Mort and Canned Dog Food

My oldest dog, Mort, has been put on canned food by his vet.  He's at least 11 years old.  He has all his canines for now.  Left top is loose and if he doesn't lose it by May 18th, it will get removed by his doctor.  He also has one bottom, front tooth - it's like a teeny tiny Chiclet keeping the canines company.  He has all his other teeth behind his canines except for one.

I have a feeling at least one back tooth is also causing trouble.  He has a real hard time eating non-soft treats.

So the canned food.  I reluctantly bought 2 cans of Science Diet Turkey Stew at the vet.  First ingredient is water so I figured I'd double what he normally eats in comparison to dry.  So 1/8 of a cup dry twice a day - now he gets 1/4 cup canned twice a day.  Then I decided to look at all the ingredients after his second meal.  Eighth ingredient is sugar.  I had to read it twice to be sure.  What in the hell is sugar doing in dog food?!

And he LOVES canned food.  Loudly gobbles the stuff up.  And he does get burped by me after he eats.

Today I bought the canned version of what he was eating as dry.  Natural Balance L.I.D. Sweet Potato and Fish.  I also bought a log - don't remember the brand.

The Natural Balance is pretty mushy.  I bought the log to add some pieces to slow down his gulping.

So this evening I got his food all ready noticing that he looked a smidge thinner than I prefer.  But since Natural Balance does not have water as any of the first 5 ingredients, I figure he'll be fine.

He dived right into his food.  And.....grabbed one of the pieces of log that I thought I cut small enough, but he shook it to 'kill' it.  Luckily, he's small so he didn't make a significant mess.

Little fella burped twice while eating.  Loud, wet burps.  He made me laugh.  He let out one more burp after his meal.

And as I was re-reading this and petting him - he just let out another big burp!

Dog food companies are little help when it comes to figuring out what's the ideal amount for a dog.  I wasn't able to find anywhere that says - if you feed your dog this much dry food, when you switch to canned feed them this amount.

I could get all mathematical about it - can suggests 1/2 can for dogs under 10 pounds.  Mort's 4 pounds so 1/4 can supposedly.  Can is 13 oz.  1/4 can would be 3.25 oz. which is about 2/5 of a cup.  All that just made me want a nap.

Easier for me to play it by ear....or actually eye.  :-)

Update 5-9
Log is Blue Buffalo Turkey and Cranberry