Pet Food 101: Dry vs Wet Food

As pet parents, we strive for nothing short of the best for our furry companions, including providing them with a balanced diet that fuels their playfulness and promotes a fulfilling life.

In this blog, we'll delve deeper into the key differences between dry food and wet food, unraveling the benefits of both, as well as some of the challenges pet parents may face. Let's break it down!

The Breakdown: Dry Food vs Wet Food

Below, you will find some key differences between dry food and wet food:

Dry Food  - By definition, dry food contains less than 20% moisture content.

As dry food is convenient, easily portioned, and easily stored thanks to its extended shelf life, it is often the most common type of food that is fed to pets. Not only does this allow pet parents to stay worry-free knowing that dry food won’t easily spoil even when left out for extended periods, but it also allows cats that love to graze the freedom to eat multiple small meals daily. Regular intake of dry food can also help to clean your pet’s teeth and promote dental health, which can contribute to your pet's longevity and quality of life.

One of the potential challenges of dry food is that older pets may find it harder to chew dry food. In addition, busy pet parents may opt to free-feed dry food, leading them to not know how much their cats are eating per day and potentially leading to problems such as overeating (this problem can be solved with an automatic feeder).

 

 

Wet Food  - Wet food, by definition, has over 65% moisture content.

The biggest benefit of wet food is that it offers an extra source of hydration for pets during their meals, allowing cats with certain health conditions, such as kidney disease or lower urinary tract disease, to benefit from the additional hydration. With its high-protein content and varied textures, wet food is also highly palatable, and may be more agreeable to pets who are fussy eaters. Overall, wet food can potentially stimulate your pet’s senses and elevate mealtimes from a routine to an enjoyable experience.

Regarding challenges, wet food is much less convenient to manage than dry food. With a much shorter shelf-life than dry food, once wet food is opened from the can, it either needs to be finished quickly or stored in the fridge. Leaving wet food out for longer than a few hours runs the risk of getting your pets sick from gastrointestinal upset.

Balancing Your Pet’s Diet with Dry and Wet Food

Generally, a diet that incorporates both wet and dry food can be a significant step towards improving your pet's health. According to PETLIBRO surveys, 3 out of 4 pet owners use a combination of dry and wet food to give their pets the benefits of both.

It is important to know that each pet is unique in its way, and the ratio of dry to wet food may vary between different pets, depending on their specific needs. Age, breed, weight, health status, and lifestyle can all play a part in determining the perfect dietary balance. For example, you may have a cat that is more prone to dehydration, thus requiring more wet food to increase their water intake. Or perhaps your busy schedule may mean you are only able to feed your cat dry food at certain intervals, as wet food is not able to be left out for a long time. We recommend seeking professional advice from a trusted vet to find the healthiest diet for your pet.

Our Solution to Alleviating the Drawbacks of Wet Food Feeding

Here at PETLIBRO, we value giving your pets the chance to have the best diet possible, while eliminating as many barriers as possible for pet parents. That is why we recently released the Polar Wet Food Feeder, an automatic wet food feeder that makes feeding wet food easy and stress-free.

Some highlight features of Polar include:

• Semiconductor cooling technology - Using advanced thermoelectric cooling, Polar can keep canned wet food chilled and serve it at an ideal temperature

• Keeps 3 meals chill for 3 days - As meals are kept fresh and cool for up to 3 days, you’ll enjoy peace of mind if you have to leave home for a long weekend

• All-in-one-app - Schedule meals and check feeding logs, all on a single app

• Easy to Clean - Dishwasher-safe food tray makes cleaning up a breeze
  
  

Check out Polar by clicking the button below!

(Learn more about Polar)