Wet Food Diet..is It For Moisture Only, Protein, Or Both?

I know that wet food is very beneficial to cats for many health reasons but what is the biggest reason to feed it. From my reading, I'm getting that it's the moisture content to keep the cat hydrated. It also happens to be that wet food is higher in protein and less carbs than dry food. So is wet best for moisture only, protein, or both? The reason for my question is that my kitten likes broth pouches and they don't have as much meat as a regular canned food but they definitely have a ton of broth which equals moisture. I wouldn't feed those all the time as I think they are pricey for a ton of broth.

I would say it's for moisture but that doesn't mean you can't get your money's worth! What i do is get regular canned pates and add more water. No need for the pouches because yeah they're expensive for no reason.

The broths are meant to be toppers; they aren't a complete diet and you wouldn't want to make up more then 20-30% of your cats diet with it. Personally, I use the broths on top of another food that they aren't as fond of to increase appeal.

To answer the exact question, the reason varies by person. People whose cats have kidney issues feed for the moisture as do most people who have had kidney problems with other cats. I'd go mostly wet for the high nutritional value of more protein, less carbs and fewer filles. Dry food has a lot of ingredients just to make it shelf stable in the carbs and starch department.

I add some extra water to regular canned food since he doesn't have a problem eating it that way. I mostly do it with the pate foods. The broth pouches I've used are Petco's Wholehearted brand and they aren't toppers only. They are complete nutrition for all life stages.

I'm still finding what brands work best for my kitten since he was raised on just dry food. He gets a little bit of soft stools from wet but I'm assuming it will take awhile for his tummy to adjust to a mostly wet diet. He does get some dry to graze on between wet meals.

Wet food is preferred because it’s higher in moisture and animal protein, lower in carbs, and less processed than dry food with fewer unnecessary ingredients. Kidney disease or not, all cats need high moisture in their diet.

I recommend reading catinfo.org

I feed wet for the moisture, and my guys like both wet and dry. But honestly you have to watch, while all wet will have more moisture some of it is not as high protein as one would think. Some wet is very high fat, and some has a lot of carbs, so you need to be watchful. There are many wet foods i am not a fan of, i dont want to buy expensive cans of fat

Some dry foods, like Dr. Elseys, and Farmina just to name 2 brands i am familiar with, have high protein amounts, and lower carbs. Also less unwanted ingredients than some wet foods.

This is why i feed both wet, and dry. The wet foods that i like, and that are high protein and lower fat are quite low cal. Gets the moisture in them, but not enough calories. So Dr. Elsey's fills in this need.

I also keep out several different water options for my guys. and sneaking in a little extra moisture with wet treats rather that dry is in my opinion a good thing to do sometimes.

We switched to canned food for the moisture after one of our cats developed recurrent urinary tract problems a few years ago. But as others have said, you just have to be careful, because some canned foods can be ridiculously high in carbs or fat.

We started out using Dr. Pierson's Protein/Fat/Carb/Phosphorus Chart to find low carb options that we thought might be suitable for our kitties. Unfortunately, products come and go, so some brands and/or flavors that we thought we might be interested in weren't included on her chart. So I created a spreadsheet for myself using these formulas at CatInfo.org to at least get a ballpark guesstimate as to protein/fat/carb percentages.

We also use homemade broth (made from just meat and water) sometimes instead of plain water to add a little extra moisture to our cats' food. One of our cats has a lot of food allergies, so we figure the fewer ingredients in the broth, the better.

For me, it's because of the moisture, and also because my cats start to have pee problems at half a cup of dry food, I have to keep it under that. So the rest of their diet HAS to be wet food, no choice.

Both! You still have to watch the ingredients of course, but there isn't a kibble in existence that doesn't have at least some starch, whereas there are wet foods. But I'd rather see a cat eat Friskies (which has rice and is not my favorite) than an all dry diet, even if it was a quality dry, just because urinary issues are so common. So moisture is my number 1 concern. But if you can have both, then that's of course best! Obesity and diabetes are also huge problems caused by carbs, and the sugars in carbohydrates do not help any health issue.

Wet food helps prevent urinary tract issues. In my opinion, the majority, if not all, of a cat's diet should be wet or raw. Mine get fed raw in the morning, canned at night, and they get a small snack (I'm talking like...maybe 1/8 of a cup, each) of wet food at night because they're hungry little monsters and would try to wake me up to fed them at 3 am otherwise. Dry is also higher in calories so there are a lot of people that find their cats will get chunky on an all dry diet.

