Leaving wet food out for long periods of time.

sakura

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Originally Posted by smokiethecat

Why DO cats tend to like dry better? You would think the wet would
taste better....
This makes no sense to me either. It's more snacky maybe? I don't know. Chloe loooves her dry food so much more than wet. Mattie seems to prefer wet at least.
 

emmylou

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The cats I had growing up all liked wet much better than dry. The cat I have now is the first I've known who prefers dry to wet... I suspect he only ate dry in the years before I adopted him.
 

raggiekitty

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I will, however, not wet down their dry food and leave it out - I think that's just gross
Since Zoe quit eating her canned, I wet a bit of her dry food once or twice a day to add in her HS and Lysine to get it to stick to the food. Dry food that has been wetted is not recommended to sit out very long because of bacterias. I only wet a very small amount that I know she will eat shortly and then I take up any left. But the food that has been processed for cans I believe is quite safe to leave.
I think that if you are wanting to be able to do it, mschauer, just try it.... so many seem to be fine with it, I'm sure yours will be too.
I know my MIL who is elderly opens a can, puts some out and leaves the can sitting on the counter. I don't know how long, I don't try to tell her to do things my way. Her cat is fine and I often realize from watching her, that I am probably too worried about most everything I do!
 
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mschauer

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As of now my guys are wet only. I wonder how long it's going to take Tob to figure out it's wet or nothing!

Thanks for your comments! They were very helpful!
 

pookie-poo

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My cats eat exclusively wet food. I put it out at 6 am, and it's gone when I come home at 6 pm. I feed them again at 6 pm and it's gone when I feed them in the morning. They've never suffered any adverse effects from free feeding wet food through out the day/night....and two of them are CRFers.
 

cloud_shade

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I think it partly depends on how warm your house is--the warmer it is, the shorter time period I would leave the food out. Right now, my kitchen where the cats are fed canned is probably in the mid-50s since I don't heat that part of the house. I have no problem leaving food out (though with Zek around, nothing lasts very long). I've never run into problems in the past when I did leave it out for longer periods.
 
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mschauer

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Well last night I put wet down as usual and as usual Toby refused to touch it. This morning I put down wet instead of the usual dry. Toby initially refused to touch it but it didn't take long for him to figure out there wasn't any dry around so he dove into the wet.
After an hour everyone had eaten about half. Hopefully they eat the rest before it gets too old but my new approach is to not worry about it!
 

booktigger

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It generally isn't that hot here in the UK so I put food out in the morning, and throw out what is left at teatime and the same with their tea - I have had cats that prefer to eat partway through the night, especially when they were still settling in. I also dont refrigerated tinned food, it stays on the side, and never had any health issues yet.
The main reason for likign dry is that some brands are sprayed with fat to make them more appealing.
 

newkittyowner

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Why DO cats tend to like dry better? You would think the wet would

taste better....
I wondered this exact thing! Mine have become quite picky with wet. But when dry come out they are all around us! They both eat some wet but not as much as I would like.
 
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