Dry Food Or Wet Food? Both?

[DeannaF]

We have a new kitty and he's under a year old.

How do you feed your kitty? Dry only? Wet only? Dry and wet?

Also, when switching food are cats the same as dogs... you have to introduce the new food slowly?

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I, personally, feed wet food only. Everyone is different. Some feed dry only, some feed wet only, some feed both.

When you change DRY food, you need to introduce the new food slowly. Not so with wet food. With wet, you can change it up constantly with no issue (typically )

 

[orange&white]

I feed wet only. My kitten is 6.5 months old, and eats usually 3 meals a day, 4 meals on weekends. In the last month, she's eaten chicken, pork, turkey and beef. No problem with changes in proteins. With a brand new kitty, it's probably a good idea to change foods slowly, particularly with dry kibble, but even with wet until you know how she does.

 

[abyeb]

Wet food is generally healthier, as it contains a higher water content, meaning that cats a) get more hydrated and b) feel fuller for longer, so there's a lower obesity rate among cats on a wet food only diet. Additionally, dry food is sprayed with oil before it is packaged to make it more appetizing to cats, but it also adds empty calories. Despite my personal preference for wet food, Charlie refuses to eat wet food at all, so I have to give him dry. I don't free feed him through (free feeding is what most people do with dry), he has scheduled feeding times, so that helps me monitor his weight. He is fairly active though, so with Charlie it's equally important to make sure that he is not losing weight as it is to make sure that he is not gaining weight.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Transitioning Your Cat from Kibble to a New Type of Food (Canned, Raw, or Homemade)[/URL] It's how I transitioned all mine from kibble to wet food. The key was finding a wet food they liked, which isn't always easy, especially when all they've ever known was kibble. But I managed it with 4 cats, two of whom were over 10 years old at the time.

 

[arouetta]

I feed dry food. Do I want to feed wet food? Yes. But I'm not rich and wet food would cost me $50 a week at a minimum. I can get a good quality dry food bag that will last me two weeks for $14. I just try to compensate by measured feedings and leaving a lot of water dishes out to make it easy for the cats to get a drink.

 

[sargon]

A lot depends on the food and the cat. On average, wet foods have better ingredients and provide more hydration. They also are more work, don't interact well with puzzle feeding, have significanly more cost, and some cats don't like them (mine only licks up the gravy, for example.)

If funds or time are a little tight, and your cat is a good drinker, especially a cat who would benefit from enrichment via puzzle feeding, a good grain free dry food will likely serve well (also, kittens should be free fed dry to ensure sufficient caloric intake.) There is some debate, but dry food is generally better for a cat's dental health than canned (though probably more because of canned causing issues than dry fixing them )

If your cat has kidney or Urinary tract issues, doesn't dink well, has bad teeth, etc. then canned food will be a better fit. Another big canned advantage is that, because quality doesn't change that much between low and high cost foods, if you have to grocery store feed your cat, canned will almost always provide superior food (fancy feast classic (among the cheapest and most readily available canned foods) is orders of magnitude better than pretty much any dry food you'll find at a grocery or big box store.

As long as you fed good food (dry or canned), your cat will likely live a long, healthy life, so go with what fits your cat's needs and your ability to provide.

And, yes, dry with a bit of canned is a reasonable choice, if for no other reason than it helps keep your cat a flexible eater.

 

[maddies momma]

The importance of wet food is keeping the cat well hydrated (as most don't drink much water on their own) and keeping the kidneys flushed and healthy. I would love to feed all wet but for scheduling reasons that wouldn't work right now. So I feed breakfast and dinner meals of canned food and then some dry in between.

And yes it is important to change foods slowly. Some animals aren't bothered by food changes but it should be done slowly as a precaution. The time it's most important is when you are switching from a low quality to a higher quality. If a cat had been fed cheap grocery store food and then was all of a sudden switched to a high quality food it's digestive system would not have the enzymes needed to digest the higher quality. By switching slowly the body has time to build up the enzymes needed for digesting the new food. It's not as big of a deal if your moving from one food to another of the same quality.

 

[lucentstreak]

We have a new kitty and he's under a year old.

How do you feed your kitty? Dry only? Wet only? Dry and wet?

