge for food.

How Do You Add Water To Dry Food?

Adding water to your canine’s dry meals isn’t precisely rocket science, consider it extra as an artwork. You might have to regulate the ratios primarily based on how effectively your canine takes to it, and this will likely take a number of tries to excellent.

Start off by including only a half cup of water to a single cup of dry meals. It’s higher if the water is hotter, as it can shortly soften the dry meals and make it simpler to serve. However, make it possible for it’s cool earlier than serving it to your canine.

It can take wherever from 7 to 10 minutes for the kibble to soak completely sufficient to make it moist–although it shouldn’t be mushy. What you don’t wish to do is make “floating kibble”.

This is if you feed your canine a bowl stuffed with water and dried meals that hasn’t softened but–ensuing within the dry meals merely floating on high of the water within the bowl. Don’t be shocked in case your canine isn’t wanting to eat this.

So be sure you let the meals soak for a couple of minutes to melt it up a bit. And don’t be afraid to spice issues up by including extra meals to the combination. For instance, you’ll be able to add contemporary meat similar to beef, rooster, veggies, and even an egg or fruits to the combination, simply be certain that they’re on the record of secure meals to your canine to eat.

Quick Tips For Altering Dry Dog Food

Always Consult Your Vet First

Adding water to your canine’s dry meals isn’t an enormous concern. However, should you make different important adjustments to your canine’s meal plan, chances are you’ll wish to seek the advice of along with your vet first to make sure that it’s okay to do.

This contains mixing therapeutic pet meals, altering the canine’s eating regimen to incorporate much less or extra protein or sure nutritional vitamins, or inserting the canine on a restricted eating regimen for well being causes.

Therapeutic diets are created to delay and stop many frequent pet well being situations. However, these meals can have an adversarial impact if the formulations aren’t adopted fastidiously.

Try To Mix Similar Dog Foods

It’s not unusual for canine house owners to combine totally different pet meals which have totally different textures and shapes. For instance, chances are you’ll wish to add a little bit little bit of moist meals to your dry kibble, to provide it extra moisture. It’s nice to shake issues up in your canine’s meal plan and it’ll most likely love you for this.

However, chances are you’ll wish to watch out when mixing totally different meals which have totally different aromas and textures, as this can be initially off-putting to the pup. It’s at all times finest to do a trial take a look at earlier than mixing giant quantities of various meals.

A Word of Caution

Adding water to dry pet food is an effective way to boost its palatability and texture, and help in digestion. It is necessary to make use of solely clear, ingesting water so as to add to the meals in addition to making certain that it getts consumed on time. Once moistened, dry pet food must be consumed inside half-hour to stop spoilage or bacterial overgrowth. If your canine didn’t eat its meals inside that window of time it’s safer to take away and toss any leftovers earlier than cleansing its bowl.

Wrapping Things Up

So, are you able to add water to dry pet food? Yes. Doing so may also help enhance your canine’s hydration and supply different notable well being advantages. It can even stop your canine from dropping electrolytes, which may be misplaced simply if it’s sick or affected by momentary digestive points.

If you discover that your canine is having points with passing stools, including water to the kibble or attempting moist meals could assist with this problem. And bear in mind, when including water to the kibble, it’s finest that the water be as scorching as doable and that you just let it sit for about 7 to 10 minutes in order that the meals has time to soak it up, soften and funky down.

Featured Image Credit: BW Folsom, Shutterstock