cats

Should be all wet if you can. It's healthier for them.

My guy loves the dehydrated stuff but won't eat it with water, so i mix it with raw kangaroo meat (which he also loves).

Picky little spoiled fucker won't eat anything cheaper.

Our cats get wet food morning and night, and dry food available all day. They munch on the dry food occasionally, but they are now in love with wet. ~6oz of wet food per day for each of them

We used to feed our cats almost entirely dry food, with wet food as an occasional treat (no real schedule for wet, just every now and then).

But over the years we've had a number of cats that had health issues that were mitigated by switching to mostly wet food.

So now it's reversed- almost entirely wet food with dry food occasionally (every couple of days or so). At least, for our indoor cats.

We also take care of a feral colony (many of which we've TNR'd), and those cats get dry food for logistical and cost reasons.

Pretty much only wet food, except for a few kibbles every day because they love them so much, like treats. Dry food is super bad for cats, because they have very little natural thirst drive. This means they won't drink enough water by themselves, no matter how many fountains or water bowls you put out. This is easily explained. Cats are obligatory carnivores. This means that they need to eat meat. House cats are not different at all from their wild (and bigger) counterparts. Instinctively they do the same things. So ask yourself this: How do cats get most of their fluid intake in nature? Exactly! While eating their prey. Cats are 'used to' getting enough water by eating.

When you exclusively feed your cat dry food, they'll never get enough water intake to be healthy. This increases the risk of urinary tract infections and a bunch of other things. When you feed them bad quality dry food (lots of grains and non-meat filler), in addition to UTI's they will run a high risk of developing other problems like Diabetes.

So basically I'm saying: Only/mostly feed your cat wet food. The worst wet food is still always better than the best dry food. Because water is so important.

Edit: Also note that most of the "special diet" cat food is dry food. Which is ridiculous. I would never feed my cats that. Most vets have these well-known products like Hill's or Royal Canin that they prescribe.. PLEASE REMEMBER: Vets are sponsored by these brands, and pet food regulations aren't nearly as strong as they should be. Vets get money specifically for advertising and prescribing these brands. This does not necessarily mean that they are good for your cats. Why would a vet prescribe dry food for cats, when the worst dietary offenders are low water content and non-meat ingredients?

Once a day, 18:00, religiously, as a treat. And there's no way that I'd forget about it without them reminding me, they get really excited.

(We call it "papá" here, as if it was baby food - and the word is forbidden outside the wet food context. Frieda's face when I tell her "es ist Papázeit!" is hilariously cute: she dilates her pupils, gives me a "mrrwwwn!", and start dancing around me.)

Typically I buy it in cans, blend it with half can of water, then freeze it into ~1tbsp portions. They seem to enjoy it more this way - if I don't do it they lick the liquid, leave the solid on their dishes, and ask me for more. Then I just need to unfreeze two portions, make sure that there's no frozen bit, and serve.

After our last cat had kidney issues, new cat gets wet food daily. We basically go 50/50, half wet food half dry food. That works out to half a 5oz can a day, 1/4 in morning and 1/4 in evening. She normally eats the wet food within ~15 minutes and nibbles the dry food throughout the day. Not sure if it helps her kidneys but she has maintained a good weight and has the softest coat.

We also use a water fountain to try to encourage drinking, but I don't think she drinks any extra because of it.

Wet food every time I can afford it. I will get a lot of flak from people here but cats are not supposed to eat that much grain.

Dry food is always available. Wet food is split one can between both kitties at the same time every day. The big one finishes what the smaller one leaves behind.

Tuna is reserved for special ocassions, like their bday, certain holidays (the ones where humans celebrate with food), or after having to visit the vet.

Blanket statements are often exaggerated, but I'm fairly certain the worst wet food is still better than the best dry food.

Mine has CKD so he mostly eats wet, but his second bowl always has some dry and he snacks on it whenever the other becomes unedible.

Twice a day. Little buggers eat better than I do. But I also mix it 50/50 with water and make a kind of cat food slurry to force them into hydrating a little. And then I put a little dry food out late at night as an offering so they will let me sleep.

It sounds expensive but it works out to a little under $2 per cat per day in food.

We do all wet, ours are a couple of old ladies, so they get what they want.

Crunchies are always available. About 10 pm, just before i go to bed, i let the dogs out to potty and the cats come running. 1 can or pouch split among the 3 (half to the old girl who's missing teeth) mixed with a little hot water.

We do only wet food. Our last cat needed it to keep up hydration, and now we do the same with our new cats. Def more expensive, and not sure it's worth it for healthy cats that drink enough.

I feed my cat 3 meals a day because he has a food routine like a person. So I feed him wet food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For some reason he is really crazy about dry food so I give him a little bit of dry food at night. This helps him to not starve to death while I'm sleeping.

Wet food twice a day (quarter of a 300ml can each), one in the morning, and then in the evening. dry food available throughout the day.

Ours absolutely detests any form of wet food. If it's not dry, he won't eat it.

I give them dry for breakfast, then wet with a little dry for texture when I feed them at dinner

Once a week, in the weekend they get wet food. Rest of the time it's dry food.

Every day. My boys get 1/3 cup of dry food and a can of wet food. They're both ~11 lbs, trim and healthy. Cats shouldn't be on a pure dry food diet if possible.

