Wet or Dry?

I have heard that a poor quality wet (fancy feast, friskies etc) is better even then a high quality dry...
Is this true?
I now feed half Healthwise kibble cat food and a small can of Fancy Feast per day. The dry is pretty good quality and the wet, not so much.
Would benefit more from being on 100% Fancy Feast or is what I'm doing ok? He has had severe constipation issues (I even tried raw and that made things much worse) and this is the one combination that has kept him regular!
Let me know what your opinion is!

Well, some feed dry, but try to limit it to 20% or less of the total diet. But in my opinion, yes, all wet food, even if it isn't "high quality" is better than any dry food. If you want to read up on why this is the case, this is a great place to start: http://www.catinfo.org

But in a nutshell, cats are descended from desert animals. They are ... genetically programmed, so to speak, to get the moisture they need from the food they eat, not from drinking water. My cats, when they ate dry food, drank water. But when we switched to all canned, even though they stopped drinking as much water, they started peeing more.

Were you feeding commercial raw, or home made? Because the issue with constipation when feeding raw is related (typically) to the bone or calcium content, or the calciumhosphorus ratio (meat is high in phosphorus, and has to be balanced with the right amount of calcium. If making home made, it's quite easy to lower the Ca ratio to adjust for each kitty's needs as re: constipation or soft stools).

I ask, because some commercial raw foods have a high bone content, and will constipate some kitties.

I was feeding Frankenprey. He would only eat boney chicken and we all know that that isn't sufficient taurine and the amount of bone was creating constipation. I think I am going to do 50/50 high/low quality wet and cut out the kibble entirely and then just feed chicken necks for his teeth!

This may be a double post but oh well....
I used Frankenprey, but he would only eat boney chicken... not enough taurine so I felt not an efficient diet. All the extra bone wasn't great for his constipation either lol
I will use fancy feast for now and completely cut out the kibble. I'll maybe add some Evo (wet) or Wellness (wet) and then use a chicken neck for his teeth every couple of days.
I'm lucky that he's such a small cat (not quite 8 pounds)! Otherwise wet would be an extreme cost!

For maximum cost effectiveness, buy the largest size can available (assuming your cat will eat reheated food). A 13-ounce can of Evo costs less per ounce than Fancy Feast . And Friskies paté foods are OK too.

Friskies... is it the same quality as Fancy Feast?? I know Fancy Feast isn't high quality but isn't Friskies the worst??

Never mind... I just looked at the ingredient list and they are both the same quality food lol. The one thing that is particularly concerning is the vitamin k activity. Couldn't that harm them?

Another question about wet food. Can you re-heat it in the microwave or does that kill a lot of nutrients? If it does, how do you reheat if?

You can easily warm it up in the microwave. Add a couple of teaspoons of water, depending on the amount of food, and nuke it for 30 seconds to a minute. Make sure to stir it before serving so there aren't any "hot spots".

I don't heat food in the microwave. Run hot water over the dish, leaving a little in the dish, add the food and mix well (make a gravy but leave some chunks if your kitty likes chunks).

This should warm the food sufficiently and safely.

If it needs additional warming, just place the dish of food in another dish of hot water and let it sit for a minute, stir again, check temp with the back of your finger. It should feel just warm against your skin.

Ok thank you jcat! I'll be buying large cans of Evo (he loves Fancy Feast a lot more but oh well) and just heating it up for a short time. I know Evo isn't his favorite but if it was heated up and mixed with Fancy Feast for a while he would eat it.

jcat said:

You can easily warm it up in the microwave. Add a couple of teaspoons of water, depending on the amount of food, and nuke it for 30 seconds to a minute. Make sure to stir it before serving so there aren't any "hot spots".

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Yikes! Maybe my microwave is a lot more powerful or something, but if I nuked a serving of cat food for 30 seconds to a minutes. . .well, it wouldn't be good :lol3:. When I used to warm up cat food, I'd nuke it for 8 seconds for half a can. Even 10 seconds was too long.

Yeah, I mix Friskies and Evo. Partially because the kittties don'tt like Evo alone, and partially because Evo is really high in fat, so best to even it out with something lower fat, IMO.

bluebo said:

Another question about wet food. Can you re-heat it in the microwave or does that kill a lot of nutrients? If it does, how do you reheat if?

