How often do you feed your cat wet food compared to dry food?
Just wondering how you guys balance the mix of these. Our cats looooove wet food, but keep it as a treat for every now and then. Have to keep the wet cat food in a plastic sealed container as our cats will tear through the box they come in and dig their way through haha.
A mix of both is better for their teeth. Wet is good for hydration (which cats are bad at), whereas dry is good for teeth. I know some cats who have lost teeth, but my 7/yo has extremely healthy ones and we've never had to do any sort of dentistry
We give her wet & dry together, twice a day and a handful of "Feline Greenie" treats throughout the day which allegedly help with dental hygiene. I have no reason to doubt so far!
My dad was a veterinarian for 30 years and always recommended dry cat food. He doesn't have a cat any more, and I doubt that he has kept up with the latest research, so it's possible this is outdated.
Our cats get wet food morning and night, and dry food available all day. They munch on the dry food occasionally, but they are now in love with wet. ~6oz of wet food per day for each of them
No problem! I will say that even thought it's quite a bit more expensive, I wish I would have started all our cats out on wet food. We have 2 senior cats (14) and we just got a new kitten last year. He had some health problems which required him to be on wet food. Once he was on it, it was unfair to not put the others on it as well (not that they would have let us anyway, it's like a treat for them every day)
Pretty much only wet food, except for a few kibbles every day because they love them so much, like treats. Dry food is super bad for cats, because they have very little natural thirst drive. This means they won't drink enough water by themselves, no matter how many fountains or water bowls you put out. This is easily explained. Cats are obligatory carnivores. This means that they need to eat meat. House cats are not different at all from their wild (and bigger) counterparts. Instinctively they do the same things. So ask yourself this: How do cats get most of their fluid intake in nature? Exactly! While eating their prey. Cats are 'used to' getting enough water by eating.
When you exclusively feed your cat dry food, they'll never get enough water intake to be healthy. This increases the risk of urinary tract infections and a bunch of other things. When you feed them bad quality dry food (lots of grains and non-meat filler), in addition to UTI's they will run a high risk of developing other problems like Diabetes.
So basically I'm saying: Only/mostly feed your cat wet food. The worst wet food is still always better than the best dry food. Because water is so important.
Edit: Also note that most of the "special diet" cat food is dry food. Which is ridiculous. I would never feed my cats that. Most vets have these well-known products like Hill's or Royal Canin that they prescribe.. PLEASE REMEMBER: Vets are sponsored by these brands, and pet food regulations aren't nearly as strong as they should be. Vets get money specifically for advertising and prescribing these brands. This does not necessarily mean that they are good for your cats. Why would a vet prescribe dry food for cats, when the worst dietary offenders are low water content and non-meat ingredients?
This exactly, thank you. I've had multiple cats during my life make it to old age and each one had health issues from the food I was feeding them. Chronic dehydration leading to kidney issues, chronic high blood sugar from grains and vegetable fillers leading to pancreatitis and diabetes, etc etc. My old man is now on nothing but wet food and is pushing 18. He's got some issues since I fed him junk for the first half of his life but he's in decent shape for his age, and I bet if I hadn't changed his diet he'd already be gone.
I hope you're not feeling too guilty about it. Many people just don't know these things and when you buy stuff in the store you kinda sorta expect it to, at the very least, not be so harmful.
One of my cats had chronic diarrhea when she was a kitten and even after vet visit it didn't stop. That's why I started reading about feline nutrition and learned that cats need basically two things: meat and water. That stupid special diet food didn't help, of course, it was dry food with stuff they didn't need. We switched to better wet food and cut almost all their dry food and all the issues were gone. My boy started peeing more which is very good, especially for male cats (they get UTI's very easily). They also both started pooping less, which is very logical if you think about it. All the non-meat filler.. well they can't digest it, so they poop it out. Now they eat 100% meat and they poop once every 2-3 days, and in way smaller quantities. Oh and their fur became way more full and much softer too. They just look healthier.
During my search for info I found this website. It's a great thing to read for every cat owner. It lays out the info in a very logical way en it's easily understandable. I'd say everyone who has cats should read it.
My cats are pushing 11 now (they're siblings) and have zero health issues. I'm so happy I figured it out when they were so young. Still, I think it's terrible that so many people just don't know/learn these things and have the best intentions but then still end up hurting their own cats, because the stuff they buy is simply bad. But I guess pets aren't really a high priority for lawmakers, so I doubt standards for pet food will change any time soon. This is why I try to spread around info a bit.
Your cat is very lucky boy, hopefully he still has many years. :)
Yup. I always try to explain this to people, because I've noticed many people who really try to give their cats the best just don't really know about these things. And they inadvertently hurt their cats.
