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Wet vs. Dry

6K views 55 replies 16 participants last post by  ForJazz 
#1 ·
Is it okay to just feed dry food or is there any reason to give cats some wet other than just because they like it?
I have been feeding Stormy just dry for some time now. Then I got Justin and I decided to feed them both some wet as a treat for getting along. I got Iams because I didn't know any better and also had some Whiskas pouches that were given to me. Justin ate it all up, Stormy wouldn't touch it. Then I got some Fancy Feast because I didn't have time to get to a real pet store. Justin ate it, Stormy wouldn't. Should I try again with better quality wet food? I'm just wondering why Stormy doesn't seem to want wet food! She has gotten much more picky lately but recently switched from Purina One to Felidae (dry) with no problems at all. She doesn't seem to want people food either, other than milk sometimes. Justin however will eat little bits of chicken and other meats that I have given him.
 
#2 ·
I think dry food is definately better. They help clean teeth, while wet food doesnt. Wet food has water and causes the cat to drink less, and dry food causes the cat to drink more. Dry food and wet food can still be good. Like feeding dry in the morning, and wet at night. I feed dry food only
 
#3 ·
i have dry food available all day, and i give a snack of wet in the afternoon. not too much, because i want cujo to eat more of the dry, but he sure looks forward to his wet food. he knows what time he gets it, too. he can be dead asleep, but when it gets to wet food time he comes to find me. :lol:
 
#4 ·
I think a mixture is good. I feed one 3 oz. for both my kitties in the morning so they get about 1 1/2 oz. each and its perfect. Then I leave dry food out all day and they munch on that. They get wet food, which is also a treat for them and they also get dry which helps them with tartar on teeth. Not all cats like wet food but some love it! It definitely is ok if you feed wet just once in awhile like what I used to do, but I thought what the heck, they're good well behaved kitties and its not bad for them so now every morning they get a can hehe :p
 
#5 ·
There is evidence that dry food is NOT good for cats. A vet by the name of Deborah Greco has done research on dry food. Basically (I'm going by memory here), dry food is too high in carbs & cats need a high protein diet, not high carb diet.

Cats are desert dwelling animals, they are used to obtaining the majority of their water from their food. Dry food is only 10% water as opposed to wet food which is 70%. Many cats don't compensate for this by drinking more water.

Dry food has been linked to FLUTD & also diabetes.

I have a cat who was in & out of the vet with FLUTD, I tried the Hills C/D (dry) and it did nothing for him. In desperation, I contacted Australia's leading feline vet who told me to take my cat off dry completely & feed him a diet of tinned & raw food, since he's been on this diet his FLUTD has disappeared.

I do feed my cats dry, but I severely limit how much they're allowed to have.

The belief that dry food is better for cats has been perpetuated by the manufacturers of dry food. If you do a search online, you will find many sites that dispute this. Deborah Greco's research was certainly an eye opener. It's just a shame it's taking so long for people to actually realise that dry food isn't all it's cracked up to be.
 
#7 ·
My vet has suggested I feed 1/2 and 1/2. There is no way I could get my guys to eat all wet food, they prefer the dry. Don't forget, of course, that dry food is better at scraping the teeth of plaque and bacteria, so it definately has worth in that respect. My vet informed me however, that a study was done that shows that 4 kibbles of dry food is just effective in the cleaning the teeth as a whole meal of dry. Crazy!
 
#8 ·
I was told by an online vet I know that dry food is actually bad for the teeth. This was after she'd been to a cat seminar. Again, I'm going by memory here but I'm sure she said that the dry food ends up making pockets in the gums which allows bacteria to form there. I'll see what I can find out.

I know in some countries raw food isn't popular, here in Australia EVERY vet you speak to recommends feeding raw chicken necks to cats about 2 times a week, they work wonders on teeth. Some cats don't like chicken, so you can use cheap cuts of steak instead or even something like lamb cutlets. I avoid the over use of dry because of the health implications.
 
#10 ·
Pet nutrition is such a hotly debated subject. There really hasn't been enough conclusive studies done that have determined the best food for cats. You've got well-known and respectable vets on both sides - wet/dry, raw/cooked, etc.
I can see how abrasion could potentially cause pockets to form in the gums that could house bacteria, but that same abrasion can remove tartar... it's so hard to know what the best solution is :? .
I was just thinking about the link you gave and I know that a raw diet isn't feasible for some pet owners. A lot of people don't have enough time to prepare adequate meals, or don't know a reliable butcher from whom they can obtain uncontaminated bones and meat. I think if you have enough time to make meals, then you probably have enough time to brush teeth and this would help with the tartar issue. In my mind a raw meat and bone diet would be ideal, but since some people don't have this option then small amounts of dry food may be necessary. Wet food sticks to the teeth and so doesn't abrade the teeth at all and may be able to harbour bacteria.
 
