A question on cats

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My advice is do more research on this.

Either way though, I mean it when I say brush the cat's teeth. They won't be thrilled with it, but it'll help a lot.

For most cats, canned food or dry food or both is fine. However there are some exceptions to this.

1. Kidney disease. If a cat has a kidney disease or disorder, or damage to the kidneys, that causes them to urinate frequently, such that they have difficulty staying hydrated, then a canned food diet is recommended, because of the significant moisture content, which helps keep the cat hydrated, usually in conjunction with subcutaneous fluid therapy. These cats also occasionally need to be put on a low phosphorous diet.

2. Urinary blockage. Some cats, particularly males, are prone to developing crystals in their urinary system which blocks the flow of urine. These cats have to be kept on a diet with a special pH, and though there are dry foods designed for this, a wet food diet with the proper pH is usually recommended.

3. Diabetes. Cats with diabetes have restrictions on carbohydrate intake, just like people. Most dry food is grain based, and so has a high carbohydrate load, which causes rapid rises in blood sugar, while wet food tends to more often be meat based, so it's usually advisable to feed cats who are diabetic wet food diets. However these days, you can buy dry, grain free cat food.

4. Other health problems. Cats can be afflicted by any number of health problems, that makes eating dry food difficult, or makes the dry food unappetizing to them.


Generally though, if the cat is health, either dry or wet commercial cat food is fine.


All of my cats have eaten both dry and wet food. Two of my cats developed kidney problems in old age, unrelated to their diet, and for entirely different reasons, and at that point, they were switched to wet food, though there was always dry food out for them to snack on.


One more thing. Cats who've only eaten dry food since kittenhood, may be less willing to eat wet food than cats who have eat both dry and wet food, so even if you want to feed your kitten primarily dry food, give a treat of wet food every now and then.

Check the ingredients! Even 'organic' dry foods will have a huge number of chemical-looking items in the middle of the ingredients list. When I googled them I discovered that yes, they do exist in nature, somewhere. So technically they are still organic. But they are added specifically to act as really nasty insecticides or fungicides and many have some degree of negative effects on mammals, too. Meanwhile, most canned foods due to the nature of the canning process do not have all those potentially harmful chemicals added just to maintain a seemingly indefinite shelf life.

A lot of the "chemical looking items" in cat food are vitamins and essential amino acids that are extremely important in the cat's diet, as cats can't synthesize any essential amino acids. Of particular importance to cats, is the amino acid taurine. Commercial cat foods, until the 1980's, lacked sufficient taurine, and many cats developed taurine deficiencies which caused them to go blind. So these days, taurine is added to cat food in case the primary ingredient does not contain enough of it.

Thiamin, vitamin B1, is also often added to catfood, as cats are prone to life threatening thiamine deficiencies.

I don't really like handling wet catfood either, but what I do to keep it fresh is, he gets half per day, be it a can or a pouch or a foil container; the other half goes in my fridge on its own section of the door shelves. You could even store the whole can (keeping the food in the can, you don't have to remove it) in its own tupperware container so that it's not going to touch your other items in the fridge. You also don't have to use your own knives or spoons or utensils to deal with it -- I use a plastic picnic knife from a cheap set to scoop it, wash the knife and keep it with the pouch in the fridge. The smell isn't as bad these days as it was years ago. He has a selection of his own cute china dishes I put the wet food in and wash and alternate every night, one of them is a heart shape, another has an illustrated cat at the bottom. It's fun to wash his little dishes and pick which one we'll use. If you focus on the wet food being part of how you love him and want to feed him well, it's less of an icky chore.

My cat eats both dry food and wet tinned what is supposed to be meat and gravy but probably contains neither. I've never heard of brushing a cat's teeth. She has only seen a vet like when she was young to get spayed/neutered. She still is playful as a kitten even at 10 years old. It is hard enough to brush her without her going nuts, I'm sure there is no way she would let someone brush her teeth.