A question on cats

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Do you need to feed your cat can & dry food? If so why both.

If possible, no dry food. It's harmful for kidneys because it dehydrates the cat, and it rarely has enough meat. High quality canned food is meat based. Low quality canned food is mainly soy rather than meat. Canned or not, always choose meat based, and wet or at least rehydrated.
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Actually Cat Daddy from "My Cat From Hell" said cats should be on an all meat diet.They are carnivores. I just feed Waldo canned Fancy Feast and then he gets Greenies for his teeth.

I found out several years back that Waldo had a food or color allergy to dry cat food too - he would throw up everywhere and I found out online one day what his problem was when I was researching stuff on cats.

Either will work and provide proper nutrition. Note that if you use wet food, it becomes really important that you brush your cat's teeth regularly; dental disease can be serious and wet food carries more risk of it because more food particles get up in the gums. The last cat I had was missing a half-dozen teeth by the end of his life because nobody told me this.

There is the argument that dry cat food aids cats' dental health, but really an all meat alternative such as raw chicken necks should be used (cats are able to digest raw bones in this way without harm, and it works on their teeth at the same time). When I had cats I never fed them canned food, dry food, any commercial cat food. It's largely bad quality, full of chemicals and many additives cats actually aren't supposed to eat.
High quality minced meat was the only form of designated cats food I ever fed them.

My girlfriend feeds her cat both but the dry food is mostly for when her cat gets hungry in-between feedings of the canned wet catfood

Dry food doesn't help for dental health more than wet food. It's crunchy but not abrasive at all, same thing as cookies. And cats don't chew because their teeth don't allow them to, they just cut bits of meat and swallow. Sorry for the graphical description, but cat vomit after a meal is full of intact kibble, not crunched kibble, dry food is almost entirely swallowed whole. On the contrary, cats who eat raw prey with whole bones have white teeth.

Dr. Jean Hofve (DVM): "Dry food does not clean the teeth. If it did, you and I could floss with toast. At best, dry food produces a little less tartar than canned food. Regular vet checkups and proper dental care are essential, no matter what your pet eats."

You guys are making me feel like a horrible cat owner for feeding my cats dry food. I guess I'll start switching to the canned stuff even though I think it's expensive, and it goes bad too quickly and I absolutely loathe accidentally getting it on my hands and soiling my eating utensils by scooping it out, even if I wash them thoroughly afterwards, because I think it's revolting. I hate the smell of it, too. All the parts of the animal no one wants. But if it's going to make my kitties live long and healthy lives (I've had them for quite a while now), then so be it.

And no, I'm not giving them raw food or BARF or whatever it's called. Yeah, salmonella is REALLY healthy, for both cats and myself. I'm pretty sure one of my cats got food poisoning a cat treat I fed him from a pet store a few years ago, he had to go to the vet for a few days and I was almost certain he would die.

Our vet had us switch to dry for weight issues. The cat not ours.

I agree. There are,however, healthy dry food products which are benefecial to cats, one notable brand especially. In Europe, it is called "Hair & Skin" and it contains lots of taurine which is essenticial to cats. This stuff with canned food is a good combination. I suppose you never forget fresh water.

Dry cat food--just like the teachers who live next door. With dry food we can go away for a few days and they can continue their usual eating routines.

If you are buying, storing, handling and preparing your cat's raw foods properly, there is absolutely no reason why there would be salmonella involved. No more than there is for you, if you eat meat at all.

This is my second cat, I had my first cat when I lived with my mom, she helped take care of her (brought her almost everything, food, litter, medicine & more things) I still think about her & miss her. I feed my second cat can & dry food, I buy her Wellness cat food. They have toys for dental health & I get treats too.

I've started giving my cats canned indoor cat food. They love it, of course. Wet food is like a treat to them. But I'm still not feeding it to them every day.

I feed both. My cat has a dish of dry food always topped up which he can graze on at will, and every night I give him a dish of wet catfood just before bedtime. One of my cats lived to be 16 on this, and my current cat is a healthy ten years old now.