Thinking about switching to 100% wet food - questions

My cats have been eating a part dry/part wet diet of Innova kibble & canned for awhile now. I had thought about switching to all wet awhile ago, but honestly it was just too inconvenient at the time so they've been getting one canned meal in the evening and free fed the dry. However, I've noticed that several of my kitties are getting kind of chubby; I've also been reading on this site about all the kidney problems people have had, and I really want to do everything I can to prevent those problems in my cats.

Now that DH got Sprout he's willing to help me care for the cats, and I think we could manage all wet feedings. So, according to the directions on the Innova can, I should feed about half a 13oz can per day per cat. That means with 7 cats I'd go through about 3.5 of the 13oz cans per day, at $1.89/can. I think my costs would go up about $50/month, but the dry isn't cheap anyway at $42/bag at my local store. I really don't want to go any more expensive than the Innova, but is that the best wet food I can get at that price point? I've looked at the Wellness foods and my cats have eaten them on occasion, but it is a bit more expensive than the Innova.

Cat-specific questions: Griffin and Bastian are my 10 month old Ragdolls, and I imagine they are not totally done growing yet. Is it okay to restrict them to wet meals, or do they still really need to have food available all the time?

Sprout is our new Sphynx, and he basically never stops eating. His previous owners told me that they started rationing out his dry food at their house because he did get quite chubby for awhile, so I guess he's working on bulking up again! I'd like to prevent him from getting too fat, but is two wet meals a day enough for his fast metabolism?

TIA for any insights!

Hi
I o not allow dry food in my house! All wet diet imo is much healthier for cats and canned can be left down all day. Even when it gets hard it is ok to eat and of you stir in a bit of water (not necessary) it would look as good as new.
Innova canned is top quality. To me, any canned foods no grains, using muscle meat is top quality
Best of luck

My 2 cents....Innova canned isn't that great.

What about Eagle Pack cans? The 13 oz runs me about $1.50.

No advice on the Spourt part, I wouldn't have any idea.

I would not take away dry till about age two a ragdoll breeder would be a good source of info .... PLUS you have a Adam likely should have a bit of kitten food for a while...

All canned is good and if you can swing it but likely you should be able when everyone is "grown"

I Also am not a huge Innova fan ...lots of grains ....

If grain is okay in your book check the wet food threads they have lots of info

Sorry for the contradicting message. Innova dry(evo) doesn't have grains while the canned food does. Top quality canned is grain free and other brands are available

sharky;2379523 said:

I would not take away dry till about age two
All canned is good and if you can swing it but likely you should be able when everyone is "grown"

I Also am not a huge Innova fan ...lots of grains .... QUOTE]

Are there dry kitten foods grain free? Why wait till 2?

My own opinion fwiw is I would rather feed a regular canned food then a top quality dry kitten food due to moisture content amoung other reasons. also sometimes it is hard work to get a cat to switch from dry to wet.

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What about your cats teeth?

MANY grain frees are cat and kitten formulas, even grain free vets still recommend kitten food vs grain free for growth reasons and the fact that most grain frees are not feed trial tested as of yet ... If you knew cat breeds you would know that raggies grow till about age 4

EVO is EVO ie the bag says EVO in HUGE letters ... Innova is INNOVA
Innova kitten and adult in dry BOTH HAVE multiple grains ... PLEASE FACT check .. EVO is a grain free that is heavy on the potato which at this time is a debatable as to causeing diabetes

Dry food does NOTHING for teeth ... there are a FEW that clinically have proven to be dental health aids but they are like 5 of 1000

My cats all ate dry food. 2 are toothless....dry does nothing for dental health, as cats swallow something like 70% of their dry food whole. My "toofless" kitties both eat dry food as well as wet.

Some breeds do not stop growing until they are 2-3 years. NinaCaliente has Ragdolls (right?) that are slow to mature & stop growing. Hence the suggestion of kitten food longer.

Hmmm.... Now I'm thinking maybe it'd be better to hold off awhile on switching to all wet! The logistics of this with all my different kitties is just too overwhelming. For now, I think I will just keep giving them their wet meal in the evening and leave the dry out.

