Does Anyone Else Feed No Dry Food?

[Rini]

I am currently feeding only wet.

I have a big bag of Blue dry food that I leave down when I go away for the night but day to day, Aslan doesn't get any and I don't think he really misses it.

What I am wondering is--am I robbing him of nutritional value that can only be found in dry food?

I get confused with so much conflicting information. Thanks!

 

[kittyluv387]

You are not robbing him of anything! You're giving him better health. Many of us here don't feed any dry. I haven't had a bag of dry in my place for years.

 

[lisahe]

What I am wondering is--am I robbing him of nutritional value that can only be found in dry food?

No! As long as you're feeding him complete meals (not "supplemental feeding" foods or plain meat) you're doing Aslan a huge favor. Most dry food is full of carby vegetable matter fillers that really have no place in cat food -- cats are meat eaters and wet food is generally higher in meat protein, lower in carbs than dry food. Our cats-only vet is a big proponent of wet food diets for all cats.

We've been feeding our cats only wet food since they were about a year old. We switched them over from a combination of wet and dry not long after we adopted them. They thrive on it and I bet Aslan will, too!

 

[Rini]

Thank you guys!

He has turned his nose up at dry since I got him, so it is good to hear nothing has been lost.

 

[Azazel]

Yep, an all wet diet is healthiest. Kudos to you!

 

[Erin80]

I was intending on feeding Kaia wet twice a day and dry in between...but since I only work part time and am often home at lunch...she's been getting all wet during the day and only a bit of dry at night to hold her over since she's a baby and needs lots! Eventually though....probably no dry for us either.

 

[Gizmobius]

No dry here either. I do have a bag of American Journey that I use for treats to put into their puzzle activity board on occasion but I plan to switch that to Dr. Elsey’s soon. Gizmo’s a raw/wet fed kitty since he was 10 weeks old and Stevie is on all wet too after being transitioned when I got her back in december. Shiny coats and happy cats.

 

[KarenKat]

Olive only eats wet food because she gets super fat when she eats dry. We even have the cat sitter come by to feed her when we are gone, and only then does she get some dry food snacks.

The two boys reject wet food, it's a big change for them. We are working on it, but it would be nice to see no dry food for them as well.

 

[yeva2292]

The biggest benefit of wet v dry is the amount of water intake. No matter how much a cat drinks from a bowl, cats who are fed a wet food diet take in more water, are better hydrated, and at a lower risk for urinary problems! This is one of the wet v dry food debate topics where there actually is a bunch of laboratory research about!

 

[aliceneko]

Toffee and Fudge rarely have dry food as they don't drink a lot of water (they're quite picky about water so we often have to mix it in with the gravy mixture in their food). We'll sometimes give them dry food for dinner but otherwise they have a solely wet diet.

 

[tabbytom]

My boy gets 100% real wet food and no dry and no treats.

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

No treats!!

 

[tabbytom]

No treats!!

yea, no treats

The only treats he gets are love, hugs and kisses

 

[molly92]

Mine is a no-dry food house too! I had 2 separate co-workers who both fed their cats a mix of wet and dry, both started having urinary tract problems, and switched over to completely wet and they got better. They both wished they'd been feeding only wet from the start so they'd never have had to go through that in the first place!

 

[LadyLondonderry]

No dry food here (and no treats, either). In years past I fed my cat a mix of dry and canned, but I realized I was leaving the dry out more for my own peace of mind than for the cat's well-being; I would worry that somehow the cat would starve if food were not available at all times, which is absurd when she's being fed two wet meals per day that total the proper number of calories to maintain her weight.

Now Sylvie gets either a 3-ounce can or half a 5.5-ounce can of wet food in the morning, and the same amount of canned or the freeze-dried raw equivalent in the evening. If I'm not here for one of those meals, I have a cat sitter come in to feed it, so Sylvie never misses a meal.

 

[lisahe]

We mostly use treats as toppers, hardly ever as treats, unless a cat gets underfoot and gets a little bump on the head or something. Our previous cat had a bad treat habit that got very annoying -- we, of course, started it! -- so we've avoided regular treats. We also find that a little attention, catnip, or playing goes a long way!

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

Yeah, "treats" to me are freeze-dried raw food pieces.

 

[Tobermory]

Wet here, too. Made the switch in 2012 when the vet looked at Lily and said, “Miss Lily is fat. You need to stop free feeding dry and start meal feeding wet.” I was lucky; all three loved canned right from the start. And Lily gradually got down to a decent weight. (She slimmed to her ideal weight after I started feeding raw last December.)

And when the vet diagnosed Max’s diabetes in 2013, she said it was great that I had already transitioned him to wet because of the high protein and low carbs. She was not a fan of dry food.

When we moved, I was lucky to find another good vet. He’s not a fan of dry food either, and he’s also very supportive of their raw food diet.

 

[lisahe]

Yeah, "treats" to me are freeze-dried raw food pieces.

Same here, the only kind we buy is Pure Bites.

 

[Azazel]

I think my cats' "treats" are the healthiest part of their diet. They get gizzards, hearts, and bones.