Does wet/grain free actually keep cats healthier/living longer?

I've been researching and trying to educate myself about the best kitty diets. My cats growing up only ate dry (my parents didn't know better) and my grandma's cat ate dry and got wet in the evening. She ended up dying of kidney failure though, between 12-15 years (she was an adopted stray, so we never knew her real age). My mom's cat that only eats dry (she won't touch wet) is still alive and well at 14. I was just wondering, does feeding only wet food or only grain free wet food actually prevent kidney failure and that sort of thing? Does it actually help them live longer? Or is it just speculation? We had a neighbor who fed their cat human food and loads of strange stuff (literally, whatever the family ate for dinner, the cat got a dish of, including sugary things like cheesecake!) which is terrible! but their cat lived to be 20+. I know that's probably the exception and not the rule (and personally I would never feed an animal those things), but I guess I was just wondering if anyone on here has cats that lived a super long time etc from feeding wet or grain free diets. My grandma's vet told us the average life span of a cat was 12-15 years, so I always thought that was just normal, and that some would live shorter or longer just like people and that it depended on genetics.

Obviously I love my kitty and want her here for a very long time! But I also don't want to go broke in the feeding process, if it won't actually make a difference. I guess I'm just wondering if it does! So far, the only wet she'll touch with a 10 ft pole is Fancy Feast chicken classic, and any of the higher quality canned foods she won't go near. She can tell when I mix them, and will go on a hunger strike until she gets plain FF or dry. I'm thinking I may have to settle for a FF diet with some high quality grain free dry to snack on in between, because at least she's getting moisture and eating when it's FF! She's not picky with her kibble, only her wet. I've read FF isn't the best, but at the same time, it's literally all she'll touch. I don't want to keep buying pricy canned food that just ends up getting thrown out, or trying to force switching her onto it if it won't be that different from FF in the long run. Do you think this is ok, and does anyone have any personal stories or results of longer lives/better health of feeding canned or grain free?

sparklexo said:

Obviously I love my kitty and want her here for a very long time! But I also don't want to go broke in the feeding process, if it won't actually make a difference. I guess I'm just wondering if it does! So far, the only wet she'll touch with a 10 ft pole is Fancy Feast chicken classic, and any of the higher quality canned foods she won't go near. She can tell when I mix them, and will go on a hunger strike until she gets plain FF or dry. I'm thinking I may have to settle for a FF diet with some high quality grain free dry to snack on in between, because at least she's getting moisture and eating when it's FF! She's not picky with her kibble, only her wet. I've read FF isn't the best, but at the same time, it's literally all she'll touch. I don't want to keep buying pricy canned food that just ends up getting thrown out, or trying to force switching her onto it if it won't be that different from FF in the long run. Do you think this is ok, and does anyone have any personal stories or results of longer lives/better health of feeding canned or grain free?

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Actually, Fancy Feast classics are not that bad. The best diet ultimately is one that you can afford that your cat will eat. We can only do our best with what we have. It doesn't help your cat if you go broke!

sparklexo said:

I've been researching and trying to educate myself about the best kitty diets. My cats growing up only ate dry (my parents didn't know better) and my grandma's cat ate dry and got wet in the evening. She ended up dying of kidney failure though, between 12-15 years (she was an adopted stray, so we never knew her real age). My mom's cat that only eats dry (she won't touch wet) is still alive and well at 14. I was just wondering, does feeding only wet food or only grain free wet food actually prevent kidney failure and that sort of thing? Does it actually help them live longer? Or is it just speculation? We had a neighbor who fed their cat human food and loads of strange stuff (literally, whatever the family ate for dinner, the cat got a dish of, including sugary things like cheesecake!) which is terrible! but their cat lived to be 20+. I know that's probably the exception and not the rule (and personally I would never feed an animal those things), but I guess I was just wondering if anyone on here has cats that lived a super long time etc from feeding wet or grain free diets. My grandma's vet told us the average life span of a cat was 12-15 years, so I always thought that was just normal, and that some would live shorter or longer just like people and that it depended on genetics.

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IMHO, the short answer is YES. The long answer depends on whether you believe that a healthy lifestyle matters in the long run or it's all determined by genetics, the old nature vs. nurture debate. I personally believe it's a combination. Both the DNA you're born with and the lifestyle you lead determine how healthy and long you live. I think that cats, being obligate carnivores with a more narrow set of nutritional requirements than humans, really need a species-appropriate diet.

When my cat got sick in December (which I firmly believe was caused by the terrible food I had been feeding her for years), I started educating myself on cat nutrition and cat health in an effort to do better for my cat. I not only joined this site (which I believe has the best raw feeding forum) but also several Yahoo cat health groups as well as reading a lot. What struck me was that for so many chronic diseases, the first change suggested is to a wet meaty diet. Some manage the disease from diet change alone (no drugs). It really makes me wonder if all these cats had been fed this diet to begin with, would they have developed those diseases? I also wonder at how many of these diseases are inflammatory in nature. I am starting to think that many many cats have low-level allergies to the species inappropriate ingredients in commercial cat foods that eventually manifest themselves in things like IBD, pancreatitis, etc. There are certain issues like obesity and diabetes that I believe are directly linked to overfeeding a species inappropriate diet.

Is feeding a species appropriate diet a guarantee that your cat will live a long healthy life? No, of course not, and there's no guarantee that not feeding a great diet will lead to diseases either. However, my choice is to feed the best diet that I can (and that she will eat). Just like the choice for me is to eat healthy (well, most of the time) and maintain a healthy weight through diet and exercise.We all make choices for ourselves and our cats.

