Is dry food okay?

Hi,
We have a new kitten and we have been feeding him Purina dry mix. The vet
said she believes cats that eat dry food as the main meal will develop
kidney problems, etc.

Is that true? Why can't they make a dry food that won't cause problems?

TIA
Jeff

"Jeff Caspari" wrote in message
...
Hi,
We have a new kitten and we have been feeding him Purina dry mix. The vet
said she believes cats that eat dry food as the main meal will develop
kidney problems, etc.

Is that true? Why can't they make a dry food that won't cause problems?

TIA
Jeff
I'm sure the experts will answer, but what I'm told is that cats tend to not
drink enough, and the moisture in the canned food helps. I'm also told that
this is more of an issue for male cats.

On Oct 14, 1:28*pm, "Jeff Caspari" wrote:
Hi,
We have a new kitten and we have been feeding him Purina dry mix. *The vet
said she believes cats that eat dry food as the main meal will develop
kidney problems, etc.

Is that true? *Why can't they make a dry food that won't cause problems?

TIA
Jeff

There are several problems with dry food. One is the obvious lack of
moisture. Dry has a maximum of 10% moisture, while canned (or raw) has
70%. With less moisture in the diet, the urine becomes more
concentrated, which can cause all sorts of problems. Here's a great
article on feline nutrition that you should read: http://www.catinfo.org

"Jeff Caspari" wrote in message
...
Hi,
We have a new kitten and we have been feeding him Purina dry mix. The vet
said she believes cats that eat dry food as the main meal will develop
kidney problems, etc.

Is that true? Why can't they make a dry food that won't cause problems?


You have a really good vet. She's right. I saw a huge change in overall
health when I stopped feeding my cats dry food.

There's one good reason for feeding dry: your convenience. That's it. If you
love your cat, go to the trouble of opening a can twice a day.

On Oct 14, 4:55*pm, "cybercat" wrote:
"Jeff Caspari" wrote in message

...

Hi,
We have a new kitten and we have been feeding him Purina dry mix. *The vet
said she believes cats that eat dry food as the main meal will develop
kidney problems, etc.

Is that true? *Why can't they make a dry food that won't cause problems?

You have a really good vet. She's right. I saw a huge change in overall
health when I stopped feeding my cats dry food.

There's one good reason for feeding dry: your convenience. That's it. If you
love your cat, go to the trouble of opening a can twice a day.

Can't you add water to dry food?

My pussy drinks often and if I don't have water ready she raids the
toilet bowl. All this time I was worried that she drank too much but
I guess it's due to the dry food diet. I stopped offering her chicken
when she started turning up her nose and refusing to eat it.

"James" wrote in message
...
On Oct 14, 4:55 pm, "cybercat" wrote:
"Jeff Caspari" wrote in message

...

Hi,
We have a new kitten and we have been feeding him Purina dry mix. The
vet
said she believes cats that eat dry food as the main meal will develop
kidney problems, etc.

Is that true? Why can't they make a dry food that won't cause problems?

You have a really good vet. She's right. I saw a huge change in overall
health when I stopped feeding my cats dry food.

There's one good reason for feeding dry: your convenience. That's it. If
you
love your cat, go to the trouble of opening a can twice a day.

Can't you add water to dry food?

My pussy drinks often and if I don't have water ready she raids the
toilet bowl. All this time I was worried that she drank too much but
I guess it's due to the dry food diet. I stopped offering her chicken
when she started turning up her nose and refusing to eat it.


Even with adding water to the dry food dry food is known to be the
cause of male cat urinary tract problem. I have been lucky with my pack
Ka'shay does not eat wet food. Spirit when he was alive barely ate any
wet food strictly dry the only wet food he really ate got him poisoned
in the pet food recall. Rumble who is diabetic still eats dry food
and wet food but his diabetes is still under control. The others vary but
in all the years only one cats has had problems

"cybercat" wrote in message
...

"Jeff Caspari" wrote in message
...
Hi,
We have a new kitten and we have been feeding him Purina dry mix. The
vet said she believes cats that eat dry food as the main meal will
develop kidney problems, etc.

Is that true? Why can't they make a dry food that won't cause problems?


You have a really good vet. She's right. I saw a huge change in overall
health when I stopped feeding my cats dry food.

