Dry food or wet food

krazycatlover · Jul 22, 2006

I feed my cats dry food. (Purina indoor formula) They don't really like the wet food very much and I'm always afraid it will make them fat. I have a few cans of wet food laying around in case I run out f dry food and can't get to the store for a day or so.

What type of food do you all feed your cats?

cloud_shade · Jul 22, 2006

Feeding the appropriate amount of wet food shouldn't make your cats fat. In fact, I've found that cats tend to gain more on dry food. Canned food also helps them get more water, as they tend not to drink much. I have been feeding my kitties Natural Balance canned food, and occasionally leaving out a little dry food if I'm going to be gone longer than normal. What kinds of canned foods have you tried?

babyharley · Jul 22, 2006

We feed a mixture of wet and dry. Harley gets 3 wet meals a day, which has helped him lose some much needed weight. He gained too much eating just dry all the time, so we started him on this, and he's a much happier kitty

We are starting Davidson on wet, but as he is so young, he eats dry free fed all day, along with 1 meal of wet a day

Sometimes I think they get fed better than me!

booktigger · Jul 22, 2006

I always feed mine a mixture of the two. I dont think wet food in teh right amounts contributes towards being overweight, and it is what helped Tom's weight loss, and Pebbles biggest weight gain was on dry only.

zak&rocky · Jul 22, 2006

I free feed mine dry. Usually purina one, pro plan or nutro. The four kitties also get a total of two cans split in two feedings a day. Usually it is friskies as they won't each much of a good brand. Rocky is the only one who doesn't eat much wet food and he is the only kitty with a weight problem.

sharky · Jul 22, 2006

Wet is WAY better than dry .... there are many many good to great brands and most arent costly when you realize that youll have less vet bills and clean up duty

phantomsr · Jul 22, 2006

I used to be all for dry foods but that was mostly because the only wet foods I had seen were grocery store products. I did a lot of research on cat food lately and have since transitioned my cats over to a raw diet and my cats are doing a lot better on it. In order of prefernce I would have to choose:

1. Live Prey (not too practical)
2. Prey model raw meaty bones. Lot's of info under "BARF" in google.
3. Preground Raw (what I'm currently using due to convenience)
4. Premium Wet Canned (as little grains, veggies as possible)
5. Premium Dry (Innnova, wellness etc)

My cats will never see dry again as I always have good supply of raw for them. Our sitters have also been informed and agree with feeding raw so even when we are away, they aren't getting a load of fillers and carbs they shouldn't be eating.

kittylova · Jul 22, 2006

sorry about the

what kinds of good wet food are out there?
how much do you feed them wet food a day?

njangel021 · Jul 22, 2006

I feed my cre half a can of wet in the morning and then another half at dinner and i leave the dry food out all day. Some vets say its bad just to let you pet have all dry food and never wet but I guess it depends on your vet and your feelings

denice · Jul 22, 2006

I have been trying to get my cats on wet food for several monthes now. I am finally making some progress. They aren't eating as much wet as they should but they are doing better. The only one I found that they will consistantly eat is Wellness chicken. The are up to a small can split between two cats and two meals but they are eating less dry now and they are finishing the wet every time so I am going to start giving them a little more wet.

sharky · Jul 22, 2006

I do agree Phantom./.. as two of three here eat no dry and eat raw with one eating canned and raw

Here is a incomplete list of good canned

Nutro
Natural balence
Merrick
Meow mix
Innova
Evo
California natural
Sesible choice
Pro Pac
Eagle Pack
Evangers
Wellness( garlic containing thus not great in my book)
Pet Guard
Solid Gold

How much is individual... when feeding only canned I was told one ounce per lb of kitty ... ie 10ounces for a 10lb cat , many cats eat way less evan on all wet.. I would think if mainly wet with some dry 3-5 ounces would be good for ave 8-11 lb kitty

phantomsr · Jul 22, 2006

There are plenty of good wet foods out there but my best advice since myself and most everyone here hasn't looked at each one, is to go over the ingredients .

Cats are obligate carnivores so you want meat. Meat meat meat and more meat. Find me a feral cat that eats corn, soy, or wheat in the wild. There's little to no evidence that fruits and veggies have any real purpose in cat food either as a cat doesn't have the neccesary enzimes to break down cellulose (plant cells). Most canned food will have grains, fruit, or veggies and possibly other suppliments. Finding one that's got the least "filler" is probably the best. If you can't tell already, I'm a big advocate for raw feeding. I'd do live feeding but that's a little too impractical even for me and a lot of people have other issues with that too.

The majority of people on TCS prefer a canned wet diet supplimented with dry. I for one would at least urge you to cut out the dry completely. Dry food has a few issues that I just can't get around.