I'm in agreement with all of that. I think if all you can feed is FF wet, go for the gluten free ones and it's better than feeding the ones with gravy that have wheat gluten in them. Do your best, it's all you can do. But I applaud you for educating yourself and asking the question. I too think genetics and other factors play a part but I agree that diet is really doing a number on SO many kitties. I run a website for kitties with IBD and honestly in the last 5 years, it's only gotten worse. There are so many kitties with GI disorders it's ridiculous. A lot of times yes, they can stabilize with a diet change but by that time, they've already got the condition and you'll have to deal with that issue being there. I lost my kitty Alex 5 years ago to IBD, pancreatitis and fatty liver disease. When I adopted two kittens shortly after, I vowed I'd never feed them anything with grains in it and I never have. I SHOULD have started them out on a raw diet but wasn't that familiar with it and now they refuse to touch it no matter what I do. But they eat only grain free foods. As the previous post stated, is that a guarantee? no, there isn't any even with us humans. But we try to eat right so why shouldn't they? Do the best you can and maybe someday you can feed a little more of the better quality foods but just stay away from gluten in the wet foods and that's a great start! 

Hmm. I do think that wet food is important because cats don't really drink enough. That seems fairly obvious to me, as I always worried that my cats were mildly dehydrated because their neck skin wouldn't snap back as fast as I thought it should when they were on dry food (it does now that they're on wet food!). My first cats ate dry Friskies/Cat Chow/Nutro exclusively until they were 16. . .then they were diagnosed with kidney failure and so we switched them to wet food and they both lived 5 more years with no other treatment. I don't know if they would have lived that long after diagnosis if they had stayed on dry food.

But yeah, there just seems to be SO many cats with GI issues and other various chronic diseases, it really makes you wonder why it's so common. I think its the species-inappropriate grain-based foods (there is literally no meat in many of the cheaper dry foods) and the chronic mild dehydration.

I believe thay diet plays a huge role in a cat's health and well-being. To me, health is not only keeping a cat alive it's thriving and being stimulated mentally and physically. Food in its most natural state is the ultimate diet for our kitties but in a more realistic world, a high quality canned food is the ideal in my opinion. Dry food is to cats like cereal is to us. But I know that it is costly to feed all canned (I feed one of my cats all canned and it is killing my bank account) and many cannot do raw. But diet diesn't predict longetivity or predisposition to disease though feeding the most nutritious diet helps.. Genetics, environment, physical and mental stimulation allbcontribute to a cat's life. You could feed your cat the best diet but if he doesn't get to play like a cat or lives outside then his life span will certainly be affected. Diseases like kidney failure are hard to predict and are probably a result of old age but at the same time can be attributed to feeding dry food (due to chronic dehydration). So my suggestion is to feed wet food as much as you can afford. Avoid foods with sugar, artificial colours and flavours (often 'natural flavour' signifies monosodium glutamate), avoid monosodium bisulfite (a substitute for vitamin k -controversisl but why feed a substitute for the real thing?), and be wary of foods that have meat as the first ingredient but fruits and veggies as the remaining ingredients. Also, avoid foods that don't name the meat source e.g. 'meat meal,'meat by-products'. I'm on the fence about named by-products brcause the organs, bones and muscle meat are good for cats but I'm not sure if the by-products in cat food is actually that. Sorry for rambling. Good for you for looking into feeding your kitty the best you can.

We've been lucky with the two cats we've owned. Our first cat was a female lynx point siamese which lived with us for 19 years, 6 months and 6 days before we had to put her to sleep from severe arthritis. Then one day, she just quit eating and drinking. All through her life, she ate dry kibble, but not cheap grade kibble. She was a grazer too. She drank lots of water throughout her lifetime and she never had any kidney or UTI problems.

Our present cat is a male tailess rumpy manx and next month, on June 13th, he'll be 16 years old. He too has been on an dry kibble diet all his life. He's a grazer too and he drinks lots of water throughout the day. I've never seen a cat drink as much water as he does. Like a cow at a water trough. His preferred kibble of choice is grain free Nature's Variety. He too has never had any kidney or UTI problems.

Both of our past and present cats would never touch canned wet food. No pate, no chucks, no shreds. They'd lick the gravy, if there was any and that's as far as it went with them. I also think genetics plays a part in how long a cat lives.

Thanks everyone for such concise and thoughtful replies! It was just something I was wondering about and wanted some feedback on, you've all definitely given me some food for thought! My mom's cat (that eats only dry) also drinks water like its going out of style (with ice cubes in it, no less lol) so that may be why she's done so well on dry. I think it's a combo of genetics and diet, just like people as some of you mentioned. I want her to have a healthy life and diet, but at the same time enjoy her food. (Like in my own opinion, I wouldn't want to live to be 100 if it meant eating brussel sprouts every single day... know what I mean?) For my own kitty, I've decided to go with my original plan of feeding a wet/dry combo in my price range.. I'm testing out grain free dry for her to nibble on (I just bought Wellness Core yesterday) and will be alternating Fancy Feast Classics and sometimes a Friskies pate (poultry platter) for her wet meals. Unfortunately she won't even touch any of the higher end wet foods so I think I'm gonna have to stick with what she'll eat? She's a kibble addict and if she had her way, she would only eat dry so right now I'm just happy when I can get her to eat FF or Friskies. I've thrown out so many pricy cans it's getting ridiculous and she pulled a 24hr+ hunger strike on me once because I hadn't given her FF wet. I've tried mixing small amounts of higher end food into the FF but she sniffs it and knows right away and won't touch any of it, treats and other toppers on the food doesn't work either. She seems to enjoy drinking water when I leave out a giant bowl so I think between that and the wet meals she'll be ok, and still have her crunchy food to snack on. I still have a few more high end wet brands to try out (I'm just buying them one at a time to test) so we'll see what happens with that. My friends joke that my cat eats better than I do, since I read all her nutritional labels and ingredients but then take myself through the drive thru for dinner haha.