Anything wrong with feeding JUST canned food?

sooner

prolibertate

Canned dog food is mainly water, and doesn't give the dog all the nutrients they need.

 

Where did you get THAT from? 

I've never heard this before either.  Some canned foods are formulated as complete diets.  I would be curious to know your source. 

Luvntus- I too have had the same problem with canned food.  Come to think of it.... while dry food from Natura work wonders for my dogs,canned natura products don't seem well for them.  When I tried to feed cal natural canned, they had soft poop, that resembled and smelled like the can before they ate it, which makes me worry that they weren't digesting it well. We had similar results with Evo and Innova canned.  If I feed canned now I feed Evangers, Lamb and rice, its really bland, and their poops are great on it.

I'm too lazy to quote right now but re the canned is mostly water and lacks nutrition, if its balanced to AAFCO standards it has the same nutritional base as kibble, since the standards are based upon dry weight of the food

Re dogs not doing as well with canned foods, it could be because they are higher in fat (you need to compare dry matter basis -- a canned food with 6% fat listed on the can is approx 24% fat on a dry matter basis).   Since Gingerbread did better on the I/D I suspect that its the fat that bothering him, since I/D is very low fat (3% as fed).

If you start the new thread on canned food consistency I can certainly help.  Prancer gets only canned supplemented with fresh meat and some veggie mush in her dish.   She gets 1/4 cup kibble throughout the day as treats / rewards.    She does have a bit of plaque on her teeth, but its not much worse than when I first adopted her and she's been with me 10 months and has been eating mostly canned for the past 8 months.   I do brush her teeth about 3x a week (or should I say, she chews on a toothbrush with CET toothpaste on it 3x a week - she won't actually let me *brush* them ! LOL).

prolibertate

Canned dog food is mainly water, and doesn't give the dog all the nutrients they need. It also *does* cause dental plaque to build up which can cause major issues with a dog's health just as it can in a human. Small dogs have more problems with their teeth to begin with, so feeding them only canned food is asking for trouble, IMO. And unless you brush your dogs teeth every day, be prepared to pay a vet to do several cleanings a year - which isn't good for the dog as they have to be under anesthesia to get their teeth cleaned. My dog get no canned dog food at all. He'll get some boiled chicken once in a while, but I wouldn't give him anything from a can; most have too much garbage in them that I wouldn't put into my dog.

If your dog doesn't like kibble maybe he hasn't had one he likes yet, or you're giving in and giving him too much canned/baby/food etc. when trying to get him to eat dry kibble. If a dog doesn't get anything but kibble for 3 or 4 days he *will* eventually eat it, and he's not going to starve if he doesn't eat for a couple of days. But I have a feeling you might be too softhearted and are giving in by adding things to his dry food before you go a few days with just the dry kibble (mainly because I used to do that with a previous dog myself).

If you try feeding him a good dry food such as Fromm, Solid Gold, Wellness, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if he eats it...not only are these better than any canned food, they're better than most other dry foods...and they're excellent for your dogs health. Also, you can put a few drops of water on the kibble to moisten it, which may get him started eating it...and if he does, then you can phase out putting the water in it.

That is COMPLETELY untrue.  It has all the nutrients a dog needs, just the fact that it has more water means you have to feed a lot more in order for it to equal the amount of nutrients a dog gets from a small amount of dry food---just read the feeding recommendations on the back.  

 Anyways--

Tamara- Wolfie did not do well when I tried him on an all canned diet.  I actually kept him on it for a week or two (to see if he would just need to "adjust";) despite the constant soft stools he had and it just never got better.  B/c of that I went back to 50/50 ratio. 
 

Maybe you could try the Honest Kitchen dehydrated raw food.  I bought a bag (Force) to try on my two boys for their evening meal. They love it and you can control the consistency and texture by the amount of water you add. 

http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/index.shtml

 The only problem with honest kitchen is that most of their formulas are poultry based ( chicken/turkey). I think they have one beef formula though, but it has grains, including barley. 

I do think they make a veggie mix where you add your own meat.

prolibertate

Canned dog food is mainly water, and doesn't give the dog all the nutrients they need.

 That's really quite untrue. It has the same ingredients, just added water. In fact, in cats, feeding canned is actually beneficial to their health in preventing urinary issues, for this very reason. I suppose if you're grabbing a can of Ol' Roy canned off of the shelf, the ingredients might be questionable, but that goes without saying. My dog eats canned as she cannot swallow anything else. It was at her vet's recommendation, and she's certainly as healthy as ever.

prolibertate

If you try feeding him a good dry food such as Fromm, Solid Gold, Wellness, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if he eats it...not only are these better than any canned food, they're better than most other dry foods...

 As a note, those foods have canned varieties as well. With equally high ingredient quality

prolibertate

If your dog doesn't like kibble maybe he hasn't had one he likes yet, or you're giving in and giving him too much canned/baby/food etc. when trying to get him to eat dry kibble. If a dog doesn't get anything but kibble for 3 or 4 days he *will* eventually eat it, and he's not going to starve if he doesn't eat for a couple of days. But I have a feeling you might be too softhearted and are giving in by adding things to his dry food before you go a few days with just the dry kibble (mainly because I used to do that with a previous dog myself).

If you try feeding him a good dry food such as Fromm, Solid Gold, Wellness, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if he eats it...not only are these better than any canned food, they're better than most other dry foods...and they're excellent for your dogs health. Also, you can put a few drops of water on the kibble to moisten it, which may get him started eating it...and if he does, then you can phase out putting the water in it.

Wow, there are so many assumptions in there! I mentioned in my post that I did go the tough love route before. For MONTHS all I gave him was kibble. He was underweight and would throw up bile from an empty stomach.

The funny thing is that I've tried every food that you mentioned- Fromm Chicken A La Veg, Solid Gold Just a Wee Bit and Wellness CORE. I wonder why you thought that I didn't try any good foods? I also tried Royal Canin at one point because it's supposed to be very palatable and he didn't like it better than any other kibble. Over his 2 1/2 years I've also tried 4 different varieties of Timberwolf Organics, 3 varieties of Eagle Pack Holistic, Innova and California Natural. And yes I've moistened his food before. He doesn't like warm wet kibble any more than dry. ;)

What's wrong with a dog liking their food anyway? It's totally unnatural for a dog to eat dry cereal day after day.

 I agree Luvntus, I want my dogs to enjoy their meals.  I don't think there is anything wrong with that.  Even my "so NOT nutritionally conscious" FI thinks its unfair to feed them dry cereal day in and day out.