Is it a good idea to feed my cat only wet food?

Adolph

My cat isnt too interested in dry food unless its treats. She does eat it when shes extremely hungry, but would rather just eat wet food (what cat wouldnt, right?!) and she gets one small can every morning. Would it be ok to feed her a couple cans of wet a day and the occasional hard treat to help clean her teeth or are there more benefits to feeding a bigger hard cat food diet? I have tried multiple kinds of hard food and she isnt really interested in any of them. Thanks



Palmira

Canned food only is actually a great choice! Its the only type of food other then raw that can actually be grain free. Any dry food will have some grains added to make it into a kibble. Cats though, are obligate carnivores which means they should be eating meat, bone and organ in a ratio like what a prey animal would be like. Dry food does not actually clean teeth anymore then pretzels would clean your teeth. The particles just get stuck between their teeth and the dry food can cause obesity and kidney disease as dry food has more calories, especially from foods cats cant process, then canned foods do. For some good info, read through this site written by a vet that specializes in nutrition..http://catinfo. org/#Common_Feline_Health…To clean her teeth, give her some natural things cats would chew on. I give mine raw chicken necks or backs. They work on them for hours! Cats should have bones to chew on just like dogs do. Of course, supervise while they are chewing to make sure she doesnt swallow too big of a piece.



Louanne

Wet food is fine, but try to buy good food, not cheap. also, my cat likes kitten food, as its smaller and easier for her to chew. i buy the purina one kitten food. she snacks on that, but likes can food better. she will be fine.



Francoise

I trained my cats to eat dry food, cuz they use to eat wet food, sme times i mixed wet food and dry food together



Ermelinda

Im with Jennifer on this one. Dry food is, first, dry. Cats do not naturally drink a lot and do not drink enough to make up for the lack of moisture in dry food, and many cats are dehydrated. Some of us believe that this can make them more prone to kidney disease. It is also high carb and cats do not naturally eat high carb. Their bodies were not made to process this stuff. Many dry foods are using plant protein instead of good quality meat protein (that is true of some canned foods too), and cats were MEANT to eat meat. High carb can cause diabetes. What do cats eat naturally? Small animals. Which is low carb, have plenty of moisture so they dont need to drink much more, and do not contain kibble to clean their teeth. Cats clean their teeth from ripping apart muscle and chewing on bones. Cats dont "chew" dry food, so even though theoretically that might be for cleaning, it doesnt work in reality. And theres starch all over dry food that gets on their teeth too. Many, many, many cats on dry-only food end up with horrid teeth problems, which oughta kill that theory. Granted, canned isnt helping their teeth either. Turkey necks for chewing are a good idea. Cats do need dentals done. They arent living in their natural environment, so we just have to take care of some of these issues. Getting the dentals is extremely important, because I do agree that teeth problems can be a major problem source. But dry food isnt going to solve it. Other than raw, or other home-cooked diet, canned is the closest thing we have to their natural diet. Dry food is not natural to them at all. Check the link Jennifer gave. Im familiar with that vet and she knows a lot about feline nutrition.



Jeanmarie

Yes, its a very good idea. You have a smart cat, she knows what she should have! Canned food is an easy way to provide a cat her ideal diet, meat. Cats are carnivores, and dont need the grains or potatoes necessary to create dry food. In fact, carbohydrates like grains cause diabetes, urinary tract disorders, and obesity, among other things in cats. And, dry food is not good for cats teeth. It is sprayed with an acid to make cats eat it (meat flavoring for the corn chips), which unfortunately damages their teeth. So keep your cat on canned food so shell live a long, healthy life..



Debera

You dont need the hard treats as they dont clean the teeth and you dont need or want dry food at all. Smart Kitty! Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s healthContrary 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 ingredient a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things? http://www. catinfo. org/#Learn_How_To_Rea…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 symptomsThe problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process them. Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food but inDry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and dont 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. You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesnt have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if 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. The optimum food to feed cats has no grains whatsoever, cats have no use for them and many have trouble processing them as well as the carbs. IBD is another disease that is rapidly becoming common amoung cats because of the inappropriate diets being fed. 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…



Hoa

Youve got a smart cat! Many of us who have transitioned from dry to wet would KILL to have a cat like yours. Yes, it IS a good idea to feed only wet food. DRY FOOD DOESNT CLEAN THEIR TEETH! No matter how big they make it, it doesnt do a thing for dental health. For some reason, many people liken canned food to feline desserts. The truth of the matter is, its just the opposite. Dry foods (the majority of them) are the feline equivalent of MacDonalds. Whereas a good quality canned food is closest to what cats are meant to eat. So please relax - youve got nothing to worry about!



