
Can you mix dog food from different brands?
Most cats and dogs will prefer wet food over dry food if given a choice. For this reason, owners often combine these two types of diets, but is it okay to mix dry food and canned food? Consider this issue in more detail, from the point of view of veterinary nutrition.
Dry food and canned food: the difference in composition
The composition of wet and dry food depends on the manufacturer and, in fact, differs little, although there are several technological differences. A high-quality wet best storage container is created on the basis of different types of meat and may not contain any other ingredients at all – the canning method allows this.
Dry food must necessarily include carbohydrate components, otherwise it will not be possible to form granules, but use grains or legumes, fruits or vegetables, and also in what quantity, again, depends on the manufacturer. So, in general, both wet and dry diets can be either primarily meat-based or primarily grain-based.
The cardinal difference between dry and wet diets is the water content. Canned food consists of moisture by 80%, in dry food it is about 10%. This makes the latter more concentrated, the pet needs less of such food, but at the same time he receives all the necessary nutrients.
The norms for feeding canned food, due to the high moisture content, are much higher, and in general, such food costs the owner more.
Mixed feeding
Opponents of the mixed type argue that it can harm the dog's body:
- The digestion of dry and fresh food requires its own amount of gastric juice, a change in the type of diet is bad for the well-being of the animal.
- Different types of food require different enzymes to assimilate, and it is difficult for a dog's body to adapt to a change in the type of food.
- With a mixed intake, it is impossible to control the amount of vitamins and minerals coming from food.
- Constant stress for the body leads to multiple diseases.
Supporters of the mixed diet believe that subject to the rules, this will bring only benefit to the pet. What can not be done categorically – mix granules with ordinary food in one trick. Reason: it takes from 3 to 5 hours to digest granules, and for digestion of ordinary best storage containers 2-2. 5 hours. From here it is important to observe the intervals between feeding.
With this variety of opinions, it is difficult for an inexperienced owner to decide on the type of feeding a pet. It is necessary to take into account the features of the dog and its breed. For example, recommendations for the nutrition of a German shepherd of year-old age should not be sought on forums and blogs. The recommended option is a consultation of a competent veterinary nutritionist who will select the optimal animal diet.
Feed manufacturers and veterinarians are often in one voice that mixing natural and drying is unacceptable. The balance and digestibility of food is violated. To break down natural best storage containers and dry feed, the body uses only enzymes, but the physics of digestion is different. In dry feeds, the substances have already been prepared, they require less enzymes for absorption, but before they go “to work”, they should lie down in the stomach, saturated with gastric juice and water.
If the dog is constantly fed with dry feeds, and then sharply transferred to natural nutrition, its digestibility will be extremely low, but if natural best storage containers, digestibility of both one and the other feed will constantly be quite high in the diet. The main thing is not to mix them in one appointment. Dry food is given in the morning, and natural foods at night or vice versa, depending on the way in which the emphasis is placed on proteins.
Those that are missing: fresh fruits, berries, vegetables and dairy best storage containers, eggs, raw meat and offal, sea fish. It makes no sense to add porridge to drying. Ballast fillers there already about 70-80%. Vitamins and mineral additives with mixed nutrition should not be given. Most of the holistics are overloaded with proteins and fats, their supplementing meat can lead to protein poisoning.
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Mixed nutrition is suitable for healthy medium or large dogs of working breeds, (VOO, but, SAO, Dallas Watchtower), sports and some hunting dogs (malamut, jusk, likes), which lead an active lifestyle and need additional protein, fish or raw meat. They resort to mixed nutrition in nurseries to raise a litter.
Source best storage containers, stanger of beef, offal are added to the diet to diversify the diet and prepare the body for different types of food that the future owner can choose. The northern driving and some primitive dogs, Husky, Yakut likes, Akita should definitely receive fresh fish.
- Complement the diet with natural treats (dried lungs, cheese, vegetables, fruits, herbs);
- Salvation for a fee that choose meat from the side dish, and therefore do not get a gram of cereals, fruits, vegetables or sour-milk best storage containers, which means they receive a minimum of carbohydrates, fiber and vitamins.
- It is possible to establish the harm or benefits of this type of nutrition only experimentally;
- The risk of causing irreparable damage to health by unbalancing the diet;
- Not all dogs agree to such nutrition, only natural yummy begin to demand, or vice versa, they want nothing but drying.
