# Do Cats Need To Eat Canned Food?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-need-to-eat-canned-food/562260
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 29, 2010, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-need-to-eat-canned-food/562260 "2010-11-29T05:58:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2010, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-need-to-eat-canned-food/562260/41 "2010-12-01T11:43:52Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#):
>
> People who only feed cats dry food seem so cheap to me.
Our cat has bladder problems if he eats anything but dry food.
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### Author:  [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2010, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-need-to-eat-canned-food/562260/42 "2010-12-01T15:15:45Z")
> [@barbitu8](#):
>
> OK. Here are her latest comments:
She is crazy. Cats have been eating grains for ‘decades’? Oh, a fine reason to be sure to disregard MILLIONS OF YEARS OF EVOLUTION during which felines have thrived and totally adapted to eating only raw animals. The few thousand years (less than an eyeblink in evolutionary terms) of hanging around humans and nibbling on their unsuitable food when they couldn’t catch enough of their own are nearly as meaninigless as the 40 years or so it’s become the norm for cats to live indoors and therefore solely on the processed grain-based pre-packaged foods we give them.
We’ve already learned our lesson here with zoo animals. Feeding them human-designed processed diets led to all the human diseases and disorders most commonly seen on a modern processed diet: chronic inflammatory conditions, periodontal disease, heart disease, cancer, obesity, infertility. If we want any species to thrive, we have to approximate their natural diet, not feed them kibbles.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-need-to-eat-canned-food/562260/43 "2010-12-01T16:11:38Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#):
>
> Cats get wet food. Every cat I’ve ever known has eaten wet food every day. Anything else is a complete aberration to me.
Actually, some dry food is a good idea- the dry kibbles provide a substitute for the bones in live kill, and thus clean the tartar off the teeth. My cat gets only canned food, but he also gets a couple tablespoons of the “Tatar Control Kitty Treat” stuff.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-need-to-eat-canned-food/562260/44 "2010-12-01T16:33:59Z")
Our cat did fine for about 15 years on regular dry food. Then she started having bouts of vomiting, which increased to daily. The vet put her on hypo-allergenic dry food, which she tolerates very well. She only vomits infrequently now, usually if we give her something like turkey. She hates wet cat food and won’t touch it, but will sort of nibble at canned chicken (for humans). She’s 18 now.
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### Author:  [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2010, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-need-to-eat-canned-food/562260/45 "2010-12-01T21:14:16Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> Actually, some dry food is a good idea- the dry kibbles provide a substitute for the bones in live kill, and thus clean the tartar off the teeth. My cat gets only canned food, but he also gets a couple tablespoons of the “Tatar Control Kitty Treat” stuff.
My cats love the Tartar Control Kitty Treat, as well as Temptations and all those other little packets of goodies with flavors of different meats, fish, etc. They even like that in preference to their other dry foods, and I have a good selection of the best for them.
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### Author:  [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2010, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-need-to-eat-canned-food/562260/46 "2010-12-01T21:30:26Z")
Her PubMed link was just the general PubMed. I did find these: [Evaluation of meat meal, chicken meal, and corn gluten meal as dietary sources of protein in dry cat food - PubMed](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16479729)
[Evaluation of meat meal, chicken meal, and corn gluten meal as dietary sources of protein in dry cat food - PubMed](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16479729)
[Fish meal vs. corn gluten meal as a protein source for dry cat food - PubMed](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11789619)
The last link states that corn meal gluten is comparable to fish meal. But [Dietary rice bran decreases plasma and whole-blood taurine in cats - PubMed](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12042514) states that rice bran is insufficient.
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