Someone told me the other day that cats will get major kidney problems if they only eat dry food, and that you’re supposed to give them wet canned food every day, as well as dry, to prevent problems. My cats have been eating only dry food for as long as I’ve had them (2+ years). Am I harming them by feeding them only dry food?
My cat had urinary problems a couple of months ago. First he started peeing outside his litterbox, then his urine was bloody and he was obviously in pain. The vet prescribed a diet of canned cat food only, which he has been on since then with more problems.
The canned food helps add moisture to his diet, which he needs. I only feed him Tiki Cat and Natural Balance, both of which are all natural and contain no grain products which cats are allergic to. I also only give him filtered water. He is very healthy and strong because of his diet. I have never encountered another cat who was as bold or athletic as this one. He can make ridiculously long/high jumps; he’s capable of jumping from the ground level all the way up to the top of a door frame.
Ah, thanks. I also didn’t know that cats were allergic to grains. One of mine likes to eat little bites of crackers, bread, Pop Tarts, scones, etc. Guess she’ll need to stop that.
Is it only male cats? The boy cat my parents had when I was little almost died after being fed exclusively on dry catfood (his urine developed crystals of some sort which lead to a urinary blockage - this site calls it Feline Cystitis), so they were told never to give male cats dry food only from then on.
Cats are desert creatures originally. They don’t drink a lot of water; in fact, they’ll go days without drinking from their water bowls. If they eat anything with salt in it - and most crackers, bread and any baked products for people are packed with salt, too much salt for human beings let alone a cat - it will dehydrate their bodies. This is very bad and will lead to urine and kidney problems over time, just as it will in humans. So the two basic most important rules of a cat’s diet are: no salt, and moist food to give them extra water.
They aren’t, necessarily. It’s just that wheat and corn are common sources of food allergy in cats. Cats generally aren’t as well adapted to eating tons of carbs and cheaper cat food tends to bulk up heavily on grain-carbs. Some cats do just fine on the lowest common denominator cat foods like Meow Mix and live 20 years or more. But it is considered sub-optimal. The fancy, more protein-heavy “grain-free” stuff is pricier, but probably superior on average. Certainly it seems to produce very soft, glossy coats in my cats.
Similarly some cats will thrive on dry foods. But there seems to be a growing consensus ( or at least a increasingly vocal contingent of pet owners and vets 
) that argues that proper hydration is one of the keys to good cat health and wet foods are the best way to achieve this. As Argent Towers notes our pet cats are adapted from a desert-adapted species and many individuals are not big drinkers. Some are, some will go for moving water ( i.e. pet fountains or running faucets ) and some just won’t drink much at all. As elfkin notes this can be particularly be a potential problem in male cats which have a “narrow urethra” a la Hank Hill ( my vet made the comparison that if females have a straw, males have a coffee stirrer ). As such males are more prone to dangerous crystal urinary blockages that can be greatly exacerbated by dehydration. The solution to pollution is dilution, as it were.
Also dry foods anecdotally seem tougher to digest ( cats seem more prone to temporary intestinal upsets from switching dry food brands, whereas they tolerate wet switching much better ) and the old saw about them cleaning the teeth doesn’t seem to hold up that well. Cats don’t grind their food like we do - just break pieces into smaller chunks. So not a lot of tooth-cleaning action is going to happen. The great advantage of dry foods is mostly their convenience, which of course for many folks is no little thing.
My cats are on an all wet diet because one of the two is indeed prone to urinary blockages and I’ve had no re-occurrences since I took that step. It seems overall to be the better choice.
But as with many things, optimal needn’t mean mandatory. Like I said, some cats will thrive on the cheapest stuff around.
And you know that his boldness and athleticism is due to his diet how? Yet didn’t you just say that this diet, which has made him so very healthy and strong, is what he was on when his urinary problems occurred just a couple of months ago?
Also, “The vet prescribed a diet of canned cat food only, which he has been on since then with more problems” - did you mean to say “with nomore problems”?
