With Summer 2016 coming to a close (I realize on the calendar it’s not for a bit yet but we all know September 1 is the signal for most of us), I’m in the same position I am every year – I wonder how the summer flew by like it did and wish I had spent more time doing all the summer things. We certainly did a lot of summer things, and I’m glad for it. I just want more of it!
Earlier this summer, our soon-to-be-3-year-old labrabdoodle Cali joined me on a Global Regina Morning News segment to chat about keeping our pets healthy and happy during summer travel with the family.
In the segment I shared my tips on happy, healthy, travel with pets including a travel-friendly water bottle and food bowl, harness system for safety in the car, and also how to ensure your traveling pet doesn’t get dehydrated by feeding them a mixture of wet and dry food. The approach is called, easily enough, mixed feeding.
Around 44% of pet owners feed their pet wet food on a regular basis, and one quarter (25%) said they never serve their pet wet food. While dry food is a concentrated energy source and its crunchy texture helps maintain your pet’s oral health, wet food contains fewer calories than dry food and helps your pet maintain a healthy body weight. Serving your pet wet food will not cause them to gain weight if it’s properly integrated into their diet. If slowly introduced, it will actually cause your pet to ingest fewer calories while also providing them with extra health benefits. It also has numerous health benefits, including reducing urinary tract infections.
Introducing your pet to a mixed feeding diet is easy – start off with a ratio of about 25% new food to 75% old food, and work your way up from there over about a week (you should do this anytime you’re introducing new food into your dog’s diet). Later, you can decide what works best for your mixed feeding regimen – either wet for breakfast and dry for dinner or a combination of both at every meal.
Now that Cali is used to the wet/dry food combination, we can give her either and she is a happy pooch. Despite the lab mix in her, she doesn’t gobble up food as soon as its presented but definitely does when it’s wet food. So, if I find that she hasn’t touched her breakfast, I’ll add a topping of wet food to it a few hours later and she cleans her bowl. At 35 pounds, she’s definitely more of the poodle frame so I like that I can ensure she’s eating enough with the help of mixed feeding.
You can learn more about mixed feeding at www.petmixedfeeding.ca.
To celebrate your pet, we have a giveaway courtesy of IAMS! One of our readers is going to win a Mixed Feeding prize package valued at $100 CDN filled with a variety of wet and dry food (for your dog or cat, the winner can let me know!) along with some other fun feeding items and toys! Just enter your name and email address in the form below to get started!
I would love to win this for my cat Chaplin (Chappy). He is such a joy to have for everyone in our house. We love him to bits and couldn’t imagine life without him. Thanks for this awesome opportunity!
I have two fur balls that I love to pieces! I do the wet/dry feeding as both have benefits and it just makes meal time a little more fun for them. I’d love for them to win, and give them a little joy back for all the joy they bring to us. 🙂
I would love to win for my orange cat charlie. He is 3 years old and my baby!! Thanks!
I would love to win for my cat Donny (AKA The Don) He doesn’t get spoiled as much as he should with the treats and the wet food so he would love this. He is such a friendly cat and I am thankful for him and the connection he has with my youngest daughter
Hey! This is great info! We have had a dog forever and never considered regular wet feeding! We usually buy wet food as a treat or in a pinch. I will be buying more wet food for my Hunter !
I have two rescue cats who eat a mixed diet. I’d love to win for them as they always enjoy trying new food, and I haven’t served them IAMS yet.
I have a friend who just got a cat who could use this. Thank you.
I like to win for my daughters dog Petie.
We’re down to one cat, and four ferrets. We had two, but big Garfield passed on last year so now we only have Fluffy Butt. The ferrets also eat the cats food, but mostly they like kitten food.
I would love to win this for my cat!
I would love to win for my little lady Lily. She brings so much joy to my life as well as my husband and kids. She just knows how to brighten our day and she absolutely loves the trailer. I love seeing her smell new scents and figuring out the world around her. The best is when she takes her treats and drops it on the ground, tries to bury it only to just pick it up and eat it.. So silly.
My kitty is named Gizmo, and If I don’t enter this contest I’ll probably get the evil eye from him
would love to win this for my niece’s dog JORDY; Jordy is a rescue dog and his parents Megan & Brooks just had their first baby. Jordy has always been a mama’s boy but now his nose has been bent out of shape a bit with baby Bo entering the picture.
I have an almost four year old rescue dog. He is a Shepherd mix and I would love to try mixed feeding with him!
