Ragdoll Cat Forums

I don't have cats now, but I'm doing research to have one in the future. So, I have some questions and a big one is about food! I read about three ways of feeding cats: raw, dry and wet (wet=canned). What is the better? Well, if people have the possibility to do it right, I read that is raw, but not everyone can do it, so dry or wet food for our babies?

I search here in the forum, but I only could find a discussion about raw food: Feeding Raw. So please, if you want to talk about raw food, don't do it here, but in the other topic! Here lets discuss between dry and wet food!

I always thought that dry food was better and I asked some vets and they agree on this, but when I started to search in english, I read that wet food is much better, many people believe it, and many because of the articles that follow. I'm confused, so I would like to know your opinions, please!

Here are some links saying that wet food is better:

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?ac...cannedfood
http://www.vet4petz.com/articles/diabetes.htm
http://www.vetcentric.com/magazine/magaz...CLEID=1430
http://rocquoone.com/diet_and_health.htm
http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bpo_ch4.php
http://www.felinecrf.org/diet_and_nutrit...v_wet_food
http://www.maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm
http://www.fabcats.org/flutd.html
http://www.ivillage.com/pets/vet/pages/0..._freqCap=2
http://www.blakkatz.com/dryfood.html
http://www.homevet.com/petcare/feedingyourcat.html
http://www.neighborhoodcats.org/info/nutrition.htm
http://www.api4animals.org/689.htm


(source links: http://www.catforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=...&start=105 )

At one time, dry food was preferred in the hope it would be better for dental health, had less waste and less chance of going bad in the bowl.

Recently, some prefer wet food based on the belief that it provides more moisture, a benefit for kidney health, and may be "less processed."

We free feed dry and feed some wet. I believe grazing throughout the day and night with small "meals" is better for cats - and certainly it is easier, involves less waste and makes leaving the cats for longer periods safer. However, particularly for cats with kidney problems, wet food is a plus. So, we feed enough wet that they are comfortable with it and will more easily transition to a higher percentage of wet in the diet if that becomes appropriate.

For healthy cats, I am not convinced there is much of a health difference between the two choices. I would definitely feed both, even if you want to emphasize one over the other.

If I choose to feed both, how should I do it? "Free feed dry and feed some wet"?! May I ask how much is "some"? Thank you!

For us, the wet is more of a treat. If you want to feed a higher percentage of wet, then you can decrease the amount of dry available, although some cats will eat as much wet as you put out - and some may not like wet. In general, one would expect them to eat the wet of each meal in about half an hour and may go away and come back once or twice. We feed wet for kittens twice per day, but the rest only once per day. If you want to emphasize wet, then you can feed kittens four times a day and adults twice a day. You just need to decide what balance you want between them and then determine feedings of each that work best to accomplish that goal. With wet, working out a pattern that leaves you feeding whole cans over the course of a day makes sense, since cats tend not to like chilled food. You can reheat wet by floating the bowl in warm water, but that can be a bother. Microwaving may create hot spots that can burn.

Good explanation, thank you for sharing your experience! I'll study it better and then I come here to see if I picked a good plan!