Oct
14
2009
Cat Food Dilemma-wet Or Dry?
Posted by: Alan in Cat Health Problem, tags: Dilemmawet, Food
I just adopted a 1-year old cat, who was rescued by a shelter. The shelter has only been feeding him wet food, and now he refuses to eat dry. I have no problem with wet food, however, my other cats have always only eaten dry, and I thought I remembered someone telling me that dry was better than wet for cats health. Is there a difference? Also, how many cans of wet food a day is appropriate?
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October 14th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
If you feed quality wet, then they will limit themselves on how much food is needed. This 1 year old has done you a favor and do ot believe old wives tales about dry food being good for teeth
Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health
Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.
Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingredient a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things?http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Rea…http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04…
Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s, constipation, and a host of other problems. Male cats are especially prone to blockages
from dry food. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with grains and carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. ( Have a fat cat?)
Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food but in Dry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don’t use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.http://www.catinfo.org/#My_Cat_is_Doing_…
You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn’t have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all.
THE BEST CAT FOODS CONTAIN NO GRAINS NO BYPRODUCTS
Cats are meat eaters not cereal or rice eaters
Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. I would rather feed a middle grade canned food then the top of the line dry food.
Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck? http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bp…
Please read about cat nutrition.http://www.catinfo.org/ http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.ht…http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.ht…
Vetinarian diets The reason your vet thinks so highly of the pet food they sell probably has more to do with money than nutrition. In vet school, the only classes offered on nutrition usually last a few weeks, and are taught by representatives from the pet food companies. Vet students may also receive free food for their own dogs and cats at home. They could get an Iams notebook, a Purina purse and some free pizza. http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04…
Nutritional Education Program website page for the American College of Veterinary Nutrition. Notice who they are receiving grants from for this program http://mypetcarnivore.com/educational_gr…
October 14th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Dry food has higher calories content, hence obesity and higher possibility of diabetes.
70-80% of our cats will suffer renal failure at some point in their senior years and since 70% or more of wet food contains water, it forces them to drink water to help preserve those vital organs.
Cats don’t really chew, they most likely bite the kibbles into half, some just swallow the entire kibbles. So unless the dry food is specifically made with dental hygiene in mind, it almost defeats the dental purposes.
Say even if the theory of dry food = good teeth is true; a cat can survive without any teeth but not kidney, so if it’s up to me, I say wet food to preserve those vital organs.
Dry food is also usually a cheaper and easier (no messy cans to wash) than wet food.
Perhaps a combination of both for the best.
Whatever you choose, make sure it’s a high quality pet food free with fillers; in return you will have yourself a happier healthy cat for many many more years.
Congratulations on your new bundle of fur!
October 14th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
There are pros and cons on each. Older cats do well on canned because they get more fluids that way (kidney issues are usually in the forefront with older cats).
Dry food is supposed to scrape the teeth when cats eat, keeping plaque off, but most cats don’t chew their food, they swallow the pieces whole so that negates any tooth scraping benefit.
If the diet has muscle meat as the main ingredient, does not have inferior protein such as by-products, has no corn (cats can’t digest corn) and a minimum of starches and grains, it should be fine no matter how it’s prepared. A protein level of 33 % or higher in dry is great, and 11% or higher in canned is great.
October 15th, 2009 at 4:49 am
It depends. What kind of wet food are you feeding her. Although as someone else said Evo has a great wet food, not all wet foods are actually good. And although wet foods may have less fillers, they do have lots and lots of water, and you can get dry food with lots of protein, less fillers, and less water. Your new cat is use to wet food, but it is probably time to switch to at least giving him part wet and part dry. Blue buffalo is a great dry cat food with less fillers and more protein. You can start out giving more wet and less dry and work your way to more dry and less wet. Also, feed your cat twice a day, but wet food goes bad after an hour!!! DO NOT LET YOU CAT EAT WET FOOD LEFT OUT FOR OVER AM HOUR! The only difference between the two that I’ve heard from the vet i use to work for was that the wet food is bad for the teeth. Unless you brush the cats teeth often it could cause problems with their teeth. A cat is also going to eat MORE wet food than they will the dry food, which in some cats (mine) will cause them to have weight problems.
Again, not all dry foods are bad, there are some great dry foods out there with little fillers and don’t have lots of water. Wet food is like baby food. they add water and grind it all up, so there is a lot of water in it to make it so easy for cats to eat it. I’m not against wet foods, my cat was on a wet food diet before i got her, when i got her she was also way way way to fat. My cat is now 15 pounds and that’s with loosing weight.
October 15th, 2009 at 8:43 am
Actually, wet food is healthier for them. It has less fillers. Some of it, like evo, is almost entirely meat… the kind I feed my cat is 95% meat.
Dry food is said to be healthier for the teeth, but that has actually been disproved.
Just stick with wet food, and feed however much the can tells you to. Generally a cat eats around 1/2 a can a day.
October 15th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Dry food diets only is mean’t to be very bad for your cats.
Mine eat both now!
My kitten was the same but instead of wet food he only ain’t dry food.
I would suggest place some wet food in a bowl, add a few biscuits to it. Not too many!
I did this but opposite way round.
My kitten now eats wet food on its own and dry food.
He also still likes it mixed. Not that picky anymore!!!
Apart from on flavours!
Trust me it really works!!!
Hope this helps u 2
Good luck mate
October 15th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
IMO its better to feed both wet and dry foods for best health. All dry can lead to more problems with UTI’s and other internal problems with male cats.
I feed one meal of dry to my 3 cats and one meal of canned per day. They also get raw chicken or hamburger twice a week to develop more muscle.
October 15th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
DRY IS NOT MESSY OR SMELLY IT KEEPS THERE TEETH WHITE AND ITS HEALTHYER.BUT IF YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW ASK A VET.
October 16th, 2009 at 4:09 am
My cat is 16 years and healthy, his entire life he has been eating both dry food and wet food!
October 16th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Dry food is much more nutritional for cats. Just mix a little wet food in with the dry food to get your cat to start eating the dry food again.