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I'm sorry I wasn't more clear. What I am trying to say, albeit poorly, is adding water to kibble, for a cat who is fed only kibble, is not going to get more water into the cat, because the cat will drink less, because of the water s/he is getting with the kibble.
So the dehydration issue remains.
We agree that cats do not experience the thirst that would drive them to drink more the way other mammals do. If you put water into their kibble, that will satisfy their minimal thirst, and so they will not drink even as much as they were drinking before.
You cannot add enough water to kibble, to make an all kibble diet match a wet diet. Most cats don't need more than half a cup of kibble a day to maintain a healthy weight. Two thirds at the most. How will you add enough water to that amount of food, to get sufficient moisture into the cat? So an all kibble diet is still going to dehydrate the cat, even if you add water to it.
Now, feeding canned and kibble as DuckDodgers is doing, you can get some benefit to adding water...to the canned portions. Most canned is about 78% moisture. So, you could add water to that, increasing the moisture the canned food provides, which will eliminate the yuckiness of adding water to the kibble, and get more water into the cat (canned and water combined) to at least partly make up the deficit. ANY canned is better than none, but since it will reduce the cat's thirst drive, adding water to the canned portions will help.
Adding water to an all dry diet will not help, because the cat will drink less water on his own. Adding water to canned food, the cat is already getting sufficient moisture from the canned, (most canned fed cats drink very little if at all because they are getting an average of 78% moisture from their diet), so it will help offset the dehydrating of the kibble portion of the diet.
I hope this makes it a little clearer, what I am trying to say. I probably should have waited until tomorrow, when rested, to try to explain myself better.
So the dehydration issue remains.
We agree that cats do not experience the thirst that would drive them to drink more the way other mammals do. If you put water into their kibble, that will satisfy their minimal thirst, and so they will not drink even as much as they were drinking before.
You cannot add enough water to kibble, to make an all kibble diet match a wet diet. Most cats don't need more than half a cup of kibble a day to maintain a healthy weight. Two thirds at the most. How will you add enough water to that amount of food, to get sufficient moisture into the cat? So an all kibble diet is still going to dehydrate the cat, even if you add water to it.
Now, feeding canned and kibble as DuckDodgers is doing, you can get some benefit to adding water...to the canned portions. Most canned is about 78% moisture. So, you could add water to that, increasing the moisture the canned food provides, which will eliminate the yuckiness of adding water to the kibble, and get more water into the cat (canned and water combined) to at least partly make up the deficit. ANY canned is better than none, but since it will reduce the cat's thirst drive, adding water to the canned portions will help.
Adding water to an all dry diet will not help, because the cat will drink less water on his own. Adding water to canned food, the cat is already getting sufficient moisture from the canned, (most canned fed cats drink very little if at all because they are getting an average of 78% moisture from their diet), so it will help offset the dehydrating of the kibble portion of the diet.
I hope this makes it a little clearer, what I am trying to say. I probably should have waited until tomorrow, when rested, to try to explain myself better.
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