Wet vs. Dry

Hi faile,

Yup, it's the actual chicken neck. It's mainly bone. You HAVE to feed them raw, cooked is dangerous. I generally buy 2 kilos at a time (they're about $2.00AU per kilo), and freeze them in bags of 4 (I have 7 cats, but not all eat necks).

Chicken necks are easy to buy here, we get them from the supermarket. I do know a friend in Canada had probs getting them, she had to ask her butcher because she couldn't get them in the supermarket there. If you can't get chicken necks, chicken wings are just as good. Most people tend to just feed the end bit of the wing....not the whole bit.

I did post a link to an article about chicken necks in a previous post, to be honest there's not much online about them, which is why I think I'll have to write an article on them. As I said, they're popular in Australia, every vet recommends them. I find them heaps better than the Hills TD (although my cats love those biccies), and they're so much cheaper. You only have to give them 2-3 times a week.

Please read this whole post. This excerpt turned out to be written by a wet cat food company. It sounds very scientific, doesn't it?) There might be some truth here, but this article is just one more way to sell a product.
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Often overlooked is the significance of protein in the acid formation in the body. A high protein diet will assure natural acid levels in the body and a low urinary pH. Contrary to common belief, a diet high in protein does not cause kidney disorders or lead to renal failure, whereas dehydration is damaging to the kidneys and, as a result of feeding an all dry diet, the long term dehydration is a possible cause of chronic renal failure in cats.
The article continues with the statement that drinking water is not natural to a cat!

http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bpo_ch4.php THIS IS A WET CAT FOOD COMPANY! So you see the problem? There may be much truth in some of this article. But I have never seen any cat that didn't drink water. Consider lions, tigers, and "house cats" that are feral. (That's a contradiction in terms! You know what I mean, same species.) So many of the sources I found had a product to sell!! Dig through the sources, but discuss this with your vet, please!
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According to this source, it is not natural for cats to drink water in the wild, because they are getting enough moisture in their food-especially those dry foods high in carbohydrates, not protein. We should provide wet food and water. This is only one source of information, and it is BIASED. What we need is a non-biased source. HARD TO FIND!! You think you have a good one, and then the truth comes out. Be cautious and talk to your vet. I feed wet and dry, and always have cold water available. The whole first page of Google's references had an axe to grind. Talk to your vet, please.

Please forgive the capitals. I want to make sure you know the problem with believing every source. It just gets more and more confusing! I'm getting to the point of not trusting anything that doesn't quote a veterinary textbook! My vet said to feed both wet and dry. That's what I do.

My vet was extraordinarily helpful when Sabby was diagnosed. In fact, she saved his life. I had taken him in to be put down (he was extremely sick, bad tempered, incontinent, shabby-looking, etc.) and she asked if I wouldn't mind if she ran some tests first. She kept the clinic open late for us to get the results back the same day while we waited. She taught me how to give injections and set appointments for me every week for fructosamine tests. She only charged me for the office visits and did the tests for free. We discussed the foods that were appropriate for Sabby. When we had him stabilized we started bringing him in monthly and eventually got down to every six months. Sabby is doing very well now.

I've done everything for Sabby with the cooperation and advice of my veterinarian and I strongly suggest others do the same.

And it's with much sadness that I had to say goodbye to her when she moved away. She recommended another vet for me, though.

I miss you, Dr. Rehmer.

(edit) Whoops, I forgot the point of this post. haha!

That's very good advice. Thank you very much. I will talk to my new vet about that possibility.

Thanks, Opokki. Here's a non-biased and professional paragraph that explains how a cat handles the water issue. (from http://home.earthlink.net/~jacm2/id1.html, Opokki's first source.):

Cats have a less sensitive response to thirst and dehydration than dogs or other omnivores, and they adjust their water intake to the dry-matter content of their diet rather than the moisture content.37 This means that cats eating commercial dry foods will consume approximately half the amount of water (in their diet and through drinking), compared with cats eating canned foods.1 Feeding canned foods increases water intake and urine volume; thus, it will decrease the concentration of urolith-forming minerals in the urine. In older cats that tend to produce urine with a lower concentration, an increase in water consumption becomes even more important to avoid dehydration and development of prerenal azotemia. However, feeding canned foods or moistened dry foods will increase accumulation of dental tartar and the resulting periodontal disease
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So, provide some moistened food or canned and some high protein crunchy, if you want to have good dental health and the protein cats need. Some cats have genetic predispositions to problems with the urinary tract. Discuss the info Opokki has provided with your vet, and get his opinion. You will be able to discuss the subject intelligently. Thanks for the sources, Opokki!

What we should feed our animals is always interesting cause basically everyone says different things.

Many people think they can feed the cats half dry and half wet. However, if we analyze the food we will find problems doing this. Dry substance and wet substance are not the same and it makes a huge difference in nutrition. So we have to recalculate the nutrition in the wet food so we have the figures comparable with dry substance. Believe me, it's a whole science.

I'm just about to learn how to make my own food to the cats. At the moment I feed them high quality dry food since I have little faith in the wet food. I've seen what they make wet food of and it's disgusting.

I must say that this myth that dry food causes crystals in the urine is making me tired. It's not the dry food itself. It's the contents. To high Ph-value and too much magnesium causes crystals! High quality cat food (dry or wet) have the proper amounts of magnesium and a good Ph-value in the food.

As I said, I'm about to learn how to make my own cat food. Some people believe in the BARF-method (bone-and-raw-meat) but I don't.

People says that uncooked bones from chicken is safe. How come that many both cats and dogs dies because of raw bone splinters in their throats? And giving raw meat to cats can not be considered safe. Just because it works on dogs it doesn't mean it works for cats. A lot of meat (more than we know about) is contaminated with salmonella which is quite harmless for a dog but can be deadly for a cat. So chicken meat (that people often recommend) should be avoided when feeding cats since it's mostly chicken meat that's contaminated with salmonella.

I believe in making the food at home when you know what the contents are. But I belive in cooking the food. Of course I wouldn't give a cat (or a dog) cooked bones, but I wouldn't give them chicken bones that raw or cooked easily splinters.

I believe in giving each cat exactly what it needs, every cat has individual needs of nutrition. But if I have to choose between dry and wet food, dry comes first. All this talk about cats that eat dry food doesn't get enough water. It can easily be checked and I know that my cats drink enough water.

Remember all that you can see by the way the cat looks and acts if the food your giving it is good or not because no matter what you think it's always the cat that has the final saying in the matter :wink: