water intake in a kibble keep

[R2L]

Made a thread last year about water intake on raw food in a keep. Most people said they add water to their raw feed to ensure their dog was hydrated enough for next days training. Mostly because most dogs who are being fed raw leave their water bowls alone. I have to say first i was skeptic when i read frosty was giving 1 oz water per 1 lbs of dogweight, on top of the raw feed but i when i tried it for myself the dogs never felt better. To give an example, when you're training a 45 lbs dog, and it would get a kilo of raw food. The water he gets would be 60-70% out of his food, lets say 20 oz + 45 = 65 oz/ around 2 liters of water per day.

I wonder, how do or did you guys manage your dogs water intake on kibbles? Come close to 65 oz? Normally you would expect a dog on kibbles to drink like a camel. Of course i happen to have one who doesn't. Still, i would like to hydrate him after the training and make sure he's hydrated enough for the next training.

Also want to ask again, do you leave your water bowl with the dog 24-7. Because how do you know it didnt drink within 2 houres before the training. Since you want to get his exact weight every day.

Cheers

[FrostyPaws]

LOL @ R2L! I'm glad you actually tried it for yourself. It helps a lot more than people realize.

As for kibble, I can only tell you what a personal friend from a successful kennel did. He would add 1oz per lb also in his kibble before he worked the dog. He would let the kibble soak up most/all of the water and just feed after work like anything else. He also left water down most of the time, but he would dump it 2-3 hours before he was going to work the dog to ensure the dog didn't decide to have a drink or three before work.

Me personally, I don't leave free water for my dogs during a keep. I regulate all water. They get the water in their feed, and a lot of time I'll give them some in the mornings.

[R2L]

Frosty, i think it doesn't only hydrate and keep your dog hydrated enough for the next training, allot of water is also the best thing against water retention. I was training the same dog im going to train right now, 1 year ago, together with the one i was keeping on raw. Because that one got injured. This one was on kibbles and i kept checking his skin every day, it would bounce back in 1 sec. First i added like 700 ml to his feed, then 600 then 500 then 400 and his skin still bounced back. First he would work great and recover fast but as the days went by he could take less work and still not close his mouth after 30 min cool down, in the middle of the winter. He was rested just fine. I'm 100% sure his muscles started to retent water because there was a lack of. Meanwhile the injured dog got sick also, he dropped to 18,9 kg (20,5kg) Once he got better i still didn't train him but i started to give 1000 gr of raw and added 1 liter water on top of that, every day. The day, i had to chose between the 2 of them. Dog that was injured and sick crawled back to 20,3 and felt even better then before he got injured, while he wasn't trained for 4,5 week. Maybe it wasn't the wisest thing i ever did to take any of them 2, but he still caught his first boar in 2:14 It also works the other way around, when the muscles are already holding water, give allot of water will help to lose that.

The method your friend is using sounds perfect to me. Thanks, think i will do something like that and remove the bowl 3-4 hour's before the training.

[EWO]

I add water to the feed as well. When I used kibble I soaked it much like Frosty said. When I worked straight nights I would leave the water out because I usually came home and the dogs come out of the box and I start the walking/working. Now that I work a different schedule that changes week to week I get the water up about three to four weeks into the keep and regulate his water intake til the show. EWO

[MEAUXTIVATION]

Good evening fellas, I have a question. Do you'll allow your hound to drink water right after the work or do you just let them cool off with no water and just add the one ounce per pound into the feed after they cool off? Or do you allow them to drink after the work and add the water to the feed too? I usually let my hound drink right after doing a lil work. What are yall thoughts on this.

[FrostyPaws]

Meau, I don't let mine drink right after working for the simple reason that alot of time, they would try and guzzle the water back. There have been many times after doing so that they would simply vomit the water back up. On the days they didn't vomit the water up, they would be sketchy about drinking all the water in the food. So I just decided to let them cool down and simply feed them when the time was ready.

[MEAUXTIVATION]

That sounds about right Frosty, I'll try it that way. Appreciate the info.

[EWO]

Ditto on the Frosty post. EWO

[R2L]

Another thing i would like to have some input on is, when you're adding your supplements to 1liter + water, would they still be just as useful as when your adding them to the feed without water?

[R2L]

And another thing i am wondering is, when you add all that water to the kibbles to soak it, do you use warm water only?
It soaks better, on the other hand water companies discourage drinking warm water from the tab because metals like copper, lead and cadmium can come lose from the waterpipes.

I was thinking of soaking the same ammount of water as the kibbles. So for 300 grams of kibbles 300 gram of warm water + all supplements for 30 minutes. So the suplements can soak into the kibbles aswell, and adding the rest of the normal temp tab water after. then feed.

What do you guys think of this?