Dog Nutrition: Dry vs. Wet Food

It was a little difficult for me to write this article after almost all of the pet food recalls affected wet food products in cans and pouches and very few dry kibbles. But in my opinion, dry food, as convenient and economical as it may be, is not ideal.

Let’s examine the arguments most frequently used against feeding canned food:

     "Wet food is bad for the teeth and dry food keeps them clean."

If a dog actually bothers to chew it, dry kibble does scrape a little at the crowns of the teeth, but it doesn’t affect the area where it really counts – at and below the gum line. It simply has no chance of providing any scraping action there. Dog teeth are made for ripping and tearing meat and crunching bones, and for the most part dogs will "inhale" their food after they have gotten it into their mouths.

Quality wet food does not pose any more of a risk for plaque or tartar buildup than kibble, and it certainly sticks less to the teeth than dry food.

     "Wet food has no nutritional value because it consists mostly of water."

It is true that wet foods have a higher, more natural moisture content, requiring us to feed a larger volume compared to dry foods, but this does not mean that they are low or lacking in nutrients.
What few people realize is that dry and wet foods can only be fairly compared if nutritional values are converted to "dry matter,", or in other words we "mathematically dehydrate" them all completely and only look at the "solid" part left over:

This makes it obvious that when compared on dry matter basis, the wet food is actually more nutrient-dense.

Also, the moisture content of wet foods is an added health benefit. Contrary to popular belief, dogs do not "know" how much drinking water they need to compensate for loss of moisture from eating dry food.

     "Wet food only makes dogs fat."

While it is true that the average canned food is higher in fat than the average dry food, and fat provides 2.25 times the amount of calories per weight unit of protein and carbohydrates, it is not the canned food that makes a dog gain weight, but the overfeeding owner.

These are the benefits of wet food:

• Wet food is less processed than dry food, so fewer nutrients are
  destroyed and it is more digestible.
• The canning process creates a sterile environment, so preservatives
  and stabilizers are not necessary.
• Nutrients deteriorate less rapidly in a can compared to a bag,
  especially once it has been opened and the kibble is
  exposed to oxygen on a daily basis.
• Canned food has a taste dogs like, so it does not need a variety
  of artificial or natural flavoring agents to create a food the dog
  will actually eat.
• Wet food has a lower carbohydrate content than dry food. Your
  average kibble contains around 60 percent to 80 percent grains. Due to
  this, even the wet foods that are not of the highest quality offer
  better, more appropriate nutrition than their dry counterparts.
• Wet food generally does not contain any rendered ingredients and
  the meat used for it is of better quality than what goes to the
  rendering facility. Even fresh by-products used in wet food are more
  strictly regulated than what rendering businesses are permitted to
  process into dry pet foods.