wet vs dry cat food?

trixie108

trixie108

Cathlete
So we recently took all 3 of our cats to the vet and found out that our biggest cat is obese (17 pounds!!) so the vet recommended putting them all on a wet food diet. So we have been feeding them one can (3 ounces) in the morning and one in the evening.

Ok, so here's my issues. #1--they FREAK out when it is feeding time, so I feel like they're not getting enough food, like they're starving or something. #2-- It is ssoooo expensive! We figured that we will go through 42 cans of food a week! Which is about $200 a month! We really can't afford to do this the rest of their lives.

Is there any way to sort of "balance" dry food with wet food? Or maybe give them dry in the morning and wet in the evening? TIA!!
 
Hi Nicole,

My cat Chance was once overweight (17lbs) as well and my vet prescribed the same thing - wet food only, one 6 oz can per day (half in AM, half in PM).

I gotta say it worked awesomely! The extra pounds came off pretty quickly, and have stayed off. Chance's weight leveled out to around 14lbs...he's a big boned cat.

To answer your questions:
1. They're NOT starving, 6 oz per day is OK. Once the weight gets to a healthy level, you can try giving them a little something if you think they need it. We give Chance a little bit of dry food (1/8 of a cup or less) or a few treats each day because he demands "second breakfast" every day before I go to work...it's more a routine thing with him than any actual hunger. :D

2. Unfortunately, it is more expensive than feeding just dry. Instead of buying the small 3 oz cans, check prices on the 12 oz cans instead it's usually more economical. Also, most pet food places will give you a deal if you buy by the case.

HTH

ETA: Out of curiosity, I went to petfooddirect.com to look at prices. If you buy cases of the 12/13 oz cans, you'd need about 4 cases per month (+/-). Even if you buy a premium brand like EVO or California Natural (Chance loves both of those) you can do it for $100 month or less.
 
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Hi Trixie!
Just wanted to share my experience... my husband and I have 3 cats as well and we used to free feed them. When we took them to the vet, 2 of them were overweight. The vet suggested, of course, feeding them on a schedule so they were getting their proper portions. He DID say that wet food is "better" for cats than dry because of the moisture in it and the struggle cats have, particulary males, with UTI's. However, we told him we feed our cats "Eagle Pack" dry cat food (here is the link: http://www.eaglepack.com), which is meat meal based food with whole grains. Our vet said this would be fine! He even said he also chose dry food over wet for his cats. The Eagle Pack food is VERY healthy for animals, particularly because the FIRST ingredient is meat. Most people don't know that a lot of the cat food (and dog food) they sell out there has the main ingredient of wheat gluten, which isn't good because animals' digestive tracks aren't meant to eat that stuff, but meat.

Anyway, we started portion feeding our cats the Eagle Pack Indoor Multi-Cat Formula and the two that were overweight have dropped the pounds in one month. We call our one cat, Sam, "skinny minny" now, where his nickname used to be "chubby" :) You don't have to use wet food because there is highly nutritious dry food out there that will also get the job done. It costs us about $37 per month for the bag. Just make sure to always keep lots of fresh water around the house if you don't use the wet food at all.

Also, mine freak out at "feeding time" now too. I was worried like you that they were starving! But really I think they're just excited because if you're feeding them their portions, then they're fine!

Hope this helps and good luck with your little fur babies!

:)Christine
 
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No real advice here, just thought that everyone would enjoy knowing that my cats are smart enough to solve the problem for me :p.
My cats move their food bowl next to the water and scoop the dry food into the water bowl let it sit, then scoop it out to eat it. :eek:
We have also not found a wet food that the cats will not throw back up, I will be looking into the eagle pack, thanks Christine.
 
We had the same problem. Our big guy was 26 lbs!!!! (Now, he's a HUGE cat to begin with. He SHOULD weigh 17-18lbs at a healthy weight. One paw is the size of my palm!)

Anyway, we did the same thing, but because of cost, I do one can of 3oz wet food in the morning, and regular dry food at night. He's lost 3 lbs over 3 months with this. I was giving him Science Diet, but that's SO expensive. So I just give him Fancy Feast, and he's been just fine. I give him Nutro for dry food.

They won't starve like this, trust me!
 
Animals love wet food and they're pros at making you think they're starving. But you feed them what you're supposed to feed them, and not what they make you think they need. That's how they got fat in the first place.