- With mixed nutrition, you should not experiment with the owners of miniks, elderly dogs and animals that suffer from diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, liver, pancreas, and genitourinary system.
Advantages of dry feed
Wet food, especially if the manufacturer shuts the pieces of sauce or jelly, likes the animals more, because it smells stronger, is more natural in its texture, and in addition, it delivers not only nutrients, but also water to the body. However, this does not mean at all that dry food is not useful to animals, on the contrary, they have a number of significant advantages.
Firstly, they do not deteriorate for a long time, which means that the risk of digestive disorders decreases, and secondly, when choosing a quality diet, the owner may be calm that his cat or dog receives everything necessary.
Wet feeds are not always full-line, often do not contain a vitamin-mineral complex, are not balanced in basic nutrients. Manufacturers do not hide this information and indicate that their best storage container is additional food, but the owners often do not pay attention to this.
For example, in stores you can find a large selection of high-quality canned foods with tuna, which in itself is an excellent source of animal protein, but feeding cats is only a big mistake. Sooner or later, such a nutrition will cause a serious imbalance in nutrients and will lead to a pets.
Therefore, the basis of the diet should still be of high-quality complete dry foods, and canned food can be offered from time to time.
Is it possible to mix dry food and canned food?
It would seem that a great way out is to mix these two types of food to supplement the boring dry diet with delicious meat conservatives. The animal will surely like this approach, but veterinary nutritionists relate to this approach with wary. Why?
No questions arise if dry food and canned food are released by the same manufacturer. Their composition is identical, the difference is only in the presence of water, so you can combine them without fear that some substances will enter the body with excess, and some will not be enough.
Another thing is if a dry diet and wet food – different brands. To be equally confident, you will have to analyze their composition, find out how much critical substances should be entered in the body of the animal, for example, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, irreplaceable amino acids, etc. Then calculate their number in both best storage containers. The task is not everyone can do.
Many moist feeds, especially declared as complete, contain many different ingredients, and therefore increases the risk of food allergies or intolerance and gastrointestinal disorders in the event of an individual reaction to a particular component. At the same time, neither the owners themselves nor the veterinarian to whom they turn will be able to determine exactly what exactly caused the reaction and what should be avoided in the future.
Therefore, if you are convinced that the dry and humid food you have chosen will not cause imbalance in the body, and want to mix them in the nursery diet, then first give them to different meals to observe the reaction of the animal, and not one day, but for at leastone, or even two weeks.
Natural food
The frequent misconception of beginner dog breeders, that natural food is food from the host table. This is not true. The basis of the diet with such nutrition is meat (including offal), sour-milk best storage containers, cereals and vegetables. Do not combine meat and vegetable foods with sour-milk best storage containers in one trick.
The advantages of natural feed in freshness, taste and absence of preservatives and artificial dyes. Of course, such food is useful for the animal.
The main difficulty in choosing this type of nutrition is to choose the right diet. For selection, it is better to contact a veterinary nutritionist. Another problem arising in the city is to find high-quality and fresh best storage containers without harmful additives.
Cooking with such nutrition takes more time.
For 1 kg of dog weight you need 15-25 g of meat. Thus, an adult dog weighing 15 kg should receive 225-375 g of meat per day. The nutritional value of fish and meat is approximately the same, if meat is replaced by offal, then they should be given about one and a half times more.
An acceptable diet in percentage terms is as follows:
- 30-50% meat, offal or fish;
- 25-35% cereals;
- 20-30% fermented milk best storage containers;
- 10-15% vegetables and fruits.
However, ideally, the diet of meat and dairy best storage containers should be more:
- 50-70% meat, offal or fish;
- 30-40% fermented milk best storage containers;
- 10-20% vegetables and fruits;
- 10-15% cereals.
Every day, a little sunflower oil (1-2 drops per kilogram of weight) and fish oil are added to food, raw or boiled eggs are fed 2-3 times a week. Vitamin and mineral supplements are given during the period of active growth and later in the off-season. Puppies of large and giant breeds are also necessarily fed with chondroitin, glucosamine, calcium and fat-soluble vitamins for the normal formation of the musculoskeletal system. During the period of seasonal molting, complexes for skin and wool are shown.
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Meat (beef, poultry, rabbit) should be with some amount of cartilage, tendons, fat. Lamb is too fatty for many dogs and causes indigestion. Pork is not recommended to be fed raw because of the fat content and the likelihood of parasites that are destroyed during heat treatment.