I used to hear that about dry cat food and cats. I believe that dry foods have been reformulated for many years now to avoid those problems. Some are formulated specifically for cats with urinary problems.
Yes, he has had no more problems.
Maybe attributing his strength to the food is a bit of hyperbole; I found him on the street when he was about one year old, he may have grown up in the wild and so had to hunt for all of his food, which may have made him stronger. I do think that ever since he has been on the canned (Natural Balance and Tiki Cat) organic catfood diet, he has been braver and even more athletic.
I’ve posted a link to this book in the past on similar threads. Basically, cats are carnivores and a such are not well equipped to handled lots of carbohydrates. Think about what cats in the wild eat: small rodents, birds, etc. Not a lot of carbs in a mouse.
Read the customer reviews on amazon about the positive effects of switching their cats to a canned food diet. So many cat health problems are a direct result of a high carb dry food diet. Obesity, diabetes, kidney problems, etc. All can be prevented by not feeding dry foods. Remember, cats do not eat grains and carbs. They eat meat.
We had a cat when I was a kid. Fed him nothing but dry food, and he lived to be 15 years old, pretty good for a cat.
As with most things does not seem to be an absolute rule - some cats thrive on nothing but dry food- but it can certainly cause problems in others. Last cat - male - lived to 14 eating nothing but dried food despite damaged pelvic area from being hit by a car as a youngster. Present cat - female - was fed on the same food and kept developing cystitis when stressed. Wasn’t until she was five or so a new vet suggested moving to wet food and - now 12 - she hasn’t had a bout since.
I think the difference was how how much they drank from there water bowl. It just does not seem to occur to Molly (current cat) to actually drink something.
Anecdotally, I’ve got a cat who also jumps from the floor to the top of a door. He’s had wet food, raw food, and several levels of dry food since I’ve had him and now feeds exclusively on the dry stuff. Still an acrobat. No change in him at all over time, really.
When I used to have a cat, she developed UTI’s. Her vet put her on the prescription dry cat food (IIRC, it was Hills or Science Diet). Yes it’s a bit more expensive, but they don’t need to eat as much of it. Most commercially made dry cat foods are full of fillers which do lead to UTI’s which cats are prone to getting. The two biggest benefits of putting her on the higher costing dry cat food, was no more UTI’s and significantly reduced poopage in the litter box. Less fillers and more food absorbed as opposed to passing through. Well worth the additional expense.
Cat food will have a listing of the ‘ash’ percentage of both dry and wet foods, this should be very low, a few percent in dry food. Better quality foods have low ash.
Feline lower urinary tract disease
The wikipedia article lists dry food as a risk factor for some cats.
Most cats will really appreciate the wet food, some will eat more healthily given wet food. I have one cat that prefers his kibble and only eats the wet food on occasion. He drinks (only out of a dripping bathroom sink which I must turn on!) after each meal.
My cat ate nothing but dry food her entire life, though she did have serious kidney trouble during the last few years. However, AFAIK, the vet never suggested it was caused by a dry food diet. (She would actually turn up her nose at canned food, especially the expensive stuff – go figure!)
In the end, she lived to age 15 – as Machine Elf said, that’s a ripe old age for a housecat.
Eh, my cat was about 15 before he started eating wet food (and then, only because his teeth aren’t very good). Never ailed a day in his life, actually. He’s 17 now.
BTW, he absolutely adores corn chips, and vomits up anything made of beef.
My cat was 21 before he started getting the wet stuff.
He grew to like it before he died at 22.
Of course, instead of wet food, you can just give them a little raw meat on a daily basis.
But yes, a good canned food is part of what you should be feeding your cat.
Whatever food (dry or canned) you give the cat should have meat as the #1 item, and no corn, or hwaaay down on the list.
Why does the meat have to be raw?
My cats have been having a high time on the turkey leftovers. They get a can of wet every day and “croutons” (Purina One specially formulated for indoor cats) on top or if they beg while I’m in the kitchen. They drink a bowl of water every day too. I didn’t know it wasn’t normal for cats to drink a lot and I really hope that’s not a bad sign for my kitties.