I read that dry food is ok, but the cat will get used to it and it will be hard to get him to eat wet food, the water should be next to dry food so he can have access to liquid.
on a side note and I don't mean to preach, you can give some of the cats you have for adoption, and save the money from buying several cat food for all of them, and buy a good quality food for the rest of the cats.
I know it's hard since you are used to them, but you will also have more time with the rest .
If you consider this option, make sure you give it to someone you know they will take care of them.
I use Fancy Feast Flaked Fish %26amp; Shrimp Feast or any other formula like tuna or salmon and my kittens loves it, but I also try to use purina chew with water, and swap so they don't get addicted to solid food.Should I feed my cats dry-food?
The latest research now links dry food to such feline disorders as obesity, diabetes, urinary tract disorders, and kidney disease. Canned food more closely mimics what a cat was designed to eat - meat, and not grains.
Making your own food is not just a matter of giving them a piece of chicken, raw or cooked. It requires a careful and educated preparation. A raw diet is best, as cooking destroys the taurine in meat, and without taurine a cat will go blind and develop heart disease. There are many recipes for raw out there, you need to do research. And there are also commercially prepared raw diets that spare you the trouble.
All raw is the best option available, followed by canned and raw, and then canned only. Feeding properly is really an investment in your cats health.
Dry food versus wet food brings out the passions in people.
As cats age, one sees problems that often were not seen before. And if the cat was on dry food, it is easy to say the dry food was the problem. But what about the cats on wet food that developed the same problems?
Purina ONE is dry kibble, and the oldest cat currently known in the US is over 30 years old, and eats it. So based on only one example, dry food must be best!
Often sites that argue either for or against a particular food have an agenda.
The bottom line really comes down to your cats being the deciders. If they disagree with your selection, they won't eat it. And cats will starve themselves rather that eat something they don't like.
The quality of the food is the most important thing. With dry food, you do want to try and encourage your cat to drink more, and a fountain is useful.
If you decide to make your own cat food, remember that it can be very demanding, as failure to have some trace ingredients won't show up with damage until months later, when it is too late.
And I would run away from any site that promotes any type of diet, and then expects one to buy that certain "special" ingredient that makes it the best.Should I feed my cats dry-food?
The truth is there is as much debate on what constitutes a healthy cat diet as there is on what constitutes a healthy human diet.
I go with the advice of my vet and feed a mixture of Hill's Dry Science Diet and Science Diet wet. He says that it's a good idea for a cat to be exposed to both dry and wet in case he needs to be changed to a wet diet later in life for a medical reason. My vet personally doesn't recommend a raw food diet because of the possibility of salmonella or E.Coli (see an article attached).
You're going to get a whole variety of answers for this one though...even my vet's article which I've attached recognizes that different vets have different opinions on the matter. Try figuring out with your vet what works best for you cats.
All dry can cause problems in the long run. The best diet is a mix of dry, canned and raw. You can't just feed raw with occasional supplement - you have to have the proper balance of nutrition.
We feed dry in the morning, canned at night and raw (chicken/beef) twice a week.
My one Ocicat had a UTI on all dry - since we have added canned and raw he has not had a reoccurance.Should I feed my cats dry-food?
I heard of the same thing. What I did, and what my vet told me to do, was to mix a teaspoon of wet food in their dry food every night, so it does give them some moisture. And, the meat should be cooked before you give it to the cat, because it can have a lot of bacteria on it.
Hope this helped =]
No. Dry food is BAD BAD BAD for cats and should not be fed. I suggest finding QUALITY wet food (read the ingredients, do your homework on whats best) or the raw diet. The raw diet, out of all these options, is the BEST for cats and dogs.
Ive been feeding my cat dry food for 6 years now. he's healthy as can be. wet food just makes them have stinky diarrhea/soft poop. Im sorry i dont know much about raw foods.
Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat鈥檚 health
Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.
Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingredient a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things?
http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Rea鈥?/a>
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04鈥?/a>
Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i鈥檚, constipation, and a host of other problems. Male cats are especially prone to blockages
from dry food. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with grains and carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. ( Have a fat cat?)
An even bigger problem is that it IS dry and it dehydrates no matter how much your cat drinks
Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food. Cats are not naturally big drinkers.
95% of the moisture is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Think about it.
Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don't use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.
http://www.catinfo.org/#My_Cat_is_Doing_鈥?/a>
You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn't have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all.
THE BEST CAT FOODS CONTAIN NO GRAINS NO BYPRODUCTS
Cats are meat eaters not cereal or rice eaters
Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. I would rather feed a middle grade canned food then the top of the line dry food.
Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck? http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bp鈥?/a>
Please read about cat nutrition.
http://www.catinfo.org/
http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.ht鈥?/a>
http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.ht鈥?/a>
Vetinarian diets The reason your vet thinks so highly of the pet food they sell probably has more to do with money than nutrition. In vet school, the only classes offered on nutrition usually last a few weeks, and are taught by representatives from the pet food companies. Vet students may also receive free food for their own dogs and cats at home. They could get an Iams notebook, a Purina purse and some free pizza. http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04鈥?/a>
Nutritional Education Program website page for the American College of Veterinary Nutrition. Notice who they are receiving grants from for this program
http://mypetcarnivore.com/educational_gr鈥?/a>
It is best to feed your cats wet food. Here is an article about why dry food is not good for cats:
http://www.catinfo.org/
You can make your own cat food at home and it can save money. Raw is best. You can make cooked also but it will require extra supplementation of the amino acid taurine. Heat destroys taurine.
If you make your own cat food with just meat, you will need to supplement because wild cats eat the organs and bones of their prey, not just the meat. You would especially need to add a calcium supplement.
If you do this be careful of the calcium supplement you use. Most human bone health supplements have a lot of magnesium and other ingredients that would be harmful and unbalanced for a cat.
One you can use is Kal brand bone meal, powdered form. You can order it online and it is inexpensive. An average cat needs 600-700mg of calcium a day.
The calcium issue is much easier if you have a grinder or if your cats will readily eat bones (chicken and rabbit) as mine do. Bones should never be cooked, by the way, they can splinter.
I'll update in a minute with my answer to another question that contains additional info.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;鈥?/a>
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