Puppies should be soaked in dog food for several months. It is best to feed puppies softly soaked dog food when weaning.

Nov 28,2023
6Min

The reason and time for puppies to eat soft food

1. The main reason is that the puppies’ teeth have not grown yet. Eating dry dog ​​food may affect the growth of teeth and cause digestive problems in dogs. .
2. Another reason is that puppy weaning is a process: it is the process of a puppy's intestines and stomach adapting to digesting the mother's milk and converting it into digesting solid food. So it’s not just a problem of teeth. Soaking dog food can make it easier to digest and will not suddenly increase the burden on the puppy's gastrointestinal tract.
3. Another important thing to note for a new dog: when you prepare to soak the dog food for it, you will find that it actually takes a lot of time to completely soak a bowl of dog food. When puppies are weaned, they usually need to eat four meals a day, and it is too late to eat and soak them now. What should you do? You should soak the next meal while feeding the puppy. In this way, the dog food must have been soaked until it is soft when feeding the next meal.
Finally, I would like to remind you that soft dog food is only food for puppies when they are on a diet. Generally speaking, three to four months is enough. From now on, we must eat dry dog ​​food, which is good for the dog’s teeth and digestion.

Precautions for puppies eating soft food

The question of whether dog food should be soaked is not absolute, but needs to be decided according to different situations. For example, for dogs that have just recovered from a serious illness, it is actually not suitable to feed them hard food to prevent indigestion, so we can feed them porridge or soft dog food. As for normal puppies or adult dogs, there is absolutely no need to do this. Especially for adult dogs, long-term feeding of soaked dog food is not conducive to the wear and tear of the dog's teeth, so whether to soak it or not depends on the situation.

What situations require soft dog food?

1. Incomplete tooth growth

Because the puppies’ teeth have not grown to sufficient length. and strong, at this time hard food is not conducive to their digestion and will cause certain damage to the dog's teeth. Therefore, after the milk cake becomes temporarily soft, it can be fed to the dog.

2. Dogs who have just had surgery or recovered from a serious illness

At this stage, the dog’s body is still relatively weak, and hard food will also put a certain burden on their intestines. At this time, it can also provide food for the dog Feed soaked dog food so that the dog can recover slowly, and then feed it hard dog food. If it is just a minor surgery such as neutering a male dog, soaking is not necessary.

How to soak puppies in dog food

1. Water temperature: When soaking dog food, you must pay attention to the water temperature not being too high. Generally, use slightly hotter warm water. Too high a temperature will lead to the loss of nutrients in dog food. If you are not careful, it may lead to malnutrition in dogs.
2. Amount of water: Do not introduce too much water. Usually there is no excess water after the dog food is soaked. This can also prevent nutrients from running into the excess water.
3. Time: The soaking time should not be too short or too long. If the time is too short, the dog food will not be soaked.If it is opened too long, the water temperature will be lower, which will cause intestinal discomfort in puppies after eating. Normally it takes about 10-15 minutes.
If the dog is in normal health and has full-grown teeth, it is not recommended to feed it soft-boiled dog food. First of all, no matter how carefully you control it, some nutrients will inevitably be lost. In addition, feeding soft-boiled dog food for a long time is inevitable. Dog food can easily adhere to the dog's teeth. If it is not cleaned in time, the risk of developing dental calculus will be very high. And for adult dogs, they need some hard food to wear down their teeth. If they eat soaked dog food for a long time, it will cause discomfort to the dog's teeth, causing them to bite furniture and other items.
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