There's one good reason for feeding dry: your convenience. That's it. If
you love your cat, go to the trouble of opening a can twice a day.

Absolutely. Plus, canned food makes cats happy, and when they know it's
feeding time, they appear to be fed. This has proved invaluable when I've
had sick or scaredy cats that were hard to hunt down.
Plus, Purina is a very low-quality food. Is you must feed dry, choose a
better quality kibble, you'll see smaller, less-stinky stools, nicer coat,
and more energy.

"cybercat" wrote:

There's one good reason for feeding dry: your convenience.

There are a couple others, actually. It's cheaper, and less destructive
of the environment.

Jeff,

As you can see, you will find many people on the Internet who will tell
you you're short-changing your cat if you feed dry. And they have many
sources to support that claim -- some of them from faddists, true; but
also some good scholarly articles from reputed sources.

But what they don't have is any statistical evidence from reputable
sources to show that cats who eat only or primarily wet actually live
longer or are generally healthier than cats who eat only or primarily
dry. So even the scholarly writers are really only guessing.

What we do know is that millions of cats live long and healthy lives
eating only dry. If there is any advantage for wet, it can only be
marginal. And since we're all of us only guessing, I'll advance my own
guess that if good population studies were done, dry would be found to
be marginally better.
--

Wayne M.

Suddenly, without warning, Janet exclaimed (10/14/2008 2:33 PM):
"Jeff Caspari" wrote in message
...
Hi,
We have a new kitten and we have been feeding him Purina dry mix. The vet
said she believes cats that eat dry food as the main meal will develop
kidney problems, etc.

Is that true? Why can't they make a dry food that won't cause problems?

TIA
Jeff
I'm sure the experts will answer, but what I'm told is that cats tend to not
drink enough, and the moisture in the canned food helps. I'm also told that
this is more of an issue for male cats.



This is true. I fed Meep an exclusively dry diet for years, because at
the time *that* was the common wisdom. She hardly ever drank water. She
developed cystitis, which took a couple of years to get under control.

My cat is now a carbohydrate junkie (much as I am). I try to feed her
exclusively wet food, but she craves the dry food so she gets a handful
each morning. Helps to keep a bit of weight on her, because she's not
eating enough of the wet food.

The problem is much more serious for male cats, because if they develop
crystals their smaller urinary opening can get blocked, and they can die
in only 24 hours.

Meep also sometimes tests for minor kidney and liver problems, but I
don't know if that's from her dry diet, for from an accident she had as
a kitten, which I think may have damaged a kidney.

Please, feed your kitten wet food. Use dry food as a treat only.
Cystitis is no fun at all, and is much more difficult to deal with when
your cat is addicted to dry food.

jmc

Suddenly, without warning, James exclaimed (10/14/2008 6:27 PM):
On Oct 14, 4:55 pm, "cybercat" wrote:
"Jeff Caspari" wrote in message

...

Hi,
We have a new kitten and we have been feeding him Purina dry mix. The vet
said she believes cats that eat dry food as the main meal will develop
kidney problems, etc.
Is that true? Why can't they make a dry food that won't cause problems?
You have a really good vet. She's right. I saw a huge change in overall
health when I stopped feeding my cats dry food.

There's one good reason for feeding dry: your convenience. That's it. If you
love your cat, go to the trouble of opening a can twice a day.

Can't you add water to dry food?


My understanding is that dry food molds much more easily, so wetted dry
food will go bad even faster than wet food will.

My pussy drinks often and if I don't have water ready she raids the
toilet bowl. All this time I was worried that she drank too much but
I guess it's due to the dry food diet. I stopped offering her chicken
when she started turning up her nose and refusing to eat it.

I'm glad your cat drinks often. If she's not getting enough from what
you have out though, you need to put out more or bigger bowls. With a
dry diet, even if she's drinking well, she's still at higher risk of
cystitis. Meep continued to have attacks even when I got her to drink
more water - we didn't get the cystitis under control until she went to
a completely wet diet.

FYI, she didn't have her first cystitis attack until she was about 7
years old (he was on an exclusively dry diet to that point), and it has
taken 4 years to finally get it under control - she hasn't had a real
attack in about a year now.

jmc

jmc