Dry Vs. Canned Dog Food

There are many different recommendations on whether dry or canned food is best for dogs. Some people argue that commercial canned dog foods contain additives or poor-quality meat or ingredients dogs should not ingest, or that certain commercial foods are not nutritionally sufficient for their dogs. Different homemade diets are recommended by various experts, from "natural" diets consisting primarily of raw meat, to vegetarian diets consisting only of nutritionally balanced vegetarian ingredients, to mixtures consisting of ingredients such as brown rice, brown pasta, meats, eggs, and vegetables.

Most dogs willingly eat vegetables, particularly if they are cooked, and many kinds of fruit, although grapes, avocados, and raisins are toxic to dogs.

Dry pellet dog food, called kibble, is made in two different ways: extruding and baking. During extruding, a mixture of raw materials is fed into an expander while pressurized steam or hot water is added. When removed from the pressure, the pellets puff like popcorn. The pellets are allowed to dry, then sprayed with vitamins, grease, or any other ingredients that are not heat-tolerant. The down side of extruding is that the fats added after cooking often turn rancid, and the vitamins may be destroyed by heat during storage or shipping.

These types of food materials have different grades of enjoyment by the dogs.  Dogs like dry foods only if they are tasty and on comparison, the dogs prefer only the canned food items. Reason for such preference by the dogs is that in case of canned food items, the moisture is about seventy to eighty per cent but in the case of dry food, it is only about ten per cent.

However, if you view it in terms of nutrients, often the dry food contains nearly ninety per cent nutrients whereas the canned food items contain less per cent of nutrients most of the times.  It is only soy products that are structured so well to look like meat pieces.

Hence, to make up the nutritional balance in the body systems, the dog has to eat more of canned food materials than the dry.  Compare the cost factor related to this feature.  Many dry food items are soybean and rice based.

Now some dry food items are based on corn. Sometimes, beef based or chicken based food items come in the cans along with mineral and vitamin supplements suited for the upkeep of the dog’s health status. Larger dogs that weigh more than thirty pounds need to be fed with semi moist food items or dry food items most of the time.

This is to satisfy the food receptors in the stomach. This is due to the fact that the larger dogs need to eat plenty of moist food or the canned food items to satisfy these criteria.  But it may not be practically possible in these larger dogs.  The small sized dogs may have a satisfactory level of nutrients if fed even the moist food items. However, the caloric density of the dry food should not be forgotten. Enriched dry food items are highly welcome ones than the non -enriched food items lack.  

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