#11 ·
I agree with what you're saying about raw diets. I would dearly love to put my cats on an entirely home made diet but a) I don't have the time & b) I don't have the knowledge. Of course I could go off & learn all about feline nutrition, but I'm too lazy to do so.

My own feeding regime is canned morning and night, dry is put out for 20 mins morning & night & then removed & they get chicken necks 2/3 times a week. The point of feeding the chicken necks isn't for nutrition, only for dental hygene. I also sometimes give them raw as something different...usually either cheap cuts of steak (not because I'm tight but because it's more gristly & tougher), lamb shanks or lamb cutlets.. They love having something to gnaw on.

Proper food safety must be considered at all times when feeding raw. I use disposable gloves when handling the meat & while I wouldn't consider eating chicken necks myself, my rule of thumb is that it must be fresh enough for me to eat...if that makes sense.

I do think the tables are turning with regard to what we feed our cats. Just a few years ago it was considered the norm to feed one brand of dry food day in, day out....vets are more inclined to recommend a varied diet these days, and I agree with this method of feeding. As one vet said to me, we still don't know all there is to know about feline nutrition & it's safer to feed several types of food so we have a higher liklihood of covering all their nutritional needs.

One final point which my vet told me was that the large food companies tend to get into the vet schools in America & start "educating" them on what cats should be fed while they're still students, so with some vets they really don't know much better & will often recommend specific brands of food without much knowledge. Certainly with my vet friend, she openly admits she doesn't know that much about feline nutrition. She also confirmed what my vet told me. This doesn't happen in Australia (from what my own vet tells me), possibly because we're a much smaller market. The "premium" brands of food are quite popular now but this has only happened in the past few years.
 
#13 ·
I guess all we can do is arm ourselves with as much knowledge as we possibly can. I rarely take information from one source. I definitely take what companies tell me with a pinch of salt.

I'll give you an example. I have a 6 month daughter who is breast fed. Just before she hit the 6 month mark an early childhood nurse gave me a pamphlet on introducing solids. The pamphlet was brought out by a well known food company. In it it said between 6-7 months, offer breast first, then solids. From 7 months, offer solids first. Sounded a bit iffy to me so I spoke to a lady at the Australian Breastfeeding Association. She told me that I have to breast feed first, then offer solids until my daugher is 12 months old, then solids take priority to milk. I spoke to the early childhood nurse about this & she agreed that what the pamphlet told me wasn't entirely correct & while they do hand it out as a "guideline" they don't endorse all the information in the pamphlet.

If we are armed with knowledge, we can then come to our own conclusions. I can't tell you if what I feed my cats is 100% correct, I'm just going by all the research I've done & what vets have told me. The only way to be sure would be to go off & become a vet then specialise in nutrition.... :?

As for becoming a vet...I say go for it :)
 
#14 ·
Ahhh, this topic still actually puzzels me. Around and around my head swirls when I have researched this issue.
And I'm sure any of you whom have looked into as well, know the same feeling!!

There is no doubt, in my mind, that wet (canned food) nutrition wise IS better then dry kibble.
But... only in the comparisons of...

A canned food high in quality meats, free of chemical preservatives, dyes, unnessisary additives etc.
vrs dry food with all the same ingredients as the canned.
The canned food, would have a much higher percentage of protein, and there are more of the natural vitamins/minerals etc in it, vrs the highly cooked and compressed dry food.
Plus the moisture, the added moisture in canned food is wonderful!!

But all in all, even through the debate on wet/dry regaurding teeth, I do strongly feel, that an all wet diet, or mostly wet diet will lead to teeth and gum problems in the future, which an all dry or mostly dry food would help prevent.

Then you have the dangers of damage to the kidneys by feeding an all dry kibble diet, and it's just not 100% certain, specially now adays, with better foods availble, and better feeding habits.

Keep on reading, maybe someone will figure it out some day! ;) lol
 
#15 ·
That's why I try to cover all bases. I DON'T think wet (as in canned) is great for teeth, but I'm not convinced that dry makes all that much difference either. I have a Burmese who had horrible teeth & he ate lots of dry food, as soon as I switched to chicken necks his teeth improved beyond belief. My vet was absolutely gobsmacked when he saw his teeth & it saved me tonnes of $$$ because it avoided a dental.

I think there is a place for dry, it's convenient for one, if we go out overnight (which doesn't happen often), we can leave out dry & it won't go off.