My cat gets both with every meal. My understanding is that wet food is much more nutritious, if for no other reason than the moisture content. Fortunately my cat is pretty good about drinking water, but getting enough hydration can be a problem for some individuals. My cat will usually eat the wet food first, then snack on the dry food over the next few hours.

I've watched family cats rack up huge vet bills and cause much heartache because they received improper nutrition; wet food may be way more expensive and inconvenient, but it's a worthwhile investment (same as with humans!)

We used to feed only dry and it ended up causing us problems when we had to switch to wet for medical reasons (one had diabetes, and then the other ended up with CKD). The one who was supposed to be smart was somehow bad at eating it (she kept trying to chew it and it would fall out of her mouth 🙄) and also just generally didn't like it because it's not what she spent her life eating.

I don't think dry food is inherently bad or anything, but if that's your primary source of calories, then you do need to make sure your cat stays hydrated and also that they don't end up in carb-overload (unless you didn't mind the thought of giving your cat insulin twice a day, exactly twelve hours apart).

And it sounds like you don't have to worry about this last part, but for anyone else reading this: please make sure your cats have some amount of both when they're young and not so set in their ways... don't make the mistake we did!

I feed mine mostly wet food with a few cat biscuits mixed in to give it a nice crunch. They seem to like it.

Dry food is available all the time. Wet food daily but only about half of their daily intake

Switching strictly to wet food was a problem when we needed to travel

No wet food at all. I have wasted 100s of euros on wet food that he MAY lick a little bit before leaving it alone.... No idea why he hates it so much

The fat one gets only wet (vet’s orders, she’s semi feral and she hunts rodents and may have a second family who feeds her) and the elderly underweight one gets all the wet food she’ll eat, then is offered dry food as a treat. She prefers dry, so she’ll have some even though she’s not hungry.

They both get a slurry of nutritional yeast and hydrolized collagen powder in water for dessert.

Dry food in the morning because it's faster/easier on the way out the door before work, wet and dry mixed in the evening, with some water mixed in for the male cat as well

Ours gets a single can of wet food(the smaller fancy feast ones) for dinner and then about a quarter cup of dry kibble spread out in 3 smaller meals throughout the day(by an automatic feeder). He's a former fat cat though so he's on a strict diet and not allowed to graze.

The boys get two scoops each of dry in the morning, wet for lunch, and then two scoops each of dry in the evening to hold them over till morning. Otherwise they nibble at my toes to let me know the bowl is empty! Not my favourite way to wake up lol.

That being said, they aren’t food motivated at all and will nibble throughout the day. They do love lunch time though. But even with being excited for wet food the one will have like six bites and then he’s off, important things to do you know. They’ve always drank lots of water, right from kittens, so not too worried about their water intake. We’ve got a fountain for them and they really like it, so that helps too.

They’re brothers and from day one have always eaten from the same plate or bowl. We tried to have two separate ones and they would barely eat so one bowl/plate it is.

So seldom she knows not to expect it.

my cat is very food orientated. so i give her dry food in the morning for breakfast and wet at night for dinner, because she will eat and eat until she vomits. so i dont give mine dry and wet at night, but i do incorporate other foods into her wet food just as a bit extra and extra nutrients. (only other foods that they can eat obviously)

Question - one of my cats has very bad skin issues caused by allergies (based on what the vets said). So she has to eat dry hyperallergenic special foods of royal canin(its the only one that does not cause a severe reaction)..

My 2 other cats also eats the same food, since it is very hard to feed each a different type of food.

My question is - if I wet the dry food with water, for how long can it stay in the bowl at room temp(we live in a warm climate region).

Any other thoughts or recommendations will also be much appreciated.

Thank you ❣️

Edit - Fixed some typos and added details for clarity

4 cats. We feed them all wet food (Friskies/Tastefuls) morning and night, and have an auto-feeder for 3 of them. The 4th has a kibble addiction so the auto-feeder has a RFID tag which locks upon him getting close, and we feed him ~1/4 cup dry food early afternoon.

We used to feed ours wet food once a day but then they got tired of that and decided they mostly wanted dry food, so now it's once a week and they seem fine with that. You'd think a cat would enjoy more flavorful meals but... 🤷‍♂️

My cat has hyperthyroidism and needs a pill twice a day. So I feed her 1/4 of a large can of wet food twice a day with the crushed pill mixed in. It's just enough that she always finishes all of it so she gets all of her meds. And then always kibble out for snacking. Mostly snacking for her.

Mine likes to graze throughout the day and would ignore the entire second half of any wet food I gave him, so dry food is the better option for us. I get him the best stuff I can and he gets stuck right in whenever I pour some more of it. I give him fancy wet food as a treat every so often too, just on the understanding that it will be somewhat wasted

My family never bought wet cat food for any of the cats, but we lived in in a rural area and our cats could go outside at will. If they wanted wet food, they found it!

Only problem was when they brought it back inside...

I've been reading that kibble in general eventually causes cystitis in a lot of cats so I've been increasing the wet

When mine was young I only gave him dry food. Then he developed kidney disease (CKD) 4 years ago. It and diabetes are fairly common in older cats.

Now he gets dry food plus wet food in the morning and evening - 1/2 of a little can or 1/4 of a bigger can at each feeding. The dry food and wet food are in separate bowls. That plus finding a water fountain he likes has so far kept his kidney disease from getting any worse.

Next cat I’ll give wet and dry food from the start.