Wet Food Requirement?

My cat hates wet food; she will not eat canned food. She loves the Science Diet dry food and seems too be fine with that. Recently though a few folks (other cat owners) have told me that they have to have some sort of wet food as well, as dry food does not supply all the vitamins and minerals required. Is this true? I can't seem to find too many articles on it, and the local pet store told me it really doesn't matter. Vet mentioned it isn't a real big deal just watch the cat's weight and health if they are doing alright then dry food only is fine for them.

I have heard too much on either side, so what are your folkâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s views? Is it something that must be eaten or just another way of providing a meal?

wet is better as it mimics a natural cat diet ... AFFCO seal foods MEET the low end of the % spectrum usually thus are "complete and balenced"... many cats live fine on dry but it is not the ideal

Cats get a lot of water from their food naturally and so when they are eating only dry food, they get dehydrated. An all-dry diet can lead to health issues later on when the cat ages. If you are feeding only dry, I highly recommend buying a cat fountain (cats tend to drink more water with these around).

Wet food is important. What brands/flavors have you tried?

Believe your vet.

This board has a lot of wet (and raw, even) diet supporters, and there are good arguments as to why wet is better than dry. However, if your cats are doing fine, and you don't personally want to spend the money on wet food and the time and trouble to try to break the dry-food addictions your cats have going on, I think you should just stick with dry.

I feed my cats dry food (Iams) and don't feel even the slightest amount of guilt about it.

Here's an article that might interest you:-

http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canned_food.htm

Originally Posted by Enuja

Believe your vet.

This board has a lot of wet (and raw, even) diet supporters, and there are good arguments as to why wet is better than dry. However, if your cats are doing fine, and you don't personally want to spend the money on wet food and the time and trouble to try to break the dry-food addictions your cats have going on, I think you should just stick with dry.

I feed my cats dry food (Iams) and don't feel even the slightest amount of guilt about it.

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Enuja has a point about discussing with your vet. However, Science Diet is a very poor quality food and unless your pet needs it for specific medical reasons I would recommend you find a better dry food.

A lot of folks here have made the effort to get their cats to eat at least "some" wet food for the benefits of feeding wet. Most of us still feed some dry along with the wet. I tried at least 10 different brands/types of food before I found one our cats would eat in the wet food area. Now they will "ask" for the wet food before eating any dry so I'm pleased with that. Bijou has also lost some of his excess weight since I've been feeding wet food and changed the dry to a no-grain brand. It doesn't have to be expensive to feed wet food and it really is healthier. I wouldn't recommend Fancy Feast - it's not a very good food.

If you are interested in the quality of various foods Sharky has supplied lots of info. Do a search on this forum and you'll find lots of information on food.

Look, if your cats like Science Diet and are very finicky, leave them where they are. Ask six different people what to feed your cat and you will get six different answers. If they are healthy and eating normally, trust your vet.

I switched mine from that to EVO and now to Nutro, but I honestly feel like after all the adjustment problems they had, it would have been better to keep them on the Science Diet. My cats eat only dry and they do fine, mainly because they drink like fish and I'm always leaving out extra water bowls for them.

Originally Posted by Rebochan

Look, if your cats like Science Diet and are very finicky, leave them where they are. Ask six different people what to feed your cat and you will get six different answers. If they are healthy and eating normally, trust your vet.

I switched mine from that to EVO and now to Nutro, but I honestly feel like after all the adjustment problems they had, it would have been better to keep them on the Science Diet. My cats eat only dry and they do fine, mainly because they drink like fish and I'm always leaving out extra water bowls for them.

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I agree only insofar as if you cannot get your cat to eat a better quality dry food. It's pretty obvious that even a poor food is better than no food.

The majority of vets, unfortunately, don't know very much about nutrition. Some of the newer ones are being better educated on these things thankfully. Most vets will recommend Science Diet because that's what the sales reps bring in to their offices and tell them it's great stuff and the vet often gets a kick-back on sales.

There really are much better quality foods out there and, as I said before, if your cat doesn't need Science Diet for any medical reasons, it would be good to try to get them a better quality diet. Sharky has recommended a number of different brands on various threads in this forum that are much better than SD. There are also a number of longer-term members that are more knowledgeable than I who will recommend you try to get your kitty to eat at least some wet food. It sometimes takes some patience (I spent ages trying to find a wet our cats would eat) and trial and error.

