Cat Food: Wet vs Dry

Last Updated on March 26, 2020

When deciding on what your best options are for the happiness and health of your feline friends, you want to focus on 3 things; Nutrition, lifestyle, and cost. You want your cat’s diet to be healthy and balanced, you want it to match up to your cat’s lifestyle, and you want to make sure it is within your own budget. So what is the best option when it comes to wet or dry diets?

Nutrition

What goes into your cat’s food is just as important as what goes into your own. You want to make sure the first 5 ingredients are true ingredients. Some examples you would avoid are: Poultry by-product meal, cornmeal, corn gluten meal, ground whole wheat, brewers rice. The term “by-product” basically means “left-over meat” or animal parts not fit for human consumption. This can be brains, feet, eyes, beaks… I think you get the idea. While by-products are not bad for cats, the quality of them can be. Cornmeal is something that will make your cat unhealthy and fat. Corn is something that should be less than 5% of your cat’s diet. The first ingredient on a label is what the package mostly contains and the last item is what it least contains. This is why the first 5 ingredients are the most important. Look for true meats (chicken meat, turkey meat, etc), healthy carbs like brown rice or pumpkin, and absolutely no CORN, SOY, CANOLA OIL, or WHEAT.

Lifestyle

How active is your cat? Is your cat an indoor-only cat? Do you have several levels in your home? Questions like these need to be asked. The more active your cat, the more it can handle a fattier diet. Some cats are so secondary that eating even some “healthy” or “weight-loss” formulas can cause weight gain. It is important to encourage exercise in all cats at every age.

Cost

Your wallet can certainly limit your options. This is why the majority of lower-class and half of middle-class America is unhealthy. Healthy food always costs more, especially when it is non-GMO and organic. If you tack on extra cats, the bill for monthly food costs can rack up! You want to find the best food your budget can handle and spend slightly more. Most people over-feed their cats and are not even aware of it. Cats do not need to eat more than 2 decent sized meals a day. Giving them treats in between meals will save you money and keep them healthy as well.

Wet vs Dry

Cats get most of their hydration from their food. You see this in nature with ALL wild felines. Knowing this, the best option for your cat is a wet-only diet. Healthy formulas of canned cat food are not cheap though. This is where people run into trouble. You shouldn’t feed your cat a dry-only diet but you also don’t want to feed your cat nothing but bottom bin brands of canned food. If you need a budget-friendly option, opt to feed both wet and dry. Feed your cat one can of food a day (make it two meals) and allow them to have dry at all times. Most cats will only eat dry when they are really hungry if they know wet food is being offered. This prevents over-eating. Always avoid a dry only diet. It is simply not healthy for your cat to digest food without proper hydration.