Dry food good?

zoggy

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When the kittens grow up can I just feed them dry food with water primarily instead of canned food (it smells to my mom and its harder work for me to open it and put it in the bowl and its messy).
Maybe from time to time I can give em wet food but is a 75% dry food diet healthy? What about 90-100% dry food diet?
And why is wet food healthier than dry? Wont the dry food be better because it will sharpen and strenghen their teeth?
 

sharky

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Personally I am trying to go 50 raw 30 canned and 20 dry... canned gives vital mosture and helps keep wt down ...
 

yosemite

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Consensus seems to be that wet food is better. We free feed about 3/4 cup per day dry and 1 6 oz. can of wet. Bijou is a bit overweight but Mika seems to eat the most and she's tiny. Both cats are apparently very healthy according to the vet.
 

navdoc

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Everyone has an opinion, so here is mine. Good quality dry food is just fine. I have raised many cats using dry only. My recommendation would be Purina Pro-Plan which has the highest protein in the over-the-counter market. I should help in preventing your kitten from getting overweight as. Iams is also good. I do not like Science Diet and sorry ladies, Royal Canin is over-rated.
 

pat

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Originally Posted by Zoggy

When the kittens grow up can I just feed them dry food with water primarily instead of canned food (it smells to my mom and its harder work for me to open it and put it in the bowl and its messy).
Maybe from time to time I can give em wet food but is a 75% dry food diet healthy? What about 90-100% dry food diet?
And why is wet food healthier than dry? Wont the dry food be better because it will sharpen and strenghen their teeth?
Hi, if you want to do the best you can for them, you will feed them canned food, but that said, many folks can not do a canned diet only, so buy the best quality dry kitten food that you can for this first year of life, and supplement it with wet food also.
Dry food is filled with carbohydrates (grains) that cats don't need as much as they need meatbased protein. Dry cat food is also much lower in moisture and some feel it leads to a state of constant dehydration. Dry food does not improve their dental health (except for the one or two dry foods specially formulated to help with dental health) and the belief that canned food leads to dental issues is one that is changing in the veterinary article, according to one article (by a vet) that I have read.
 

pat

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Originally Posted by NavDoc

Everyone has an opinion, so here is mine. Good quality dry food is just fine. I have raised many cats using dry only. My recommendation would be Purina Pro-Plan which has the highest protein in the over-the-counter market. I should help in preventing your kitten from getting overweight as. Iams is also good. I do not like Science Diet and sorry ladies, Royal Canin is over-rated.
in my opinion Iams is rather over-rated as well.
 
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zoggy

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Is Nutro Max Cat Adult cat food (Dry and wet) good? If so then when should I stop feeding them kitten food and start feeding adult. Do I give one day only wet food and the next only dry or one week wet, the other week half wet half dry?
 

nebula11

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Originally Posted by Zoggy

Is Nutro Max Cat Adult cat food (Dry and wet) good? If so then when should I stop feeding them kitten food and start feeding adult. Do I give one day only wet food and the next only dry or one week wet, the other week half wet half dry?
i feed my kits nutro...i like it...and they seem to as well
 

pat

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Originally Posted by Zoggy

Is Nutro Max Cat Adult cat food (Dry and wet) good? If so then when should I stop feeding them kitten food and start feeding adult. Do I give one day only wet food and the next only dry or one week wet, the other week half wet half dry?
You should keep your kittens on kitten food (or a food that states it is formulated for all life-stages) until at least 10 to 11 months. If you are going to feed both wet and dry, I would free feed the dry, and give some wet food twice a day, at least once. Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care kitten (they have two formulas, one is new - the Indoor formula) would be a great option.
 
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zoggy

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Free feed as in put into bowl and leave for them to nibble on whenever they like?
 

blueyedgirl5946

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Both my cats have health issues. They eat 100% dry food that the vet prescribes for them.
 
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zoggy

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I see. What kind of health issues? Regarding wet food?
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by Zoggy

I see. What kind of health issues? Regarding wet food?
some Rx diets form the vet only come in dry..
 

ilovemy2cats

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Originally Posted by NavDoc

Everyone has an opinion, so here is mine. Good quality dry food is just fine. I have raised many cats using dry only. My recommendation would be Purina Pro-Plan which has the highest protein in the over-the-counter market. I should help in preventing your kitten from getting overweight as. Iams is also good. I do not like Science Diet and sorry ladies, Royal Canin is over-rated.
You said "good quality dry". Purina foods are hardly good quality. I don't understand why anyone would feed ProPlan when they can get something like Nutro which is cheaper and has better ingredients.
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by ilovemy2cats

You said "good quality dry". Purina foods are hardly good quality. I don't understand why anyone would feed ProPlan when they can get something like Nutro which is cheaper and has better ingredients.
Because they may be going off the % list not the actual ingrediants... Proplan has 40% protein ... nutro natural choice is 33% ... differane Nutro is chn meal with some corn gluten meal... Pro Plan is chn, chn by product , corn ....
 

icklemiss21

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I have two who have problems with wet and compromised to spending the extra on Innova Evo so that they get fewer carbs and more 'valuable' proteins.

If you want to feed mostly dry i would say go with a high quality dry. If you are free feeding - measure how much you give, don't just fill the bowl up - cats are greedy!

Naturapets website has a good comparison wizard that you can use to look at different foods to see their ingredients beside each other
 

aussie_dog

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I feed mostly dry but feed the occational wet food. I experimented a while back where the cats would get one wet food a week, but I broke down and ended up giving them 6 cans in two weeks. I found, though, that the cats got bored really fast. They ate the first can with gusto, the 2nd one Willow ate with gusto and Buffy left a bit of her food. The 3rd can Buffy licked the top off of (the gravy) and left the rest, while Willow ate with gusto but left a bit at the bottom. And each can was a few days apart from each other (first can on Sunday, 2nd can on Tuesday, 3rd can on Friday, etc.). Now I just feed the occational can, like once a week.

As for that grain comment, on dry food having more grains than cats need, what about Innova EVO? It has no grains.
 

lisalee

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I feed Sash wet and dry food and I think they are both good for different reasons. He certainly enjoys both, heck Sash just loves food he's not too fussy!
I think it's really hard to say one is better than the other, there are many cats that have thrived on dry food only and lived a very long life and for some perhaps wet is better.
 
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