Can I feed my cat dry food only?

sourpuss2021

Over the past year or so, my 12 year old moggie has become increasingly reluctant to eat wet food.   It doesn't seem to matter what brand I get, he just eats the jelly/juice and leaves the meat itself.

I recently switched to a higher quality complete senior dry food - James Wellbeloved - and he eats all of it.  He drinks as much water as he needs from his water bowl.

He absolutely loves eating loves coley, cooked chicken, liver, and  anyother bits of meat and fish that I'll sometimes give him.

So, I was thinking to stop wasting money on the wet food sachets that he pesters me for, but doesn't actually bother eating anyway.

What do you think?

LippyDoodle

It's a difficult one and depends on your views as well as what is best for your pet. 

After years of having both dogs and cats (sadly none now) that were fed on dried food, if I was to have another dog or cat I'd never feed them dried food. Reason being that it's the most unnatural type of food to feed them. A digestive system isn't designed to eat nothing but dried food. 

All my cats in their later years ended up on veterinary food. Some for kidneys, some allergies and 1 for diabetes. Would feeding wet made any difference? Reaches shows it might. 2 cats develped pancretitis ending in one having to be put to sleep while the other one was manage with diet and antibiotics. She then developed diabetes and needed to have 2 insulin injects every. After a while I asked the vet if we should try her on a food for diabetes, so we switched her food to one for diabetes. The vet said it can work in preventing them going on insulin to start with but her levels were to high to just try food alone. Anyway within a few weeks the amount of insulin started to be reduced and eventually she came off them altogther. She went  18 months without injections but sadly had to go back on them again. 

So back to you and your cat. I'd speak to your vet and also do research. At the end of the day your cat needs to eat. They can be fussy little things and some people suggest withholding food till they eat it. DONT because it might work for a dog but a cat won't eat it if they don't like it. 

Also a cat tends to go with the smell of food more then dogs do. So if the smell isn't right for them they are not going to want to eat it. 

Mnoee

If he likes human food, have you tried applaws/encore/thrive/blink that's basically human food in broth or jelly? Some of those brands are complimentary, not a complete food so needs to be fed with dry, and it is more expensive than the usual supermarket brands (about 80p per single portion tin/pouch) but a tin of that actually being eaten is better value than a drawer full of pouches that don't get touched. 

They can live on dry food and many do, but most people think it's best to have at least some wet food due to the fact that cats don't naturally drink/feel thirst in the same way as some other animals including humans. Water will evaporate from a bowl, it's hard to know exactly what's being drunk!

To encourage more water drinking I've seen suggestions that you have a regular water bowl in the normal place plus a bowl that moves around - on discovering fresh water they're more likely to drink from it. I have fountains (about £20, plus ongoing filter costs) as my fussy mogs won't touch standing water - a bit of a pain to take apart and clean, but most are dishwasher safe. I just don't have a dishwasher! 

YBR

We have a cat who won't touch wet food so we only put dried out. She supplements her diet with mice and occasionally birds, and is very pleased when she occasionally gets given cooked meat, or helps herself to milk/breakfast cereal/porridge leavings.

She's at least 13 years old so it looks like it's done her no significant harm. Supposedly the dried foods are more balanced diet-wise but I'm not sure I believe it.

mrsS_2

i had to feed my last two james well beloved turkey senior for 18 and 19 years respectively as it was literally the only thing that did not either get immediately regurgitated or give rampant runny tummies!   they were just standard moggies but had very sensitive stomachs when it came to cat food- birds and mice ( and the odd rat) were consumed with no obvious side effects of course. but wet food went straight through in a very unpleasant manner!

the previous one lived for 17 years on tins of whiskas and felix- he wouldnt eat dried food at all.  pouches did not exist back then

so, my opinion, feed them what they will eat, that will stay down and dont worry about it. 

Torry_Quine

My cat is 19 next month and very fussy. She too picks off the jelly or has the gravy leaving dry unappetising food. At times she decides she only wants dry food despite having lost several teeth. She always drinks extra then. Her vet is happy for her to eat whatever suits her.  

MalMonroe

We have never had a cat quite as food intolerant as the one we have now. We found her at the side of the road a few years ago when she was a tiny kitten - she had an infected eye and we think she became separated from her mother and siblings (if there were any) because her sight was poor. We scooped her up and took her to the vet and he worked some magic and then she came to live with us. Her eye healed very quickly and then we discovered she had one blue eye and one green one. But I digress.

She has never been able to tolerate any wet cat food. At all. And it isn't that she didn't enjoy it, she did. But she always vomited after eating it. We tried her with dry food but that wasn't much better. Back she went to the vet - we were worried as she couldn't keep any food down. After many tests and consultations, the vet concluded that there were no major problems and suggested not just dry food but grain-free dry food, which she thankfully could tolerate. She still did vomit but not half as much as she did with wet food. She used to have Pets at Home own brand Ava until it was discovered that that could be fatal. We were in despair because we then had to start to look for another grain free but nutritious dry food for our pet. The one she has now is Arden Grange, chicken and potato. To our surprise, she seems to tolerate it better than she did the Ava which we previously thought was pretty good (except for that killing cats thing).

We discovered, through trial and error - but mostly error - that she is sick after eating any meat or fish at all. No human treats for her, unless we want a big mess on the carpet. She always has fresh water and we do have to give her a special laxative for cats regularly, because dry food is just too dry sometimes. But she's an otherwise healthy cat and she's an indoor cat. Not to mention the strangest cat we've ever known. I can't say that we own her because we don't - she tolerates us and we do our best to please her.

I don't know whether it's because she has always just had kibble to eat or not but she still has all her teeth and they are still white. She just turned 12.

So, in conclusion and to answer your original question, yes!  As others have said, if your cat is happy with the dried food and other food you sometimes give him, why not feed him dry food? Like your cat, my friend's moggie, also aged 13, has decided that he prefers his Iams biscuits and doesn't want to bother with the wet food he has previously enjoyed. It would seem cruel to make them eat something they'd prefer not to.  You could always try him with wet food again in a few months' time to see if he'd like a change but if he's happy and healthy, I'd not worry.

sourpuss2021

Thank you for all of your advice and stories of your experiences with your own cats.

I hadn't realized that a dry food only diet might make a cat more susceptible to urinary problems in later life, so that's a good thing to know.

Well, I guess I will keep trying with wet food!   I bought Sheba 50g sea food selection which he is happily eating.  So it might just be a matter of finding the right brand, or rotating them!  

donnac2558

My cat refuses to eat wet food.  I give her chicken a few times a week, but she is not really fussed about that.

TripleH

Diet food makes our fussy boy throw up. Fortunately since our move in March all 4 are a lot slimmer and fitter so we don't need diet food.

At the moment they get a mixture of Maine Coon, grumpy old git and something else for dried. Although they all pick the Maine Coon out first

MovingForwards

I personally would never do dry only. Logically it's a coincidence my one cat had kidney failure and he only ate dry food, but I wouldn't risk it again.

My current cat goes through phases of being a jelly / gravy licker, other times she'll eat the lot. Her daily diet is wet packets, a couple of kibble morning noon and night, plus whatever meat we are having that day (raw as food is prepared and however it's been cooked), sometimes she has veg, fruit, yoghurt, ice cream for pudding.

As an older cat I don't know how much time we have left with her.