What combination of dry and wet food?

Hi folks,

I'm new here and I've just adopted a 3yr old cat (neutered male) from our local animal shelter (~2 weeks ago) and have been feeding him Nutro Nat. Choice weight management dry (like most shelter cats, he's somewhat overweight). So far I'm having good results, he likes it, his stools are small and tight (and not overly stinky), he's lost some weight, and his coat looks 100% better than it did... He does tend to beg a lot, but I'm guessing that was because he was free-fed at the shelter and is adjusting to getting just 2/3 cup food a day (the vet rec'd to feed only 1/2c for weight loss, but others in the house are suckers for the cute begging kitty, so I had to switch to 2/3 c. to reduce the begging).

Both of the cats my family had when I was growing up died of digestive/urinary issues (kidney failure and blockage), so I want to do the best for this guy that I can, in terms of diet, etc to help prevent those sorts of issues, with that in mind, I have a question about wet/dry food...

I've heard that feeding a combination of wet and dry is best (for moisture intake, to help prevent urinary tract issues) and was wondering what percentages of wet/dry you guys feed? I plan on sticking with a mainly dry diet (for tooth/gum health), but want to supplement with wet food ocassionally... Would feeding wet food 1-3 times a week be a good compromise? Also, does feeding wet food really help urinary tract issues?

I've also been wondering if feeding wet will possibly "spoil" him and cause him to turn up his nose at the dry food. (guess I'll just have to wait and see on that one).

Thanks for your help! I'm sure that I'll have plenty of other questions to bug you with in the future

Art

Wet food is not spoiling a cat IMHO it should be madatory to feed some wet ... i like 50/50 wet /dry if you can .... 1/2 cup dry and 1/2 to one 5.5 ounce can a day ... No need to get Lite canned

I let my cat self-feed dry food, and I give him a couple of the small cans of wet each week. Usually Sunday and Wed. I notice that when I gave him wet food every day he'd get pickier and leave the last bit of it (and I know what varieties he likes/dislikes) but now that its more occasional he doesnt leave a scrap when I offer it. I also warm it up in the microwave a bit which he goes nuts for

I originally went from all wet to all dry 'cause he was having issues with his gums, plaque buildup and stuff, which is no longer a problem. I will say this, his cat breath is much less offensive eating mostly dry.

Overall, we're at 60/40 dry/wet. I wish it was closer to 50/50 overall.

It varies from cat to cat in my household anywhere from 10% dry/90% wet all the way to 90% dry / 10% wet.

I like to feed canned food every day. I wish my boy that has bladder issues would eat nothing but canned...but alas he lives to torment me . We're working on it. My vet told me that she sees the benefits of canned for kitties that have the chronic bladder problems. It does make a difference IMO.

You may have to experiment with various flavors and textures to find one he likes, especially if he's not used to getting it.

Thanks for your replies.

I went to petsmart tonight and they had the nutro pouches on sale, so I bought several different flavors. I wish that they had more flavors available in the "weight control" formula (he's at least 2lbs overweight right now, so I don't want him gaining any weight). I think I'll start off feeding 1 pouch (3oz) 3 times a week (in addition to dry) and see how it goes... If he reacts well to it I could possibly increase to 4-5 times a week.

What brands of wet food do you guys feed/suggest? I don't want to be cheap at the expense of my cat's health, but if I can feed him a slightly less expensive brand of wet food, I could feed it more often.

Thanks again for your advice!
Art

I feed my girl 1/4 of a 6 oz can of food a day plus 1/4 C of dry food. For canned, I feed her Science Diet & Iams. For dry, I feed her Science Diet r/d (prescription for reducing diet) and Royal Canin Indoor Light (I think it's 35, but not sure). She's lost a little bit of weight and is shaping up. She would be as big as the house if I allowed her to free feed!

Stephanie

wet food is a long list

Meow mix pouches and tubs

Sheba tubs

Nutro there are a bunch of them

Natual balence

Natural life

Active life



Organix( my girls dont like but reads well)

Innova

EVO

Califonia natural

Natures prairie

Solid gold

Pro pac

Chicken soup

some Iams

Sesible choice

Authority

Pet Gold

Blue spa

By nature

there are more but that is all I can remember

Hi - Welcome to TCS

Originally Posted by artgecko

I plan on sticking with a mainly dry diet (for tooth/gum health), but want to supplement with wet food ocassionally... Would feeding wet food 1-3 times a week be a good compromise? Also, does feeding wet food really help urinary tract issues?

