dry food only?

[liaara]

Hi!

I was feeding my cats dry food exclusivly, but now i found alot of info saying, that dry food isn't very good for your cat.

What is your opinion to this?

Thats what i found:

http://www.allaboutc.at/2011/11/what-food-is-best-for-my-cat.html

http://cats.about.com/od/catfoodandnutrition/f/cannedvsdry.htm

http://www.catster.com/cat-food/cat-food-wet-or-dry

did i really do that wrong the whole time?

 

[ilovemia]

Mia eats dry food only. She doesnt like canned food that well and I really cant afford to feed it to her. I do feed her a grain free food though (Taste of The Wild). She also has a high thirst drive, thankfully.

 

[meuzettesmom]

Out of eight cats Only one doesn't like can food. He will eat wet if it is lamb and rice. But we don't have that every morning. I have free range on the kibbles They eat when they like and what they like from those bowls.

 

[cat person]

I feed a high quality dry food (EVO Chicken and Turkey) to my Savannah, along with one mouse a day. My three other domestics get a small amount canned food (Wellness Core, Wellness, Dave's, and so on) mixed with dry food (Taste of the Wild, Nature's Balance, or Purina One) once or twice a day. Along with a dish of: Taste Of The Wild dry, Nature's Balance Dry, or Purina One dry food daily.

So, my cats are basically on a dry food diet. They range in age from a year and a half to late teens. They are all doing fine. I think a good quality dry food is just fine for cats.

 

[cyndersmom]

i feed my 6 month old BB dry kitten (free fed) and maybe a teaspoon of wellness grain free wet,once in the morning and once at night, he's healthy and active. I'm mainly a dry food person for my cat..

 

[minka]

You are correct; dry food is not very good for cats.
And rather than write you an essay, I will instead link you to: http://catinfo.org and http://feline-nutrition.org

 

[biscuity]

I have fed my cat Orijen dried food for the past few years.

Recently when my cat has been sick, I asked my vet nutritionist expert to check the suitability of the food. I gave the vet every option to prescribe something else for my cat.  She carefully checked all the ingredients & was astonished with how good they were. She was especially impressed with the botanical ingredients as these would be items that she would prescribe to animals on occasion. She said it was like eating one of those healthy bacteria yoghurts every day. Of course, with any dried food, water must be available 24/7.

http://www.orijenpetfoods.co.uk/

 

[denali]

'ilovemia' Wrote:

I do feed her a grain free food though (Taste of The Wild). She also has a high thirst drive, thankfully.

A high thirst drive is not natural for a cat. Cats get most of their moisture from their food. Dry food has as little as 10% moisture and no matter how much water your kitty drinks they are most likely not getting their daily requirements for moisture. In the wild you barely see cats drinking water from a pond, etc. because they get most of their moisture from their diet. Here is a great article written regarding "Water Requirements" in cats http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm   it's worth the read.

I agree with Minka ~ a dry food diet is not good for cats. Please read the links Minka and myself have posted to educate yourself on a proper diet for a cat 

 

[sweetpea24]

Wet food is preferable for cats as they were originally desert animals and derive their moisture.from food. They may drink.but typically will not compensate for.the.lack of moisture in dry food like dogs do. Plus dry food contains starches which cats are not naturally built to digest.

Kibble was created for our convenience only. It is cheaper to feed and you can leave it out but in the end, canned food is optimal.

There is much debate on this, as many people feed a dry food only diet or a 50/50 mix and their cats are.doing fine. A 50/50 mix is better than no canned at all. If you choose to go all wet, please remember that since canned food is 70% moisture, you'll need to feed more. I feed my one cat, who is 4.5 kg,(don't know the conversion to pounds) and he gets1.5 cans (5.5 oz cans) per day. It adds up to a pretty penny but.in the end it's well worth it. My cat has Chronic Real Failure so that is why he is on an all wet diet; but I didn't 'raise' him or else he would have been on it always. So who knows, maybe he would have gotten kidney failure anyways? There are surprisingly a lot of vets and vet personnel who feed an all dry diet. And from what I have been reading, the vets (not referring to the personnel.because I don't read their message boards), it's because they can just plop the dish down and not worry about it. Vets aren't trained well on nutrition, just mainly on the way the body.processes nutrients and its relation to disease and of course, the rx brands of food and their corresponding research. And some kitties love their dry food! I know mine would eat dry food until they were as fat as Garfield!!