1. It's dry, cats don't like to drink much regardless of cat fountains, wet food gives them a lot of the moisture they need and not giving them dry food keeps the dry food from dehydrating them more.

2. It's carbohydrate packed. Cats don't metabolize cabohydrates will and as such, the carbohydrates are harder to digest (smelly gas and feces), and go mostly unused(stored as fat). Also, cat's also need to eat a lot more of the dry carbs to get the protein they are after.

3. Feeding dry food alters the digestive pH balance in cat making it more alkaline. It also slows the digestive process. 2 issues that make it bad to mix with wet or even worse, raw food. The normal acidic balance in a cats digestive system helps with food borne bacteria and digestion of animal tissues and proteins. The slowed digestion process causes food to spend excess time in the intestines allowing bacteria to grow.

If you insist on feeding dry, don't free feed and keep the wet meals seperate. If you are feeding raw. Please stop feeding dry completely. The incorrect pH balance and slowed digestion increases the risk of food borne bacterial infections.

Of course this is just my opinion after doing a lot of research and seeing the results for myself in my cats. I am by no means any kind of expert on feline nutrition. Before this I fed my cats a premium dry diet and they seemed fine. Now on raw, they aren't fine, they're great.

As for amounts to feed, it depends on the food and your cats activity level and metabolism. From my research and experience, cat's on raw don't seem to over eat as bad and they can not be free fed raw meat. Wet doesn't seem to be as much of an issue as people can't free feed. Dry food wether in meals or free fed as many do, is the hardest to control weight. The servings listed on most cat foods aren't measured by caloric content only. They are large enough to make sure you cat gets enough of the least abundant nutrient or mineral. Often this is too much food in general.

Wow. Long. Sorry.

sharky · Jul 22, 2006

Originally Posted by PhantomSr

There are plenty of good wet foods out there but my best advice since myself and most everyone here hasn't looked at each one, is to go over the ingredients .

Cats are obligate carnivores so you want meat. Meat meat meat and more meat. Find me a feral cat that eats corn, soy, or wheat in the wild. There's little to no evidence that fruits and veggies have any real purpose in cat food either as a cat doesn't have the neccesary enzimes to break down cellulose (plant cells). Most canned food will have grains, fruit, or veggies and possibly other suppliments. Finding one that's got the least "filler" is probably the best. If you can't tell already, I'm a big advocate for raw feeding. I'd do live feeding but that's a little too impractical even for me and a lot of people have other issues with that too.

The majority of people on TCS prefer a canned wet diet supplimented with dry. I for one would at least urge you to cut out the dry completely. Dry food has a few issues that I just can't get around.

1. It's dry, cats don't like to drink much regardless of cat fountains, wet food gives them a lot of the moisture they need and not giving them dry food keeps the dry food from dehydrating them more.

2. It's carbohydrate packed. Cats don't metabolize cabohydrates will and as such, the carbohydrates are harder to digest (smelly gas and feces), and go mostly unused(stored as fat). Also, cat's also need to eat a lot more of the dry carbs to get the protein they are after.

3. Feeding dry food alters the digestive pH balance in cat making it more alkaline. It also slows the digestive process. 2 issues that make it bad to mix with wet or even worse, raw food. The normal acidic balance in a cats digestive system helps with food borne bacteria and digestion of animal tissues and proteins. The slowed digestion process causes food to spend excess time in the intestines allowing bacteria to grow.

If you insist on feeding dry, don't free feed and keep the wet meals seperate. If you are feeding raw. Please stop feeding dry completely. The incorrect pH balance and slowed digestion increases the risk of food borne bacterial infections.

Of course this is just my opinion after doing a lot of research and seeing the results for myself in my cats. I am by no means any kind of expert on feline nutrition. Before this I fed my cats a premium dry diet and they seemed fine. Now on raw, they aren't fine, they're great.

As for amounts to feed, it depends on the food and your cats activity level and metabolism. From my research and experience, cat's on raw don't seem to over eat as bad and they can not be free fed raw meat. Wet doesn't seem to be as much of an issue as people can't free feed. Dry food wether in meals or free fed as many do, is the hardest to control weight. The servings listed on most cat foods aren't measured by caloric content only. They are large enough to make sure you cat gets enough of the least abundant nutrient or mineral. Often this is too much food in general.

Wow. Long. Sorry.

Beautifully written...
Some cats will only eat dry with spoardic wet / raw .. I know I have one...

phantomsr · Jul 22, 2006

Sharky;

Dry food is usually "flavored" to taste very good. Just like chips, pop, or candy bars are to us. Our cats only know it tastes good. We never feed our kids chips or cookies all the time just because they taste really good. It can be very hard to get a cat off dry food onto wet/raw. Transitioning to wet canned can help as it's somewhere in the middle. Flavored to taste good but soft and wet like raw.

