can you mix dry and wet food together?

Absolutely! My cats have always had a bit of dry mixed in with the wet food. Especially when they were kittens. It is fine to add some dry to get them to start eating the wet. I have to do this with Pipsqueak now to get him to eat wet food. My cats get one of their wet meals mixed with dry and a little bit of water. I have to add a little dry to Pipsqueak's wet food to get him to eat the wet.

I feed all three of my pure domestics a mix (50% wet and 50% dry) once to twice a day depending on the cat. Plus they are given a separate bowel of dry food as well. My F3 Savannah is on a strictly dry food diet as he is too food aggressive to receive wet food.

I just have to say some cats are very picky eaters. Panda my DLH was as picky as your kitten from when I first acquired her over a year ago. So I am not sure why some cats are that way but they sure are .

Now onto your question about bacteria growth. I will say first of all I am not a veterinarian. If you are very concerned about that issue speak to a licensed veterinarian you trust.

But as a certified veterinarian technician and working with cats for over 15 years I have never seen the bacterial issue that many people speak about.

Now with my present pure domestics (three) and my F3 Savannah the pure domestics know to bolt down there wet/dry food mix . So there is no chance for bacteria to grow .

I have also heard that wet+ dry is not good to leave out but I don't know the validity of that statement. Wet will be fine to leave out while you are gone, but if suddenly he has stopped eating, i would take him to the vet. Wasn't he a stray at one point?

I've heard this mentioned many times as well, right along with the advice not to feed kibble and raw together or even within a few hours of each other. My response to this is two-pronged. First and foremost - don't feed kibble!!!! (See Feline-Nutrition.org or CatInfo.org for detailed info.)

Okay, now that that's out of the way... *grin*

Cats evolved to handle some pretty crazy bacterial loads. Feral cats often bury their breakfast leftovers and dig them up that evening for dinner, and stray cats will eat out of dumpsters without digestive upsets. With the kinds of things kibble is coated with to entice cats to eat it, mixing it with anything that makes it moist will definitely cause fast, active bacterial growth, but knowing what cats can handle, I'm not convinced that bacteria is flat-out dangerous.

I don't recommend the practice because kibble is unhealthy for cats, but I think if you're doing it short-term to transition the cat to something else, it's not the end of the world.

Of course, the longer you leave the mix sitting out, the higher those bacterial levels will get. Young cats, old cats or any cat with a compromised immune system is likely going to be affected at some point, and if you leave it long enough, even healthy cats could be.

That's kind of an in-between answer, but hopefully, it helps clarify things at least a bit for you. Good luck getting your furbaby to eat canned!

Hmmm, have you tried any of the other tricks to enticing a cat to eat something? A bit of tuna juice dribbled over the food, or a sprinkling of catnip, freeze dried meat treats (Whole Life's chicken never fails on my kitties), Parmesan cheese, or even fish food flakes can work wonders in convincing a cat your offering is actually edible. Maybe one of those will work for you!

Best regards and good luck again.

AC

I meant commercial wet canned food mixed with commercial dry food. Not raw meat or raw entrails mixed with commercial dry food.

Yes, I know, Cat Person. And that's what I responded to.

AC

Short answer from actual experience:
Many kittens are free fed kibble, while also given wet food, as these two were. The kibble is surely not digested before the wet food is eaten, and they do fine with normal stools and did not get sick.

Common sense answer:
Kibble does digest at different rates than wet from what I've read, but if they have the gut flora to digest either, its a non-issue, just as its not a big deal that mashed potatoes digest much faster than steak and you don't have to separate those meals for yourself.

Wet food mixed with dry food (or just dry food wetted) will go bad as quickly as wet food by itself, so its best consumed within an hour or two of being put out.

Okay it is the word raw or I swear I saw the word raw threw me . I can be mega ditzy.

All I can say is my three pure domestics eat fifty percent canned food (wet) mixed with fifty percent dry food. This set up is given one to two times per day depending on the cat. Plus dry food in a separate dish is out at all times for the two indoor/outdoor cats. The other pure domestic that is completely indoors is given a dish of dry and the wet/dry mix in the evenings when she is alone in my bedroom. For heath reasons she is fed only one time a day.

I would think that as long as it isn't sitting out all day long and is eaten in a fairly decent time frame that it wouldn't be a problem. Bijou doesn't eat his wet food all at once when I put it down, he eats some and goes back later to finish it.

what you can do is leave some wet food and freeze some so that your cat can eat it later as it thaws.

when Little Guy was a kitten (well, 6 months old when I adopted him), I couldn't get him to eat wet food. So I would mix the dry and wet and feed it from my hand. That was the only way he'd eat. I think he probably was a dry food addict prior to me adopting him because he wouldn't eat the wet without the dry, much to my dismay.

I see no reason to not mix wet and dry although, like Auntie Crazy said, I would feed all wet if you can afford it. I don't believe that any canned is better than the best dry food...there are bad dry and wet foods. But I do believe that a good canned food is better than dry food. In general, a good canned food has lower carbs and is more digestible as well as it contains more moisture which cats need. While cats may be able to tolerate carbs, it puts more stress on their system and they don't derive any benefits. I'm not saynig no carbs, just low carbs.

I would, however, make sure that your cat's inappetance isn't a result of a medical issue. You don't want him not eating for more than 24 hours as it can lead to hepatic lipidosis. HL is expensive to treat...I've seen too many cats go through this...not trying to scare you but maybe see the vet if he doesn't start eating.

Glad you're trying to get him to eat wet though. Hope things go well!

In my humble opinion the above idea sounds just fine .

Okay let me start off and say I am a vet tech and have had/fostered many male cats for fifteen years. None of my cats had a UTI. Some of that is luck I am sure. But I also think some cats are prone to UTI as well. So I do not think it is always diet related.

Also it has been shown some grain helps prevent a UTI. I feed my F3 Savannah Evo dry and Taste Of The Wild dry mixed together. But to prevent a UTI he is given twenty pieces (yes I count them ) of either Nutro Max diet dry food or Purina dry to ensure he gets some grains in his diet.

When you ladies have a chance, I'd recommend you take a look at the Nutrition and Health sections of the Feline Nutrition Education Society's website (feline-nutrition.org). It'll give you a great grounding in feline nutritional needs and help you understand what it is about certain foods that makes them "healthier" than others. Which, of course, will make choosing foods that much easier.

Best regards!

AC

Cyndersmom, your idea is fine. I agree that utis aren't always diet related, hiwever, wet food does provide the moisture a cat needs. I am glad you have found a solution.

LOL, this thread has bounced all over the place. I agree with most of the thread and I would certainly not leave wet, or a wet dry mixed together out all day. I don't have any science to back me up on this ie; bacteria etc. but it just does not seem right to me, to leave wet out all day much less wet and dry mixed.

There is nothing wrong with an all kibble diet if the cat drinks enough water. And yes Sweet, wet provides moisture the cat needs. Cats are just not wired to go to the water bowl for a big slurp like the dog is so in many cases you have to make sure the meezer is getting moisture from it's wet diet