Wet or Dry Cat Food

MOGGYMALONE

We have a cat we recently rescued and it appears she has been fed a diet of wet food as the vet noticed she had some gum problems...I have been feeding her a mixture of both wet and dry food in an attempt to eventually reduce the wet food and encourage her to eat the dry food but its not working. Its also very expensive to feed only wet food but I am beginning to think I will have to just switch to wet food only as she definitely prefers this. I have also noticed she doesnt drink much water from her bowl so presume she is getting water from the wetfood also.
Can anyone advise what I should do or have any of you had similar experiences? Is a wet food only diet healthy enough for cats? Shes very young and I dont want her to not have the right nutrition.
Thanks, Moggy

krlyr

What wet food are you feeding? Many of the cheaper wet pet foods are filled with sugars, salts and fats so it's no surprise a cat prefers that to dry food - junkfood of the kitty world, it'd be like expecting a kid to eat sprouts after a month of eating McDonalds!
I'm not a cat owner myself but I've heard that a mix of both is best as you get the benefits - dry keeping the teeth cleaner and being a bit more convenient, wet food providing moisture as cats don't tend to drink enough and can get kidney issues.
A decent quality wet food might cost a little more initially but you would probably need to feed less. You could try bulk buying online and looking out for offers - for example, Fish4Dogs/Fish4Cats do a salmon mousse and often do BOGOF or half price on shorter dated stock. It's a complementary food rather than complete, but you could feed it alongside a complete dry.

McKneff

We feed our cat half a pouch early morning, dry food at lunch, half a pouch for tea and dry for night, we were told by the Vet dry food was best last because the wet food wasnt stuck on her teeth all night. We also use
dental food, I think its called T/D, much cheaper to buy in big bags on line

If she's hungry,she'll eat it, just persevere, youre the boss.

LEJC

Our rescue cat had really bad gum problems and the vet suggested we swap to a dental dry food....

That was 2 years ago and we now have a happy and healthy cat

We use royal canin dental and in all honesty I actually think that a big bag of that works out cheaper than the wet food pouches...admittedly we wait for things like the 3 for 3 or BOGOF offers at pets at home etc and often we end up buyng in bulk to last 6 months...but for us the saving has been worthwhile.

VeggieCatLady

If you want your cat on dry food you could see how she likes cat gravy. You can buy it in bottles or cartons from pet shops. It might help the transition if you put some gravy on her biscuits.

rita-rabbit

Hand feeding did it for me!

Give cat treats by hand so she associates things offered by hand with treats. Then offer her dry food pieces by hand. Oh & if you feed quality wet food it's better in the meantime - things like Feline Fayre, Bozita or Smilla as they are better for your cat

raw meat (offal is cheap - heart, kidneys etc) is good for teeth but messy, I have yet to try mine on a chicken limb but eating raw meat is challenging for their jaws & cleans on the way in - as it were!

I feed mine wet in the morning & dry at night but also put Logic hygiene gel along their gumlines (using cotton wool buds).

MOGGYMALONE

Thanks for all the advice here - to date i have been trying a mix of both but she isn't taking the dried food at all now. I am going to get the vet to have another look at her teeth as I think that perhaps she's eating the moist food because it doesnt hurt her gums/teeth. Will also look at the Royal Canin dental. Thanks again - she is such a wee dote and I want her to be nice and healthy

MOGGYMALONE

Just to update you all - i have found a dry food that she seems to like best!!! yippee although i do put a quarter of the wet food on top to encourage her to eat it. So hopefully soon enough she will be completely on dry food. Its a dental food so perhaps it is a better product and its not one of the more expensive brands i have to add!!! which surprised me. Hopefully this will mean she is happy and healthy and her teeth are getting better care. thanks for all your help, ideas and suggestions and seasons greetings to all moggy

McKneff

Which dental food is it please.

MOGGYMALONE

Whiskas dental

MOGGYMALONE

i think it was about £4.75 a bag which i thought was cheap. hope that helps, kr Moggy