Wet Food Only: good or bad?

I feed my 1 year old cat Blue Buffalo brand cat food. Grain-free and all that jazz. I really am considering putting him on just can food but I want to know if it's better than having him on the dry/wet diet I have him on now. Is there any down-side I should know about? I grew up thinking wet food more as a treat but now my understanding is that it is much better for them than dry food? Can this cause digestive, dental, health problems? I really just want him to live as healthy as possible. My dreams for the future is a raw diet, however, I can barely afford a "raw diet" for myself so it has to wait.

I am currently weaning him off the kitten cans and am going to be buying him the adult-sized cans. If I get him on eating just wet food, how much does he eat? One full can per day? Two? I'm a little lost here.

VincentTheCat said:

 
I feed my 1 year old cat Blue Buffalo brand cat food. Grain-free and all that jazz. I really am considering putting him on just can food but I want to know if it's better than having him on the dry/wet diet I have him on now. Is there any down-side I should know about? I grew up thinking wet food more as a treat but now my understanding is that it is much better for them than dry food? Can this cause digestive, dental, health problems? I really just want him to live as healthy as possible. My dreams for the future is a raw diet, however, I can barely afford a "raw diet" for myself so it has to wait.

I am currently weaning him off the kitten cans and am going to be buying him the adult-sized cans. If I get him on eating just wet food, how much does he eat? One full can per day? Two? I'm a little lost here.

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Well, it's a myth that any treats or dry food only help with dental.  Cats don't chew.  So how can it help?  As for well being and health, there is actually more meat and protein in wet food so it is thought of as generally overall better than dry of any kind.  Even the high dollar brands.  Even vet offices are starting to recognize this and offer wet options on Rx diets.  Before it was mostly dry.

Stay in your comfort zone.  An all raw diet is a learning curve and if you aren't doing it correctly, you can actually do your cat more harm than good.  Wet is a good place to start and stay for awhile.  Blue Buffalo has an OK wet line but I prefer Wellness or mine really love Nature's Balance in the venison or turkey.  I have to be careful what I feed them because one of mine has a very sensitive tummy and many of the gravies upset her tummy.  They get dry Natural Balance Alpha Cat Chicken, Turkey Meal & Duck Grain-Free Dry Cat Food in the morning and believe me, I tried them all... Lots of hits and misses, but this one they agree on.  Many say grain free is a selling gimic and that may be true to a point.  However gluten is not good for cats.  And just about anything is better for them than that.   Plus, I like that this brand has egg in it.  It's a good source of extra protein, too.  And then they get the wet in the evening.

Mine eat half a can in the evening.  But if this is going to be his primary food every day, I would suggest feeding him in thirds a can a day, depending on how big he is.  Mine finish half a can in one sitting just barely.  And they aren't asking for food until morning.

Wet is indeed far better for cats, but like P3 said: stay in your comfort zone. I would do one small can a day and then like 1/4th a cup of dry depending on calorie content of both. Don't free feed. Get the boy on a schedule.

When you feel comfortable and he has been on that schedule for a while, decrease the dry food to about a table spoon. So 1 3oz. can in the morning, a tablespoon in the afternoon, another 3oz. at night. Or you can do half of one 5.5/6.0 oz can in the morning, dry tablespoon at noon, and the other half of the same can in the evening. Find a schedule that works for both of you and then slowly decrease the noon dry food until he only gets like a few kibble. Good luck!

More wet the better!  Just look at carb counts as the wet you want to use is low carb IMO.  Pates tend to be low.  Shreds/cuts and all those tend to be high.

I never limited the wet food that I gave my kitten until I was sure he had stopped growing. He slowly decreased the volume on his own. At 16 months, he gets 3, sometimes 4, wet meals a day with a tablespoon of warm water mixed in (just depends on how much of a wildman he has been that day; he has hyperactive days). At bedtime, he gets a small palm of dehydrated raw and NV Healthy Weight dry kibble in his "treat bowl" (a tiny glass dish he recognizes on sight). I add the water to his meals to hopefully offset the lack of water in his nightly treat.

From older threads on this forum, articles posted above the threads, and at Dr. Pierson's catinfo.org site, I learned so much that I never knew about feeding a carnivore a healthy diet. I have tried many brands and textures to learn his preferences but my guide to choosing new foods is protein percentage, fewest undesirable ingredients, carbs, and total calories. Some full grown, healthy weight cats can weigh 15-20 pounds but my grown fur baby is less than 11 pounds. So he needs a lot fewer calories. It's easier to prevent obesity than it is to get the weight off later.

Just a little more 'food for thought'!

I would argue that cats on all wet diet are more disposed to having more frequent dental cleanings vs dry*. * I'm suggesting that dry food doesn't stick to teeth like canned and NOT suggesting the dry food promotes clean teeth.

However, wet insures your cat has sufficient water intake and may result in smaller and less aromatic stools due to the lack of filler/binder.

Dry is of course convenient and can pack a lot of calories in small quantity, and less frequent brushings.

It's all about trade off's.

You could mix the two (which is what I've been doing). Looks like cookie dough.

If there's a problem with dry I would say that the kibble is too small for cats to really chew apart. Cats chomp so they will break kibble if they feel it. but it's a one chop and swallow. Kinda like dogs.

JClark said:

I would argue that cats on all wet diet are more disposed to having more frequent dental cleanings vs dry*. * I'm suggesting that dry food doesn't stick to teeth like canned and NOT suggesting the dry food promotes clean teeth.

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One of my dogs always gets gooey kibble crumbs stuck to her teeth, but if I give her canned food (not often for large dogs--$$$$!) nothing is stuck to her teeth afterward :dk:. So personally I think kibble is considerably "stickier" than canned food. Which makes sense---if I eat crackers, I have cracker crumbs stuck to my teeth, but if I eat canned meat, nothing sticks (unless it's stringy and the strings get stuck between my teeth, but I don't think cats have that problem).