I'm going to look into the new fountains though. We had one several years ago when they first came on the market, but I had trouble keeping the dang thing filled and it was a pain to clean, so I finally got rid of it. I see the new ones have the option of reservoirs though, and maybe the design has been improved so I won't have to completely disassemble it to clean it thoroughly. Hopefully if I can get them drinking enough, the dry food won't be as much of an issue.

Regarding the grain-free foods, I'm certainly no expert on nutrition so I guess I don't have strong opinions either way about grains; my main problem with grain-frees is that I can't afford them when I'm feeding 7 cats! I was looking at the Wellness Core tonight, and I about died when I saw that little bag costs $20!!! That bag wouldn't last a week around here.

many kitten labelled wets are in the fine print all stage per AFFCO % s .. that could be an option feed them all kitten

Originally Posted by Breal76

What about your cats teeth?

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Cats do not chew as their jaws can only move up and down. Regardless
I don't think a hard pretzel can clean a humans teeth i wouldn't know how dry food can clean a cat's teeth. If anything i think pieces can get stuck between the teeth. I am not saying wet food is better for teeth but I am saying it isn't worse.
http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bpo_ch4a.php

Even if I assumed that it was better for the teeth i wouldn't put the teeth on top of organs like the kidneys

Cats do not chew as their jaws can only move up and down. Regardless
I don't think a hard pretzel can clean a humans teeth i wouldn't know how dry food can clean a cat's teeth. If anything i think pieces can get stuck between the teeth. I am not saying wet food is better for teeth but I am saying it isn't worse.
http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bpo_ch4a.php

Even if I assumed that it was better for the teeth i wouldn't put the teeth on top of organs like the kidneys

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That's an interesting read on the link. But I would prefer to read something that didn't have an agenda.

Here
They don't sell anything
http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.ph...dcleantheteeth

Here
They don't sell anything
http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.ph...dcleantheteeth

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No they don't. But they do have links to other sites that do sell things, including the link to the first one you gave. Which still makes me scratch my head a little.



I am open to the idea of it. However I need solid unbias facts.

I thought I answered this but for some reason I cannot find the post so excuse me if this is repeated
If you knew cat breeds you would know that raggies grow till about age 4

You are correct in your presumtion that I do not know breeds but I don't see what that has to do with anything since the question in this discussuion about dry foods and grains has to do with the whole species which to me includes all breeds and yes even kittens. Wwe will continue to disagree anbd that is fine. I do not believe dry food is appropiate food for cats and that goes double for kittens. I am sure we will both continue to get our thoughts out there

EVO is EVO ie the bag says EVO in HUGE letters

... Innova is INNOVA

MY mistake As I have said dry food is not allowed in my house
This bag says innova evo both in big letters
http://cats.about.com/od/catfood/gr/evo.htm

EVO is a grain free that is heavy on the potato which at this time is a debatable as to causeing diabetes

Please show me any links that you have for this statement
Thank you

Originally Posted by Breal76

That's an interesting read on the link. But I would prefer to read something that didn't have an agenda.

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If it's the "chewing" part that's of interest, would a

snippet from Britannica cut it?

I don't think the issue with them still growing has to do with wet vs. dry, but rather if they need food available to them at all times instead of just two meals per day. This would apply to any young kittens, but applies to my Raggies for a longer period of time since they take longer to be finished growing. I, personally, don't feel comfortable leaving wet food out for extended periods of time.

Originally Posted by optionken

I thought I answered this but for some reason I cannot find the post so excuse me if this is repeated
If you knew cat breeds you would know that raggies grow till about age 4

You are correct in your presumtion that I do not know breeds but I don't see what that has to do with anything since the question in this discussuion about dry foods and grains has to do with the whole species which to me includes all breeds and yes even kittens. Wwe will continue to disagree anbd that is fine. I do not believe dry food is appropiate food for cats and that goes double for kittens. I am sure we will both continue to get our thoughts out there

Click to expand...

Grain Frees....back to that. Do you have access to Taste of the Wild?

Here, the big bag (maybe 18 lbs?) costs me about $22.

Logistically, it works well for me. Considering Nutro MAX is the same price, actually, a few dollars more, for about the same size bag.

The store I buy at only had the little bags of Taste of the Wild for cats. Maybe I should ask them about it - they've ordered things for me in the past.

A lot of times, if they already carry it...they can get larger bags in on regular shipments if you specifically want them.