How do I convince my mother that wet food is healthier than dry food and we should really eliminate dry food??

Question

We feed Purina Pro Plan wet food, but my mom says that we need to leave the dry food out also, "just in case".

Can someone convince her that wet food is healthier then dry?

Can someone convince her that the dry food does NOT need to be out?

Thank you!!!

Answer 1

Canned food is not necessarily healthier than dry food. While it is good to supplement their diet with canned food to get more water into their bodies, canned foods tend to be higher in fat than dry. Dry food is also better for cat’s teeth. Your mom is correct- feed a combo of wet and dry food (Purina Pro Plan is a good choice!) and your kitty should be healthy and happy.

Answer 2

A nothing but wet food diet is also bad for their teeth, they need the dry food to keep the tarter on their teeth down.

Answer 3

I'm really sad to see all the misinformation being spead here.

You are Correct. Wet is better and dry is bad.

Show your mom this and then have her read www.catinfo.org

Cats were never meant to eat dry food, also known as cereals or kibble. We, humans, make them eat it for convenience to us. It has nothing to do with them or their nutritional needs. It's completely species inappropriate.

All small domestic cats descended from desert cats. In the wild, desert cats derive their entire liquid intake from their prey. They do not have a thirst mechanism because they don't need it when eating a species appropriate diet. They get all they need from what they eat. Additionally water was usually not available to them in their desert climate. So they do not often drink water. Regular ol' house cats have descended from those same wild desert cats.

So in a home environment, your kitty does not get the moisture it needs from dry food and it’s almost always in a constant state of dehydration. Water fountains are encouraged to TRY to get your cat to drink more and your kitty may even enjoy it, but it will never meet its water intake needs drinking from a bowl.

Deadly feline illnesses such as diabetes, kidney failure, obesity, allergies, Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD), bladder stones, kidney stones,  urinary tract blockages and Urinary Tract Infections (FLUTD), with and without deadly crystals run rampant these days. Cats are not taking in enough water to stave them off. Proper water intake through a species appropriate diet alone can prevent most of these conditions.

Overall,  wet is all around better for any cats diet, be it canned or Raw and they should never be fed dry cereal kibble if we wish to most closely match their wild nutritional and dietary needs. Kibble meets our needs… not our cats.

Answer 4

Wet food is not healthier. It actually sometimes gives cats diarrhea and upset stomach's.  

Answer 5

i agree with the previous answers use dry food left down all day so the cats can eat when they hungry and i give tin tuna or sardines etc a couple of times a week.tin cat food is ok but contains a high percent of water

Answer 6

Wet food is not healthier it can cause looser stools and the dry food is good for keeping the tartar buildup down.  You should have dry down all day to snack on and then feed as a "treat" the wet food once or twice a day.

Answer 7

dry food can be helpful to cat sometimes, just don't feed it to them all the time.

too much wet food can cause diarrhea.

Answer 8

Yes i can since my cat got diabetes from eating dry foods. canned can be left out all day. Just have your mom read this post and look at the links. I will also talk with her if she is willing. By the way good for you!!!!!!!!!! Do n't listen to all these people spewing this stuff without doing any research.

I can also connect you with a feline iabetes board where a thousand people will tell your mom how dry food is bad!

http://www.catinfo.org/



Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health

Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.

Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingrdiant a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things?

http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Rea...

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04...

Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s and a host of other problems. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms

The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with grains and carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process.  Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food but in

Dry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don't use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.

http://www.catinfo.org/#My_Cat_is_Doing_...

You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn't have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all.    The best food for cats does not contain any grains at all.

Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies  whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. I would rather feed a middle grade canned food then the top of the line dry food.

Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck? http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bp...

Please read about cat nutrition.

                               http://www.newdestiny.us/nutritionbasics...

                               http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.ht...

      http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.ht...

Vetinarian diets  The reason your vet thinks so highly of the pet food they sell probably has more to do with money than nutrition. In vet school, the only classes offered on nutrition usually last a few weeks, and are taught by representatives from the pet food companies. Vet students may also receive free food for their own dogs and cats at home. They could get an Iams notebook, a Purina purse and some free pizza.  http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04...

Answer 9

Wet food may be healthier, but dry food is needed to help keep the cat's teeth healthy, clean and strong. Leaving dry food out is always great since the cat's can eat at their own will without the food going bad.

We feed our cats wet food whenever they beg for food but we always keep dry food out next to their water for them to snack on during the day.

Answer 10

I give mine a  mixture of both.  The wet food gets flies laying eggs on it at the moment, so my cat won't touch it if they have done that.  I am out most of the day and she likes to eat a little at a time so the dry food fills in the gaps.

Awaiting delivery of a special covered bowl from ebay which will solve the fly problem!

Answer 11

BUT wet food IS NOT healthier !!!

Answer 12

Wet food is not healthier and it is a lot more expensive.  I give my cats dry food to snack on all day and dinner of wet food.  Then after dinner I give them dry food to serve as food for the night.

Answer 13

I bet these answers had you going for a minute, didn't they?

I agree with Kat that it's sad to see so much misinformation out here.

Myth #1:  Dry food doesn't clean the teeth.  At best it might clean ONE tooth - the one used to crack it in two before it's swallowed.  Cats don't chew.  They are carnivores whose teeth were designed to rip and tear into flesh and to gnaw on bones.

Myth #2:  Wet food rots the teeth.  It's true that wet food doesn't provide any resistance and so no cleaning action occurs when cats eat it.  However, unlike dry food it's easily licked off the teeth, and if you're feeding a good one there's no added sugar to promote tooth decay.  Cats eating a good quality canned food have a healthier mouth environment than those eating the sugary dry foods.

Myth #3:  Wet food causes diarrhea.  Why, because it's wet?  Do you get the squirts when you eat soup?  No?  Huh, then maybe wet food isn't the problem.  Perhaps it's the fact that people offer cans of Friskies or some other low quality food, and they simply plunk it down.  Not only is it low quality but many cats suffer digestive upsets if they're offered new foods too suddenly and in too much quantity.

Oy vey.

So anyway, to answer your question, below are some links with very good info about what cats are meant to eat.  Print them out and show them to your mother.

Good luck!

Answer 14

Our Vet lives across the street from us.  He once told me to feed my cats both.  Only dry food will constipate them and they can get liver damage and urinary tract problems.  They needs some wet food, for moisture.  That is now a fact and more and more vets are finding that out now.  A little dry food is fine for a snack.  I actually have a bowl of dry out for both my cats to snack on, but give them their small amount of wet food in a.m. when I get up.  At night they do not get any wet, just what is left in their bowl of dry food.  I have fed all my cats that way, and most of my cats live til they are 20.

One cat is pretty fat, and the other one is not.  I sure when they have a lot of dry down and snack a lot, it will make them fat.    

Answer 15

First off, wet food is not healthier than dry food.  Just ask your vet.  And feed your pet top quality food, not Purina.  And avoid the 'treats'.