Dry Food

I have read many articles on why a cat need to go on a wet diet. And most of the time, the author will explain why dry food is detrimental to a cat's health. I also need an unbiased opinion here on why some of you still feed dry food. I am not here to judge so just explain to your own best knowledge and experience why dry cat food is not as bad as what the others claim. Like I said, there are always two sides of a coin. Thanks!

I feed both. I think the cats like the tastes and textures of each.

One of my cats barely eats any dry food of his own accord, and he's considered a senior. Given that his blood panel and thyroid check came back normal I think he's doing great in the diet department. I want him eating lots of wet so we are less likely to deal with kidney issues later. My other cat prefers more of a 50/50 balance of wet and dry.

Christopher Cody won't eat wet food at all. I've tried just about every kind of premium brand wet foods and I've tried chicken and turkey (unseasoned, of course). He just doesn't want anything to do with it. He loves drinking water from a syringe so I "bottle feed" him to get extra water into his system.

The other two turn up their noses at wet food if I offer it to them more than once a day. They need to eat more than once a day, so that's why they eat dry.

I feed dry to Zoey cause thats what she'll eat...

the best food is what kitty will eat

I feed both. My cats prefer Fancy Feast wet and JC's Royal Canin MaineCoon Mix dry They also like Purina Kitten Chow. They will eat Innova but don't like Evo. They also like Purina Indoor Cat. The Wellness CORE and the Natural Balance they recommend that I give to the dog, Sugar

Hennessy would love to get all wet food, but he gets dry so I can free-feed during the day, 'cause the wet would go bad. This way he eats it all up at night and picks at the dry during the day.

One of my cats is fed some dry food (I'd guess he has approx 60% wet food and 40% dry food). The reasons I feed him any dry at all are (in no particular order)

a) cost - wet food is pricey so feeding some dry helps keeps costs down
b) convenience - if I need to feed on the move or in hot weather
c) good to get him accepting of the texture of dry food so that I can leave it in auto feeders if necessary

Jaffa doesn't have dry food regularly but did when he was younger so he will eat it if I need to leave some in an auto feeder for him. Mosi is only 2 years old so I feel ok feeding him some dry but I will feed him wet only when he is older (for the fluid intake). I won't kid myself that I'm feeding it for his benefit though. I'm doing it to make life easier for me and because I think a small amount of good quality dry food (I feed orijen mainly) will not harm a young cat.

I feed both wet & dry. One of my kittys prefers dry and will only have a little every evening. My other kitty loves her wet but will eat a little dry every day. Either way i try and feed the best quality possibly. I think a little balance is fine.

I would say I feed dry food mainly for convenience. Kittens need to be fed several times daily, and I'm not home to feed them that often. Also, I know that at some point, I will need to leave the cats over night or a weekend, and wouldn't be able to get someone to come in and feed them wet as much as they would need.

Right now, the kittens are getting primarily high quality dry food because they won't eat much wet and I'm sick of wasting it! I am OK with this at this point because they seem to drink enough water. When I'm home with the kittens in the summer, I might try to get them to eat some more wet by taking up their dry food for part of the day.

Part of it is convenience, and that Wally enjoys kibble and eats it consistently. But it's also that he'll only eat fishy wet foods (actually, there's one exception to that- the Petguard 'Premium Feast' flavor- but he'll only accept it on a very occasional basis ). I don't think he should be on a fishier diet, especially being a male kitty, so I keep the chicken-based dry in his diet. He ate dry food only until age 8 (he's 9 now), now he eats about 75/25 dry/wet.

Twtch is a dry food junkie, so I feed it to her. The others get dry to not only help on costs, but to help with my random schedule. I know they have something to eat if they have dry out. That & I can only imagine trying to feed 8 farm kitties, several semi-ferals, wet food only!

I have 2 cats that really don't like wet food much, 2 that like ANYTHING, and 1 that is 50/50. So I feed grain free dry (using an electric feeder) and a couple premium wet foods (about 3 cans total/day) and use a fountain to make sure they get water. Boy are they spoiled!!!

Our cats eat both. There are a few reasons why.

1) My husband has had cats his entire life and they were always free-fed dry and given scheduled wet meals. The last one just died at 19. None of them had any health problems whatsoever. I understand they could be exceptions, but still - you tend to do what you know!

2) It is difficult to find quality wet food here (Ireland). We are going to order some on-line, but for now, we are serving them high quality dry and grocery store wet. I hate giving them the grocery store wet, hence the ordering on-line. Our dry is good quality stuff.

3) The cats seem to like the mix. They love their dry and their wet. They drink water throughout the day (never been a problem).

4) Convenience. Pure and simple. And cost.

I admire anyone who goes out of their way to feed raw or can afford to feed high quality wet all the time, but the fact of the matter is, neither fits into our life.

I feed both wet and dry for weight and schedule issues. Willow was a dry food addict who lost weight when I tried feed her canned only--she didn't need to lose any weight, and she couldn't maintain her current weight with only canned. After she passed, I did try feeding Odo canned exclusively. When Zek came along, his body was more like Willow's, and he couldn't maintain his weight without dry food. On top of that, my work schedule is such that I am often gone for more than 12 hours at a time. Feeding both canned and dry allows the boys to remain satiated longer while I'm gone. It also keeps Odo from waking me up in the middle of my sleep cycle because he's hungry.

My guys are 100% wet right now. They were 100% dry, but I recently switched them over to get Amadeus (and it couldn't hurt Sebastian either) to lose a few pounds. It is expensive, and I am worried about how I'll afford it in the long run, but I am just hoping that this will pay off now rather than having lots of expensive vet bills due to obesity in the long run.

I don't think dry food is as bad as what some sites make it out to be. Most cats are fed dry only and cats life expectancy has increased dramactically over the years. There have not been any scientific studies compairing dry, wet, and raw fed cats.

I feed mostly dry but I also feed wet and cooked meat as treats. Dry because the cost is considerably lower than wet, it is much more convenient, and there is much less wasted. Also one of my cats throws up wet food a lot.

Mecha eats both wet and dry, mostly whiskas dry food and random wet food because she likes a change.
I was told by a supposed vet (say supposed purely because you never know online) that dry is just as good for cats as long as they have access to clean water all the time (it's also good for their teeth apparently)
I feed mecha dry because she loves it, she refuses to eat ALOT of wet foods (won't touch any loaf style foods, they have to be gravey / puree ish) and accepts any dry cat food I give her as food and yummy.
I don't think it's bad for them though because most cats I know eat dry food and are okay

I feed some wet in the morning and when I get home - however, since I'm routinely away from home at least 12 hours Monday through Friday (and sometimes have overtime), I leave a measured amount of dry down for my two to nibble on. And, for what it's worth, my male was overweight when I adopted him; with guidance from my vet and using measured amounts of food, he reached a lower, healthy weight. So, I don't think dry food necessarily means a fat cat.

I read both the Cornell and Tufts cat newsletters, and, honestly, haven't seen any of their vets being as absolutist on wet versus dry as some sites are. And I suspect if there were any hard, well-documented studies showing a clear advantage to one or the other type of foods, those vet schools wouldn't be all that shy about mentioning it. Maybe just my take on their newsletters, though.