My dog gets dry food twice a day and canned at night. We’ve tried the same routine on the cat, but kitty’s stomach can’t handle the canned food or people food. I’m worried that he’s not getting enough nutrition from just dry.
I have always fed my pets only dry - and they do fine on it. Canned is mostly water anyways. Dry food has the extra benefit of being better for their teeth. I do give two of my cats (the third cat refuses to eat canned cat food) a little tiny bit of canned daily, as a treat, but the bulk of their diet is dry. My SO is in charge of the dogs feeding, and he mixes dry food, hamburger, and canned dog food so it is more appealing to them …but until I moved in with him (my SO) it was only dry for my dog.
A couple of weeks ago I asked our vet which is better. According to her, its the other way around.
Canned pet food has a large volume of water. She firmly believes the only time wet food is better is if the animal isn’t drinking enough.
As well, moist food can also contribute plaque build up/tooth problems more than dry.
A good quality dry food is all your dog or cat needs unless she has special dietary needs. It IS worth buying the better brands of dry food, however. If your read the back, you’ll find that the cheaper brands have lots of grain products, and not much in the way of actual meat. Also, not all ingredients are created equal. Brewers rice is not the same as ground rice, for instance.
Resources for understanding pet food ingredients and comparing brands are here and here.
Another benefit of good quality food is that they have less in the way of filler products, so there’s less waste prodcued by the pet.
Plaque is also reduced on a dry-food only diet.
My parents had a teacup poodle that they only fed wet food to, and her teeth got soft as she grew older and the vet told them that it was because of the wet food. Had she had a diet of mostly dry food, her teeth would have been just fine. As it was, she spent her last years in pain because of the soft teeth.
We had a cat when I was little that couldn’t digest some ingredient that was common to dry catfood (might not be now, it was 20+ years ago) which somehow caused his urine to crystalize. That nearly killed him, so the rest of his life he ate only canned food. That’s the only time I’ve ever heard of one being better for the pet than the other, though. Our pets get dry and wet food both daily.
We had a cat when I was little that couldn’t digest some ingredient that was common to dry catfood (might not be now, it was 20+ years ago) which somehow caused his urine to crystalize. That nearly killed him, so the rest of his life he ate only canned food. That’s the only time I’ve ever heard of one being better for the pet than the other, though. Our pets get dry and wet food both daily.
elfkin that’s a common problem caused by excess magnesium and phosphorous, which may cause kidney disease, and is more prevalent in cats than dogs, IIRC. Low-ash foods that promote urinary tract health are available to minimize the risk of disease.
Okay, now I don’t feel guilty about just giving him dry. I guess the fact that he gets sick from wet food, should’ve been a warning.
We’ve been strictly a dry-food for the cats family (except for the new orphan who we adopted in the summer…she obviously was raised on canned and won’t eat dry). All my cats have lived to 18 - 22 years. And none of them are fat! And all have good teeth. And we buy the cheap stuff (I think I pay $7.00 for 20 lbs). Dry is best.
I feed my dog on canned dog meat, or real meat. He’s 13 human years old, and he’s still extremely healthy and energetic.
In most vet clinics, boarding and hospitalized animals get dry food, unless they have a decreased appetite or special dietary needs. Canned food tends to smell better to an animal, so you can often use that to get them to eat something until they recover enough that they’ll eat dry again. When dealing with special dietary needs, it’s often just a lot cheaper to open a can or two of the prescription food than to open a 5# bag and waste most of it.
What’s good enough for the vet’s pets and patients is good enough for my pets.
I always fed my dog Eukanuba, and a few times a week I’d break an egg over it. She loved it, it’s good for their coats, and there are a bunch of other health benefits - at least according to the Vet I brought her to. Once in a great while, I’d mix a little canned food in with the dry, or a little plain pasta. But not too often - maybe once a week for the pasta, and twice a month for the canned stuff. Also, the only “people-food” she ever got was a prime rib bone (on very rare occassions). She was a very fit & healthy dog.
We were told by our vet to find the dry food where meat, not corn, is listed as the first ingredient. (Purina One, I think, is the most common.)
I bought some canned food as a treat. Our dog gets one can on Sundays. The rest of the time she gets dry and whatever leftovers we have (pork chop bones, etc.)
Back when I had a cat, the vet told me to control her weight by feeding her dry food. She explained that canned foods tend to have a lot more fat.
Plus, if you have to leave for a few days and forget to set out food for the cat, she can pull the bag off the shelf, watch it explode on the floor, and feast away.
Another argument in favor of feeding cats a good quality dry food such as Iams and its competitors - their poop will smell much better. It won’t smell good but it will smell much better. I was astonished at the improvement when I switched from Purina to Iams. And they did start pooping less, which = less to scoop.
I went to find some cites to support my claim that dry food can cause unirary tract infections, but there is too much contradictory information.
http://www.hdw-inc.com/healthfus.htm
What can I do to help prevent FUS?? Always make sure to provide plenty of fresh water for your kitty, and it doesn’t hurt to add water to wet food that your cat may be used to eating. Dry foods generally contain more fiber than canned and semi-moist foods, and fiber draws water as it travels through the bowel, creating more concentrated urine, especially if the cat doesn’t drink enough water. Dry foods generally also have more ash per gram than moist foods, but moist foods alone cannot prevent FUS. FUS researchers have made a connection between high urinary pH levels and magnesium…and magnesium is found in wet foods too. Look at the foods you are feeding your cat very carefully; some cat food manufacturers have supplemented their dry and canned offerings with pH-controlling acidifiers to help to keep the cat’s urine pH in the normal range of between 6 and 6.5
Seems to indicate dry can be bad, but not really conclusive.
This site is exactly the opposite:
http://www.petsmart.com/pet_library/care_guide/ch3/urinary_tract.shtml
Can the Cans
If your pet’s diet includes a hefty serving of canned food, try cutting back on the canned stuff while increasing his portion of dry food. Canned food contains enough water to reduce your pet’s normal thirst, causing him to drink less than he actually needs for a healthy urinary tract. By contrast, dry food will make him thirsty, so he’ll drink more.
As for personal experience, my vet has told me that dry can cause the infections, so he gets wet and greatly prefers it. Other reading I have done indicates that cats in general get most of the moisture they need from their food in the wild, and so their bodies are more accustomed to doing it this way. A cat will drink when thirsty, but its not necessarily something it will seek to do if given a choice.
We feed Chance the Noble Weimaraner Innova dry dog food from Natura. He absolutely thrives on it. They use only the very best human-grade ingredients and no by-products. They don’t use BHA/BHT and use only rosemary as a preservative. Most foods on the market (even those considered top of the line) are filled with animal digest, animal fat, artificial flavor/color etc.
They have a line of dry cat foods as well. Here is a link to their site. The site can direct you to a supplier. They don’t sell to large chain stores since they want the product to be fresh.
I have to say, regarding dog food, the fart ratio is still the same.
