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.
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
Thanks for sharing 👍
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?
THANK YOU! Cats (and humans for that fact) were NEVER meant to eat so much grain.
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.
We used to feed our cats almost entirely dry food, with wet food as an occasional treat (no real schedule for wet, just every now and then).
But over the years we’ve had a number of cats that had health issues that were mitigated by switching to mostly wet food.
So now it’s reversed- almost entirely wet food with dry food occasionally (every couple of days or so). At least, for our indoor cats.
We also take care of a feral colony (many of which we’ve TNR’d), and those cats get dry food for logistical and cost reasons.
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.
How adorable 🥹 Appreciate your tip
We do all wet, ours are a couple of old ladies, so they get what they want.
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.
I give them dry for breakfast, then wet with a little dry for texture when I feed them at dinner
Wet food every time I can afford it. I will get a lot of flak from people here but cats are not supposed to eat that much grain.
Wet food twice a day (quarter of a 300ml can each), one in the morning, and then in the evening. dry food available throughout the day.
Blanket statements are often exaggerated, but I’m fairly certain the worst wet food is still better than the best dry food.
Ours absolutely detests any form of wet food. If it’s not dry, he won’t eat it.
Each to their own taste I guess😅
Haha, right? That’s kinda the exact opposite of what you’d expect! Cats are silly. :)
And that’s why we love them! <3
No wet food at all. I have wasted 100s of euros on wet food that he MAY lick a little bit before leaving it alone… No idea why he hates it so much
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…
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!)
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!
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.
Does the nutritional yeast and collagen have a medical purpose?
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.
https://www.petassure.com/maxscorner/is-nutritional-yeast-good-for-cats-benefits-and-side-effects/
Thank you so much for sharing the articles!