wet or dry cat/kitten food

CharlieRabbit01

Hi so my little kitten moves in with us tonight.

however my OH and I disagree on feeding, he says onyl dry food and wet as a treat.

I say dry food with wet once a day.

Is there a standard?

Angelicdevil

No standard, everyone will tell you differently

One vet told me dry only, another was happy with my 1/4 a pouch in the morning, dry down all day and 1/4 pouch in the evening.

The key is to get the best quality food you can, I go for dry food with no grains or fillers and good quality meat - Eden, Orijen and Canagan. And thanks to my sick kitty, I've found a wet food that's just pure meat that they both wolf down - Purely by Pets at Home.

Oh, and good luck with settling in your new kitty!

gettingready

http://www.catinfo.org/

Dimey

Having had two cats develop kidney disease from a lifetime of eating only dry feed with occasional wet food as a treat, I've learnt my lesson. (Vet explained their kidney failure was a direct result of the diet)

I now feed a quarter or half a wet sachet to each cat, three times a day. I also leave a dish of dry down for grazing as they wish. It usually goes down overnight.

I also have water bowls in every room, one of which is a water fountain, to encourage them to drink more.

McKneff

we give ours half a pkt of wet at breakfast and tea, wet lunch. Last one of the day is dry. OUr vet recommended dry very last because wet stuck to the teeth and gums all night.

Plenty of water in each room. Ask your other half if he would like a diet of dry Weetabix all day, every day for the rest of his life. lol

Cherish-Lily

I keep dry down all the time for my 2 to nibble on and feed wet at normal meal times. If not getting enough water, dry only can makes things like cystitis/crystals worse etc which can be a serious problem for males.

Dimey

Cherish-Lily wrote: »

I keep dry down all the time for my 2 to nibble on and feed wet at normal meal times. If not getting enough water, dry only can makes things like cystitis/crystals worse etc which can be a serious problem for males.

My little girl cat who died from the dry-diet related kidney failure also had cystitis and nearly died from crystals blocking her urethra. Its obviously all related.

GlynD

Start the wee thing off on just a little wet food as it might give her diarrhea at first and she will be pooing all over the place.

I agree with you. Dry food available for grazing 24/7 and one pouch of wet food per day. Probably best divided into two servings.

Treats would be pieces of chicken or fish or proprietary cat treats. As much of a variation as possible. Cats love variation.

CharlieRabbit01

We've had to go for more wet food he's not touched the dry.

paddypaws101

CharlieRabbit01 wrote: »

We've had to go for more wet food he's not touched the dry.

well then he is a very smart kitty. Read the link GR posted, it does explain in detail why wet food is better than dry.
Zooplus.co.uk do some really good foods....look at Animonda carny and Bozita 400g tins, catz finefood, and Grau
This company is a really good one to buy from, all their brands are excellent.
http://www.happykittycompany.co.uk/

Even better would be a balanced raw diet.....you can buy Natural Instinct or Nutriment foods online and they actually work out cheaper than a lot of the supermarket foods.
http://feline-nutrition.org/

GlynD

CharlieRabbit01 wrote: »

We've had to go for more wet food he's not touched the dry.

That's what they do with new foods - they fad for a while. What can sometimes help after a few days is to introduce a new type of dry food. Our oldest was raised on IAMS but when she first tasted Purina she went mental for it and ate nothing else for days, not even wet food.

For a little more variety defrost some frozen prawns and put a few out as a treat. That'll also help stop the faddism about the new wet food.