Wet Food

I feed my cats both wet and dry food but I was just wondering if wet food is better for them or if it has more nutrients?

Yes, wet (canned) food is better for cats than dry and contains more of what they need. Dry food is full of carbohydrates - something cats don't need and many have difficulty digesting. Dry food also uses up lots of water while being processed by the cat's body, and is suspected of contributing to kidney disease and FLUTD (urinary blockages).

Canned food is much closer to what a cat would eat if left to fend for himself outdoors (ex. chipmunks, mice, a bird now and then). Basically, fresh meat. You won't find cats out hunting for cereal which is pretty much what dry food is.

Make sure you feed a high quality wet food - no by-products, corn, wheat, no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.

IMO, dry food (the best you can find, avoiding the same poor ingredients listed above for wet food) is fine for treats only, not as a meal. My little guys love running down the hall chasing after individual dry food pieces!

Here is a recent thread we had about wet/dry food.

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=113212

I think dry food has really increased in popularity due to the fact that it looks 'sciency' to have a dried food product, and therefore you think that the people making it must know exactly what they are doing, and also it is more convenient and fits in with the hectic pace of life today - if you go out to work and do long hours you can just leave a bowl of food down for the whole day knowing it's not going to spoil while you're out.

I feed Radar 2 meals of wet a day and also leave out a bowl of dry while I'm at work. I firmly believe that for most cats a mainly wet food diet is better, but with the hours we both work the dry means that Radar has something to snack on between his 2 meals which have a long gap between them! The baby kitten is on dry at the moment with the occasional bit of wet because his stomach is finding too much wet a bit rich at the moment, but I want him to be on mainly wet food within a month or two.

So yes, IMO, the ideal is wet only or a mix of mainly wet with some dry, as long as the dry food is a very high quality food without too much in the way of cereals and fillers. I worry about urinary/kidney problems due to lack of moisture from the dry, it's less of a worry if you feed wet.

Originally Posted by Epona

I think dry food has really increased in popularity due to the fact that it looks 'sciency' to have a dried food product, and therefore you think that the people making it must know exactly what they are doing, and also it is more convenient and fits in with the hectic pace of life today

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Not to mention the fact that it's cheap - cheap to make and cheap to buy - which means more profit for manufacturers.

Originally Posted by urbantigers

Not to mention the fact that it's cheap - cheap to make and cheap to buy - which means more profit for manufacturers.

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Thanks yes of course! I'd forgotten that because I don't feed it as the main food and a huge bag lasts forever

Lately this is what I've been doing. On the weekends when I'm home I increase the wet food, give them some for breakfast, some for lunch, some for dinner, like a 1/4 of a 5.5 ounce can or 1/2 of a 3 ounce can at each meal and I leave a little dry food out for them when I go to bed so they don't go hungry. I wish I could do this every day but when I have to go to work this meal plan doesn't work so I give them wet food in the morning, dry food for grazing while I'm at work and wet food at night. The only disadvantage is that wet food tends to be expensive to feed. But it's worth it to feed as much as you can afford and as much as your cat will eat.

I'm a firm believer in wet food for cats. I haven't always been - I used to think that dry was best or at least good for cleaning the teeth but have completely changed my mind after reading what some members on here said and then doing some research of my own. I consider water a nutrient - and a very important one for cats - so feeding wet food ensures they get enough rather than just hoping they drink enough alongside their dry food.

Here is a link to another thread about why wet food is good

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99737

and here are a couple of links to articles which explain why cats need water with their food.

http://www.catinfo.org/#Cats_Need_Pl...ith_Their_Food

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.ph...needcannedfood

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.ph...dcleantheteeth