Wet? Dry? Both?

I've heard conflicting opinions on this from both breeders as well as long time cat owners. Our cat is coming from a home where she eats only higher-quality dry, but has plenty of bowls and fountains to drink from. I've heard also that wet food is important for moisture and grain free is the way to go. I am open to one or both, just trying to see what the majority feeds as far as brand.

Does your cat prefer, chunks or pate?
What should I look for in a food?
Which brands are among the best while still being somewhat affordable?

I will also add that I am not opposed to feeding her raw, as I have three dogs on a raw diet now that do very well on it.

Some reading:

How To Choose The Right Food For Your Cat
What Do I Need To Know About Feeding My Cat?
How To Choose The Right Food For Your Cat
Choosing The Right Food For Your Cat - Part 2
How To Choose The Best Dry Cat Food?
What Makes The Best Canned Cat Food?
Grain-free Cat Food – What Does It Mean?

Canned food is best. A little dry can be given as a snack but it's not necessary. How old is the cat? Kittens under a year old are typically offered as much foods as they want to eat. Both canned and dry food could be offered to kittens.

Cats can be picky about texture. Some will only eat pate, others will only eat chunks / shreds / etc. Offer a variety to see what the cats likes.

Affordable canned foods:

Healthy but affordable canned food
Affordable canned food?
Cheapest/Most affordable Grain free or healthiest canned food
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/330459/...conomical-way-to-buy-friskies-canned-cat-food
New Affordable PetSmart Brand! =D
4health now has affordable grain-free wet food

Raw is definitely an option. Do you make raw food for the dogs or do you buy a commercial brand?

LTS3 said:

Some reading:

How To Choose The Right Food For Your Cat
What Do I Need To Know About Feeding My Cat?
How To Choose The Right Food For Your Cat
Choosing The Right Food For Your Cat - Part 2
How To Choose The Best Dry Cat Food?
What Makes The Best Canned Cat Food?
Grain-free Cat Food – What Does It Mean?

Canned food is best. A little dry can be given as a snack but it's not necessary. How old is the cat? Kittens under a year old are typically offered as much foods as they want to eat. Both canned and dry food could be offered to kittens.

Cats can be picky about texture. Some will only eat pate, others will only eat chunks / shreds / etc. Offer a variety to see what the cats likes.

Affordable canned foods:

Healthy but affordable canned food
Affordable canned food?
Cheapest/Most affordable Grain free or healthiest canned food
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/330459/...conomical-way-to-buy-friskies-canned-cat-food
New Affordable PetSmart Brand! =D
4health now has affordable grain-free wet food

Raw is definitely an option. Do you make raw food for the dogs or do you buy a commercial brand?

Click to expand...

Wow, thank you so much for all the info! I will get to reading up on it. Right now for my dogs, we do Dr. Harvey's mix and typically raw turkey or ground beef and sometimes boiled eggs. I considered The Honest Kitchen for Hollis as Dr. Harvey's doesn't have a feline mix. She has only ever eaten Royal Canin dry that I am aware of, and she is 4.5 years old.

A lot of cats don't seem to like The Honest Kitchen, at least here on TCS. The food is also veggie heavy and carb heavy, neither which are good for cats.

There's a raw forum here on TCS if you want to ask more about raw diets: Raw & Home-Cooked Cat Food I feed my cats a commercial raw cat food, Nature's Variety Instinct. Darwin's seems pretty popular and has raw food for both dogs and cats.

Thank you! I’ll Check it out. We did darwins for a short bit and I wasn’t a fan, but never the NV Instinct.

I agree about feeding wet food over dry. We feed a combination of commercial raw (freeze-dried, with a fair bit of it from Primal, another company that makes food for dogs and cats), homemade cooked food, and canned food. Our cats will eat chunks, pate, shreds, what have you... they're not especially picky about that, though there are certain brands they prefer over others. The biggest things that I look for in commercial foods are high protein, low carbs, and no carrageenan.

Good luck!

I do wet with about 1 Tbsp of dry a day to hold her over until the morning so I can sleep in

My cat will only eat pate and sometimes shreds (Weruva is a big hit)

I look for high protein, grain free, with minimal starches in it.

Some of the more affordable ones that my picky feline are:

American Journey (on Chewy)
Tiny Tiger (also on Chewy)
Dave's
Soulistic
Wellness Complete
Nutro


She also really likes:

Tiki Cat Mousse
Weruva Slide N Serve
Weruva shreds
Evangers
KaiKoa
Caru

I only feed canned pate style food to my cars, be aware that high cost doesn't equal quality

Ment to type cats not cars!!

lisahe said:

I agree about feeding wet food over dry. We feed a combination of commercial raw (freeze-dried, with a fair bit of it from Primal, another company that makes food for dogs and cats), homemade cooked food, and canned food. Our cats will eat chunks, pate, shreds, what have you... they're not especially picky about that, though there are certain brands they prefer over others. The biggest things that I look for in commercial foods are high protein, low carbs, and no carrageenan.

