soft food or hard food or both?

I have been feeding Cocoa soft food and hard food. I usually only feed Patches hard food and occasionally soft food. I was wondering what everyone else did and if anyone changed since they saw the article about soft food causing more plaque. Also, is it okay not to feed a kitten soft food at all?

 

I don't know if there are any set rules but I feed my kitties both hard and soft food.

They have hard food out all the time so they can graze and I feed them a little bit of soft food twice a day.

Someone told me that soft food is good for them since it has water in it and kitties don't always drink enought water. It's just something I heard.

 

I've heard arguments for both sides of benefits for hard and soft food. Hard food is better for teeth, but wet food is better for moisture content especially if they don't drink enough or have kidney issues.

I feed both. Vianne prefers dry food anyway and is very picky about what canned food she will eat. Right now i have a male foster kitty and he is a garbage disposal that will eat anything that crosses his path and if she doesnt eat fast enough, he will gobble up her food too! haha, so needless to say, this stimulates her appetite and she hasn't been nearly so picky lately, hmm... :lol:

So anyway, i feed wet food first and i mix in some extra water. After thats gone, i give a little bit of dry. And i've been giving my foster cat a few of the big kibbles of Science Diet oral care after he's done with his "soup" since he won't let me brush his teeth like Vianne does.

Both Panda and Vianne have had their yearly vet exams within the last month and the vet gave them both and "A" on their dental exams

 

I also feed both wet and dry. Ever watch your cat eat dry food? Most of the time they swallow the chunks whole and don't even bite into them. That would mean there is no benefit to their teeth at all.
A lot of cats, eating dry only food, have constipation problems as they aren't getting enough fluids as cats tend to not dry as much as they should. Wet food contains moisture.
Cats are carnivores and need meat - dry foods contain little to no meat. After my dog got caught in the food recall I did a lot of reading about pet foods....dry food simply has a gravy type product sprayed on it during the process of being made. There is no meat actually in the food itself - just the stuff sprayed on it to make it smell and taste better.
This website is pretty good...http://www.catinfo.org/

 

I am a big believer in having a soft and hard food diet. We leave hard food out at all times and then they get soft food twice daily. Having a diet with soft food is better for the cat's organs, as it has a higher water content. In a nut shell, soft food is good for them.

 

It's much easier for kittens to eat soft foods. It must be hard work to chew dry foods. I leave out dry food 24/7 and they get wet foods for dinner.

 

This is very interesting Mary_NH. My two cats have both had trouble with their teeth. Fudgie had to have a couple out last year and Pud has been on antibiotics. For the first year they ate only soft kitten food, then Pud developed an allergy to something in the soft food he was eating - probably beef - so the vet suggested Royal Canin Sensitivity food - dry biscuits. She said that they don't need to eat soft food, explained that dry was better for their teeth because chewing helps to combat plaque and that I needed to make sure they got enough to drink. So I switched them - the better quality food made them put on a lot of weight so now they are both on Royal Canin Obesity food.

The trouble is that Fudgie does swallow his biscuits nearly whole, probably because his teeth were hurting him when he tried chewing, so there is little or no benefit to him having biscuits. I could try an Oral Diet food, but he is still overweight and the vet suggested we deal with that problem first. I've tried cleaning their teeth and neither are prepared to put up with it, but they do like an oral gel that they lick from their bowls (can't remember its name off the top of my head) but it helps stimulate the natural enzymes in their saliva.

When Pud was on antibiotics recently I tried the soft food version of the Obesity food and they went mad for it. They get so excited when I feed them the soft food (about once a week) and after 18 months on a dry food only diet I'm not surprised.

This has really taught me that the vets aren't always right. I have to fight them quite a lot on the issue of keeping them indoors too. They blame me for the state of their teeth saying that if I had allowed them to hunt outside, the mice they ate would have kept their teeth clean - oh and keeping them indoors is also the reason why they are overweight... :roll:

I think I will take what you say on board and feed them both soft food and dried food from now on.
(Sorry about the long post!)

