is switching to only dry food safe?/ best wet food?

[Jaylin A]

Cat is still having poop issues, we're thinking of going full dry food for all 3 now. After reading the ingredients in our wet food, we realize it may be what's causing his tummy troubles, and we don't want the other cats eating that garbage even if they can tolerate it. But, is this safe/will they get enough nutrition from a good dry brand or do they typically skimp out as well (currently using Naked Essentials which the cats love and the ingredients seem the best so far!). How often and what amount do they need of actual meat? If they do need wet food, what brand is good? I'm looking for minimal grains/fillers, good meat... is it better to boil chicken or other meat and feed it to them once a day? need advice.. we're new to the whole home cooking for cats and finding good food brands (parents would typically just buy the cheap brands)

 

[maggie101]

To get an idea of ingredients I use catfooddb.com. I do not feed my cats fish. A more likely allergin and high in mercury. Dry food is more likely to cause issues with poop. The water in canned helps with urination. It is probably the ingredients.
Ingredients don't look too bad except for all the fish and calories. Canned has much more moisture which they need. For canned make sure meat is the first ingredient and not too many starches. Fancy feast classics are OK. I usually get the turkey&giblets. If he does not get enough water he might have trouble urinating and constipate? If you go dry add water

 

[daftcat75]

Wet or dry, you shouldn't have to worry about nutritional deficiencies as long as the food you buy has that AAFCO statement like at the bottom of your picture:

"<such and such a food> is formulated to meet the nutritional needs established by the AAFCO Cat Food Nutrient Profiles for All Life Stages."

The same cannot be said about any homecooked recipe. Meat is not complete. That's not to say that homecooked cannot be made nutritionally complete. But it's more effort than just boiling up a piece of chicken now and again. I would hold off on home cooking or start with a premix powder like EZ Complete. In fact, that's the only one I recommend at this stage because it doesn't require any additional liver. You just mix the powder with water and mix that into the meat.

Your ideal cat food will be meat, moisture, organs, and supplements--preferably in that order. Supplements are needed because bone, brains, eyeballs, fur/feathers, and a few other parts that would be in a cat's normal diet are not allowed in commercial wet or dry cat foods. Organs are sometimes called "by-products." This an unfortunate and inaccurate term. In the wild, a cat eats it all. There are no by-products. But when animals are raised for their meat, secondary tissues still allowed in the food supply (e.g. organs) are called by-products. AAFCO has regulations over what can be considered by-products. It is not "lips and butt-holes" as my brother would tell me hot dogs were made of.

What is not required for cat food is fruit, vegetables, grains, starches, thickeners, or other non-animal ingredients (besides the supplements.) It is often these carby non-animal ingredients that are either minimally digestible or they fuel the (over)growth of inappropriate gut bacteria. In other words, it is often the grains, starches, fruits, vegetables, and other plant-based ingredients that make up the bulk of dry food that are going to cause poop issues in cats. On the other extreme, if a cat food only has three or four ingredients, that's probably missing organs and supplements and is meant to be a treat vs a complete food. If it has too few ingredients, if it doesn't have supplements, that's worse than picking a food with too many ingredients. If it says, "for intermittent or complementary feeding", that's not a nutritionally complete food. That's a treat or a bridge to help a sick cat back to real food again.

I would start with wet foods that you can easily find at your grocery store. Popular brands are popular with cats. They would not be on the shelves otherwise. Look at Fancy Feast, Friskies, Sheba, and Purina Beyond to start with. Once they are eating a mostly or completely wet food diet, you can slowly introduce what you might consider better foods. But make sure you are evaluating a food from the cat's point of view (meat, moisture, organs, and supplements) and not your own sensibilities. Flaxseeds, cranberries, carrots, and greens all seem like healthy foods. But to a cat, they are useless (lack the enzymes for them), at best, or potential irritants and inflammatory agents.

I would also avoid the fish flavors. Fish can be addictive. Some cats will hold out for fish and not eat anything else. I would reserve fish for hiding medicine or getting a sick cat eating again. Exceptional times require exceptional measures. If you feed fish on the regular, you lose that "nuclear option."