Also, when switching food are cats the same as dogs... you have to introduce the new food slowly?

Under a year old - he will be a ferocious eater till 1 or so.

I feed dry and wet - mainly because of my schedule, cost and also that Hugo doesn't like formulas, pates or gravy. He gets by on a good grainfree diet of Orijen, Sheba wet and some bits of freeze dried raw toppings as incentive.

He also has a water fountain that he drinks from.

 

[NewYork1303]

Our cats do well on a diet of both wet food and dry. They get Nature's Instinct dry food and a rotation of Weruva, Sheba, and Fancy Feast wet food.

 

[mizzely]

We do mostly wet now. Basically it's wet for breakfast and dinner, and then we use dry at night as a snack in a feeder ball to keep them from waking us up If I had to do it all over again, going back to the beginning of Jasmine's life 15 years ago, I would start out this way vs doing the dry I did the last 14 years. It was a struggle to get her onto wet even though an all dry diet was making her throw up several times a week.

 

[shadowplay]

I feed both. One reason for this is that it is cost-effective. A bag of good quality dry food costs me about $25 per month. Wet food costs quite a bit more, and would not be affordable for me as the only food. Second is that my schedule is a bit crazy right now, and dry food is convenient and I use it to help tide them over if I have a long day. Third is...They just plain like it! They love their wet food too, but they also love the crunch of their dry food.

I feed wet for the moisture content, and because it can be healthier for them.

 

[sargon]

For hydration, my go to move would always be to start with a fountain (stainless steel or ceramic), since using fountains and filling them with purified water GREATLY increases the water a cat drinks in most cases. The water is clean and fresh that way, and it tends to attract the cat (some cats like mine even actually start to ENJOY drinking from fountains!)
A good stainless steel fountain can be had for as little as $25 (the small steel pioneer pet fountain), and purified water is avalable at most grocery stores or Walmart for pretty cheap. If you wan to use

If your cat take to it, you probably don't need canned food (unless you need it for reasosn other than hydration), and if it the increases are more modest, then it still will be a good suppliment to canned.

 

[NewYork1303]

My cats have a cat fountain as well. We use a brita filter pitcher to fill it.

 

[abyeb]

Definitely try a water fountain! Most cats love them! Charlie prefers to drink out of conventional water bowls because he is scared of the dribbling water from the fountain . I'd reccommend trying both types of water dispensers, to see what your cat likes best!

 

[destinyz12]

i do a 50/50 mix of dry and wet food. She gets her quarter of a cup of dry food in the morning which generally lasts her until i get home from work at dinner time. Then she gets half of a 3 oz can for dinner, and then the other half before I go to bed (about 5-6 hours after dinner). She has a relatively small appetite so the quantity I give might not be suitable for every cat.

 

[lalagimp]

I can get one of my girls to eat canned, but since they eat together, and my oldest is addicted to kibble, they eat dry Nature's Variety chicken in a SureFlap feeder. My oldest even has FORLs and has had dental work twice and they say keep her on wet food for two weeks- she refuses. I tried her on raw instead of pate when they said she had struvite crystals but she wasn't having that either so we installed a second water fountain on the other side of the house. No excuses if they are thirsty and one is just too far away.
The boys eat raw. Tommy has FLUTD and went off kibble to canned, then commercial raw, then homemade raw with rabbit and turkey. He blocked once, then we stopped kibble. He blocked twice in 1 week months later and I started him on Cranberry Relief and he got PU surgery as we couldn't afford to treat any more blockages at $2000 each.

 

[hannah's.dad]

Hi

Ah question I am new cat owner. And been researching so much about nutrition. After seen all the reviews and videos on dry food I feel I am completely against it.

I don’t like to keep food out, and give her at specific intervals and she cleans up her bowl in one sitting.

I feed my cat 3 times a day. 5 AM; 130 PM and 9 PM. I give her Red Barn only half a can at one sitting. And on the third sitting I give her honest kitchen a small cup. Cat seems to be doing fine. But I hope I have made the right decision by doing this.

If there is no reason to give her dry food, I will not be giving her. Just some dry food as treats while training. BTW she who weighs appox 10 pounds has a very healthy appetite.