Bertha

Mix it if you have to, but an all wet diet can wreak havoc on their teeth in the long run.



Sondra

I think it is much better to put cats on a hard food diet with soft food every once in a while as a treat. if you only feed your cat doft food, it may result in an unhealthy diet an/or diarrhea. since your cat is only interested in soft food, you need to get her out of the habit of only eating soft food. set only dry food out in her bowl. dont worry if she doesnt eat it at first, or at all. eventually she will cave in, for she is not going to starve herself just because she doesnt like that kind of food. this is a trick i used with my cats too. good luck!!



Bennie

Please dont feed your cat only wet food. Its very fatty and she could develop liver disease, and have trouble urinating. my cat actually likes dry catfood. try iams! its really good for them and they love it!



Darryl

Try mixing dry and wet.......that should work..if not, it wont hurt her



Alec

NO, NOT AT ALL. they are supposed to have both, and dont listen to people when they say you are only supposed to give them wet food as a treat, thats not true, my vet and a bunch of other people told me. and dont feed it ONLY dry food, thats also a lie. wet food twice a day, same with dry food.



Brittanie

Its a Badd thingg to feed cats nly wet food it could cause stomach pains and their poop comes out like diarrhea which could be really nasty. that doesnt mean you have to stop giving ur cat wet food you can give it bothh. what i do is i mixx the hard food with my wet food. hope this helps!



Alfreda

My cat was kinda going through the same thing, except he preferred wet but would eat dry. He is big already, and is about 25 pounds, but I noticed he was gaining more weight. He was also having trouble going to the bathroom and had a pain in his tummy. We took him to the vet and he recommended that we take him off of wet completely and get science diet dry food. Of course he turned up his nose to it at first, but he ended up really liking it, and now he turns up his nose to any other dry food. I know that he would definitely eat wet food given the chance, but if that hurt him, I wouldnt want to send it back. In a result he is completely better, and a lot of his fat turned into muscle, because the food made him more active. I dont know for sure if it was just for my extremely fat, glutenous cat, but it made a huge difference for us.



Camelia

DRY FOOD IS NEEDED IN A CATS DEIT THE HARD FOOD REMOVES THE TARTER ON THE ANIMALS TEETH SO THEY DONT GET GUM DESIESE AND THE WET FOOD MAKES THEIR POO SMELL WORSE THEN ANYTHING



Amada

No, a life time of only canned food is not good for a cat. It will cause tooth problems and digestive problems as well. I had a cat who was the same way, what I did was I started to mix dry food in with the canned. Every day I put more and more in until it was mostly dry with a little wet, I left it at that for about a week and then I just put the dry down it was a battle of wills! The kitty will not starve herself and will eat the dry! The whole process took me about a month but he eats the dry now! I still give my cats canned food on special days, birthdays (Ours theirs, when people have a birthday and eat cake the kitties get some canned food) on Holidays. I feed my cats "Purina One" Chicken Rice, its more expencive but they have their health to show for it and a super shiny soft coat! So if you try this method, stick to your guns when there is only dry food left, remember she WILL eat. It might take a day or two but she will eat, if you cave first the kitty will have won and it will be even harder the next time!



Dewayne

You should try mixing the wet and dry together (like someone else suggested). Dry food is ideal since it will help with the tartar build up, assuming she is not just swallowing the food whole. You should always go with a high quality food i. e Science Diet, Royal Canin etc. =less poop to scoop out of the box. If you want to just do the dry food then slowly start eliminating the wet food. If you switch foods remember to do it slowly over a period of about a week so you dont give her diarrhea. Your cat will probably keep looking for the wet food in her bowl and crying for it, but speaking from experience she will eventually eat it. My cat used to eat wet and dry food when she was a kitty and she HATED when I made the switch but she eventually learned that she was not getting any more wet food and if she was hungry she was gonna have to eat the dry. Thats all she eats now and she loves it.