One of the questions that cat owners ask themselves most frequently is this: in the feeding of my cat, is it better the dry food, therefore the classic kibble, or the wet food, that is the cans that can be found in the supermarket and in pet shops?
The exact answer, as often happens, does not exist, there is no best food for cats, because each of the two types of food has its advantages and its disadvantages, and it is important to know them to understand how to behave in the choice of a balanced diet for our cat.
Let’s see in this article how to orient ourselves for the choice of dry or wet food for cats, and what are the pros and cons of both choices, with a final postscript at the end of the article.
The dry food, cat kibble
Let’s start with the dry food, therefore with cat kibble.
These small biscuits are basically mixes of many raw materials, especially meat but also vegetables, specifically designed for a balanced diet in an average cat.
These substances are minced in a feed mill, then they are assembled into small units that are the kibble when the water has been removed, an operation that guarantees an excellent shelf life of the food.
In this way the food is much more concentrated, and this means that, with the same ingested weight, compared to wet food, the cat will ingest a greater amount of calories.
The smell, precisely because of the low liquid content, is rather weak, and this favors the fact that the cat eats more moderately because it does not particularly like kibble.
Eating slowly means better digestion and avoiding episodes of vomiting and intestinal constipation.
Other advantages of dry food for cats are that it is much cheaper than wet food. Moreover, it does not expire and if left in the bowl it does not emit bad smells (even if in any case there is the risk of rancidity so it should not be left for too long).
Among the disadvantages we find the fact that, being very caloric, it promotes the cat’s obesity and that, another thing not to be underestimated, it is very concentrated in minerals and this means that feeding a cat with only dry food could lead it to the formation of bladder stones, very dangerous: the cat is an animal that tends to drink little, and if it eats kibble it does not drink as it should, thus making the formation of stones more likely.
Dry food, moreover, is less digestible and this can predispose, especially in kittens, to the development of food allergies, also because it is difficult to change the kibble often (so the cat eats the same dry food for a long time).
For all these reasons, and considering that the advantages of dry food are mostly for the owner rather than for the cat’s health, it is suggested to use, totally or partially, wet food, when one wants to stay on an industrial diet.
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The wet food for cats
Moving on instead to wet food, that is the tins or cans for cats, the fundamental difference lies in the fact that it is richer in water compared to the other, and consequently it is less energetic.
It is rich in water and it hardly creates constipation, because it slides in the digestive system much better than kibble.
Moreover, since the cat tends to drink little, having water in the feed helps it to take in water and to avoid episodes of renal failure, in the long run.
The water, moreover, ensures that even if a cat eats a lot of it (in terms of volume), in reality it has also drunk, so it has eaten less than we think and the risk of obesity is reduced.
Moreover, a factor not to be underestimated, wet food is soft: if a cat is elderly and has dental, gingival, gastric or intestinal problems it will eat and digest it better than dry food.
Among the disadvantages there is the fact that it does not help in the prevention of tartar (indeed, it favors it because it tends to remain attached to the teeth) and it causes the presence of unpleasant odors in the house if left for a long time in the bowl.
Moreover, if left in the bowl for hours, especially when it is hot, it deteriorates very quickly, and one risks having to throw it away, if it has not been appreciated by the cat.
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Conclusions
There are advantages and disadvantages in each of the two types of food, that is in the choice of dry or wet food for cats, even if in general wet food is to be preferred because it is much more similar to the composition of the natural diet of a cat, compared to dry food.
Now that you know your cat’s preferences and a marketing basis, it is up to you owners to get the cat used to eating both dry and wet food.
Here is an interesting video where I explain these concepts:
