Cat food: Wet or Dry food?

Delvis · 13 Sep 2009 at 08:58

Hello all

Just a quick question for all of the cat owners (As I know there are a fair few on here)

What do you feed your cats? Wet or dry food? How many times if so and why?

I'm getting worried about a cat we have...My mother insists on giving her wet food, so much now that the cat eats around the dry food if it's put in with it, and will just cry if she gets no wet food...

I was under the impression that dry food is generally better concerning teeth etc...?

She wil eat the dry food if you leave it out, but only if she has too...And seing as I'm the only one home this week she does!

Ta all

Egon · 13 Sep 2009 at 09:03

Both. Sometimes dry only (iams). Sometimes wet only. Sometimes mixed. I guess just for variety.

He usually gets fed twice a day.

Edit: Its worth adding, our cat is exactly the same. She prefers wet but we try to make sure she gets some dry. Mixing it in well with wet helps with that.

Delvis · 13 Sep 2009 at 09:06

EgonSpengler said:
Both. Sometimes dry only (iams). Sometimes wet only. Sometimes mixed. I guess just for variety.

He usually gets fed twice a day.

Thanks for that, I'm just trying to encourage the cat to eat the dry more, that's all

Attempting to give her wet food just in the evenings...and put biscuits down throughout the day.

Our cat is 4 months old now too...So do you think we should just put say biscuits down in the morning / throughout the day then give her a wet meal in the evening?

...

EDIT: Read your edit too

Ah okay...its like anyone I guess, your going to eat a piece of steak of over a digestive biscuit aren't you?

Delvis · 13 Sep 2009 at 09:09

rollins said:
For me it depends on the season - Wet food for spring and summer as its got a higher water content, and dry for part of autumn and winter with plenty of fresh water out at all times.

Key thing to remember is never to put out both at the same time if the dry food is a complete solution such as iams, as it leads to a fat moggie.

With the wet food, its one can per day per cat (average cat size of course) split up over 2-3 smaller servings. So its usually once in the morning 9am, then again at 2pm and then finally at 8/9pm.

With dry food, its usually around 30g for the day for an adult cat, so again its 10g each at the above times. Only thing with dry food is your cat may net actually believe its no longer hungry, and may try to steal more!

Cheers buddy.

The food my mum currently has is Wiskers branded, so no idea what thats like compared to Iams...?

All I have to do now is convince my mum of a few things!...Still not entirely sure of what to do though....Perhaps it could be the type of dry food she has too?

EDIT: Read your edit

D)

Yep, always have a bowl of water next to the food, I tend to change / top it up every so often

Delvis · 13 Sep 2009 at 09:13

rollins said:
Yep, you can get really good dry food, like iams or James Wellbeloved - both are considered complete solutions, so no wet food is required or should be given when the cats are eatign it. Just plenty of water.

Our two cats tend to stay away from the water bowl, but love drinking from a running tap, so we just leave a trickle running in the bath and they help themselves.

Whiskas dry food is fine, but check and compare the nutritional value compared to iams

I meant whiskas wet food

I believe the dry food is the james wellbloved that you said...But as I said we leave plenty of water out

Lopéz · 13 Sep 2009 at 09:19

Like rollins, my cat won't drink out of a bowl, only a dripping or running tap.

She gets wet cat food with a small bowl of normal crunch to go with it. She tends to eat all the wet food and nibbles at the crunch through the day.

This is how I've fed all my cats in the last 20 years with no issues.

Delvis · 13 Sep 2009 at 09:20

rollins said:
Yeah, whiskas and felix are all fine - its all made by purina anyway

As long as its got taurine, which they all do, then its all good.

Fair do's

I'd just prefer if the cat had the dry food more...Generally cheaper as well concerning we have no money as it is.

Delvis · 13 Sep 2009 at 09:21

rollins said:
Thinking about it, if your cat is 4 months old, then he/she should still be on a kitten type food. That is usually recommended for anything under 6/8 months as its got a higher carb/protein level. As you cat is still growing, right up until 1 year old, kitten foods may be a good option.

