Is it mean to only give your cat dry food?

peterjbell

We raised our cat Woody from a kitten and she has always been given dry food without any problems. Recently I gave her some wet food to try and she loves it much more than dry. Now she hangs about her bowl to see if any wet food is coming once the dry food is put down.

Have a made a rod for my own back or should I really give a cat wet and dry food for her to be happiest?

Stevie_Palimo

There seems to be talk of dry food being better for both cats and dogs but for me having both here I feed them with both options and have never had any issues.

HappyMJ

peterjbell wrote: »

We raised our cat Woody from a kitten and she has always been given dry food without any problems. Recently I gave her some wet food to try and she loves it much more than dry. Now she hangs about her bowl to see if any wet food is coming once the dry food is put down.

Have a made a rod for my own back or should I really give a cat wet and dry food for her to be happiest?

Wet food has a really nice smell that cat's love. It's more expensive per serving than dry but if you fed just one pouch per day it shouldn't cost you that much more. I'd make the cat happy and feed the food that seems to make her most content but mostly dry as it is much cheaper per serving.

duchy

You've opened Pandora's box

If you had always lived on baked beans and someone gave you steak and you really liked it would you be happy to go back to baked beans ? How mean would you think that person was to give you a taste of steak once and then never again ?

One pouch a day split over two meals with dry food as well is not expensive.

GwylimT

Dry isn't a suitable diet for cats, due to them having such a poor thirst drive they suffer from continuous dehydration, this can lead to UTI and kidney problems. The high carb content also increases the risk of diabetes, trust me, having to inject a cat daily is not a walk in the park!

Slinky

What did you intend to do by giving her wet food 'to try'?

borkid

Sometimes it's really useful to have a food they really love for a treat. It makes it easier to administer medication.

My 4 cats have both dry and wet food. The dry food is left down all day and topped up when needed and then they get 2 pouches per day ( between the 4 of them) . I keep a look out for offers on the wet food, at the moment at my corner shop it's half price. The dried food I buy on line 20kg at a time and it lasts a couple of months.

MallyGirl

I feed my cat dry plus she gets occasional tuna portion from the cleaner. The cat zone starts in the bathroom which has a heated floor so wet food would be horrid.
I feed the dogs raw but they don't graze and the floors downstairs are not heated.

teddysmum

I know of three people, who used to feed dry food and now have vets' orders to feed wet only, as the cats developed struvite stones.

Mrs_Z

Well, you asked the question. In my opinion yes, it is mean to give a cat dry food only. Would you be happy eating dry cereal day in day out? Variety is the key.