We have 2 cats and love the little monkeys to death! They would love to try some food they haven’t had before!
would love to pamper my mom’s cat with this amazing prize pack! great surprise for both of them 😉
I have a 12 year old jack russell mix named Mena who I always call “my first born”. I’d love to share this awesome prize pack with her because she really is the best- calm, loving, amazing with my kids and our bird (seriously they sit together!). She deserves a treat!
Butch is my baby, and he is the best dog ever. Don’t we all feel that way!
I have two cats, Lila Lou and Lewis Tuskadaro. Lila hates everyone and everything. Louis love peopled is very affectionate. His favourite thing to do is sit on you ;aps when you’re using the washroom. I’d like to win to give mixed feeding a try.
Our cat Sheba is the most affectionate cat and is so tolerant of our six grandkids!
I have 3 dogs that would love this prize pack, I love to spoil them and they love their food!!
We have two cats (Eddie and Tux) who are incredibly stressed right now over some construction work going on because of a bathroom leak and they would love a prize pack of goodies geared just for them! Thanks for the chance.
I have 3 furry kids that I love to pieces; 2 large dogs and a cat (who thinks she’s a dog!) Our pets are part of the family and we bring them on our vacations. They love getting fun goodies in the mail just like their pet mom. Thanks for the giveaway!
My dog is the centre of my universe! As she is entering Her twilight years i have noticed that her tummy is much more sensitive and i would love to try the wet/dry mix idea! Thanks for the chance!
I have two cats, Peter Pumpkin and Miss Kitty, and I always want the best food for them. They are so spoiled and that’s fine with me! 🙂
My dog is a Havanese and he is a happy dog who loves to play.
My cat Sami is 16 years and still plays like a kitten so I’d love to win her some new toys!
This is a great prize for the furry friends
We just got the most adorable kitten in April, and he is the best cat ever! He is so good with our kids, and such a well behaved kitty. He is a chubby tabby named Desi and I would love to win because he deserves the best!
My kitty is my world. She is a Maine Coon and sleeps next to me on my pillow!! My reason to live!
I have a Newfie and golden retriever so this would come in handy
we have 2 dogs, one is a senior at almost 16 and the other we recently adopted who is 7 months, both of pomeranium breed. They always make us smile and laugh regardless of our mood. can’t help but love them.
We have 2 cats & 2 dogs so lots of pets in this house. Would love to win for our cats as they don’t get spoiled quite as much as our dogs so it would be a nice treat for them.
My dog is a sheltie, called Maggie and she is soo pretty! She loves to be petted and loves to rest around us. I’d love to win her some new food to try!
I have 2 cats , Scooter and Whiskers both great cats , Scooter though is a hungry guy , he eats and eats and eats which leads me to believe that he would make good use of the prize !
I have a little rescue dog named Rocky. He adds such happiness to my life. I would love to win this because he is a picky eater and he hasn’t had Iams yet.
I have a Yorkie who is a fussy eater.
Our pup’s name is Layla and we adopted her one year ago yesterday. She’s a mixed breed and weighs about 17 lbs. She likes her wet and dry food mixed together but is a finicky eater most of the time.
My pup lily is a yorkie poo and 7 and would love to try new things lol!
I have a 10 year old Shih Tzu named Blue and he’s the love of my life. He’s not your average small size Shih Tzu because he’s 25 pounds and the size of a Jack Russell Terrior.
I have three kitties (Missy, Molly, and Chloe) and I am currently looking after the in-law’s cat for a few months.
I’d love to win this for my 10 year old dog to put a smile on his face!
I would love this for my cat Tom, he has been a great joy to our family and great company when I am here by myself
I would love to win this for our adopted cat Zeus! We were hesitant to bring an older cat into our home but he has brought us nothing but joy and love.
we have a small dog , great with kids but getting older
Would love to win for our friends who have two dogs that are their babies.
I would love to win for my furbaby Bella! She is 4 years old!
We have a “rescue cat”, basically a stray kitten found 10 yrs ago and no one claimed so she weiseled her way into our hearts, and she would love this.
We have a 6 year old collie/shepherd mix named Kelly and an 2 year old orange tabby named Friday. They both like to come on walks on the trails with us and my kids love them both.
I would love to win as I have three dogs, a border collier, a morkie and a black pom and one cat.
I would love to win this for our local animal rescue group!
We have a wonderful puggle named Ruby. I would love to win to give her some new food and treats to try.
I have a happy 4yr old rottweiler girl, she is just a big bear, she’s about 120 pounds and she’s a very healthy dog. I would love to win this for her, it would be great in helping me feed my big monster bear 🙂 thanks for the giveaway and the chance to win
I have two cats that would love this prize 🙂
My little dog is getting on in years. I feed him Iams dry food but would like to try mixed for the health benefits including reducing urinary tract infections.
love to win for our 4 cats(and one that thinks it lives here..our cats range from 1year to 13 years, all are part of the family and would love to try the brand for them!
