My coworkers cat will only eat dry cat food. She bought it fancy canned and cheap canned. Still the cat will only eat the dry cat food.
She is worried about him. Is there any harm in this?
Also the cat is known to catch mice and birds that live in the area. I am thinking he eats the dry food and catches the meat fresh.
There should be no harm. She’d just have to make sure that the cat has plenty of supplementary water, because dry cat food contains less moisture than canned. The plus side is that if the cat doesn’t eat right away, the dry food won’t spoil if she lets it sit out until he’s hungry.
My two cats are 13 and 7 years old and have survived just fine on a strictly dry-food diet. They don’t go out and catch anything. My older cat will get a treat (a bite of chicken or steak) occasionally (my other cat refuses to eat anything not cat food) but that’s it.
I have four kittens and all but one will eat canned food. The picky one won’t eat any sort of treat or human food either.
But oddly enough, she’s the chubby of the bunch.
They’ve all checked out fine at the vet, so I’m sure as long as plenty water is provided picky kitty won’t suffer.
When I started having to travel for a few days each month, I picked up an automatic feeder (dry food) and an automatic waterer. They were so handy that I stayed with them permanently. I asked my vet if a dry food only diet was OK, and she told me that the nutrition was equal and that it was a bit better for the teeth. Her only concern was that my kitty might find the dry food too bland. Fortunately, that has not been a problem, for although Steinway is omniverous (he even likes condiments!), he quite likes dry food as well.
I had a cat that wouldn’t touch dry food. He was quite healthy (if a little robust). He was still chomping away at it when he had had his two canine (is this the right word for a cat’s teeth?) teeth were removed due to cancer. Vet said that it wasn’t a problem. In fact, our cat who liked wet food was much skinnier then he was. Go figure. Anyway, he lived a long and happy life. We have rarely fed any of our cats wet food (Only when we needed to give them medicine) and it has never been an issue.
My nine-year-old cat ate only dry food until a few months ago when he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Because I have to crush pills for him, it seemed logical to put them in canned food. Despite his illness, he has gained two pounds and is thriving on the nasty stuff, but now he has fish breath and his poops are stinky.
My vet discussed wet vs. dry when Jose was a kitten and convinced me that dry is far better. It may be bland, but Jose didn’t have anything to compare it to.
If the cat allows it, I’d try to promote dry food. It doesn’t smell, it can be left in automatic feeders if you go away for a weekend, it aids in maintaing strong teeth, and the litter box stays fresher longer. I give him about half-a-dozen tartar control Pounce treats with his food every day and he’s a happy kitty when he gets those.
As I said earlier, he is terminally ill but doesn’t appear to be in pain and is on medication. He was given about two months to live about three months ago. I’m glad that the nasty wet food makes his last days happier.
Our cat only eats one particular brand of dry cat food. He will not touch anything else.
He will sometimes eat a piece of chicken or beef (human food) if he feels like it, and only then after staring with his guilty look at us during dinner.
And he doesn’t drink milk, unless it’s from my glass I just poured for myself, full to the brim. Then if I turn my back he will lap it up like there is no tomorrow, burp and walk away.
Oh, yeah. His food dish must be overflowing with his one-and-only brand of dry cat food before he eats. Otherwise, he will whine and if that doesn’t work, come up to either of us, bite hard on the leg, whine and walk into the kitchen.
(I learned long ago to overflow his bowl nightly before going to bed, otherwise he awakens you like a vampire!)
Dry cat food is designed to be the only thing that a cat needs. If the food in question has been approved by the AAFCO, which surely it has, then that plus water is a complete diet.
The reason the cat resists canned food is probably because cats tend to resist changes in diet regardless of what they are. The only harm in a cat wanting only dry food is that the owner doesn’t get the fun of feeding it occasional treats. But the cat itself is better off than most other cats who refuse to eat dry food. Maintaining a fully nutritious diet with home-cooked food is possible but requires a certain amount of attention to nutrients like taurine.
BTW, canned cat food is up to 70% water. In terms of nutrients per pound, dry cat food is a much better deal.
The only risk in dry food is FUTD (Feline Urinary Tract Disorder), which is reputed (but not proven) to occur more in cats who only eat dry, because they don’t pee enough. The probable cause is owners who forget to keep the water bowl filled. Milk is not an acceptable substitute for water. The only cat beverage is water! Milk is a food.
Some cats drink inadequate water because they dislike the chlorine in US tap water. You can overcome this by using bottled water, or by adding a little tonic–most cats dig carbonation (I have no idea why.
ALL my cats (with the exception of the new stray we picked up two weeks ago) have had nothing but dry cat food. Not a fatty in the bunch, and all but one lived to at least 20 years old. I swear by it. Unfortunately, the new kitty won’t eat it (she’s over 10 years old and was probably a canned-food cat).
Cats are creatures of habit. I don’t know how old your cat is.
I am a little suprised that your cat refused the wet food, my cats LIVE for the one day a week I treat them to this, but every once in a while our female calico doesn’t eat it.I wouldnt worry about it at all, and consider it a blessing you dont have to serve Fluffy that messy, smelly canned stuff! 
Layce, our curmudgeonly 11 year old manx, will only lick canned cat food, and sniff at human foods…she much prefers to messily crunch her dry Science Diet and occasional chickeny kitty treats.
My cat would eat whatever you put in front of him and he loved cantelope. He did have a problem with dry cat food. It created a blockage and they had to give him a sex change operation and make him a female so he could pee (no lie) I remember the vet said it had to do with the ash content in the dry food. So as long as kitty is peeing fine no worries!;j
Wow. My cat will eat almost anything you put in front of her too. She doesn’t really like canned catfood, but she’ll eat the dry stuff and she also likes tuna fish packed in water straight out of the can (which has resulted in the cat and I fighting over my lunch a couple of times.) She’s even eaten some of my chocolate pie. The only thing I know my cat won’t eat for sure is doughnuts.
Oh, and the thinly sliced fat free deli turkey meat makes a good cat snack.
Imagines Whitecamel’s cat with a little cat vagina [shudder] 
I think sex change may be misleading. Of course, since many cats end up only half-males anyway (neutering), it may not have been that big a change. Just truncating the passageway, so to speak. No?