Check the packaging and websites, as they usually give age recommendations.

That's what I thought, however i'm not the one looking after the cat so to speak, it's my mothers.

I don't know

EDIT: Ugh, I'm worried now that she should be having kitten food still.

Teki187 · 13 Sep 2009 at 09:29

Always Always read the label!!!!

< 20% of the labelled meat is a low quality cat food and will make them shed like crazy and smell.

Faceman · 13 Sep 2009 at 09:42

We use both too, Always dry food around (and she is not fat) And we give her some pouches too

Trifid · 13 Sep 2009 at 09:45

Wet in the morning and evening. They then have a dried sack in the night before bed.

McManicMan · 13 Sep 2009 at 09:51

we got cats that don't drink from the bowl so we got them one of the plug in to the electric water fountains for pets and they love it!, fresh clean water

Mr Jack · 13 Sep 2009 at 10:31

Constant feeding on only wet food is bad for their teeth. Constant feeding on dry is bad for their kidneys and urinary tracts. One of mine doesn't like dry much so I mix the two together thoroughly before feeding. The other option is simply to feed only dry for a bit, a hungry cat will eat dry food, trust me.

Giving them some tough, grissly bits of meat (which they'll likely love) can help keep their teeth and gums if you really can't get them to eat dry or mixed.

unclelonghair · 13 Sep 2009 at 10:32

Mainly dry (James Wellbeloved) with the original treat of some wet (Applaws). I won't feed her any of the "normal" wet food as it ruins their teeth.

_dogma_ · 13 Sep 2009 at 10:32

Our kitten gets fed on Royal Canin Kitten 36. Until 1 year he should be on kitten food. I know James Wellbeloved does a kitten variety so it won't be such a big deal to change

Both kitten and cat get dry food throughout the day, bowl is filled when it's empty, and they get a wet food pouch at dinnertime between them.

Vixen · 13 Sep 2009 at 10:33

Delvis said:
That's what I thought, however i'm not the one looking after the cat so to speak, it's my mothers.

I don't know

EDIT: Ugh, I'm worried now that she should be having kitten food still.

Kitten food should be fed up to 12 months, then switch to adult. They need more fat in their diets to grow so should not be on adult food until fully grown. I believe it is better to feed an adult cat kitten food than vice versa.

My cats are free fed dry (James Wellbeloved) and only get wet food as a treat. They have access to a water fountain all the time.

jimmynaetroots · 13 Sep 2009 at 10:53

We give our kitten only dry at the moment (Hills science plan kitten), mainly because even though he loves wet food, it makes his poos very watery.

There seems to be a massive variance between the dry brands though so it is worth doing a bit of research. Hills has a high meat content as well as everything else essential and is generally regarded as a good food. From what I can see, whiskas is considered the cat equivalent of junk food

G.

Delvis · 13 Sep 2009 at 11:27

Vixen said:
Kitten food should be fed up to 12 months, then switch to adult. They need more fat in their diets to grow so should not be on adult food until fully grown. I believe it is better to feed an adult cat kitten food than vice versa.

My cats are free fed dry (James Wellbeloved) and only get wet food as a treat. They have access to a water fountain all the time.

Yeah...I'll have to convince my mother then.

She's got a checkup at the vets soon, so i'll get her to ask / i'll go with her

"andy" · 13 Sep 2009 at 11:54

had a massive argument with our old vet about this issue

she tried to put a guilt trip on us telling us that we should have been feeding our cat dry food and that we should have been cleaning his teeth (would have loved to see someone try that one on him...) or paying her around £60 to clean his teeth

he was a 21 year old cat. he was older than i was at the time! she should have been amazed he even had most his teeth !

our newer cats are 2 and 3 years old and only eat dry but thats out of choice. we used to offer them both when they where young.

utajoker · 13 Sep 2009 at 12:07

our cat has a bowl of dry out which always has food in and it just eats when its hungry.

always have water out when its got dry food.

we feed it tesco dry food, half the price of whiskers and twice as much food. we tend to buy 1 or 2 packets of whiskers wet and give it a packet every 5 days or so just for some variety.