Dry food, Wet Food, Or Both

So my roomate and I had a discussion today about what we feed our respective cats.

He says that dry food and treats make up a complete diet.


And I have always put out dry 24/7 and then once a day opened up a couple cans of the wet stuff.


So I just became curious what other cat owners here feed.

Oh and here's a couple pics of my Right hand Man hyuga and my best girl luna.

Hyuga + Weird Camera
http://www.reptilegeeks.com/file/pic...00015_view.jpg

Luna in one of her many boxes
http://www.reptilegeeks.com/file/pic...01402_view.jpg

My cat's teeth got destroyed on dry food and I only had her on it for a year! Now I exclusively feed wet food.

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Originally Posted by DarkComeSoon

My cat's teeth got destroyed on dry food and I only had her on it for a year! Now I exclusively feed wet food.

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Wow! Poor kitty! I had never heard of that.

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Originally Posted by Seru1

Wow! Poor kitty! I had never heard of that.

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Yeah me too, She also got fat now she's down to the slender weight I got her at.

This is one of the most debated subjects in the pet food world. Both have their postive and negative aspects.I worked for an al nutural pet food place before,and their were customers that ran the whole gamut, as to what they thought was best for cats. I say,as long as the food is great quality, both. My cat Blue wouldn't touch wet food. Loves his "crunchies"!! So, I always fed him dry, and he's got great teeth! At our house now, Jerry the cat gets free fed dry, and 1 can every day. I think it depends exclusively on the cat, IMO :gj:

we have two types of dry food out at all times, but we feed each cat 1/2 of a can of cat food (small can) each day at 4pm also.
The wet food serves 2 purposes:
1) they both tend to be thin, so the wet food is for extra calories
2) they both go outdoors, so 4pm feeding brings them home before dark

My cats will soon be switched to an all wet food diet in preparation of switching them to a raw diet. I know I must say this 1000x and I know you all are getting sick of it, but kibble really is from the devil. At some point all of my carnivorous pets will be on a raw diet. It is better for their teeth and is so much better for them overall. But to each his own. :P

Wet and raw, cats really need moisture in their diet, it's why so many have issues with crystals, utis, kidney problems, diabetes, etc. Plus most dry has too many grains and carbs in it. Being desert animals they don't drink as much water as they need so it has to come from their diet. Since I switched to wet my cat doesn't even touch her water dish.

We feed a combo: Dry food, and various moist critters (field mice, moles, gophers, etc.)

I wish mine would eat various moist critters. A couple of my cats used to try and hunt mice and were successful a few times, but now they are just lazy. I've bee trying to get them to try mice again but it will be a long process. My ferrets on the other hand go nuts over whole prey items. Just last night Twitch helped me flush out a loose mouse and as her reward for helping me catch it, she got to kill and eat it. :P

Mine will kill bugs and mice, and then have literally no idea what to do with it.

Ours get free fed dry and then as a treat they get soft food, which they go crazy over whenever their bowl goes from the dishwasher to the cupboard. They get regular cat treats every now and then but most of them won't eat treats.

They catch flies too and ladybugs outside on our balcony. They've taught themselves how to do flips trying to catch flies!

my kitties get both... a can split between the three of them in the morning and also dry food all day.

My Ira is a spoiled brat. He eats mostly dry food but gets a third of a can of wet food daily (that stuff is so fattening, I doubt we'd give him so much if he weren't an outdoor cat and generally very active). The thing is, he usually pesters me for wet food early in the afternoons, so I'll give him his third of a can. Then, later in the evenings he'll beg my mom to let him in and give him his wet food. Then he'll go to my dad and my brothers. So, most of the time he gets a good deal more than 1/3 a can every day! :P

Yeah, we end up with some birds at our doorstep. Not from Ira, he's the only one of the four neighborhood cats that doesn't hunt, but the others catch stuff all the time, though Ivan's the only one I've ever seen eat any of his catches.

My cat albert is on dry food because the poor boy can't keep wet food down. He always throws it up. We try feeding it to him in small portions, but he either eats it so fast or his stomach just cant handle it...we're not sure...but I'm sick of picking up wet cat food vomit :puke2: :sigh2: :tricho:

When they're kittens they get the special milk, water, some vitamins (sometimes), some kitten dry food, and a little bit of wet stuff.

When they're adults, they get an adult dry food mixed with a hairball control dry food. And lots of treats!

My cats always got dry food. My currant cat PrettyFace not only ate dry food, she would go and eat the DOG'S dry food instead of her own dry food.

Right now, she's having issues with kidney failure, and aha!! I hear some of you wet food folks gearing up to shout "See! That's why she has kidney failure!"

She's 23 years old.

Did you read that correctly? 23. At this point, if she didn't have something wrong with her kidneys or some other major organ, I'd suspect aliens.

I bottle raised her, and she went on dry food and has eaten strictly dry food for 22.5 years. She's now on the special kidney canned diet food (at $2 a freakin' can too!) and doing just fine.