I've also been wondering if feeding wet will possibly "spoil" him and cause him to turn up his nose at the dry food. (guess I'll just have to wait and see on that one).

Click to expand...

Dry food doesn't actually help teeth and gums much (see article below) so I wouldn't worry about him going off dry. Water is an important nutrient for urinary tract and kidney health so I'd personally feed as much wet as you can if he likes it.

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

I've just recently incorporated wet food into my two kittens. They are getting Nutro NC Complete Care and Nutro Max for wet and dry is still premium edge. I'm scared of this whole UTI issue I keep reading about so by providing them wet food, specifically the ones that contains DL-Methionine, I'm hoping they won't develop UTI.

What I have noticed is that both of my kittens are turning up their nose at the dry food but I've stuck with it by feeding them wet food in the morning and dry food at night. If they are hungry, they will still end up eating the dry food.

Originally Posted by artgecko

Thanks for your replies.

I went to petsmart tonight and they had the nutro pouches on sale, so I bought several different flavors. I wish that they had more flavors available in the "weight control" formula (he's at least 2lbs overweight right now, so I don't want him gaining any weight). I think I'll start off feeding 1 pouch (3oz) 3 times a week (in addition to dry) and see how it goes... If he reacts well to it I could possibly increase to 4-5 times a week.

What brands of wet food do you guys feed/suggest? I don't want to be cheap at the expense of my cat's health, but if I can feed him a slightly less expensive brand of wet food, I could feed it more often.

Thanks again for your advice!
Art

Click to expand...

With wet food, I wouldn't worry about "weight control". The carb heavy dry food is really much more fattening, regardless of the formula. A good high protein / quality wet food will actually help your cat's 'waistline' . Too much of anything will make all of us overweight, but cats need fat and protein, they get chunky on carbs IMO.

For something mid-priced and readily available, Nutro is a good one. You may want to try out a few of the 5.5oz cans. There's a lot more food in one than a pouch (more than double after accounting for all that gravy ) but they are not double the price.

The meow mix pouches are cheaper and they have decent ingredients...we don't do much fish so those aren't served here, but a lot of members here do like those.

My cats like the Blue Spa food too...we just don't do much because the cans are too small for my big family. It's available at Petsmart. Sharky made a good list...we haven't tried them all though (yet ).

Good luck!

Thanks again for the great info and opinions!

Well, last night I tried one of the pouches. I went with the "weight management" formula. He loved the gravy (which he licked off) but didn't touch the "chunks". So I ended up tossing it after about 1 hour.

Tonight I tried again, this time with one of the regular formulas, "salmon". Better results, he licked all the gravy off but did eat a few pieces of the actual food.

I think that I'll go back to petsmart and get some of the Nutro canned foods and some authority and see what happens. I think he might like the texture of the canned better. We'll see.

Thanks again for your help!
Art

My cats like science diet wet turkey, and trader joes turkey and giblets. the ingredient list looks good. for dry we have purina one chicken and purina one sensitive stomach, but I am not going to get anymore of that, they prefer the chicken and we are not having any more soft stool issues. They get one third a 5.5 ounce can twice a day and a small handfull of dry food after they eat their wet. Sometimes I put them side by side in the dish so they will eat the wet. then I leave out very little dry in a dish. I find if I leave too much out between meals, they don't want to eat, and I am not about to throw away the wet food. I would say the balance is 50/50

Well good news...
Apparently it was the texture of the "chunks" in the nutro pouches that he didn't like. I tried smushing them with a fork and he made short work of it.

However, I tried some Authority "turkey and giblets" today and WOW... He ate the stuff faster than he consumes dry food...Must be the "loaf" texture. At any rate, I will try feeding him about half - 1/3rd a can of that every day and see how it goes.

So far his stools are still looking good and his urin output has increased (which I assume is a good thing).

I also got some of the nutro Max canned food to try (I got the same flavors of authority and nutro for comparison) so we'll see which he likes better.

Thanks again for your advice! and I'll keep you guys posted on how he does.

Art