Dry Food vs Wet Food

mrslarry

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
May 17, 2005
Messages
39
Purraise
0
Location
Naugatuck, CT
Hi all, haven't posted in awhile, but i'm always around reading.

Could use some advice...

What's your thoughts on Dry vs Wet Food? Usually, we just give the kitties dry Iams kitten chow (to be changed to Iams indoor adult as soon as Kizzie turns a year old) And rarely if ever will give them the can food. The food is in one of those self-dispensing towers, and they eat when they like. We go through a small bag about every other week.

Growing up, my cats ate 90% wet food, twice a day.

Don't know which is better?

Thoughts?
 

abnihon

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
294
Purraise
3
Location
New York City
I feed dry, and very rarely wet. She's very fickle about wet food and usually only wants a tiny bit at a time and the leftovers sit there and dry out and then she's not interested anymore. So it's kinda a waste of money.
 

lionessrampant

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jun 14, 2005
Messages
4,161
Purraise
6
Location
Windy City Kitty :)
Actually, wet is much better for them...they need no grain and they also need to have moisture WITH their food.

Visit http://www.catinfo.org/ for more info.

Also, Iams is not a very high quality food. There's a lot of grains and additives and by-products in there. I like (wet) brands: Merrick, Evanger's Felidae, Wellness, Innova, California Natural, Wysong, Nature's Variety Prairie, AvoDerm and Azmira. Many of these companies also make dry.

My eats each get 2/3 of a 5.5oz can of wet per day and 1/2 cup of dry to snack on between meals. I had a kibble addict that I converted gradually and now he's actually a lot healthier...he has fewer GI upsets/dehydration than he did before, and both cats are at lower risk for FLUTD and other renal problems and diabetes. I don't know if I'll ever be able to get him to give up his kibble completely, but we're trying. He used to get 1 cup of kibble per day and that was it.
 

meowsersmom

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Oct 13, 2005
Messages
257
Purraise
11
Location
Texas
Both my kitties are less then a year old and I'm gradually trying to convert them to an all wet diet. I've just recently got them to wet twice/day and dry once/day. I like the added moisture in the wet food and I also want to keep their weights down. I think your cats will be more interested in wet food if you find out their preferences. After much trial and error taste testing, I found my cats are only really into natural balance canned (they like the pate-style texture).
 

sharky

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
27,231
Purraise
38
Wet by far///

I personally dont use the man of ones mentioned by Alliebut they are good

If you shop petsmart
Authority Nutro Royal canins Sensible choice

petco

same but they have pet gold in fancy tins and no authority
natural balence

These are less expensive and many are just as good...

I am transitioning to raw but I have easy access now to it and a knowledgeable vet ...
 

seppolina

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Oct 7, 2005
Messages
179
Purraise
11
Location
New Hampshire
Fancy Feast is NOT healthy, despite it's upscale name
A few years ago during a vet visit, my vet scolded me for feeding Fancy Feast. He likened it to a human eating McDonald's for every meal. My boy cat had developed gum issues due to the high sugar content & low nutritional value of Fancy Feast! It took a dental cleaning, a switch to a more nutritious food (Merrick, Solid Gold, & Wellness), and some tooth brushing but his dental disease has totally cleared up.

Amanda
 

smokiethecat

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 22, 2005
Messages
152
Purraise
1
Location
Iowa
Oh Great! I just bought my kittens a 24 count box of wet Fancy Feast.Ugh.
Back to the store I go. I thought it would be okay since it listed meat and not a byproduct as the first few ingredients. They have "passed gas" a lot less on this brand,tho.
 

sharky

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
27,231
Purraise
38
Originally Posted by smokiethecat

Oh Great! I just bought my kittens a 24 count box of wet Fancy Feast.Ugh.
Back to the store I go. I thought it would be okay since it listed meat and not a byproduct as the first few ingredients. They have "passed gas" a lot less on this brand,tho.
Some FF dont have by prosucts , wheat or soy... is the pack of flaked??
 

lightninrod

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 16, 2005
Messages
142
Purraise
1
Location
warner robins,ga
We use to use FF with our former cats and still have a few cans which I use sparingly. 90% of Ginger's canned food is Merrick's, Natural Balance, or, soon-to-be-added, Authority. I agree with Amanda as far as FF being low in nutritional value.

Dan
 

yosemite

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Apr 26, 2001
Messages
23,313
Purraise
81
Location
Ingersoll, ON
Wet is better. After being educated on this forum I've started feeding our cats Merricks twice per day (they share one can morning and night) and they get about 1/2 cup of dry food to "snack" on when there is no wet food down.