I don’t understand the argument for feeding raw because it’s denser in calories. If your cat needs more calories then just feed more of the healthy wet food.

Azazel said:

I don’t understand the argument for feeding raw because it’s denser in calories. If your cat needs more calories then just feed more of the healthy wet food.

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We do this because it's cheaper. We will also be losing my income in a few months (going back to school...ahhh) so we are switching their wet food entirely over to a different brand and my even feed less of the raw. It all depends on how we can crunch our numbers and make up for the lost income.
We feed Dr. Elsey's...pricey but low in carbs and high in animal protein. Plus they eat so little of it that I don't feel too guilty giving it to them...we all eat our junk food every now and again

Azazel said:

I don’t understand the argument for feeding raw because it’s denser in calories. If your cat needs more calories then just feed more of the healthy wet food.

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I feed raw, but I've never heard that as a reason to do so. It's more digestible, but denser in calories? Where is that coming from?

So I had a typo in my post... I meant dry, not raw.

My post should have read “I don’t understand feeding dry food for the extra calories.”

I feed raw too...

Azazel said:

So I had a typo in my post... I meant dry, not raw.

My post should have read “I don’t understand feeding dry food for the extra calories.”

I feed raw too...

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I feed a lot of low calorie, low fat wet foods, its what they like. But it would be hard to get them to eat enough of the wet, especially the girls, who just are not food motivated.

The two wet meals per day, plus the dry, works well for us. Keeps the cats happy, and my food bill is only somewhat horrible..

Azazel said:

So I had a typo in my post... I meant dry, not raw.

My post should have read “I don’t understand feeding dry food for the extra calories.”

I feed raw too...

Click to expand...

Well I think budget plays a role in this too...at least for me... At the moment, I am not feeding any dry because my cat is older and 1 can of wet food a day has been keeping her at a healthy weight. If she needed more calories than 1 can of wet a day could provide, I'd HAVE to fill in the gap with dry for my budget's sake. Wet is more expensive and I just can't afford more than 1 can a day.

MissMolly08 said:

Well I think budget plays a role in this too...at least for me... At the moment, I am not feeding any dry because my cat is older and 1 can of wet food a day has been keeping her at a healthy weight. If she needed more calories than 1 can of wet a day could provide, I'd HAVE to fill in the gap with dry for my budget's sake. Wet is more expensive and I just can't afford more than 1 can a day.

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It is interesting that both dry and raw feeders cited budget as a reason for feeding the type of food that they feed!

I will admit that I wanted to switch to raw because I figured the calories she was getting from it was much better than anything else. But because I feed commercial raw, it makes it a little difficult to call it "budget friendly" especially since Mika is on and off about her raw diet (just like everything else she eats).
I've noticed that she is more motivated to eat her dry food which is why I leave some out over night (also so she doesn't wake me up at 4 am for food) and when I'm gone. I can't trust her to finish wet food fast enough or even think to touch it again after she's nibbled.

Sometimes she drives me up the wall. Her wet food tastes are incredibly expensive too which makes it even more frustrating when she wont finish a meal.

Azazel said:

It is interesting that both dry and raw feeders cited budget as a reason for feeding the type of food that they feed!

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I am sure home-made raw can be cheaper than canned depending on the meat options in the area! I guess then it comes down to how comfortable the person is preparing and feeding raw + convenience. Some may be able to fill in the gap with raw instead of dry but others have no desire to handle raw or the time/energy to learn to prepare it correctly and everything.

MissMolly08 said:

I am sure home-made raw can be cheaper than canned depending on the meat options in the area! I guess then it comes down to how comfortable the person is preparing and feeding raw + convenience. Some may be able to fill in the gap with raw instead of dry but others have no desire to handle raw or the time/energy to learn to prepare it correctly and everything.

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For me it comes down to the fact that I can't consciously feed kibble to my cats knowing how inappropriate of a food source it is for an obligate carnivore. Not sure how to put this without coming across as rude... but... I prioritize my cats' health above my own laziness to educate myself or my personal disgust with handling raw meat. If I'm that grossed out by meat then I'm not going to have a carnivore as a pet. Maybe I would get a rabbit.