Vets are wonderful for medical problems and I certainly wouldn't put my cat on a diet without discussing with a vet, but when it comes to quality food, I'll take the advice of folks like our Sharky who has done a lot of research and is very knowledgeable over a vet that gets no training on nutrition at all.

Some cats really do well on corn ... for those I would recommend foods like Royal canin or a MULTIPLE grain like Innova , Wellness , Eagle pack or Chicken soup

Originally Posted by Yosemite

I agree only insofar as if you cannot get your cat to eat a better quality dry food. It's pretty obvious that even a poor food is better than no food.

The majority of vets, unfortunately, don't know very much about nutrition. Some of the newer ones are being better educated on these things thankfully. Most vets will recommend Science Diet because that's what the sales reps bring in to their offices and tell them it's great stuff and the vet often gets a kick-back on sales.

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I am aware of how hard Hills pushes Science Diet. However, I'm of the mindset that when someone on the internet makes a claim that professionals don't know about something that they would be expected, like, say, vets knowing about healthy foods for cats, I really need some evidence. As it is, we have no idea about the health records of the OPs cats, the vet itself, or why the vet is making recommendations.

Basically, while there are certainly bad vets, if the vet is trustworthy, I don't see any reason to fiddle with your cats eating habits if they're not willing or able to take to a change in diet. This website is very good, but we are still just strangers on the internet.

There really are much better quality foods out there and, as I said before, if your cat doesn't need Science Diet for any medical reasons, it would be good to try to get them a better quality diet. Sharky has recommended a number of different brands on various threads in this forum that are much better than SD. There are also a number of longer-term members that are more knowledgeable than I who will recommend you try to get your kitty to eat at least some wet food. It sometimes takes some patience (I spent ages trying to find a wet our cats would eat) and trial and error.

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In my case, my cats actually put on a *lot* of weight when I started adjusting their diets for wet food. The vet recommended I take them off of it since they preferred to regulate their intake on kibble.

Vets are wonderful for medical problems and I certainly wouldn't put my cat on a diet without discussing with a vet, but when it comes to quality food, I'll take the advice of folks like our Sharky who has done a lot of research and is very knowledgeable over a vet that gets no training on nutrition at all.

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But that's just it, we have no idea what the vet's training is, we're using a generalization. Not to rip on Sharky's knowledge here or anything - there's a reason I moved over to Nutro. I still think grain-free is overrated, my cats do just as good on Nutro as they did on EVO without the rough digestion.

Its better if the cat will eat wet, but there are cats out there that just don't like it.

I fed my rexes on dry Iams for almost their entire lives (canned when kittens) and they lived to mid and later teens - healthy as horses

If you have one or two cats its not bad to have both dry and canned, but cost wise if you have more then 4-6 cats at a time, its cheaper to feed dry.

I don't like Science Diet, but if your cat seems ok on it fine; I'd switch over to Royal Canin or Max Cat or Natural Balance in the future tho

Originally Posted by elanaqua

My cat hates wet food; she will not eat canned food. She loves the Science Diet dry food and seems too be fine with that.

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That is exactly what my two cats eat. NOTHING ELSE. They are so radiantly healthy, I would dare not mess with their diet.

Personally, I would persist with trying to find a wet food they will eat. If they won't eat wet no matter what you try, then fair enough. In which case I would try to find a better quality dry food than SD. Again, if they won't eat it fair enough, but there's no harm in trying.

There are some tips here on helping transition a cat from dry food to wet that might help.

http://www.catinfo.org/#Transitionin...o_Canned_Food_

That whole article is worth reading too. Written by a vet too, btw

The fact is that vets dont' get much training on feline nutrition at vet school. They are trained primarily to diagnose and treat disease. Unless nutrition is a particular interest, few will know much about optimum nutrition for cats. Then there's the fact that vets dont' agree among themselves about what is best. One will say dry food is good, then another will say that wet food is best. So I find it better to do my own research, apply my own understanding of cat physiology and what would be a natural diet for a cat in the wild and make my decision from there. If you have a picky cat that won't eat what you think is best, then you have to compromise. But just because a cat eats a poor quality food, it doesn't mean he won't eat a better quality one. My cats would happily eat the likes of whiskas every day, but fortunatley they will also eat better quality foods and love raw meat. I'm glad I made the change.

A couple more articles that might be of interest

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

http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm

I would love to feed my cat wet but she gets diarreha when she eats canned. The vet told me to find a good quality dry food and stick with it. He thinks changing foods even gradually creates a picky eater. I did however, purchase a fountain just to ease my own mind. I think adding wet is better but just not possible for every cat.