I've gone to Merricks as it is one of the few food available with no by-products at all and it's the one the kitties like best. I tried Natural Balance, Felidae, Newman's, Wellness and the Merricks - they much prefer the Merricks.

I've also learned that if you feed a quality food your cats will actually eat less because they are getting better nutrition.

My vet also warned us against using Fancy Feast except as an occasional "treat", (kind of like an extra dessert for humans). She said she found more male cats on a Fancy Feast diet come to her clinic with crystals.
 

kiaira

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Dec 7, 2005
Messages
90
Purraise
1
I totally agree with lionessrampant in regards to the importance of wet food.

Years ago, we were told that dry food was the better way to go for our cats teeth. However, now it is believed that cats need wet food in order to reduce dehydration and diseases/complications caused by chronic insufficient fluid intake.

When we brought Sienna home, it quickly became apparent that she preferred dry food. However, we slowly started incorporating wet food into her diet and now she eats wet twice daily. She does still have dry food out all day though.
Unfortunately, Tori was brought up on dry food (we were told it was better years ago) and is now very finicky about eating anything else. This girl will even turn her nose up at a small treat of chicken or tuna. We plan on trying new methods we have recently discovered in order to try and make her switch to wet food.

In regards to fancy feast, we call it kitty junk food as many cats love it yet it's not healthy. However, in the past we had to feed a crf kitty it as she got to a point where she refused to eat any other type of wet food. Getting her to eat a sufficient amount of food was more important at that point.
 

white cat lover

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Nov 17, 2005
Messages
22,206
Purraise
35
Well, I was just wondering about the benefits of a wet food diet vs. a dry food diet. I guess this answered my question!


I was just looking at petsmart.com & wrote down all of the brands they carry to inquire about them. I guess this is as good a place as any. I was wondering about the quality of Authority & Sensible Choice, but sharky answered that question for me already. Now, what about BLUE spa select & Sophistacat? Eukanuba & ProPlan are good, right? I love the Merricks, but the kitties don't love it as much as some of these other brands, so I am gong to try to use them to trasition to Merricks completely. Is there very little gravy in the Nutro canned? Do the pouches of any brand usually have more gravy to them(the gravy in them is what gets Twitch to eat them)?
 

yosemite

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Apr 26, 2001
Messages
23,313
Purraise
81
Location
Ingersoll, ON
Originally Posted by white cat lover

Well, I was just wondering about the benefits of a wet food diet vs. a dry food diet. I guess this answered my question!


I was just looking at petsmart.com & wrote down all of the brands they carry to inquire about them. I guess this is as good a place as any. I was wondering about the quality of Authority & Sensible Choice, but sharky answered that question for me already. Now, what about BLUE spa select & Sophistacat? Eukanuba & ProPlan are good, right? I love the Merricks, but the kitties don't love it as much as some of these other brands, so I am gong to try to use them to trasition to Merricks completely. Is there very little gravy in the Nutro canned? Do the pouches of any brand usually have more gravy to them(the gravy in them is what gets Twitch to eat them)?
What I basically did was read the labels on every brand in the store where I buy my pet food (figured it was better to try their best foods than to have to order online or drive miles to get a particular brand). I picked up 2 cans of each non by-product food and tried them. The cats only really liked the Merricks so I took all the unused other brands back and got Merricks (and paid the difference in price
).

Now, the pet store in the little town where I live will order the Merricks for me by the case so I order a case of each of the 3 brands the kitties like from her. She also orders the large bags of World's Best Litter for me and doesn't charge me any more than the pet food chain that I was using before.
 

white cat lover

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Nov 17, 2005
Messages
22,206
Purraise
35
Originally Posted by Yosemite

What I basically did was read the labels on every brand in the store where I buy my pet food (figured it was better to try their best foods than to have to order online or drive miles to get a particular brand). I picked up 2 cans of each non by-product food and tried them. The cats only really liked the Merricks so I took all the unused other brands back and got Merricks (and paid the difference in price
).

Now, the pet store in the little town where I live will order the Merricks for me by the case so I order a case of each of the 3 brands the kitties like from her. She also orders the large bags of World's Best Litter for me and doesn't charge me any more than the pet food chain that I was using before.
It would be awesome if the pet store guy here would do that for me, but he can't get them. At least, that's what he told me. I am just going to look around & see what I can find at teh vet clinics & pet store tonight. Tomorrow, I will do some ordering online. I doubt we will get to Manakato to get to a real pet store anytime before Christmas. Living in the boondacks is kind of crappy sometimes!
 
Top