 

[She's a witch]

I was literally just wondering, what would I do if someone offered me a million dollars if I fed my cats dry food only (because you know, I’d rather be prepared for such question in case it ever happen ). I don’t think I’d take the money though. I love these stinkers too much. Cats are desert animal biologically and they are designed to take all moisture from food rather than any other water source and feeding dry is ultimately not appropriate from at least moisture perspective. To me, the only reason to feed some dry is financial constraint, and well, if I had a million dollars that wouldn’t be the case
Not sure if that’s something I can recommend here but if you have Facebook, there’s Feline Nutrition group that has a list of recommended canned food in their files, that are all high protein, low carbs (-10%). I wholeheartedly agree with that list.

when it comes to diarrhea, depending on the reason for it, some probiotics may be extremely helpful. I greatly recommend saccharomyces boulardi (Jarrow brand, with MOS) and also Adored Beast brand (love bugs as maintenance pre and probiotics and Healthy Gut for cats with some bigger GI issues).

 

[Jaylin A]

Thank you all for the very detailed input, its much appreciated...we will play around with amount of the dry food vs wet food intakes and see which one might be the culprit while looking for other good brands in the meantime... sadly because of budget we are limited to so many brands and the vet bills as it is have been a lot for us trying to figure out what's causing the diarrhea. think we'll just avoid home cooked for now...a lot of time and work we unfortunately don't have. worst case, we have to stick with what we have for now, but its become a hopeless battle trying to stop his tummy issues

 

[daftcat75]

Fancy Feast Classic pates are affordable, sensible recipes (see my earlier long-winded post), and popular with cats. I would pick up a variety pack and see what flavors they like. I recommend avoiding the proteins they have been eating the most. If they’ve been eating mostly chicken and fish, perhaps you can try turkey or beef with them instead. Or maybe it’s better to steer them to mostly or all wet food first and then figure out the proteins they tolerate best.

 

[daftcat75]

Digestive enzymes and prebiotics won’t fix a broken diet. But they can give an extra helping hand making it a little easier on them while you’re figuring out what agrees with them and what doesn’t. My angel Krista got a lot of relief from Optagest. They weren’t going to fix her IBD/lymphoma, but her after-meal time didn’t look so pained and her poops weren’t quite so bad.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002LO2QEG/?tag=thecatsite

 

[Jaylin A]

Fancy Feast Classic pates are affordable, sensible recipes (see my earlier long-winded post), and popular with cats. I would pick up a variety pack and see what flavors they like. I recommend avoiding the proteins they have been eating the most. If they’ve been eating mostly chicken and fish, perhaps you can try turkey or beef with them instead. Or maybe it’s better to steer them to mostly or all wet food first and then figure out the proteins they tolerate best.

We typically get a Friskies variety pack wet food box, and the times we've accidentally gotten pate in the mix they didn't like it as much. they do seem to like the turkey and steak ones the best over fish and chicken, but we feed them a different type each meal. after reading around on advice yesterday, I'm putting my cat with tummy issues on an all wet food diet with pumpkin mixed in for this week to see if it helps his poops since pumpkin seemed to help a little last time. then I'm going to try just the dry food with added water to help with moisture. if neither show good results, I'll start looking at the other brands in stores and trying those

 

[klunick]

I was literally just wondering, what would I do if someone offered me a million dollars if I fed my cats dry food only (because you know, I’d rather be prepared for such question in case it ever happen ). I don’t think I’d take the money though. I love these stinkers too much. Cats are desert animal biologically and they are designed to take all moisture from food rather than any other water source and feeding dry is ultimately not appropriate from at least moisture perspective. To me, the only reason to feed some dry is financial constraint, and well, if I had a million dollars that wouldn’t be the case
Not sure if that’s something I can recommend here but if you have Facebook, there’s Feline Nutrition group that has a list of recommended canned food in their files, that are all high protein, low carbs (-10%). I wholeheartedly agree with that list.

when it comes to diarrhea, depending on the reason for it, some probiotics may be extremely helpful. I greatly recommend saccharomyces boulardi (Jarrow brand, with MOS) and also Adored Beast brand (love bugs as maintenance pre and probiotics and Healthy Gut for cats with some bigger GI issues).

Any way to post that list on here? I don't have Facebook and being a private group, I can't see anything. I'd like to see how the food I feed compares. Not going to switch as I finally found the "secret formula" to getting Boone and Gracie to eat every day every meal with zero kickback but I'm curious.

