Canned food/Dry food

I am thinking about feeding my kitties (14 wks. old) a combo of dry and canned food. I used to do that with my Jessie and Punkin.
What do you all do?
Dry food only
Canned food only
Dry and Canned food combo

Thanks!
Aimee

I say both ... if you can all canned seems like it may be the way to go

Really? I had heard that all canned is bad because it's not good for their teeth. My vet said that they need the hard food to help with tarter and so on.

[COLOR=]that is the great debate.... I am not sure since most cats have outdoor excusions and hunt they scrub teeth on bones(they dont eat them on average).... indoor kitties get treats which are about as hard as dry food... I would recommend dry at first ( a high quality , the best you can afford ) with canned once or twice a day....

My yorkie only eats about 2 cups of senior dry a week and two vets have said her teeth are very clean.she is 7 yrs.. she eats homemade or canned the rest of the time with her bones .... so the dental thing is a sore pt to me////

Originally Posted by ciera23

Really? I had heard that all canned is bad because it's not good for their teeth. My vet said that they need the hard food to help with tarter and so on.

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It's def. not taken as a given any longer...here is a great little article on the topic - by a vet:
click here

I would probably go with both, and as was suggested, make it a premium quality dry (see other thread discussions use key words premium or all natural or best cat food)

See for years that I fed Jessie both, my vet never said a word. Now when I took my kittens in for their first appt with her, she suggested I only feed them dry food so their teeth are healthy. I then asked, "why did you not say anything when I was feeding Jessie both all those years?" She said, "well i didn't think you should change her after you had been doing it for 17 yrs."
HMMMM I thought.
That's pretty interesting, did the vets know about what your yorkie ate or were they just assuming dry food?

one did but the other just looked at her teeth and said for a small dog they were great since most kids her age and breed have to get cleaning s once a yr or twice and she is yrs from needing them

Adia always has a fresh bowl of Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care dry food. And she also gets 1/3rd of a pouch (or 1/3 of a 3.3 oz can) of nutro's wet foods 3 times a day. I would like to be able to give her 1/2 the pouch / can at a time, and just cut down to 2 wet feedings a day, but she won't eat that much at once. LOL

Originally Posted by Pat & Alix

It's def. not taken as a given any longer...here is a great little article on the topic - by a vet:
click here

I would probably go with both, and as was suggested, make it a premium quality dry (see other thread discussions use key words premium or all natural or best cat food)

Click to expand...

What a great article!!! Thanks so much for posting that. I just ordered the Royal Canin 34 dry and Chicken soup canned for my kids.

those are both good choices...

Great! I can't wait to start them on this. They are eating Science Diet right now (dry food) and after reading all these threads, I want them off of that!

I used to be a DRY FOOD ONLY household until Snickers got all blocked up with urinary crystals! And I was told that the dry-only diet is what mostly caused it!!

So now they're on canned ONLY. No more dry. I buy the Authority brand from PetSmart and also, Iams canned (it's only a few cents more). They seem to prefer the Authority for some reason.

My Vet told me that an all-dry diet in an older cat is very very bad; they're just not getting enough water in their system. So I bought one of those pet fountains to coerce the cats to drink more & started them on canned food. It's a tad more expensive but I don't care. They love it & actually Zorro seems to be slimming down since I took him off the always-available dry food.

Or I think he's slimming down. He seems less thick. And Snickers is still going strong so the canned food only is the way we're going to stay!

CJ and Billy each get half a can in the morning and at night. Then, they get as much dry food as they can eat during the day.

combination of dry/canned

Dry food is good for the teeth ONLY if it's formulated to have dental benefits.

Each of my cats gets 1/4 of a can and the rest dry food daily.

Welll, my last cats received a diet of only Nutro Natural (dry) and when I took them in to get a checkup by a new vet he asked in surprise "How old did you say these cats are?" when he looked at their teeth. At the time Annie was about 12 and Melichus was 6 or so. Never had any problems associated with their food. Annie would usually have to have a bit of tarter cracked off when she went in once a year (she was adopted at the age of 6) I don't think Melichus ever had any tarter (which really, in retrospect, was rather unusual,) to speak of.

If I wouldn't raw feed my cats I'd definately give them canned food. No more dry food in this house, ever.

Originally Posted by RoseHawke

Welll, my last cats received a diet of only Nutro Natural (dry) and when I took them in to get a checkup by a new vet he asked in surprise "How old did you say these cats are?" when he looked at their teeth. At the time Annie was about 12 and Melichus was 6 or so. Never had any problems associated with their food. Annie would usually have to have a bit of tarter cracked off when she went in once a year (she was adopted at the age of 6) I don't think Melichus ever had any tarter (which really, in retrospect, was rather unusual,) to speak of.

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My cat's dry food is also Nutro Natural Choice and I've been feeding it for 4 years now. My 5 yr old cat has no tarter on his teeth. The vet was surprised at his last appointment and said his teeth were sparkling. My other cat (about 5 yrs old) I adopted 4 years ago and he had some tarter on his teeth when I got him. The tarter on his teeth hasn't gotten any worse in the 4 years. My 1st two cats (I've had cats for 28 yrs) got grocery store food and canned food and they had awlful tarter on their teeth. Hopefully the Nutro is helping.