How often do you offer canned food?

I give mine 1 - 2 oz. of canned food daily. Im still not convinced that canned food is much worse for teeth than dry food is.

I agree with nern. My cats' main daily meals are canned food. I leave dry food on their other dish for them to nibble on the rest of the day.

Socks gets it about once a week normally, but I've been giving her more this week because of the new kitten... she seems jealous and wet food is one of the things that makes her happy. Since Sadie got here, she's been getting about a quarter can a day.

Sadie gets wet food twice a day, as she is just getting adjusted and needs some fat on her bones. I can feel her ribs poking out.

Socks has dry food available to her all day, but I can't do that for Sadie. Poor little girl eats everything in her bowl, so fast that it makes her sick. Must be because she never used to know where her next meal was coming from. Sadie gets a half cup in her bowl in the morning and 3/4 cup at night.

The cats that I feed outside get canned food very rarely, as none of them get along and they fight over it.

I give Em the soft food about once a week. He gets his dry kitten food the rest of the time. Then he'll eat the dog food if we don't keep an eye on him.

I divide between 14 and 16 ounces between my 3 cats per week. I change between a few varieties of kinds and they love it I usually give 1 cup of dry food AM and PM as well for their usual eating.

Loki get dry 24/7 and 1/2 a 3oz. can in the AM and the other half in the evening!!!

Originally posted by nern
I give mine 1 - 2 oz. of canned food daily. Im still not convinced that canned food is much worse for teeth than dry food is.

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Same here.

Having multiple cats in our household (and multiple dogs) dry food costs less overall and is easier (quicker) to feed and deal with. But I do on occassion give my pets wet food. They tend to think of it almost as a treat.

I respectfully disagree with those of you who don't see dry as better for their teeth. I still remember, from not too many years ago, this video we watched in a science class in high school. A group of scientists/vets were developing a dry dog food. (I'm sure the logic here would apply to cats.) They said that in the wild when a coyote or wolf eats an animal, the bones from the animal act as a natural toothbrush, scraping food from the teeth, from the gums, etc. They were trying to develope a better dry food to replicate that function, then those on the market at the time the video was made (may have been several years old when I saw it). (Of course, their argument was that theirs was the best.) You could argue that most dry foods would work about the same, but that same being a teeth cleaning, build-up preventing action.

I'm not arguing that cats or dogs don't need us to occassionally brush their teeth or check their gums. I do believe that an all wet diet, may not be as healthy on the teeth and require more maintenance on the part of the owner. (I personally can't see any of our cats letting us brush their teeth.) I also supplement all our animal's diets with treats, chews and toys good for their teeth.

Originally posted by nern
I give mine 1 - 2 oz. of canned food daily. Im still not convinced that canned food is much worse for teeth than dry food is.

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Likewise. That's 1/3 of a 3-oz can per cat, morning and evening, and all the dry they want -- they usually eat about 1/2 cup each or a little more per day -- and no dental problems.

I give a quarter of a 3-oz can of soft and two small kibble meals throughout the day, maybe every 5-6 hours.

My kitten Pixie (3mth old) gets as much soft food as she'll eat throughout the day, I offer 4 feedings.

My adults get 1/3 ounce soft food once a day.

Dry food is left out all the time.

The inside cats get dry only and the dog. The outside cats get dry in the morning and share a can of wet food at night.
The inside cats take all day to eat their food and the outside cats eat all their food when you give it to them.
I have seen the buildup of food on animals teeth and they have to be put to sleep for the vet to clean it off and this has to be done at least one a year. This is not good for the pet.
I have been checking everyones teeth, that is eating dry only and they are nice and white with no buildup.
Clara

I give my cats a total of about 2 oz a day mixed with a little pumpkin. And that is shared between 5 cats. Well probably 3 because 2 of them only seem to care for dry food. I really push the canned food for Hallie just because she needs the H20 and calories it provides so sometimes I shut her in the spare room with her own stash.

Shep and Scarlett split a 5.5oz can a day. Scarlett gets it because she is spoiled and Shep gets it due to her chronic stomatitus.

The rest of the cats split another 5.5oz can a day - that one goes between Stumpy, Bogart, Bob, Muddy, Koko, Pinky, Dakota, Oscar and Spanky. It's a daily treat for them at 7PM.

I've always believed that dry food was better for their teeth, and canned for their urinary tracts, so I feed both. JC gets 30 grams of premium dry in the morning, and a 70 - 100 gram (2 - 3 ounce) can of premium wet food in the evening, depending on the brand. Free feeding him dry doesn't work - he fills up on it, and since he already weighs 6 kilograms (about 13 1/2 lbs.), I have to watch his weight. The scientific studies done to date don't seem conclusive, and often contradict each other.

Hi,
I have 2 questions. I am giving my 2 cats wet food 1-2 times a day (Nutro pouch) and share a pouch between them. I also give dry Iams all day in the bowl. My 4 month old kitten, Ricky threw up dry Science Diet kitten twice so I stopped and switched to Iams but today he threw up a lot of wet food. I think he eats his food and then some of my older cat Lucy's food then runs around. I am sort of worried though I think he was just too active. Also I mix kitten and adult dry in the bowl since I can't control what they're eating during the day. I hope this is OK for both of them. I don"t want Lucy to gain too much but Ricky needs to grow.
Thanks.

Sometimes when you switch foods back and forth it can cause vomiting or diarrhea. It is not necessarily the kind or brand of food itself. Cats and kittens have to adjust to changes in their diet. Better to mix small amounts of the new with the old and gradually increase to more of the new and less of the old.

It's possible your kitty Ricky is just eating too much. He could be eating something else entirely that you aren't aware of. Grass can induce vomiting. Make sure there isn't anything harmful that he could get into. It's also possible that he has worms. So, if he's still vomiting, you might want to see the vet, to be safe.

I free-feed dry food, and give each cat about an ounce of canned food each day. Giving a little bit of wet food every day seems to cut down on the number of hairballs, and also to help with constipation issues for my one super-sensitive cat.

I leave dry food out pretty much always though I only put a certain amount out a day. Wet food usually is about once every three days, though more so lately, I guess I'm in a holiday mood. Roxy already drinks a ton of water so I usually don't give him wet food because I figure he's already getting his water and I don't want to cause him dental problems, but he likes it so much I can't resist for long