What’s best for my dog: wet, dry or mixed?

The short answer

In truth, dry, wet or mixed food will be fine for most dogs and cats as long as the food you choose meets all their nutritional requirements. (Like ours does.) That means your decision is much more about a preference - yours and your pet’s.

Why choose wet food?

• Wet food can be easier for older animals to enjoy, particularly if they’re short a few teeth.

• If you’re constantly trying to get your dog to drink more, wet food is a great option because it contains way more moisture.

• It’s easier to overfeed with wet food so if your dog is on a diet, we tend to recommend at least combining their wet food with dry.

Why choose dry food?

• The friction created by chewing dry food will help keep your dog’s teeth healthy by preventing tartar.

• Dry food is easier to store. Unlike wet food, it doesn’t require refrigeration once open. What’s more, you can leave dry food out for longer, which means your dog can choose when to eat.

• Dogs can make a bit of a mess when they eat wet food, whereas dry food is generally easier to clean up.

How to mix wet and dry food

If you want to give your dog a mix of wet and dry food, the only challenge is figuring out how much of each to provide to keep them happy and healthy. For example, should it be 70% dry and 30% wet? Or wet in the morning and dry in the evening?

To make sure your dog is getting the right amount of food, you first need to determine the daily recommended amount of dry food they should be eating. This number (in grams) depends on the size, age and weight of your dog. There's a handy measurement table on the side of each bag of kibble.

You can choose your own ratio of dry to wet food, but we generally recommend two thirds dry kibble to one third wet food.

Want to check your sums? Feel free to contact us via the chat button on our website. We have a wet and dry food calculator so we can accurately work out the right amount to recommend based on your dog’s calorie budget and nutritional needs.