Wet dog food for small dogs: when it helps, how much

Wet dog food for small dogs makes the most sense when your dog eats little, is fussy or doesn't drink much: the meal is mostly water, it smells strong and the portion doesn't look like "almost nothing" in the bowl. Choose a complete food with named meat listed first, and work out the portion from the calories on the label, not by eye.

Dry food has its place too. Below is an honest comparison, how to read a label and how much to feed.

When wet dog food for small dogs makes sense

A small dog eats very little each day, so every spoonful should count. Wet food helps most in four situations:

• Picky eater. A strong smell is the best argument for a dog that walks away from the bowl.
• Dog that drinks little. It gets water with its meal.
• Small portion. 200 g of wet food fills a bowl, 55 g of kibble barely covers the bottom.
• Fussy senior. Older dogs are more often fussy at the bowl, and a soft texture is easier to chew.

Wet vs dry dog food: water and calories per 100 g

Dry food makes sense when you need to feed large dogs as cheaply as possible. It's convenient and easy to store. But a small dog eats only about 50–60 g of kibble a day, so the saving is small, while the difference in ingredients can be big.

Cheap wet food: where the price of a tin goes

Supermarket wet foods range from better to worse, but they all compete for shelf space, which means price. In our illustrative model for the Polish market, a 400 g tin at PLN 10 has to cover VAT (PLN 0.74), the shop (PLN 3.47), the distributor (PLN 1.45), the brand (PLN 1.09), the manufacturer (PLN 0.81), packaging (PLN 1.00) and operating costs (PLN 0.29). That leaves about PLN 1.15, or 12% of the price, for meat and all other raw materials.

The split differs between brands. The point is simple: at a low shelf price it's hard to fit much good meat inside.

How to read a wet food label

1. "Complete" or "complementary". Only a complete food can be your dog's only food. Complementary food is an extra, such as a topper.
2. Meat listed first. Look for a named species with a percentage, such as "lamb 60%", not "meat and animal derivatives".
3. Moisture. You'll find it under analytical constituents. 10% protein at 75% moisture means 40% protein on a dry matter basis, so don't compare percentages with dry food directly.
4. Calories per 100 g. Without this number you can't work out a portion. If it's not on the pack, ask the manufacturer.
5. Life stage. Puppy, adult or senior. Puppy food has different proportions.

How much wet food to feed a day

Work out the daily need: 70 × weight (kg)^0.75 × 1.0 for a neutered dog or × 1.3 for an intact one (NRC 2006). Divide the result by the kcal per 100 g on the label and multiply by 100. A 4 kg neutered dog needs about 200 kcal, an intact one about 255 kcal. Count treats as part of the portion, at most about 10% of daily calories.

My maltipoo Zuzi weighs 4–4.3 kg and isn't spayed. She has never eaten dry food or mass-market dog food. She eats about one 180 g jar a day plus a few treats, sometimes a piece of apple or a few blueberries. Her first meal comes in the morning when I sit down at the table, the second around 17:00.

There's a table for dogs of 2–10 kg in how much to feed a dog. If you're moving from dry to wet, switch gradually over 7–10 days, as described in how to switch dog food.

How to store an opened tin or jar

• Close the pack and put it in the fridge right after serving.
• Bring the food to room temperature before serving. Cold food smells weaker.
• The bowl stays down for 15 minutes. Put the leftovers back in the fridge.
• If the portion is still left after two warm-ups, open a fresh jar or switch flavours at the next meal. Opened food dries out and loses its aroma.
• Check the label for how many days it keeps once opened.

If your dog still leaves the bowl, the cause may be a habit, not the food. A plan for the first week is in dog won't eat. If you're thinking about cooking yourself, read homemade dog food first: in the UC Davis study only 5 out of 200 recipes met all NRC standards.