Giving your cats healthier food doesn't necessarily have to be super expensive either. Even supermarket wet food is better than dry. Sure, they sometimes have vegetables or grains added as well, but at the very least you fix the water intake issue and this is the number one priority imo.
Once a day, 18:00, religiously, as a treat. And there's no way that I'd forget about it without them reminding me, they get really excited.
(We call it "papá" here, as if it was baby food - and the word is forbidden outside the wet food context. Frieda's face when I tell her "es ist Papázeit!" is hilariously cute: she dilates her pupils, gives me a "mrrwwwn!", and start dancing around me.)
Typically I buy it in cans, blend it with half can of water, then freeze it into ~1tbsp portions. They seem to enjoy it more this way - if I don't do it they lick the liquid, leave the solid on their dishes, and ask me for more. Then I just need to unfreeze two portions, make sure that there's no frozen bit, and serve.
After our last cat had kidney issues, new cat gets wet food daily. We basically go 50/50, half wet food half dry food. That works out to half a 5oz can a day, 1/4 in morning and 1/4 in evening. She normally eats the wet food within ~15 minutes and nibbles the dry food throughout the day. Not sure if it helps her kidneys but she has maintained a good weight and has the softest coat.
We also use a water fountain to try to encourage drinking, but I don't think she drinks any extra because of it.
Cats "drink" water by eating wet food mostly. Feeding them dry food in any capacity will hurt their kidneys. They aren't used to drinking because of it and even if they do, it usually isn't enough. Most of the materials I was given for fostering / adoption says to try to switch them to wetfood and keep them on it because of the reasons above.
As to your question - there are freeze dried meats that can be given to them, but because of the kidneys thing, you aren't supposed to give them more than a few cubes a day. Iirc 15 or 20?
There is plenty of grain-free food out there; it's even a search option on chewy. The problem is the grain filler is often replaced by something else that's either not nutritious for cats or possibly even harmful (like potato and peas), and that still doesn't resolve the moisture content issue.
Dry food is always available. Wet food is split one can between both kitties at the same time every day. The big one finishes what the smaller one leaves behind.
Tuna is reserved for special ocassions, like their bday, certain holidays (the ones where humans celebrate with food), or after having to visit the vet.
Twice a day. Little buggers eat better than I do. But I also mix it 50/50 with water and make a kind of cat food slurry to force them into hydrating a little. And then I put a little dry food out late at night as an offering so they will let me sleep.
It sounds expensive but it works out to a little under $2 per cat per day in food.
I feed my cat 3 meals a day because he has a food routine like a person. So I feed him wet food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For some reason he is really crazy about dry food so I give him a little bit of dry food at night. This helps him to not starve to death while I'm sleeping.
We do only wet food. Our last cat needed it to keep up hydration, and now we do the same with our new cats. Def more expensive, and not sure it's worth it for healthy cats that drink enough.
Crunchies are always available. About 10 pm, just before i go to bed, i let the dogs out to potty and the cats come running. 1 can or pouch split among the 3 (half to the old girl who's missing teeth) mixed with a little hot water.
My cat gets both with every meal. My understanding is that wet food is much more nutritious, if for no other reason than the moisture content. Fortunately my cat is pretty good about drinking water, but getting enough hydration can be a problem for some individuals. My cat will usually eat the wet food first, then snack on the dry food over the next few hours.
I've watched family cats rack up huge vet bills and cause much heartache because they received improper nutrition; wet food may be way more expensive and inconvenient, but it's a worthwhile investment (same as with humans!)
Same, I swear at least once a year I try a new brand and they just stick their noses up and gag. They love their delectables, tuna juice, and spinach though...
We used to feed only dry and it ended up causing us problems when we had to switch to wet for medical reasons (one had diabetes, and then the other ended up with CKD). The one who was supposed to be smart was somehow bad at eating it (she kept trying to chew it and it would fall out of her mouth 🙄) and also just generally didn't like it because it's not what she spent her life eating.
I don't think dry food is inherently bad or anything, but if that's your primary source of calories, then you do need to make sure your cat stays hydrated and also that they don't end up in carb-overload (unless you didn't mind the thought of giving your cat insulin twice a day, exactly twelve hours apart).
And it sounds like you don't have to worry about this last part, but for anyone else reading this: please make sure your cats have some amount of both when they're young and not so set in their ways... don't make the mistake we did!
Every day. My boys get 1/3 cup of dry food and a can of wet food. They're both ~11 lbs, trim and healthy. Cats shouldn't be on a pure dry food diet if possible.
The boys get two scoops each of dry in the morning, wet for lunch, and then two scoops each of dry in the evening to hold them over till morning. Otherwise they nibble at my toes to let me know the bowl is empty! Not my favourite way to wake up lol.
