[Liz S]

I have a 2 yr old female chihuahua and 5 yr old italian greyhound. I’m not happy with their current food although it is a good one. I’m in the process of choosing a new one. ( dry )

What is a reason(s) you might add a canned food to their diet? I give my chi a small can at night.

When I choose a dry food I think I would like to continue giving her a small can/packet at night. And also start giving our IG a can at night. ( coming close to making a final decision hopefully, on the dry ) My head is spinning and I am so overwhelmed.

Whatever dry we pick it will need to be small bites. And wouldn’t it make sense to buy the same brand canned? Or…?

Thanks you for any advice. Would love to hear anyone elses thoughts or experiences.

Liz

[pugmomsandy]

The reasons for adding a quality canned food: add moisture to the diet, quality canned foods have a good amount of protein since they don’t need carbohydrate binders like kibble, it’s easier to digest since it’s not hard and dry like kibble, they don’t have preservatives in them, and it’s easy to mix in powdered supplements. Canned foods are more species-appropriate than dry pellets.

Drawbacks: softer stool sometimes and the canned foods usually don’t include probiotics. They might have prebiotics like inulin/chicory root.

You don’t have to stick with the same brand of wet as you are using dry. Use various brands and feed a rotaional diet.

[Akari_32]

I add canned to add variety, but also because my oldest dog, an 11 year old lab mix, has never stomached meal-sized amounts of dry food very well, so the extra moisture makes it a little more palatable. I mix it right in her dry food, and she loves it.

Canned also adds moisture to their diet, which can be important for certain medical conditions, such as dogs susceptible to UTIs.

I use all different brands and flavors of both canned and dry. There’s really no science to picking my canned, since I only split a single 13 oz can between a 60 lb and 130 lb dog every few days, but if you plan to feed it more often and have it be a larger part of their diet, pick 3-5 star rated brands (I tend to pick 2-3 star rated canned food because of cost).

I believe someone has already suggested to you Wellness Complete Health Small and Toy breed recipes? Pure Balance from Walmart also has small pieces, and now has a small breed formula. It’s a good price, and my guys did good on the salmon and pea grain free. Wellness would be my starting point, though. It’s my favorite for dry food. I’m actually getting ready to try out the toy breed ones for my big guys, the goal being to feed my lab mix as small a meal as possible.

[LabsRawesome]

Liz, Here’s my list of 4 & 5 star budget friendly foods. Costco’s Kirkland Signature Nature’s Domain Turkey and Pea Stew $19.99 case of 24 cans. Tractor Supply’s 4health .99 cents per can. Walmart’s Pure Balance grain inclusive $1.00 And Pure Balance 95% meat cans $1.25 per can. All cans are 13oz or more. For kibble I recommend Victor grain free. The kibbles are tiny. And if you can buy it local, it’s a steal at under $40 for 30lbs. It comes in smaller bags as well. If you contact the company, they will send you free samples. Most stores have free samples, as well. http://www.victordogfood.com/

[Naturella]

Liz S, I also think adding canned will do much, much good! When I use canned, I prefer the pate-style ones, and I add a bit of water with the canned and kibble (I mix dry and canned usually), and make it mushy/porridge-like/soupy, and this way I try to counter the dryness of the kibble.

My dog is small too (Jack Russell-mini Rat Terrier mix (we think, as he was found in the bushes), 13.5 lbs), but I never really fed him a small-breed specific food except for his very first one when we adopted him. Foods I have tried that he did good on (and could eat the kibble with no problems) are: Blue Buffalo Wilderness, Vets Choice Holistic Health Extension, Dr. Tim’s (slightly bigger kibble, but oh well, he managed it just fine), Nutrisca, Earthborn Holistic Grain Free, Victor Grain Free (lots of samples), Nature’s Variety Instinct (samples), Now! Fresh (sample), NutriSource Grain Free (samples), Annamaet (samples), Wysong (samples), and I have a lot lined up – Back to Basics, Canidae Pure, Dogswell LiveFree, Wysong, NVI, more Victor Grain Free (which, in my case (heads up to LabsRawesome), told me I could PURCHASE the samples at $0.33/baggie, but wouldn’t send me free ones, AND I had to pay the shipping… But I stocked up at 5 samples/food, lol).

All the kibbles aside from Dr. Tim’s were small enough and just fine to manage. For canned I have fed Wellness Core, Nutro Natural Source and Nutro Ultra, and now I feed The Honest Kitchen (THK) dehydrated with water instead of canned. I also add a raw egg once a week, coconut oil with some lukewarm water every other day, and yoghurt/kefir every other day, as well as a canned sardine and its fish juice from the can once a week too. So you can use some of these for variety and to cut the costs of canned.

[Liz S]

Wow. Thank you both for the information! I took screen shots with my phone and will get going on picking the new stuff out. I bought a small bag the other day of the food they’re currently on to give me a bit more time to research. I’m anxious to switch ( I know, gradually . )

Awesome suggestions for cutting down the cost of canned. Awesome. Thanks a ton!

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