Have you noticed on the back of your bag of dog food that it lists “added moisture”?
I’ve never observed the making of processed dog food, but my understanding is they cook the ingredients so completely that all the natural moisture in the meats and veggies evaporates, and they have to add moisture back in to bind it all together.
One of the features of the prescription food that I had fed my dogs for their urinary issues was that it made the dogs drink more water so that their urine was more dilute. That way, the urine Ph was lower and infection was less likely to build.
I’m not going to speculate as to what they put in it to make my dogs more thirsty. But they definitely availed themselves of the water bowl.
Now that we’ve switched to an unprocessed diet of raw meats and fresh produce, I’ve noticed that they don’t drink as much water. It worried me at first, because we’d had issues. When Truman came to me, he had just undergone surgery to remove bladder stones. Pearl had that chronic UTI all summer. So I was sensitive to that as a possible complication of my decision to GO RAW.
But it wasn’t long before I realized they still produce ample amounts of urine. Ample.
It’s practically clear, which is a sign of good hydration. (Except when you’re drunk. If you start peeing clear when you’re at the club, it’s time to go home).
I tested Pearl the other day because she had gone in her crate — something she had only done in the past when she had an infection. So I put a wee-wee pad down for her in the utility room, which she used later in the evening. The pad almost couldn’t hold the amount she left. But it was completely clear. No blood, which is a sure indicator of infection.
Whew!
The raw meats, fish, poultry, and game they are eating contain a lot of water. The raw fruits and vegetables do too. The cooked vegetables do not contain as much, but they’re not over-cooked or processed. My dogs are getting lots of water in their diet without having to drain the water bowl several times a day.
No “added moisture” necessary.
My textbook recommends offering filtered water to your dogs for optimal health. Birmingham has good H2O. I drink it from the tap, so that’s what my dogs get. And they’re really not drinking that much of it these days anyway, so I think we’re all good.
pugs & kisses,
p.s.- For those of you not from the Northwest corner of Alabama, Helen Keller’s first word to Annie Sullivan was … (see bold type above).
The HOL Dog 