Does Your Cat Drink A Lot Of Water?

jen

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And look, they eat eyeballs, crunch bones and cartilage, fur, whatever. They don't care. It is all meat to them.
 

wrenboii

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My cat does drink lots of water on an all-dry diet and drinks very little on an all-wet. I remember the first time I trialed an all-wet diet, I was worried that he wasn't drinking water until I realized that he just didn't feel thirsty anymore because the wet food was enough.

I feed 50/50 dry and wet right now, and leave a water bowl out. I haven't read through the entire thread yet, but the reason wet food has a """"lower"""" amount of protein is because the numbers on the can are based on an as-fed calculation. If you calculate it with the moisture content in mind, i.e. moisture removed, and compare to any dry food, it has at least double the protein.
 
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Hey therr0789

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I don't really know that low grade meat matters as much for cats. In the wild they eat whatever. Mice, rats, chipmonks, not to mention whatever they ate as wild cats. If you want to get technical, how natural of a diet is beef to a cat? You don't see little Fluffy who hunts mice and bugs, taking out an entire cow in the wild :lol::lol:
Ha!
 
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Hey therr0789

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My cat does drink lots of water on an all-dry diet and drinks very little on an all-wet. I remember the first time I trialed an all-wet diet, I was worried that he wasn't drinking water until I realized that he just didn't feel thirsty anymore because the wet food was enough.

I feed 50/50 dry and wet right now, and leave a water bowl out. I haven't read through the entire thread yet, but the reason wet food has a """"lower"""" amount of protein is because the numbers on the can are based on an as-fed calculation. If you calculate it with the moisture content in mind, i.e. moisture removed, and compare to any dry food, it has at least double the protein.
As fed? What does that mean? As opposed to what?
 

jen

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Water down the dry.
Try a variety of flavors and textures.
Top the dry with wet food.
Food toppers.
Use products to sprinkle over the food to entice them to eat, the only one coming to mind at the moment is called Entyce but I know there are others.
 

misty8723

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kittytat

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Outdoor female cat about 9 yrs old.
Summer: 1-3x/day
Behaviour/Activity: on hot days, our outdoor cat (female) alternates between sunbathing and lying in the shade in the grass under lawn chair or picnic table. I leave her a bowl of water outdoors. When I'm out back, I see her get her drink on at least once or twice a day.

Winter (freezing here!) on average 1x/day whether she's inside or out.
 

MissClouseau

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Mine drank so much more when she was on an all-dry diet.

I think if the dry food is for prescription and/or you can't afford a quality food all-wet diet, dry food is OK as long as you make sure he drinks enough water. If possible I suggest adding at least one 80grams of wet food daily. Split it into two portions and add extra water to each too. In the morning first change the water in the bowl if there's no fountain and wait for a bit for them to drink water. Then serve the half of the wet food.

You can also get puree form treats for a bit more hydration and add a little water to them too.

My brother's cat is very allergic and has been on dry z/d Hill's prescription food for years now. My own cat who has some food intolerances has been on Whiskas wet food for over a year that led to her health issues. (I didn't realize her food sensitivites back then.) "Any wet food is better than any dry food" definitely isn't true in my experience.

Some wet foods also don't have enougn nutrition compare to how much the cat will realistically eat it. Purina Gourmet Gold pate is recommended 4 cans a day for a 4kg weight cat. Good luck trying to get a cat eat 4 cans of wet food and the same one daily, you know.
 

ailish

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When I adopted Ailish she was on a dry diet and she drank water. As soon as I got her I switched to wet and she drank rarely. Now I feed her 75% wet with water added and I never see her drink at all. In fact, the few times I have seen her drink in the past three years I think something is wrong. I add a good amount of water to her wet and she eats it all, even when I think I've gone overboard. I change her water twice a day, so she always has fresh available just in case, but she shows no interest. YMMV
 
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