Good luck!

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Thank you! I am somewhat familiar with Primal, so I will check that out for her. I've also noticed that some of the less expensive wet foods have dyes, which is also not good

mizzely said:

I do wet with about 1 Tbsp of dry a day to hold her over until the morning so I can sleep in

My cat will only eat pate and sometimes shreds (Weruva is a big hit)

I look for high protein, grain free, with minimal starches in it.

Some of the more affordable ones that my picky feline are:

American Journey (on Chewy)
Tiny Tiger (also on Chewy)
Dave's
Soulistic
Wellness Complete
Nutro


She also really likes:

Tiki Cat Mousse
Weruva Slide N Serve
Weruva shreds
Evangers
KaiKoa
Caru

Click to expand...

I've heard good things about Weruva. I did see Tint Tiger on chewy.com too. I know with dogs, I don't switch foods often, so I guess it's ok more with cats to change their food and it won't normally cause an upset belly?

Uncled said:

I only feed canned pate style food to my cars, be aware that high cost doesn't equal quality

Click to expand...

What kind do you feed?

Theodore was started on raw beef as a kitten (Blue Ridge Beef) so I have continued it. He LOVES his raw beef! I buy it in bulk and pack the freezer with the tubes. It is a bit expensive. He also eats canned "Taste of the Wild" Venison & Salmon as well as the dry of the same. I leave the dry out all day and it takes him all day to eat al of the canned. He eats all of the raw in minutes!

Hollis'sMom said:

I've heard good things about Weruva. I did see Tint Tiger on chewy.com too. I know with dogs, I don't switch foods often, so I guess it's ok more with cats to change their food and it won't normally cause an upset belly?

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For dry food, no, switching can still make their tummy upset. For wet food, it isn't an issue with most cats unless they already have digestive issues usually.

I feed Fancy Feast classic pate and the grocery store Aldi brand. I have two male black cats, brothers from the same litter, when I feed them they each get one three ounce can but I devide each can in half and mix the two flavors together so they don't get bored. They have never had dry food.

I just started giving spooky wet and dry mixed no diarrhea yet i forgot what brand it was but she seems to love it

I would like Honey to eat a healthier brand, but she's super picky on what she'll eat. Right now she's very into Fancy Feast gravy lovers, (only the gravy lovers not the regular), Tiki Cat senior mousse and the stix wet treats (only the chicken flavor.) Mr. Fluff is very refreshing in the sense he'll basically eat anything. They also both get Purina Sensitive dry food since Honey has stomach issues.

There are some people whose cats live off of dry foods for the rest of their lives. This is very limiting to the cat. If humans get a variety, why can't cats? It only makes sense. They should have wet food at least four times a week, if not everyday. Some people treat wet food as a 'treat'. It should be a daily meal at least once in the day. Some brands I recommend are Authority and Simply Nourish, found at PetSmart. Also, cats have evolved from the desert, and so naturally don't drink much water, no matter how many bowls of water you put out. So it's important that they get moisture from wet foods. A food should not contain meat by products, carrageenan, or taurine, or any artificial flavours/colours. I give my cat a spoon of wet food everyday, mixed with a spoon of hot water to warm the food as it's right out of the fridge. He likes pate, but there are also chunks. depends on your cat what s/he likes.

divyanka2111 said:

There are some people whose cats live off of dry foods for the rest of their lives. This is very limiting to the cat. If humans get a variety, why can't cats? It only makes sense. They should have wet food at least four times a week, if not everyday. Some people treat wet food as a 'treat'. It should be a daily meal at least once in the day. Some brands I recommend are Authority and Simply Nourish, found at PetSmart. Also, cats have evolved from the desert, and so naturally don't drink much water, no matter how many bowls of water you put out. So it's important that they get moisture from wet foods. A food should not contain meat by products, carrageenan, or taurine, or any artificial flavours/colours. I give my cat a spoon of wet food everyday, mixed with a spoon of hot water to warm the food as it's right out of the fridge. He likes pate, but there are also chunks. depends on your cat what s/he likes.

Click to expand...

Like the "wet or dry" question, we decide for our cats whether we'll feed them foods with byproducts, carrageenan, and artificial flavors/colors. But all cats need taurine, it's absolutely crucial for cats' health -- not feeding it can cause very serious health issues.

Here's an article on taurine. Taurine in Cats

lisahe said:

Like the "wet or dry" question, we decide for our cats whether we'll feed them foods with byproducts, carrageenan, and artificial flavors/colors. But all cats need taurine, it's absolutely crucial for cats' health -- not feeding it can cause very serious health issues.

Here's an article on taurine. Taurine in Cats

Click to expand...

Whoops, I made a mistake mentioning taurine. Omit that. But I don't know what you mean by the rest of your post. I don't understand what the point was of mentioning 'we decide for our cats whether we'll...' What did you mean to say? :S