Dry or Canned Cat Food

When deciding on the right type of cat food to feed your feline, there are many different choices available. Deciding which type of food to feed your pet cat is a very important part of pet care, and is a decision that you need to take into consideration very carefully. Your cat’s overall nutrition is entirely your responsibility, and will directly affect your cat’s overall quality of life. Once important choice you will need to take into consideration is if you want to feed your cat dry or canned cat food. In some cases, you may wish to use both dry and canned cat food formulas for your cat’s diet. However, this is also a choice that is best made when certain factors are taken into consideration. Here are some of the positive and negative aspects of both dry and canned cat food formulas.

DRY CAT FOOD

A large portion of cat owners choose to feed their cats a dry cat food formula. In general, the main selling point of dry cat food formulas is convenience. Dry cat food can be left out for your cat to eat at any time, and usually does not require messy or difficult preparation procedures. Due to the lower amount of packaging involved in dry cat food, it tends to appear to be more cost effective than canned cat food formulas. Dry cat food does not easily spoil, and usually does not require refrigeration after it is opened.

However, dry cat food formulas often contain a high amount of filler ingredients, such as corn, wheat and soybeans. In order for a dry cat food formula to maintain the shape needed by the dry kibble, it needs to contain some form of a starch ingredient in order to maintain consistency. This means that the nutritional density of dry cat food formulas may be lower than a canned formula. Dry cat food also does not contain any moisture, so is not able to supplement a portion of a cat’s need for water.

CANNED CAT FOOD

Canned cat food has been increasing in popularity, as more and more veterinarians are attesting to the potential benefits of canned cat food formulas. Canned cat food is usually more nutrient-dense than dry cat food formulas, since no filler ingredients need to be added for the formula to maintain a certain shape. Canned cat food formulas also contain a moderate amount of moisture, which can help lower a cat’s overall water intake. If a cat consumes a moist cat food formula, they are much less likely to become dehydrated. A canned cat food formula usually requires a cat to eat less in order to satisfy their nutritional craving, which may make canned cat food to sometimes be more cost effective.

However, canned cat food formulas sometimes contain salt and artificial flavors in order to be appealing to a cat’s taste. Canned cat food also tends to be relatively more expensive than dry cat food, since it requires additional packaging in order to be preserved. Canned cat food can’t usually be left out, since it may spoil after a set amount of time.




13 Responses to “Dry or Canned Cat Food”

  1. Hi Sly, we saw you mentioned over at Space Paws and had to come by. We love your site – it seems like it has a lot of great information. We have 4 kitties – when the oldest were young (but too old for kitten food) we did the all dry thing – I had read that it was better for their teeth and we have one kitty who gets a lot of tarter. But we had one of our cats get sick (he had lymphoma and passed away at the end of October) and when he first went on medication we added wet food as a way to give him his meds easier, and then it was just easier to give it to the others. When we got our two youngest kitties, it was after this point, so they have always had both. We switched to grain free dry and a combo of higher quality and more mid-quality wet (we needed weight gain for our oldest and he prefered the mid-quality so we alternated). We have continued this with good luck, other than the fact that we have had more tooth issues with the one who tends to accumulate the tarter.

  2. Brian says:

    Hello Sly, I read about you over at SpacePaws and stopped by for a visit. Very nice indeed, I will be back!

  3. Hello Sly and welcome to blogland. I eat wet food and dry food and it depends on what mood I am in as to what I eat. Mum added you to my blog roll. Hugs GJ xx

  4. Happy Thanksgiving, furiend!
    We’re so very thankful for a furiend like you!

  5. Faz the Cat says:

    We like both, variety is the spice of life. FAZ and Birks

  6. Hi Sly, your blog is very interesting. We get dried cat food in the mornings which we pick at throughout the day and wet cat food at night which we nom right down. Thank you for your email. We will add you to our blog list.

  7. Hi ya, Sly! Nice to meet you! We eat both canned and dry foods…but our mom makes sure that the foods we eat are grain free….

    We look forward to reading more of your cat care posts!

  8. Gracie says:

    I am using the dry stuff. My mom found a brand that is called Blue Buffalo. It has all natural ingredients in it and a bunch of good things for kitties to eat. There is not filler stuff. The dry stuff will also keep the plaque off the teeth. We like reading all information on the care and feeding of the kittie. I am the mom and dad’s first kittie so all information is looked at. Thanks.

  9. admin says:

    Thwanks…. I gweves her infows, shes twanslwatez.

    I awdded Zippy, Sadie and Speedy two maw BwogRoll…

    Twanks fur Commwents…..

  10. We get both too! Hi Sly, it’s nice of yoo to gif our mom alla dis information.

  11. KC says:

    Hi, just posted your website on tha Cat Blogosphere.
    Bet you get a lots of visitors.
    Love & Purrs,
    KC

  12. Esther says:

    I’m using a mix of both. My cats run to me whenever they see a can of cat food. Smart kitties! My cats blog: http://newcatowner.wordpress.com/

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