 

[Jaylin A]

Any way to post that list on here? I don't have Facebook and being a private group, I can't see anything. I'd like to see how the food I feed compares. Not going to switch as I finally found the "secret formula" to getting Boone and Gracie to eat every day every meal with zero kickback but I'm curious.

I second this, I joined the group but can't find the list

 

[daftcat75]

Please don’t add moisture to dry food. That creates the perfect breeding ground for bacteria (carbs plus water.) If you want to add extra moisture to the diet, increase wet food, reduce dry food, or add extra moisture to wet food. There’s really no reason to include dry food in their diet. It doesn’t help with dental health. That’s a myth. Chicken gizzards (raw or cooked) actually work for dental health. Scheduled meals are better for cats than free feeding. Hunger helps with digestion and stomach emptying (aka passing hairballs instead of bringing them up.) Even the convenience can be matched with timed feeders. As for cost, well, what you save now you may well end up paying later (and more!) in vet bills. If you can switch them off dry food, I wouldn’t encourage bringing it back.

 

[She's a witch]

Any way to post that list on here? I don't have Facebook and being a private group, I can't see anything. I'd like to see how the food I feed compares. Not going to switch as I finally found the "secret formula" to getting Boone and Gracie to eat every day every meal with zero kickback but I'm curious.

Unfortunately it’s an article in their files, so unless you’re the member, you won’t be able to see it I can post some of the brands here when I have more time though.
Jaylin A , you need to click on Files link and you’ll see the list of documents, then click on Canned Food List 2021. You’ll find Files under the group name (along with Guides, Announcments, Photos etc, you need scroll right to get to Files).

 

[neely]

To get an idea of ingredients I use catfooddb.com.

I don't have Facebook either, and don't plan to get it, so I also use the above website for ingredients, etc.

 

[Willowy]

I just joined that group and I think I figured out how to get the list in a format I could share, but they ask that you not do that, because they don't want it presented out of context, or for an old chart to get passed around.

Only 3 flavors of Fancy Feast are on it and they all have red Xs, which means "low-quality, only for those on an extremely tight budget". But it also says that they didn't list every formula that meets that criteria, you can look at the label yourself and see if it fits.

(I couldn't find the list either so I just did an in-group search for "food list" )

Their criteria are: no grain, carrageenan, or "meals", and under 12% carbs (dmb).

What brand/formula do you feed, I'll look for it.

 

[klunick]

I just joined that group and I think I figured out how to get the list in a format I could share, but they ask that you not do that, because they don't want it presented out of context, or for an old chart to get passed around.

Only 3 flavors of Fancy Feast are on it and they all have red Xs, which means "low-quality, only for those on an extremely tight budget". But it also says that they didn't list every formula that meets that criteria, you can look at the label yourself and see if it fits.

(I couldn't find the list either so I just did an in-group search for "food list" )

Their criteria are: no grain, carrageenan, or "meals", and under 12% carbs (dmb).

What brand/formula do you feed, I'll look for it.

Weruva and BFF pates chicken based foods

 

[Willowy]

Weruva and BFF pates chicken based foods

Yes those are on there, but they also say it's important to not only feed chicken-based foods, because chicken is inflammatory. There's always something . But they aren't the ones who have to argue with your cats!

 

[daftcat75]

Yes those are on there, but they also say it's important to not only feed chicken-based foods, because chicken is inflammatory. There's always something . But they aren't the ones who have to argue with your cats!

I don't believe that chicken is inherently inflammatory. Instead, I think chicken is the most common protein in cat food. It simply gets tossed under the bus when all the other inappropriate (plant-based) ingredients cause intolerance and inflammation.

 

[klunick]

Yes those are on there, but they also say it's important to not only feed chicken-based foods, because chicken is inflammatory. There's always something . But they aren't the ones who have to argue with your cats!

You are right. It is always something. If you look hard enough, you will find something that contradicts something else. They also get beef, salmon, turkey, lamb and tuna with the chicken so hopefully that balances out the chicken.

 

[JulietteTruong]

The worst wet food is still much better than the best dry food. I think Dr. Lisa Pierson said that.
Having some questionable ingredients in a wet food is nowhere near as bad as an all-dry diet. Over time, a diet of only kibbles will lead to long term health issues from the intense dehydration.

 

[Flybynight]

I think any protein/grain fed a lot runs the risk of leading to an intolerance later. Chicken is in so many cat foods, I try to make sure I have enough other proteins I am feeding as klunick said, to balance it out.