My 2 older cats were never obese, but they had a few extra pounds on them. I switched them to Nature's Variety Prarie dry cat food. It's a holistic food that I found and they not only love the taste, they dropped down to a healthy weight without me doing anything else.

It's more expensive than your grocery store food, but less than all those cans of wet food. Plus, think of all the wasteful packaging. If you look online, you can probably find a retailer in your area that carries it. They don't at PetSmart, but do at Pet Supplies Plus.

http://www.naturesvariety.com/
 
dss62467 said:
My 2 older cats were never obese, but they had a few extra pounds on them. I switched them to Nature's Variety Prarie dry cat food. It's a holistic food that I found and they not only love the taste, they dropped down to a healthy weight without me doing anything else.

It's more expensive than your grocery store food, but less than all those cans of wet food. Plus, think of all the wasteful packaging. If you look online, you can probably find a retailer in your area that carries it. They don't at PetSmart, but do at Pet Supplies Plus.

http://www.naturesvariety.com/
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Nature's variety is what I feed to my cat who I have tried a gazillion times to convert to raw food or homemade. He consistently refuses and insists on getting his dry junk food fix. At least Nature's Variety has high quality and human grade ingredients which is more than can be said of most of the pet food that is sold in supermarkets and PetCo and Petsmart.

Looking at the label does not always give an accurate picture of the quality of the pet food. For example one cat/dog food can show the same percentage of protein content but in fact depending on what is used for the protein source the digestibility and biological/nutritional value may be a lot different - same as in protein powders for humans.

To give you an example, technically the leather of your shoes if it was ground up could be considered a protein source (in fact, under our current laws for pet food labeling a pet food manufacturer would be allowed to do so without the consumer even knowing). Now I guess we can all agree that this wouldn't be of good nutritional quality. If the nutritional quality is very low, well, just like with humans, the body knows that something is missing and keeps trying to get what it needs, hence eating more and more, overeating and becoming overweight in the process. The fact that many pet food manufacturers add lots of carbs into cat food and cats are really carnivores does not help either.

I am sure many of you will say, what kind of nonsense is she talking here. I would recommend to any pet owner to read Ann Martin's book "Foods Pets Die For" before buying another bag of petfood because after that I didn't want to put my hand into some bags of kibble, let alone feed it to my furry friend.

Me personally, I prefer homemade or raw food for my pets because to me kibble is highly processed food and processing at high temperatures kills any enzymes and vitamins of the food which can only be added artifically and depending on the brand the quality of the added vitamins and supplements will vary greatly. Understandably for many people this is not an option due to time constraints or budget reason.
 
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Hmmmm...my cats love the taste of nature's variety, but they've never been very finicky. If I try to go to a cheaper brand, though, TC (Teri's Cat) pukes. It's very unpleasant.
 
"I prefer homemade or raw food for my pets"

What exactly do you give them? I like the idea of whole or homemade foods for cats, but don't really know what would be good. For instance, can you make your own "wet" cat food by putting some raw (or cooked?) meat in the food processor...then add what? Egg? Any carbs (veg or grain)? Just curious.
 
gettingfitmom said:
keep in mind that dry food is like the cat's toothbrush, it keeps teeth tartar free.:)
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I am sorry, but that really is a myth that even some vets buy into!

If that was true why don't we just quit brushing our teeth and keep eating cereal, no need to brush, right? We wouldn't do that with our kids but somehow we buy into the silly notion of petfood manufacturers that dry food scrapes the plaque and tartar off the cats/dogs teeth.

When a cat chews dry food, it shatters into small pieces. In order to promote effective cleansing of tooth and gums, the food must remain in contact with the teeth and gums for a period of time. I don't know how your cats or dogs eat, but the ones that I have seen don't chew much on the kibble and just scarf it down.
Snowbelle, some companies like Nature's Variety or Primal sell raw and frozen dog and cat food. There are several recipes for cat food in Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Pets and Dogs (Dr. Pitcairn is a holistic/naturopathic vet). Here a couple of recipes from his book:

1 cup millet (3 cups cooked)
2 large eggs
2 lbs (4 cups) ground turkey or chicken (or lean chuck, lean heart, lean hamburger, liver, giblets, fish or other lean meats)
1 TBSP Healthy Powder
1 TBSP calcium (powdered eggshell, bonemeal or other calcium supplement for cats)
4 TBSP oil (i.e. Dream Coat by Halo Pet Foods)
10,000 IU vitamin A
100 - 200 IU vitamin E
1 tsp pulped/ground vegetables per meal
500 mg taurine supplement (optional)

or


4 large eggs
3 cups whole milk (or goat milk)
3 TBSP Healthy Powder
1 1/2 tsp Animal Essentials calcium
100 IU vitamin E
1 TBSP pulped or ground vegetables with each meal
500 mg taurine supplement
2 TBSP oil (i.e. Dream Coat)
2 15 oz cans of mackerel - undrained (or salmon, tuna or 1/2 lb cooked cod or other whitefish
6 slices whole wheat bread crumbled

Blend all ingredients and serve raw or bake in a shallow dish at 350 degrees for 20 min.
Yields about 11 cups
Daily ration:
Small cat - 2/3 cup
Med. cat - 1 cup
Large cat - 1 2/3 cup
1 cup raw or cooked chicken or turkey with skin (or chuck, hamburger or heart)
1 tsp Healthy Powder
1/2 tsp Animal Essentials calcium

or

2 large eggs
1/4 tsp Animal Essentials calcium
pinch of nutritional yeast

or

1 cup raw or cooked chicken or turkey with skin (ground)
1 tsp. Healthy Powder
1/2 tsp Animal Essentials calcium



Recipe for Dr. Pitcairn's Healthy Powder:

2 cups nutritional yeast
1 cup lecithin granules
1/4 cup kelp powder
4 TBSP bone meal (or ground eggshell powder, or pet calcium)
1,000 mg vitamin C (Flying Basset Organics, Halo or Berte's Naturals carry pet vitamin C)


I am not very lucky with my cat, he will eat home-cooked food every once in a blue moon but he is Mr. Finicky - he also only eat two brands of cat food :rolleyes:
 
All I can say is that I have a 20 year old cat who has nothing but dry cat food and she has never had tooth issues. (and is in great health according to my vet)
 
another thought we can't stop brushing our teeth because we humans eat a wide range of foods and that is not an option for us. Animals tendto eat the same food. i heard the dry food, as it is chewed, acts as a "toothbrush" .
 
I appreciate this thread!... I've had our 2 cats for less than a year, and have been feeding them 1, 3oz can of wet food, twice a day. Sometimes it seems like a LOT to me, so I'm relieved to hear it's "normal". They also have a bowl of dry out to nibble at if they want. They are both pretty good weights (10 lbs each).
 
gettingfitmom said:
another thought we can't stop brushing our teeth because we humans eat a wide range of foods and that is not an option for us. Animals tendto eat the same food. i heard the dry food, as it is chewed, acts as a "toothbrush" .
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Well, then try eating Total cereal day in and day out and see what happens :p I would bet that it doesn't "brush" your teeth.

I mean seriously, to really get the tartar and plaque off you have to vigorously brush for several minutes - isn't that what dentists keep telling us. The kibble doesn't stay on the animal's teeth long enough to cause any serious brushing action. Dogs chew on raw bones and yeah, that may clean their teeth because they are working on that thing for quite a while.

Animals in the wild don't tend to eat the same food. They eat a wide variety of foods which achieves nutritional balance over time which is also what you try to achieve by feeding raw or home cooked. It is only for convenience and budget reasons that we feed highly processed foods to our pets which the pet food industry calls balanced and they keep claiming that this is the only appropriate food for our furry friends. Kinda reminds me of the 50 and 60s when women were told to feed their babies formula because it was superior to breastfeeding :eek:

Sorry, this is one of the things that gets me going every time. Off my soapbox now. Everyone needs to decide what they feel is right for their pet, there really is no one right solution. We all love our pets the same.
 
snowbelle said:
What exactly do you give them? I like the idea of whole or homemade foods for cats, but don't really know what would be good.
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I just started cooking (and baking :eek: :eek: ) for my dog, and I can tell you it's not too difficult once you get the hang of it. Plus it cut our dog food bill in half!

Check out Amazon.com for books on cooking for your cat. Then see if your local library has some titles that you can look through.
 
My kittens are on a grain free diet. They do occasionally eat grain free dry food, but this is more of a treat for them than a meal. I had thought the dry food was good for their teeth, but our vet told me otherwise and recommends canned food.

Each of our kittens eats about 9 ounces of food a day (they are fed twice a day). I need to look for deals online, but am also spending a lot of money on their food.

Sherry
 
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