That being said, they aren’t food motivated at all and will nibble throughout the day. They do love lunch time though. But even with being excited for wet food the one will have like six bites and then he’s off, important things to do you know. They’ve always drank lots of water, right from kittens, so not too worried about their water intake. We’ve got a fountain for them and they really like it, so that helps too.
They’re brothers and from day one have always eaten from the same plate or bowl. We tried to have two separate ones and they would barely eat so one bowl/plate it is.
Dry food in the morning because it's faster/easier on the way out the door before work, wet and dry mixed in the evening, with some water mixed in for the male cat as well
Ours gets a single can of wet food(the smaller fancy feast ones) for dinner and then about a quarter cup of dry kibble spread out in 3 smaller meals throughout the day(by an automatic feeder). He's a former fat cat though so he's on a strict diet and not allowed to graze.
The fat one gets only wet (vet’s orders, she’s semi feral and she hunts rodents and may have a second family who feeds her) and the elderly underweight one gets all the wet food she’ll eat, then is offered dry food as a treat. She prefers dry, so she’ll have some even though she’s not hungry.
They both get a slurry of nutritional yeast and hydrolized collagen powder in water for dessert.
Yeast for healthy skin, to (possibly but probably not) help with fleas and it's tasty and makes the collagen mush enticing. Collagen for her old lady joints. I started giving it to her when I noticed her losing flexibility in her knees. Can't give one a treat and not the other, so they both get it. I don't know if it's helping, but they like it.
Question - one of my cats has very bad skin issues caused by allergies (based on what the vets said). So she has to eat dry hyperallergenic special foods of royal canin(its the only one that does not cause a severe reaction)..
My 2 other cats also eats the same food, since it is very hard to feed each a different type of food.
My question is - if I wet the dry food with water, for how long can it stay in the bowl at room temp(we live in a warm climate region).
Any other thoughts or recommendations will also be much appreciated.
Thank you ❣️
Edit - Fixed some typos and added details for clarity
When mine was young I only gave him dry food. Then he developed kidney disease (CKD) 4 years ago. It and diabetes are fairly common in older cats.
Now he gets dry food plus wet food in the morning and evening - 1/2 of a little can or 1/4 of a bigger can at each feeding. The dry food and wet food are in separate bowls. That plus finding a water fountain he likes has so far kept his kidney disease from getting any worse.
Next cat I’ll give wet and dry food from the start.
Mine likes to graze throughout the day and would ignore the entire second half of any wet food I gave him, so dry food is the better option for us. I get him the best stuff I can and he gets stuck right in whenever I pour some more of it. I give him fancy wet food as a treat every so often too, just on the understanding that it will be somewhat wasted
My cat has hyperthyroidism and needs a pill twice a day. So I feed her 1/4 of a large can of wet food twice a day with the crushed pill mixed in. It's just enough that she always finishes all of it so she gets all of her meds. And then always kibble out for snacking. Mostly snacking for her.
We used to feed ours wet food once a day but then they got tired of that and decided they mostly wanted dry food, so now it's once a week and they seem fine with that. You'd think a cat would enjoy more flavorful meals but... 🤷♂️
4 cats. We feed them all wet food (Friskies/Tastefuls) morning and night, and have an auto-feeder for 3 of them. The 4th has a kibble addiction so the auto-feeder has a RFID tag which locks upon him getting close, and we feed him ~1/4 cup dry food early afternoon.
My family never bought wet cat food for any of the cats, but we lived in in a rural area and our cats could go outside at will. If they wanted wet food, they found it!
Only problem was when they brought it back inside...
my cat is very food orientated. so i give her dry food in the morning for breakfast and wet at night for dinner, because she will eat and eat until she vomits. so i dont give mine dry and wet at night, but i do incorporate other foods into her wet food just as a bit extra and extra nutrients. (only other foods that they can eat obviously)
Their automatic feeder spits out ~10 grams of dry food 7 times throughout the day. They mostly worked out their own system for sharing and taking turns. I often manually give one more if one of them complains. The small portions helped with competitive over-eating and vomiting.
Then at night they get about 25 grams each of wet food. So a 5.5 oz. can lasts 3 days.
Wet food twice per day portioned by weight of the cat, and then an automatic feeder gives them a little bit of dental health dry food that dispenses at noon and midnight to keep them from getting hungry and scratching my toes.
We feed out cat wet food every day, but not a lot. Wet food is much better for cats because dry food has a lot of carbs, which cats really shouldn't have in their diet. Our cat is a pretty picky eater though, and we don't want to put down wet food just to watch it dry out and get thrown away, so we give her a small amount of dry food in the morning, and a little more dry food at night with a tablespoon of wet food.