 

a vet advocating cats go outside probably want more money from injuries!!!
This same discussion has been going around another cat board I belong to regarding vets and food.
Some vets, who sell food, tend to push the foods they are selling. Don't buy into it. Most vets aren't schooled on nutrition of animals so they know about as much as the average pet owner does. My rule of thumb is if my pets are doing well on a certain food and/or the way they are fed then stick with it.
We know our pets better than the vet does - yes they know the anatomy - but we can see on a day to day basis how well they are doing.
One of my fosters was diagnosed with extreme peridontal disease at only 11 months of age!!! He's also on the paste you are talking about and it's working

 

Booger will only eat dry. When I give her canned, she refuses to eat it no matter the brand. When I give her pouch foods, she'll just lick the gravy off of it. The only wet she'll eat is the small can of tuna (packed in water) that she gets as a treat once a week and she gets so excited when she see's me opening the can hehehe

Since she'll only eat dry, I give her Purina Natural Blends. It's first ingredient is meat so it's better than most. I also keep a bowl of Whiskas out for her to have a little variety but she mostly eats the Natural Blends and she's quite healthy.

ETA: I'm not worried about her water intake as she drinks water often and I have the water bill to prove it. She loves to drink from the faucet LOL. She'll jump up on the kitchen counter several times a day and meows at me to turn it on for her. I'll turn on a slow stream and she'll drink and drink and drink. Plus she has her own fountain but she seems to prefer the sink so I indulge her.

She's actually woken me up in the middle of the night with urgent meows and pawing my face until I get up and follow her saying "What is it baby? What's wrong?" and she'll lead me to the sink for a midnight drink LOL It's annoying, but cute and I can't resist her.

I should wake her right now hehehe:

 

I think the key thing to remember is balance. Both wet and dry have their benefits and drawbacks. Dry oral care formulas are designed a bit differently from regular dry foods because they are formed into much larger chunks to ensure they they are indeed chewed up before being swallowed. While this may be an alternative to teeth brushing, albeit not as good, dry food is also more concentrated, because well, it's dried and it shouldn't be fed in the same volume as wet food. Just like a piece of banana shrinks when you dry it out, you can get a lot more dried food into a cup than you can of food containing a lot of water. With this in mind, you cannot feed as much dry food if you expect your cat to not gain weight. Vianne is a 9 lb solid little girl, and her total intake for an entire day of dry food only for maintaining her weight is a measly 1/4 cup split into 2 feedings of 1/8 cup. And a portion of this is removed when she gets a spoonful and canned food with her meal.

Now this i don't understand since encouraging the eating of rodents opens up avenues for disease and parasite infection. If you really wanted to whole heartedly go the raw food route to maximize the dental benefits of a raw diet, then you could start picking up some live, parasite free bunnies for their dinner. :roll: Sorry, but that advice from your vet just sounds silly to me. Overweight indoor cats need 2 things--controlled diet and more excercise around the house.

 

I think you're right - balance is the key - and about the food. No-one told me that I needed to feed less dried food than wet and so I carried on as before and they put on weight. Now they are on 1/4 cup twice a day - Pud is 5.5kgs and the right weight for his build and Fudgie is 5.8kgs but needs to get down to about 5kgs.

I did do some research on the net and the vet's opinions about mice and teeth cleaning are supported, but I would rather stick with the oral gel!

That's good to know! (about the paste - not that your foster has peridontal disease - poor baby) I'm pretty sure it's helping my two as well, though it is hard to get them to open their mouths for me to check properly :wink:

 

I only give dry food to my cats. One of my cats developed an allergy to soft food when she was around 11, so I changed the diet to dry and she's been ok ever since. I know she would love to eat soft food, but I also know she'd be very sick very soon!

A vet friend of mine always leaves out dry food, but does give her 2 cats a pouch of wet food per day between them.