So as far as I'm concerned, all my cats and my 23 year old cat all did perfectly fine on dry food only and also, the 23 year old has darned decent teeth(and all of her teeth). I would never presume to tell people that they MUST feed their cats dry food, wet food, raw food, or whole prey items. I'm just telling you what worked for me.

I feed only dry food to my cats, it is ssoooo much better for maintaining their teeth. I stay away from any fish flavors though, thats where you get urinary problems, too much salt. I learned that from the vet I worked for. I am extremely picky about the type of dry food I feed though. I feed Taste of the Wild cat food. Its made with meat, fruits, & veggies, no fillers and definately no grains of any kind. Its also the brand I feed my dogs as well. Its an excellent choice if you have animals with allergies.

My cats are on the Royal Canin Urinary SO forumula. $50 a bag sucks, but the vet visits were costing more.

I'm currently looking into a raw diet. Logically, couldn't I just put a couple thawed mice in their bowl? That would finally give me a good excuse for buying mice in bulk. I am researching it, and most sources say chicken. Why not a natural food item, eh?

Coming from someone who works in a high volume boarding facility & vet, wet food does far more damage to cat's teeth than dry food. We consistently find that the cats with the more extensive dental problems (and obesity!) and on the soft/canned food exclusive diet. Dry food acts as a dental "toothbrush" and can eliminate tartar and plaque buildup.

Mine gets a 1/4 cup dry and a 1/3 of canned as a "treat" and motivation to eat.

Feed your cat meat. Dont fill your cat with space fillers.

I feed avoderm and natural balance wet food exclusively to one cat, and the other 2 get a mixture with TOTW dry food.

My one cat was getting chronic UTIs and vomiting and nothing worked, got them every 2-3 months. I don't trust the prescription diets so I decided to try the straight wet and it has worked! Have not noticed any increase in dental decay, and I am fairly convinced that the people who do have more to do with the quality of the wet food than the fact that it is wet.

Think about it, dogs have the instinct to chew, cats don't. Dog saliva contains digestive enzymes (much like ours) that breaks down the bacteria; cats do not. Ever watch a cat eat? They don't really chew and I always noticed that their vomit seemed to come out as mostly solid pieces as well.

When many of the grains are used in food they are stored in dirty/moist environments, and are the lower quality grains to begin with. Therefore many of them contain alot of molds, mites, and bacteria; which I think is where the dental issues come from introducing that bacteria in a warm and moist environment (wet food). I've seen lots of dental decay in cats with low quality dry food as well.

Just my 2 cents!

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Originally Posted by jfreels

My cats are on the Royal Canin Urinary SO forumula. $50 a bag sucks, but the vet visits were costing more.

I'm currently looking into a raw diet. Logically, couldn't I just put a couple thawed mice in their bowl? That would finally give me a good excuse for buying mice in bulk. I am researching it, and most sources say chicken. Why not a natural food item, eh?

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As I stated before, a high quality wet diet has done WONDERS for my cat

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Obligate carnivores
Obligate or true carnivores depend solely on the nutrients found in animal flesh for their survival. While they may consume small amounts of plant material, they lack the physiology required for the efficient digestion of vegetable matter and, in fact, some carnivorous mammals eat vegetation specifically as an emetic. The domestic cat is a prime example of an obligate carnivore, as are all of the other felids. The ability to produce synthetic forms of nutrients such as taurine in the lab has allowed feed manufacturers to formulate foods for carnivores (zoo animals and pets) with varying amounts of plant material.

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Cats are obligate carnivores, you shouldnt be feeding them dry food or foods that are filled with plat material. it's not part of their diet and to feed them anything other than meat should be considered morally wrong.

I have three cats and I only feed mine dry cat food. I used to feed a combo of both until my vet told me that canned food is horrible for their teeth. I did notice a lot less plaque after I stopped giving them canned.

The food that I feed them is a human grade quality, very expensive food that has no grains or plant materials in it. I've done an astronomical amount of research on cat and dog food as I lost my Pittie to the 2007 dog food recall.

raw food

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Originally Posted by Shadows Valkyrie

I have three cats and I only feed mine dry cat food. I used to feed a combo of both until my vet told me that canned food is horrible for their teeth. I did notice a lot less plaque after I stopped giving them canned.

The food that I feed them is a human grade quality, very expensive food that has no grains or plant materials in it. I've done an astronomical amount of research on cat and dog food as I lost my Pittie to the 2007 dog food recall.

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What food do you currently have them on?

I've done some various foods for my two. One of mine, Dex/Fattie (who isn't fat, he's just a proportionately large cat) has had a partial urinary blockage in the past and it seems to be something we've gotten past. I wanted to put them on raw but they seem very adverse to raw.

Currently they get mostly high quality dry but I switch it up. Sometimes i add warm water, sometimes they get wet food mixed in, sometimes they get hairball remedy ontop (well, one does because he gets seasonal hairballs). I always buy different flavors and there are a few brands I use because they don't have any aversion to brand switches. Some days they get wet food only.

Heres an obligatory picture Fatthing and Ollie
http://i438.photobucket.com/albums/q...0503091333.jpg