Hello everyone, we got Bruce (named after a really funny and informative guide we met on a recent Grand Canyon tour) from North Wales early in May. He's 14 weeks now and is being fed on Purina Beta Puppy food (chicken variety). He loves it and always wants more. He's been to the vet this morning for a general check up and innoculation and he's very happy with his progress. At 10 weeks he was 7.4 kilos. At 14 weeks he's now 11 kilos, which seems to be about bang in the middle of average weight for his age. He comes from a long line of working dogs, and has that long legged, lean look about him. His paws are enormous, so I think he's going to be a big lad. My question is this: how much should I start reducing the soaking of his kibble? He gets roughly 70grams (dry weight) four times a day. It's still fed to him very moist at the moment which seems to work well for him, but the packet instructions just say 'reduce soaking from 3 months'. By how much? Am I looking to end up giving it to him dry, with his usual water bowl alongside, or should it be soaked just a little? He gets half of it in a ridged food bowl so that he can't wolf it down in ten seconds flat, the other half about 20 minutes later in a large Kong. We're looking to up his portions to 100grams dry x four feeds from today, and then reduce him to three feeds of 130grams at four months. We're watching his stools to make sure the increase isn't too much for him. If he gets a bit loose, we'll drop it back a bit. It's just the soaking level that we're a bit unsure of. Any ideas please?
You don't have to reduce soaking If he likes it like that then by all means keep adding the water. The only downside of soaking is that it has to be eaten up, you can't leave it lying round wet. But if your dog eats it all up in one go then you don't have a problem. And welcome to the forum
I just guessed. Our breeder had us start the second meal of the day soaking when we fed the first. We mixed 1:4 water to food and when I stopped soaking I just arbitrarily shortened the soak period and lessened the water a few days at a time by about a quarter of the water over +a week. Oban was nearly 5 months old when we stopped soaking, by then I think we could have stopped cold turkey.
Hello and welcome to the forum! I can't remember exactly how we did this, sorry, but at 2 years, I still feed my two their food with water on top, just because I want to ensure they're drinking - I know I should trust them to regulate this themselves, but I don't So, I put their food in their bowls, then top it up with water, and feed immediately, without soaking. A benefit of this is, even when I'm feeding pretty small amounts, it makes me feel better that the water fills their tummies and makes them feel a bit more full than they would with just the kibble
I never soaked Charlie's food when he was a puppy - my new puppy came home with instructions that her food was to be soaked, I ignored that but found that the food she was on needed to be fed in such large quantities she couldn't finish a bowl if it were dry! I switched her food to something with less fillers, and she eats it all now without water. She tanks her water bowl on a regular basis just like my older dog does, so I don't worry about her drinking enough - she seems to drink plenty. I think there is probably a tiny value in feeding dry food dry in at least teeth get to crunch something, but if you have a teeth cleaning routine anyway that will do much more good.
We don't soak the kibble normally. A few times I've done it by accident, when someone put the food or water in the wrong bowl. Our dogs often don't gobble the kibble down right away, so being dry helps. Also we can put it back in the container if we need to, though that is just on road trips.
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Hello and welcome from me and great big Pongo in south Wales! We're also just back from a FANTASTIC holiday in the Grand Canyon (that's me and OH, not Pongo, I don't think he would have been an asset in the paddle boat....) Pongo is two and a half years old now, and we still put water on his kibble. We don't bother to leave it to soak now, but I like it as a way of making sure that he does gets some fluids (he doesn't drink very much). Sometimes we add gravy too. He seems to enjoy it - at least there is never anything left!
Same here, I have never soaked dog food but I have always put a splash of warm water on just before feeding. Don't really know why I do that but 5 dogs have not complained
Thank you all, yes he's a good looking chap . That was taken about four weeks ago at 10 weeks, so he's quite a bit bigger now. We upped his kibble portion from 70-100 grams yesterday and he's fine so far, no runny poo or gas, so I think he was ready for a bit more. I'll carry on moistening it as he seems happy with it the way it is. Thanks for al lthe advice everyone!
We still soak Homers Kibble. His morning kibble is left to soak overnight and I add warm water to his dinner kibble. For no perticular reason except that we soaked his puppy food so continued to do so. Sometimes he gets his kibble dry but then needs to drink more water. Either way I don't think it makes much difference. It's down to what suits you and what suits your dog.
