The "Try Soaking Dry Food in Water" Myth

[CarnivorousCritter]

Due to more and more people becoming aware of the naturally low thirst drive of felines, there are far too many "recommendations" to go this route floating around. Not only is dry food far too high in carbohydrates to begin with, it still will not come close to the required moisture as cats are designed by nature to derive 70-75% water from their food.

www.catinfo.org "Speaking of texture, a common question is "can I just soak the dry food in water?" I hedge more than just a bit at this question. Dry food often has a high bacterial content. Mold is also often found in dry food. There have been many deaths of dogs and cats secondary to eating mold mycotoxins, vomitoxins and aflatoxins that often contaminate the grains found in dry food. If you want to try the trick of wetting down the dry food to alter the texture, please leave it out for only 20 to 30 minutes then discard it. Bacteria and mold thrive in moisture."
 
 
http://www.catnutrition.org/faq.html#persuading  Please, please don't do that. Please. Dry food, when moistened, is essentially transformed into bacterial soup.  The bacteria load is extremely high in dry food. Add water to the mix, and you've just created an ideal environment for fungi and bacteria to multiply. When you moisten dry food, for example, you make it possible to quickly grow fungi in the food resulting in vomitoxin, aflatoxin, and mycotoxin production. Vomitoxin is a toxic substance produced by mold that can (and has) contaminated wheat used in dry pet foods resulting in serious illness and even death."

[Pinball]

Oh gawd ya! Battle against that all the time. One painstakingly explains why a just dry diet, or a diet heavy in dry food, isn't a great idea for cats, they listen to it all and then say "but that's ok, I soak my kibble" 

[Tasha]

I have to admit it~ I did this 

I didn't know better and I thought I had come up with something nobody had thought of 

Lucky for my cats, Shadow set me straight 

 

[Lola]

Glad you brought up this VERY important myth, CC!

I can TOTALLY understand why people would consider adding water to dry.  How many common human foods become "soup bacteria" with water added?
Also, I don't think it helps matters, that there IS one (that I know of) dry food that states water can be added.

[CarnivorousCritter]

Guilty here too! How would we have ever known though? 

How abundant is the good information, compared to the bad?   

We're a group of people on the Internet merely coming across this information via other people on the Internet who read the information provided by knowledgeable Veterinarians who are confined to the Internet because they tell the truth  --  nobody profits from the truth because pets get healthy!!   

[Pookie]

I did it, too.     Though it wasn't to get them more moisture, it was when Pookie couldn't keep down any dry and I thought the dry was irritating his throat, so if I moistened it, it wouldn't be so irritating.  Such was my "logic" and he actually was able to keep it down that way.

When I read about soaking dry food on catinfo and catnutrition, I was HORRIFIED.  That was one of the many times I sat there wondering if I did ANYTHING right for my kitties.  Sigh . . .

[Mo]

The shelter I work at uses this method all the time   I tell them why it is not a good idea but, of course, they figure the vet that told them to do this knows all.