During my research in encountered many people with cats just like yours that only want to eat dry. A long transition period was required for many of them. One person found that even having dry in the house that the cats could smell kept the cats from eating the wet/raw. "I know my other food is here somewhere so I'm not eating this stuff."

My kitten transitioned easy as he wasn't set on dry yet. My 3 year old I was more concerned about as she has eaten dry all her life with a canned snack from time to time. She was a little hesitant but was willing to enough to not go hungry. After about a week she digs right in and seems to like it better than the dry. My kitten goes nuts when I get the dishes out and runs in circles howling at the top of his lungs until his bowl is full.

sharky · Jul 22, 2006

Originally Posted by PhantomSr

Sharky;

Dry food is usually "flavored" to taste very good. Just like chips, pop, or candy bars are to us. Our cats only know it tastes good. We never feed our kids chips or cookies all the time just because they taste really good. It can be very hard to get a cat off dry food onto wet/raw. Transitioning to wet canned can help as it's somewhere in the middle. Flavored to taste good but soft and wet like raw.

During my research in encountered many people with cats just like yours that only want to eat dry. A long transition period was required for many of them. One person found that even having dry in the house that the cats could smell kept the cats from eating the wet/raw. "I know my other food is here somewhere so I'm not eating this stuff."

My kitten transitioned easy as he wasn't set on dry yet. My 3 year old I was more concerned about as she has eaten dry all her life with a canned snack from time to time. She was a little hesitant but was willing to enough to not go hungry. After about a week she digs right in and seems to like it better than the dry. My kitten goes nuts when I get the dishes out and runs in circles howling at the top of his lungs until his bowl is full.

I know I need to have more pateince ... my 18 yr old took right to raw thou she get s some canned cause she loves fish...the dog took to raw and now is not allowed dry and hasnt noticed... but Zoey my formal feral seems to think dry is great and raw should be caught and eaten outside

so I keep a searching

phantomsr · Jul 23, 2006

I would love the resources to give my cats a live prey diet. But it's just not practical in any way to someone who lives in the city. I'm currently looking into a local supplier of good free range, drug free, animal meats for my cats. They love the preground raw I'm getting but the variety is limited to turkey or chicken and they don't really have to chew on it as it's kinda like mush. They are both doing very well on it and my older cat is starting to shed less which is great but I think I can do it a lot cheaper on my own and then I know exactly what they are getting and not getting. Plus I'm interested to see if the ripping and tearing of meat really does help keep their teeth clean. I'm sure it'll be a lot of work to get the amounts figured out and a meal plan set up that others can follow but at that point I should be able to prepack meals, vacuum seal them and toss them in the freezer.

The clamied advantages of a raw meat on bone diet are:
1. cheaper
2. user controlled consumption and better variety
3. cleaner teeth
4. chewing longer allows more saliva to mix and stomach to prepare
5. ripping and chewing builds facial and upper body muscles
6. mental stimulation of ripping and chewing their food

Not sure how you could quantify the last few but I like the sounds of the first 3 for sure. And I guess if we just all our meals from a blender, we'd get bored too. If I ever get a good local supplier I'll post on how it works out. Hoping to have access to chicken, turkey, rabbit, and maybe some other small game.

krazycatlover · Jul 25, 2006

mmmm Very interesting. I always thought that wet food can make your cat even fatter. This is a good thing to know

yosemite · Jul 25, 2006

Originally Posted by Krazycatlover

mmmm Very interesting. I always thought that wet food can make your cat even fatter. This is a good thing to know

No - quite the reverse in fact. Bijou has trimmed down nicely after being changed over to mostly wet food.

moggiegirl · Jul 25, 2006

Originally Posted by babyharley

We feed a mixture of wet and dry. Harley gets 3 wet meals a day, which has helped him lose some much needed weight. He gained too much eating just dry all the time, so we started him on this, and he's a much happier kitty

We are starting Davidson on wet, but as he is so young, he eats dry free fed all day, along with 1 meal of wet a day

Sometimes I think they get fed better than me!

This is what I'm switching my cats to. Wet food 3 times per day as they never eat large amounts of wet in one sitting. They will still get a small quantity of dry which I switched from Iams to Innova for the dry and am working on incorporating higher quality wet foods into their diet. Still haven't tried the canned Evo yet. Hope they like it. The dry Innova is rich in calories but since it's now treat food, not staple food 1/8 of a cup of dry is ok. The weight control dry foods are lower quality anyway. I love how the first 3 ingredients of Innova are meat. What a difference!!! Spotty needs to lose weight. 16 pounds is rather chubby for him. Rosie, my 12 pound girl can lose a little weight too. Lisa A. Pierson DVM is the best. I have a printed copy of her article to keep forever.

kittylova · Jul 25, 2006

can you feed wet food insted of dry food? or do they need dry food to?

Dry food or wet food

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