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I don't usually have to reheat my food because I use the small 3.5 ounce cans.  It's a lot more expensive to do it that way but it's more convenient for me so I do it.  Now and then I will buy a large can of something and store it in the fridge.  I will run hot water in their bowls an dry them.  The bowls will still be quite warm.  I'll put the food in, drizzle a bit of warm water into the food and mix it with the wet food.  That is usually sufficient to warm the food up.   LDG was correct in the 80(wet)/20(dry) ratio.  Mine are at 90(wet)/10(dry) and I will leave them at that.  Waltham Center for Pet Nutrition recommends that the diet be at 80/20 also.  Waltham is the leading pet nutrition authority in the world and is owned by Nutro's parent company, Mars.  I am a Pet Nutrition Specialist with Nutro.  All that disclosure done it sounds like you are on the right track.   You will get a lot of good info here and you are more than welcome to email me with any questions you have

Willowy said:

jcat said:

You can easily warm it up in the microwave. Add a couple of teaspoons of water, depending on the amount of food, and nuke it for 30 seconds to a minute. Make sure to stir it before serving so there aren't any "hot spots".

Click to expand...

Yikes! Maybe my microwave is a lot more powerful or something, but if I nuked a serving of cat food for 30 seconds to a minutes. . .well, it wouldn't be good :lol3:. When I used to warm up cat food, I'd nuke it for 8 seconds for half a can. Even 10 seconds was too long.

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Lucky you. Our microwave is big, so it takes 30 seconds for a small serving and 60 for a large one out of the fridge. I miss my old microwave, which was smaller and faster, but couldn't accommodate large bowls.
Fortunately I rarely have to nuke cat food. Jamie will only eat small ( 3 or 4 oz.) cans, and over the years Miezi has also become convinced that they taste a lot better. An engineer from a major pet food company assured me that the cats aren't crazy. Although the ingredients are exactly the same in the large and small cans, the food is heated in the cans, so the larger the can, the longer it's heated and the more taste is lost. Makes sense.

I feed my kitties taste of the wild wet food & nutro dry. If I give them too much wet no matter what brand my eldest gets a UTI. My cats have as of lately been going outside and bringing inside what they catch n making me freak out n chase furry creatures around the house to save them from my kitties appetite. Apparently theres a hole under my bath tub kitties been getting out thru & I cant get it fixed till next week. So they made their own raw diet! But it looks like other posters gave yoy some good advice!

Thank you guys! My cat also prefers the 3.5 oz cans and that was why I was wondering about heating (to get the scent going)... BUT the larger the can, the cheaper per oz! Oh well , if I have to buy 3.5 oz cans I will. Although I don't know if Ill be able to afford the Wellness in 3.5 oz cans.... have you seen the prices on those things? Ridiculous. Right now he is eating 2 3.5 oz cans of wet (Fancy Feast) per day and he's doing well! Eventually I'll add better quality wet.

I usually only heat if the food has been in the fridge. Otherwise I add a teaspoon or two of warm water to enhance the smell when Jamie is being picky. I keep telling myself that our next cat(s) won't even get to try the little cans, because I now know how addictive they are. :lol3: I usually buy cat food online by the case, so can save money that way. Hubby almost had a heart attack the first time we got a delivery of 288 cans!

bluebo said:

Thank you guys! My cat also prefers the 3.5 oz cans and that was why I was wondering about heating (to get the scent going)... BUT the larger the can, the cheaper per oz! Oh well , if I have to buy 3.5 oz cans I will. Although I don't know if Ill be able to afford the Wellness in 3.5 oz cans.... have you seen the prices on those things? Ridiculous. Right now he is eating 2 3.5 oz cans of wet (Fancy Feast) per day and he's doing well! Eventually I'll add better quality wet.

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Well, I wouldn't microwave the can.  Warm water should do the trick!  FF is not a bad wet food and the classic variety is actually pretty good nutritionally.  You sound like a great pet parent!

NutroMike said:

Well, I wouldn't microwave the can.  Warm water should do the trick!  FF is not a bad wet food and the classic variety is actually pretty good nutritionally.  You sound like a great pet parent!

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No I wouldn't microwave a can! :lol3:
I'm trying to do what's best for my cat. I've never been a "cat person" but one day we went into the SPCA looking for a puppy and came back with a shaved (he was so matted) older (about 6-7 yrs old at the time) grumpy looking cat. He's the sweetest boy ever though.... doesn't act much like a cat though

bluebo said:

No I wouldn't microwave a can! :lol3:
I'm trying to do what's best for my cat. I've never been a "cat person" but one day we went into the SPCA looking for a puppy and came back with a shaved (he was so matted) older (about 6-7 yrs old at the time) grumpy looking cat. He's the sweetest boy ever though.... doesn't act much like a cat though

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What ever he acts like, I can assure you, he is acting like a cat, because he IS a cat. Cats are individuals and full of personality, as you are discovering. Hurray for you for adopting an older cat. The Fancy Feast classic line is grain free and low carb anyway, and it is canned, and that (being canned) is the most important thing.