I guess at the end of the day, what I am trying to say is that in my opinion a varied diet of dry, canned & raw is the way to go. I don't think it's good to feed one "type" of food, unless it's raw & you really know what you're doing, which most people don't. I definitely wouldn't recommend a dry only diet.
 
#16 ·
I feed dry and canned. Im not convinced that dry food "cleans" teeth or that canned food is much worse for dental health than dry food is but that just my opinion. My 7yr old toy poodle ate semi-moist food for over 5 yrs of his life and then ate canned food for an entire year when I got him...I have only just recently been able to get him to eat dry and yet his teeth are in great shape according to the vet. She was amazed at how nice his teeth were considering he is an older toy breed dog (which are prone to dental problems). He was restricted from chews in his previous home due to his resource guarding and only ate semi-moist food. There was no "abrasive" anything that contributed to his dental health.

Here are a few more articles in support of canned diets:

http://home.earthlink.net/~jacm2/id1.html
http://www.maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm
http://home.earthlink.net/~jacm2/id2.html
http://rocquoone.com/diet_and_health.htm
http://www.petmed.com/cdiet.htm
http://www.ivillage.com/pets/vet/pages/ ... 84,00.html
 
#17 ·
Thanks for those links, there's a few there that I've not seen before :)

You did hit on another important factor...genetics. Some animals (and people) are going to be more prone to dental problems than others. That's not to say that we should be blase, it's always wise to keep an eye on what we're feeding our pets & make the effort to keep dental problems at bay, but there are just some cats who are going to have bad teeth regardless of what they eat.
 
#18 ·
I'm happy to hear that your little dog hasn't had any dental problems! Unfortunately, over at my house we haven't been so lucky. :?
Oops, as I was writing, JuliaW posted, so this is just an extension of what she has to say.

I just wanted to add that an animal's genetics plays a HUGE part in this whole issue. Some pets are more prone to dental disease (like Himalayans, Siamese and toy breed dogs). I guess my boy just has really bad genes.
It's like those older people who have been smoking for like 50 years and say, *well, nothing ever happened to me, therefore smoking doesn't cause problems*. I'm not saying that wet food or dry food can be attributed to cancer or anything like that, just that personal experiences may not be the most conclusive evidence of a food's merits. Just as the "healthy" chronic smoker can claim that smokes won't kill you, some pets with good genes may have experiences with wet or dry food that go against other evidence. Your situation, opokki, indicates that wet food does not hinder dental hygiene, whereas my situation may indicate the opposite. From these experiences it is probably easier to conclude that our pets have different genes rather than that wet food does or doesn't cause problems.
From this I've pretty much concluded that I should feed... both! I feed 1/2 and 1/2 now, I brush their teeth and get regular dental checkups. I'm covering all the bases, I tell ya. And then Levi still gets another lesion, ARRGGH! I guess I'm doing the best I can though. :wink:
 
#19 ·
Yah, My grandmas dogs had canned food all their lives, and now ones down to their last few teeth!! Another died toothless. All my animals get commented on how clean their teeth are - all being fed dry. Our senior Clyde also ate dry all his life, and his teeth are EXCELLENT for a 10 y/o cat. But when your animal does get teeth problems, then it has to eat wet food, because it can't chew the dry food. Or a disabled animal may have to eat wet food..

I'm not to sure about the dry dental thing myself. I only go by what I hear, and my experience.. then add it up! I *think* it helps, I honestly do not *know* .. Oh well, all to their own opinions :)
 
#20 ·
Oops, yes your right and I actually meant to add that about genetics in my last post. I do think genetics is a much bigger factor than the type of food that is fed. I don't personally know of many pets that eat canned only diets but I do know of many that eat dry only and still have horrible teeth. Genetics is most definately a large factor.
 
#21 ·
juliaw- when you say 'chicken neck' what do you mean? like, the actual bone part? could you provide a link? i live next to an organic foods store, and i was thinking perhaps i could find them there, but not unless i know what i'm looking for! :D
 
#22 ·
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.
 
#23 ·
Okay, I hope I don't sound stupid when I say this but I was always told to not feed chicken bones because they can splinter. Especially neck bones... is this just an old wive's tale? :oops: I was always told to NOT feed my dogs chicken bones because they can choke...?

Oh, and did you guys read about that study that compared cat colonies fed on raw vs. cooked food? I'm sure it's quite old but I just came across it the other day. They said that in three generations that the cats fed cooked food could no longer reproduce and some had physical abnormalities! And if you put these cats back on raw, within three generations, everything returned back to normal. :shock:
 
#26 ·
Wow...now I just don't know what to think! :? I will try to add some wet into my cats' diets, but Stormy is so picky. Any suggestions for some good high quality wet foods? I feed Felidae for the dry.
 
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