Hi folks,

I've been following a discussion on another forum about the effects of adding hot water to complete food - often recommended to make the aroma more tempting, etc etc.

I've often added warm water from the tap, but when I've needed to totally crush the dry food into wet meat to disguise it, I found much hotter water was more effective - not boiling, but fairly recently boiled.

I had my concerns about this - worries about breaking down the nutrients or the cellulose content for fibre etc, but I checked with our food supplier (who is also a qualified nutritionist), who assured me that neither very hot water, nor mashing the food to a pulp, would have any significant effect on the value of the food.  Unless of course, you actually BOILED the food in water for several minutes!

I have since been more confident in adding very hot water, but what do others think?  Is my source correct??

Yes, I believe so. Vitamins take a bit more than a slosh of hot water to be destroyed and you are certainly not cooking the food so will not change or soften the cellulose. Just consider how far off the boil the water will be before it even penetrates to the lower levels of the food.

If your dog won't eat a food unless you heat it up to smell nice, i'd look at changing brands

I heat the water in our kettle until it is ALMOST boiling and soak my dogs' food with that. I would never consider feeding food NOT soaked first. I've fed my dogs like this since 1990 and with the exception of two dogs with breed related (inherited) problems haven't had any problems whatsoever -my dogs are a healthy bunch. (And we've got quite a few.) I've got one of almost 14 and one of almost 13 that have been fed this way all their lives. :)

Hi MarianneB
Could you tell me please how long you soak your complete,as i have been thinking of soaking it myself.

Thankyou

About half an hour.

I feed arden and same as Marianne have always soaked dry food ,my girls dont like it very soft so I soak for approx ten minutes , I also think it depend on which brands of dry food as to the length of soaking time.
for puppies weaning I let it go mushy .

Thankyou both i will do that.

I put warm water over my lots food just before serving them it.
They wont eat it, if soggy!!

My toy breed puppy has her dry food soaked in a mixture of water and goat's milk.  She loves it that way and it doesn't seem to be doing her any harm.  Otherwise, she would only pick at the dry.

I too thought that adding hot water to complete dried diets delpeted the vitamins and minerals.  I think I read it somewhere! 

How about adding hot water or similar hot things to vitamin and mineral supplements or pro-biotics?  Does that have an effect?

I take pro-biotics myself when I remember and the box says not to mix with hot or warm meals or drinks as this depletes the minerals.  I have no idea about other tyhpes of vitamins though.

Probiotics are live organisms and are therefore far more sensitive to temperature.

Thanks for that :)

So it is best to mix the pro-biotics with room temperature food. 

Maybe this is a stupid argument but : aren't you destroying the benefits of dry food for the dog's teeth by turning it into mash? To me this is a valued benefit, my vet is always impressed at my dogs' teeth, even my older one. They've always only had their food dry, with water on the side obviously. I suppose they've never been fussy eaters either.

> aren't you destroying the benefits of dry food for the dog's teeth by turning it into mash?

This school of thought intruiges me.
What piqued my interest (long ago)was the(much cut&pasted) insistance that the abrasive action of dry kibble 'cleans teeth'  I could see that the chewing action would stimulate saliva production and be in part beneficial to oral health (but that wasnt the main point that was being touted) So what had me interested was knowing what I (we all) know about the anatomy of dogs teeth and as importantly the way in which they are used (those that shear/rip/chew) how would this be the case.for total dental health?
    To my mind there are far more factors to consider (than are!) and it didn't seem to me to be as simplistic as it was being touted.
On watching my own dogs (Raw fed) eating 'style' and particularly noticable with recreational bones... I could see a total oral 'work-out!' all teeth used.
But watching other dogs (and my own) eating 'kibble' I notice that the vast majority are 'hoovers' rather than taking time to chew (or chew to an effective oral hygeine rate)
     Even 'if' the dog does chew (or rarely, chews thoroughly) The makeup of most kibbles is that only the tip of the tooth will experience any of the 'abrasive action' and very momentarily!this is further evidenced (I think) by the studies produced by Royal canin and Hills... Royal canin's is the most interesting (sadly I cant for the life of me remember what its called something..'in a delicate jaw') But it is their clinical study into producing a kibble specifically for oral health in Yorkshire terriers, and the specific 'make up' needed in a kibble to achieve this, flaking and extrusion techniques for eg. (which to me highlights how an ordinary kibble does not)
    Interestingly on the wet food and periodontal disease debate, there is a study of cats in which one of the groups were tube fed (the minced wet food made no contact with the mouth) and instances of periodontal disease were found in this goup. ( so when you take away the heridatry and 'other' causes... how responsible is a quality kibble when wet or a quality wet food???...alone!)

For me.. it's a simple
"knick Knack Paddywack" .......................... ;)

Me to

Never soaked the food after the puppy stage as I understood it was better to have the kibble to crunch.  Some dry food manufacturers make kibble that is in mixed sizes in the same packet which is supposed to give the teeth a good work out. 

As regards periodontal disease.  My old cat was fine up until he could no longer eat a mixture of dry food day time and moist food night time, the dry food causing him to vomit.  Within a year of all moist food his gums started troubling him and now he has only four teeth the others have been taken out.  I don't know if the change to moist food had added to his problems but it is food for thought - excuse the pun.

I find that the only kibble that my dogs crunch is the very large type - the sort of half golf-ball size. Anything smaller just gets hoovered.

Like HG says, I don't think feeding food dry has any benefits at all for the teeth. That's what I use bones for. :) Likewise, after losing my favourite cat this year and nearly losing another 3 due to eating dry food (long story and not relevant here, but stopping the dried cured the 3 affected cats that had not yet had to be PTS), I changed all my cats to canned food and raw meat only. Some friends of mine have done the same. We can all say for sure that when the cats were all fed on dried , their teeth were absolutely no better at all than now.

If my dogs ever get hold of dry, unsoaked food by accident (or fed it as treats, more than just a couple of pieces) they get inverted sneezes. A couple of them REALLY bad. When I worked as a vet nurse the vet I worked for always said she'd rather scrape tartar off her dogs' teeth and have their insides healthy, then feed dried food dry. :)

I've thought the same HG. Even the large kibble was pretty much swallowed whole by my two. An occasional single crunch might have occurred but certainly not enough to provide any level of cleaning. My dogs have beautiful teeth and have had when on kibble or on their raw diet. But, they don't get any sugar and very little processed food. The odd bite of toast or their JWB cracker jack after grooming. I have wondered if the lack of sugary or bready snacks has made a difference.

Or is it hereditary - my sister's old lab has lovely teeth despite her love of pizza, cookies and candy (I know, wouldn't be me either!)