I feed my 4 year old dog, ( a breed prone to bloat ) , an 80/20 (large sized) dry extruded (fish based) kibble twice daily. Appropriate quantities are fed and appropriately timed relative to excercise.
I am familiar re alleged pro’s and con’s of feeding dry extruded kibble ( as well as pro’s & con’s of other foods ) . I have not started this thread to discuss merits of one food type over the other & hope this thread & poll wil serve as a useful reference point…I currently chose to feed a low carb high protein diet ( for reasons detailed in another thread).
I am mindful my dog does not chew his kibble (served in water) .
Recent discussions re other food types has re-highlighted that dry extruded kibble takes a considerable time to break down inside the dogs stomach.
As my dog seemingly does not have any dental advantage from swallowing kibble whole I have decided to pre-soak the kibble so as to place less strain on the digestive system.
Also a recent (non diet related) dog vomiting episode caused me some concern when whole pieces of kibble were produced some 4 hours after feeding !
I know some advovate pre-soaking for puppies…This vote & thread is for adult dogs.
Please vote &/or contribute to the thread…happy for non voters to share thoughts too.
An interesting thread Coaster. Until a year or two ago I had never considered soaking kibble, except for weaning puppies of course. I started soaking cold pressed food to put inside a Kong but I don’t allow my dogs to have that toy nowadays. One of my dogs had digestive problems and that is why I began to soak kibble. She is now OK but all of them get their dry food soaked. The dog that had digestive issues is currently on a fish based kibble and each evening I pour boiled cooled water on it so that it is softened for breakfast. This particular dry food crumbles quite nicely but I understand that some types don’t soak too well in terms of appearance and texture.
I prefer moistening kibble for the following reasons:
Ease of digestion.
The dogs are not at the water bowl as much.
It bulks the food up and takes them longer to eat it.
Can improve taste, palatability and aroma.
It’s rather akin to us dunking a biscuit in our tea (not sure if that’s a good reason though! LOL)
Some people think that dogs need to bite on kibble to help clean their teeth but I don’t really believe this. There are dogs that chew their dry food properly but two of my three don’t bother much, no matter what the kibble size. They just scoff it! The youngest chews the pieces though. All of them get their teeth brushed and find that this keeps them in good condition.
Two photographs of a cold pressed food here, the first one is 38g, dry and the second one is 40g, soaked and crumbly. It clearly demonstrates how the product swells up in the stomach. Kibble swells up even more than cold pressed food.
An interesting topic. I cant add much to the discussion however as I only give dry kibble as treats for good behaviour. When I did feed it, I didn’t add water.
I had occasionally pre soaked when my great dane Kody was a pup but generally fed dry. Kody had a case of bloat, which caused me to look into feeding and the way the biscuits swell with water. Now over 10 years later I only pre soak kibble with my theory being if it has already expanded before it hits the stomach it shouldn’t be able to cause bloat. (Kody lived to be a big 10 1/2, her daughters and Granddaughters now only get presoaked food). We also feed Burns this breaks down really easily especially the high oats which is fed to my eldest great dane.
Thanks to those who have voted &/or contributed thus far…
Here we are on the best uk known dog food forums, on a site with hundreds of registered members. I have started a discussion thread & opened a voting poll re how to safest prepare one of the most popular dog food types in recent years…Dry extruded kibble - a food bought by the masses.
And the update over 24 hrs since I posted…3 votes, (& one of them is mine).
It’s a shame that there is a lack of responses on this, and other threads on the forum. I would hazard a guess that if you had asked this same question on the Facebook page there would have been replies aplenty. 'Tis the way of things nowadays. However, if people are reading the website and the forum then that in itself might lead to better nutrition for their pets. This thread is a very useful one and I thank you for starting it.
I have always soaked my dog’s kibble in warm water to aid digestion and reduce dehydration risk. You get the convenience of kibble, with the added benefits of wet food. I would recommend it to everyone.
Hello and welcome to the forum Anita. It sounds like your little ones have a super diet - nothing like little bit of home cooked food. Bet the love it!
All my GSDs are fed twice a day once on soaked kibble once on dry usually but if they show a specific preference they have it the way they prefer it but I do feed kibble dry as training treats
