Seriously check out that petsmart food calculator thing that tuxedokitties suggested! It reduces the amount of poop too! as well as being better for the cats nutrition wise. I just today, bought my first bag of Max Cat Lite by Nutro that cost 24 bucks!!!!!
But you just don't have to feed them as much.
Getting back to your original question...Cat out in the wild would eat all kinds of animals, and they would eat the WHOLE animal, bones skull, all of it. Thier teeth are narurally designed to crunch bone, and dry food is nothing compared to that. About the tartar, I believe it all depends on each cat. How good they lick and clean their mouth by swallowing after they eat and how they eat. I would imagine that the best thing to do is feed them wet food in the morning, (and it doesn't have to be alot), and free feed them dry all day if they arn't overweight. The carbs in the food help with the digestion if it's the right kind of carbs, like found in the high end foods.
As for the protien being higher in canned food....look at the analysis on the canned vs. the dry food. It is usually 3x higher in the dry.
Sorry for the long post! Got carried away!
Getting back to your original question...Cat out in the wild would eat all kinds of animals, and they would eat the WHOLE animal, bones skull, all of it. Thier teeth are narurally designed to crunch bone, and dry food is nothing compared to that. About the tartar, I believe it all depends on each cat. How good they lick and clean their mouth by swallowing after they eat and how they eat. I would imagine that the best thing to do is feed them wet food in the morning, (and it doesn't have to be alot), and free feed them dry all day if they arn't overweight. The carbs in the food help with the digestion if it's the right kind of carbs, like found in the high end foods.
As for the protien being higher in canned food....look at the analysis on the canned vs. the dry food. It is usually 3x higher in the dry.
Sorry for the long post! Got carried away!