Wet Can food verse dry free feed

I have two 3 yr old bengal boys that I was feeding raw whole ground rabbits and some cattle organs mixed with some vegitables up until a few months ago. I was originally doing it to try and achieve a nicer coat to show them but I quit showing them. The entire raw feed program was a little more of a hassle anyway. We are back to a dry free feed now with the occasional raw or wet treat.

I notice some of you feed can food verse dry free feed. I've read some of your posts that you do it for weight control.

Can you tell me more about why you feed the wet can food?

I'm also curious if some of you with heavy weight cats have considered the 10% Crude fat dry feed instead of the normal 20% crude fat?

Wet can food nutrients is calculated a little different then dry because of the water content. When comparing them, I calculated them at basically the same nutrients, fat etc.. when I converted the wet to dry. This is why I am a little surprised you folks are seeing decrease in weight with the wet food; Unless of course you feeding them less.

Thanks for your answers in advance.

Nice forum by the way!

I can't answer most of your questions and I'm sure there will be peeps along soon who know much more about nutrition than I do, but I think the main reason for most people feeding wet food is simply the water content. With dry food they often dont drink enough water and that can result in unirary tract/bladder problems, esp in neutered males.

First off, Welcome to TCS. We have some here that are really good with nutrition. I believe that wet food makes them lose weight becasue it has more protein. They stay fuller longer. There are less fillers such as corn. That means they feed less. If you do a search on wet food or can food you will find a lot of threads with a lot of information and links that are very helpful! I hope this helps atleast until someone else can come along and give you a more solid answer!!

Again, I'm no expert, but Bijou has slimmed down since being on a wet food diet. He and Mika still get dry food to snack on (about 1/2 cup to share per day and I believe Mika eats most of that since she prefers dry food over wet). Bijou thankfully prefers wet. They both drink much more now that we have the pet fountain as well. My understanding is that dry food contains a lot of cereal and filler which ends up being fattening for the cats and also is not good for neutered males as mentioned above.

The key IMO is to ensure you feed a good quality food. We found Merricks to be the only good quality that our cats like.

With an increase in protein you will see an increase in fat. Cats need a higher fat content in their diet, so they utilize it efficiently. Also, healthy-wise the increase in moisture has major advantages. Diabetes is also linked to dry food consumption.

Originally Posted by SolarityBengals

With an increase in protein you will see an increase in fat. Cats need a higher fat content in their diet, so they utilize it efficiently. Also, healthy-wise the increase in moisture has major advantages. Diabetes is also linked to dry food consumption.

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see in the wild kitty would eat mice and birds and the like ... all of those are high moisture like wet food and high in fat and protein... the key is wet food is also more digestable to kitty due to the water ... oh and the water fills them up///

The thing with dry vs. wet in MY oppinion is that firstly, when you feed wet you don't have it sitting outside all day, they have to eat in meals. Dry food that is free fed can predispose many cats to becoming obese because some cats just don't know when to stop eating.

Dry food also [so I've heard] really kind of dehydrates cats, and with the wet food you're giving them more moisture in their system.

I don't believe in free feeding anything, dry or wet. My cat gets fed 2-3 times a day... and he's a healthy weight and he's happy.

I used to free feed Harley dry, until I learned the signficance of wet food in a cats diet. We have since then changed his diet to mostly wet - with free feeding of dry all day, which he never touches anymore. Its just out in case he does get hungry between meals.

He gets 1 wet pouch in the morning, 1 at noon and 1 at dinner - I've noticed a big difference in his weight, he's lost 2lbs, which was much needed - wet is the way to go!