My dog is a lab-huskey mix,her name is Cleo and she is 10 years old. I want to keep her healthy .
I would love to win for our fur babies Talia and Haley. They are both very different but so awesome to have in the house. I am a sucker for the cat motor!
we have 2 small/medium dogs, Maddie and Patches! They bring so much joy into our lives that we want to be sure they lead long healthy happy lives!
We have cats and I’d love to win this prize pack to introduce them to some new kinds of food. They usually eat dry food so it would be great to try wet food as well.
Would love to win this for my parents’ dog Jake who only eats iams.
My children have a cat named Shy. He’s a great cat, friendly, but not clingy, and really patient with the kids.
I’d love to win it for him because…free food! And he’d like it.
I would love to win some treats for our cat. We have a cat lilly.. shes pretty independent.. when shes feeling friendly she likes to sneak up behind the kids and rub all against them =) We lost our siamese cat a couple years ago to cancer.. miss him so much.. he had such a personality!
Our 3 year old male cat was just diagnosed with urinary crystals.
He was on a mostly dry diet, now he needs to eat wet food as well too.
We have two very fluffy cats – one is a rescue and the other we got from a breeder. They are both awesome and loving
I wud luv 2 win 4 my dog Amba. He is a beast with a puppy’s happy go lucky attitude & a picky appetite.
I have a kitty cat,Jack He is a big ole sook and I would love to win this prize for him to spoil him a bit and to try some new food 🙂
I would love to win this for my new kitty Oliver he is 10 months old
Sawyer is my very 1st fur baby. He will be 1 on Oct. 9th. I would love for him to win. I never knew I could love my son this much. We’re are working on number 2 a brother for Sawyer 🙂
Sawyer is my very 1st fur baby love him to pieces. He will be 1 on Oct. 9th. I would love for him to win.
our dog George is older and would love to win so that we can offer him a better diet
I have a dog Dusty and 2 cats that would really enjoy this prize.
we have three animals. two cats and one dog. They are our son’s best friends. they us a lot of joy in the house hold.
i have 2 cats and a dog we would love to try this brand
We adopted our pet 3 months ago, she has been such a blessing.
I would love to win this for my cats. Fefe showed up on our door 9 years ago, hungry and pregnant. Which resulted in Magoo, Mousey, Gizmo and Farley!
I’m actually entering because I would love to win this for my mom, she has four cats and a dog and spends a fortune every month taking care of them. I would love to give her this and give her a break on her pet care costs!
We just adopted a 7 year old pekingese a few months ago. He is the friendliest dog ever- nothing makes him happier than seeing other people and other dogs. Our walks usually take a long time because he wants to say hi and play with everyoe we encounter. We have been giving him dry food sometimes with carrot but I’d love to try giving him wet food.
I have 2 cats and one dog that would love this they are food driven
I no longer have pet cats but I support a no kill shelter in my area & they are always running out of cat food.
I have a Golden Retriever named Comet and a little part Siamese kitten named Midas
I have 3 dogs. Bailey the boxer, Sam the Norwegian Elkhound and Sophie the basset hound/border collie. I also have a kitty named Lucy. My pets would love to have this prize pack because they would like to try mixed feedings.
We have 1 cat, who’s 4 years old and currently has a litter of 3 kittens. 🙂 Would love to win for them! Thanks.
i have a dog and three cats that would love to try this 🙂
We have 2 cats, one is about to turn 19! Iams is a great product which both of our cats like.
I’d like to win this for my cat. She’s such a good girl
My cat Chocolate, a big boy who love to cuddle!
My dog sparky is my best friend. He is so friendly to everyone and loyal. I would do anything for him.
I have three cats, two males named Whiskers and Phinias who we adopted and one female Tia who we rescued. They are all very different and entertaining. Would love to win this great prize pack for them.
I’d like to win for my kitty Tigger. She is 15 years young and she is just like our baby 🙂
my pet oh my! I have a 10 year old black lab, a 5 year old chihuahua, and a 1 year old cat. they’re my crew. lol
I’d love to win for my dog, whom I spoil everyday 🙂
This would be a fabulous brand for him!
I have a 7 year old yorkie poo whos the pack leader most of the time. We try but its gotta be the breed… at least we tell ourselves that. We love him to death. Got him on kijiji and he got way bigger than I wanted but it just wouldn’t be our family without Bauer. He loves toys, and he loves mail and he’d be elated (seriously) if we won.
With 5 dogs in the house this would come in handy !!! My dogs love this food ! thanks