It's not just moisture that is part of the debate between dry and wet. Obesity is a factor when feeding a dry food. Not to say a cat can't get fat on wet food bit dry food has more carbs which cats are not.designed.to eat (they can process some) and so this contributes to obesity and possibly diabetes. In male cats, an all dry diet may sometimes lead to urinary blockage (again, referring to moisture content).

This is my opinion but the other.posters gave you good websites to ponder.

 

[x2006nkg]

My kitten is on a mainly wet diet, but there is always dry food available to him. We feed him wet 3 times a day, and put the dry food out in the morning. He doesn't touch the dry food until the middle of the night, when he realizes that all the lights are off and no more wet food is coming. 

 

[sarahandpoe]

Both of my cat eat both combined a total of one can a day in the morning, and they have dry food whenever they're hungry. They really enjoy their wet food.

The only problem with the wet food (well, from my experience) is when you start feeding your cats wet food, they will beg for it, around the time you start giving it to them. Every morning at 7 in the morning, I will come out to the kitchen to find them waiting by the fridge!

 

[ilovemia]

'ilovemia' Wrote:

A high thirst drive is not natural for a cat. Cats get most of their moisture from their food. Dry food has as little as 10% moisture and no matter how much water your kitty drinks they are most likely not getting their daily requirements for moisture. In the wild you barely see cats drinking water from a pond, etc. because they get most of their moisture from their diet. Here is a great article written regarding "Water Requirements" in cats http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm   it's worth the read.

I agree with Minka ~ a dry food diet is not good for cats. Please read the links Minka and myself have posted to educate yourself on a proper diet for a cat 

I am very well educated on what to feed my cat, thankyou! My cat does not like wet food so I feed her grain free dry food. She does have a a high thirst drive which is a good thing so I dont have to worry about dehydration.  Don't be so quick to judge people!!!

 

[cat person]

I have fed my cat Orijen dried food for the past few years.

Recently when my cat has been sick, I asked my vet nutritionist expert to check the suitability of the food. I gave the vet every option to prescribe something else for my cat.  She carefully checked all the ingredients & was astonished with how good they were. She was especially impressed with the botanical ingredients as these would be items that she would prescribe to animals on occasion. She said it was like eating one of those healthy bacteria yoghurts every day. Of course, with any dried food, water must be available 24/7.

http://www.orijenpetfoods.co.uk/

I also use that dry food, in my rotation of dry foods. I would feed that exclusively, if they all would eat it

.

I am very well educated on what to feed my cat, thankyou! My cat does not like wet food so I feed her grain free dry food. She does have a a high thirst drive which is a good thing so I dont have to worry about dehydration.  Don't be so quick to judge people!!!

Good work! As a vet tech, I can say, if the cat does drink enough water, is "normal and healthy" a dry food diet is fine. Just make sure you are using a dry food that is low/lower in fillers. By fillers I mean, things like: peas, carrots, and grains
 

 

[lmunsie]

i was feeding my cat high quality dry foods (orijens, wellness, max cat and chicken soup) and because of this my cat got diabetes.  I will only feed wet food to my cats for the rest of their lives.  Cats need protein, not carbs!!!!!!

 

[sweetpea24]

i was feeding my cat high quality dry foods (orijens, wellness, max cat and chicken soup) and because of this my cat got diabetes.  I will only feed wet food to my cats for the rest of their lives.  Cats need protein, not carbs!!!!!!

^^This!

While cats may be able process carbs they are not naturally built to do so. This puts extra stress on their pancreas in order to process.them. Since dry food.always contains.some form of carbs, the cat's pancreas must produce insulin. Insulin stores the resultant sugar as fat. The cat.becomes overweight and then its pancreas is so stressed it can't produce enough insulin to process the sugar. Good for you for making a lifelong decision for your kitties!

And no matter if your cat drinks, it.still won't drink enough to compensate for.the lack of moisture in dry food. There is 10% moisture in dry food versus the 70% in canned. So your cat must drink a lot to make up that difference.