We always have someone around home to timing is not a problem. I know canned food & dehydrated raw food is more expensive but if this is better for her health and will be able to live longer & have lesser problems in old age then why not?

I have also kept a water fountain for her. Even thou her wet food has water some more can’t be harmful.

What do you guys thing is this a wise & ok move? Will she have a good balance in nutrition this way?

Thanks,

 

[Kat0121]

Hi

Ah question I am new cat owner. And been researching so much about nutrition. After seen all the reviews and videos on dry food I feel I am completely against it.

I don’t like to keep food out, and give her at specific intervals and she cleans up her bowl in one sitting.

I feed my cat 3 times a day. 5 AM; 130 PM and 9 PM. I give her Red Barn only half a can at one sitting. And on the third sitting I give her honest kitchen a small cup. Cat seems to be doing fine. But I hope I have made the right decision by doing this.

If there is no reason to give her dry food, I will not be giving her. Just some dry food as treats while training. BTW she who weighs appox 10 pounds has a very healthy appetite.

We always have someone around home to timing is not a problem. I know canned food & dehydrated raw food is more expensive but if this is better for her health and will be able to live longer & have lesser problems in old age then why not?

I have also kept a water fountain for her. Even thou her wet food has water some more can’t be harmful.

What do you guys thing is this a wise & ok move? Will she have a good balance in nutrition this way?

Thanks,

Red Barn is good food. Even my picky eaters like it. I feed mine wet food with high quality dry now and then as a topper to the wet food or the occasional snack.

The dry I use is Petcurean GO! Fit and Free. Go! Fit + Free Grain-Free Chicken, Turkey & Duck Recipe Dry Cat Food

As you can see, it's not cheap but since it's not the main part of their diet, it's doable for me. A 4 pound bag lasts me a while. I like that it's made in Canada. They have stricter regulations on pet food manufacturing than they do here in the US

As I mentioned, my cats are picky eaters. I have to keep a variety of wet foods around because they will reject a food out of the blue that they have had no issue with in the past. This of course is always done right after I buy a case of the now rejected food. I have to shelve it for a while and then reintroduce it.

If Hannah likes Red Barn, she may also like Pride by Instinct, Wellness minced and cubed varieties, Soulistic Good Karma shredded chicken (Petco's house brand), Weruva's line (they make Soulistic for Petco) or the Nutro Natural Choice line. They make pates, chunky pates, minced and sliced varieties in quite a few flavors.

Try one or 2 cans of a few kinds to see what she likes. Good luck.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Hi

Ah question I am new cat owner. And been researching so much about nutrition. After seen all the reviews and videos on dry food I feel I am completely against it.

I don’t like to keep food out, and give her at specific intervals and she cleans up her bowl in one sitting.

I feed my cat 3 times a day. 5 AM; 130 PM and 9 PM. I give her Red Barn only half a can at one sitting. And on the third sitting I give her honest kitchen a small cup. Cat seems to be doing fine. But I hope I have made the right decision by doing this.

If there is no reason to give her dry food, I will not be giving her. Just some dry food as treats while training. BTW she who weighs appox 10 pounds has a very healthy appetite.

We always have someone around home to timing is not a problem. I know canned food & dehydrated raw food is more expensive but if this is better for her health and will be able to live longer & have lesser problems in old age then why not?

I have also kept a water fountain for her. Even thou her wet food has water some more can’t be harmful.

What do you guys thing is this a wise & ok move? Will she have a good balance in nutrition this way?

Thanks,

I feed only wet food, and feed three times a day as well. For treats, I feed freeze dried raw, like Stella and Chewy. They get just a couple pieces of that first thing when we wake up, to tide them over until breakfast.

How old is she. And how active? Reason I ask is because depending on what size can you are using, it's possible she may need MORE food. 1/2 a 3 oz can is a lot different than 1/2 of a 5.5 oz can . If she seems ravenous, then you might increase her food a little, but otherwise, all seems good to me.

Feeding canned/reconstituted raw is no guarantee of a longer/healthier life (would that it were), but it certainly can't hurt. Unfortunately, there are NO guarantees. I've had 3 cats who ended up with kidney disease, and they were all fed kibble for most of there lives. That's why we now are on an all wet diet now. I hoping to beat the odds this time around now that's I've learned a little bit about cat nutrition.