Wet vs. Dry Food

[Columbine]

Point taken ferocioussamo I don't think I'd quite registered how overpriced it is there. And yes, it's not the greatest food out there, but there are far worse ones. The general view here seems to be that the classic patés are a good budget buy for those in the US. As I said, it is high meat and grain free (again - specifically the patés), and is certainly better than no wet food at all.

Making cat food is great, and can be cheaper, but not everyone has the time or inclination to do that. If recipes aren't followed exactly (or the recipe itself is unbalanced) a homemade diet can do harm.

Just trying to keep a balanced view

 

[crawlingdolphin]

I've found another brand of canned cat food, which is 9Lives. I'm not going to try it out though, I think I'm going to go for home cooking as of now.

 

[Columbine]

Great that you're trying home cooked food for him Hope he loves it

 

[ferocioussamo]

@CrawlingDolphin, congratulations on your decision!

Just make sure you carefully read everything, because it's easy to mess up. I hope more and more people start to care like you do.

Here are two more links for help:

http://www.catnutrition.org/

http://feline-nutrition.org/

Good luck!

 

[pushylady]

I hope this works out better for you! You can find loads of advice here too:

Raw and Homecooked Forum

 

[crazy4strays]

Bumping this thread up to say thank you to everyone who took the time to provide input.

I've read a lot since then and finished transitioning off of dry food. All my kitties (including my foster cat) eat 100% wet food now and I'm super happy with it! My favorite brands are Tractor Supply's 4 Health brand and Wellness brand. I just found the Wellness brand in much larger cans for much cheaper so I'm pretty happy about that.

Most of all, based on my research I feel that I'm giving my kitties (especially the neutered male ones) and myself the best chance of avoiding painful expensive emergency vet visits.

Thank you again for the GOOD information that you shared.

 

[serena77]

I think the choice mostly depends on your opinions and on which wet food you choose to feed your cat (and, last but not least, on what the cat likes most

). I've fed my two cats for years complementary wet food (like Applaws cans, just to give you an example), thus I had to add dry food to their diet to make it balanced and complete. Now, I've read that complementary wet food isn't advisable since it has a high protein rate, lacks lots of minerals and vitamins and has a very unbalanced ratio calcium-phosphorus which can lead to renal insufficiency or to kidney/bladder stones in elderly cats, so I'm switching to a complete wet food with a high percentage of fresh meat (because, after all, fresh meat is what cats would eat in their natural environment). I decided however to keep dry food, also because one of my cats is very keen on kibbles, so I'm not going to wean her off it at the moment; but I'm very careful about kibbles (even if my decisions often don't correspond with their preferences, with the resul that I spend loads of money on top quality dry food- like a German brand called Granata Pet, just to mention the most sensational failure- and they turn their noses up at it). They have to be corn and gluten free (not necessarily grain free), have a moderate amount of proteins and most of all low levels of minerals, especially sodium, magnesium, phosphorus and calcium not to overburden their kidneys. It also should have low carbohydrates, be low calories because one of my cats is a little plump and then of course to be palatable to them: needless to say that the quest for the Holy Graal is a piece of cake in comparison.
To answer some of your questions, even if many others have already replied much better than I could do, never mix wet and dry food (because they have different digestion times, so to speak: wet food is assimilated much quicker than dry one, therefore a mixture might cause digestive troubles) and don't mix different dry food types unless you're switching your cat from one brand to another. Dry food is always complete (which means that it contains all the elements your cat needs and has a balanced recipe), but each product has its own formula. By mixing different kinds you break this formula/balance and you risk giving your cat too much of something and too little of something else (too much copper and too little chondroitin just to give an example) which could be harmful for its health in the long term.

 

[ladymochi]

I'm a big advocate for wet food! And if raw works for you, then that's even better.

Dry food is associated to chronic dehydration, too much carbohydrate and not enough actual meat protein (kibble uses a lot of plant based protein). To prevent my precious meow from having kidney or inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes or urinary issues, I would invest a little more on wet, and stay far away from dry food. I'm a firm believer that even the worse kind of wet food is better than the best dry food.

I'm also picky with wet food, I try to stay away from controversial ingredients like carrageenan and gums as much as possible. Rotating different brands/protein/recipe helps my Mochi get a good variety of nutrients from different sources.

With that said, we all live with different restraints in life. What it comes down to, is to be well-informed, and do the best we can for our fur babies!!

 

[crazy4strays]

As I mentioned in post #26, I did switch my fur babies to all canned food.