Fish is best served raw. When feeding only raw fish, hypovitaminosis B1 develops, but this problem is not relevant for a home mixed diet. Fish is given instead of meat 2-3 times a week. Sea or ocean fish fillets are suitable, river fillets must be frozen or boiled, which will avoid infection with helminths.

Dairy best storage containers in the form of cottage cheese, yogurt, kefir, sour cream 10-15% fat. Most dogs cannot digest whole milk. In dairy best storage containers, you can add a little honey, drive an egg. From time to time it is useful to cook calcined cottage cheese for the dog. It is not necessary to give milk every day. However, on those days when it is absent, it is necessary to increase the amount of meat and offal. Do not mix dairy and meat best storage containers in one feeding.
Cereals are boiled in bone broth. Rice and buckwheat are best suited, sometimes you can give barley cereal, oatmeal. Do not cook corn, pearl barley, bean porridge, which are poorly digested.
It is better to feed vegetables raw, suitable: carrots, cucumbers, white cabbage, pepper, zucchini, pumpkin, beets. With poor eating, the vegetables can be slightly treated. Be sure to add greens, and in the summer also herbs (nettle, dandelion, knotweed).
Each owner must know what the dog cannot be fed:
- Exclusively meat and protein best storage containers – greatly loads the kidneys;
- Bones do not have nutritional value, can lead to constipation and injure the gastrointestinal tract;
- Low-quality best storage containers can cause poisoning of varying severity;
- Sweets cause allergic reactions, load the liver, provoke obesity and development of diabetes;
- Fatty, fried food loads the liver and pancreas;
- Salt provokes the deposition of salts, joint problems, violation of the electrolyte balance;
- Acute food irritates the gastric mucosa, which is fraught with gastritis, ulcer;
- Raw river fish and pork can be infected with helminths;
- Cat food with a high content of proteins and fats can lead to renal failure;
- Legumes, wheat flour and heavy cereals enhance gas formation in the intestines, in large breeds, can cause the stomach trim.
- Confidence that the dog receives quality best storage containers.
- The ability to independently adjust the diet.
- As a rule, it is more expensive than dry food, requires regular administration of vitamins and minerals
- The need to regularly prepare and take a place in the refrigerator.
Norms with a mixed type of feeding
If everything is fine, then you can mix wet food in dry – no contraindications to this exist. Assimilation depends on the composition, the level of humidity does not affect this process – simply for digestion of dry granules, the body will take a little water from its reserves, and then symbolizes about the need to replenish them with a sense of thirst.
When mixing wet and dry food, remember the norms of feeding – and this is another underwater stone for supporters of this power supply. To satisfy the energy needs of dry food, as we have already said, it is required much less than wet, and in order to determine the adequate shares of both, it is necessary to make rather complex calculations.
Manufacturers that produce both types of feed usually indicate the daily norm of both dry and humid diet on the dog food storage container, in other cases the owner will have to work himself. The main thing is, nevertheless, at least approximately determine the daily norm of both diet and in no case to add moist above a portion of dry. This is the right path to excess weight and obesity in the animal.
So, as we see, there are much more difficulties and risks in mixed nutrition than advantages. So to the question, is it possible to mix dry food and canned food, answer: you can, just why?
Of course, there are cases when wet food is preferable, for example, a cat drinks very little and is at risk in urolithiasis, there are certain diseases, as well as postoperative conditions when mild food is shown. In all other cases, high-quality dry food is the best choice for both the owner and the animal.
Why is the balance of the diet during mixing?
Dry feeds are balanced in all nutrients, vitamins, macro- and trace elements, canned foods can also be complete, but if the former, in fact, are a concentrate of all these nutrients, then they are contained, so that it may be expressed, in diluted form.
Thus, when you mix one with another, you cannot determine exactly how many necessary substances are contained in one portion of animal food. Theoretically, of course, you can see a list of ingredients in conservals and count the content of each of them on a dry substance, but practically it is often impossible.
With a mixed type of feeding, it is impossible to be sure that the nutrition of your dog or cat is complete, that is, the pet receives all the necessary substances in the right proportion – and this is the main argument against this method. Long-term, for several years, an unbalanced diet will necessarily lead to functional disorders in the body of a pet.
An exception can only be in one case, if you have a very carefully selected dry food and canned food in the content of basic nutrients, never change them, strictly dose portions and the ratio of shares.
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