Actually feeding both is best. The vet I worked at fed a little canned food and free fed dry through out the day.... Canned food is not like candy. It is high in meat content and is good for them, but they need the dry to clean their teeth. Hope that helps!
I find that a mixture of both is best,and that is what my vet recommends.I leave dry out all day for my cats,and give them a small amount of canned in the morning and at night.They all have very nice teeth,except for my oldest,who is 17.He has gum disease and so eats more canned than the rest,as he has problems eating dry food.By the way,my brother's cat eats only dry and she developed gingivitis,so it's not just from the canned diet;some cats are just predisposed to it.
The very very best diet for cats is raw meat, properly supplemented with either bone and organs or some type of supplement to ensure they get the other nutrients they need.
Second best is canned food. But not all canned food is created equal. You want a grainless food that contains meat first and foremost, possibly organs, is properly balanced, and has the least amount of ingredients possible.
Dry food will keep cats alive. Lucky ones may even live on it their entire lives with few problems. The unlucky ones will develop dental issues, weight problems, kidney problems and diabetes.
Dry food DOES NOT CLEAN THE TEETH. Never has, never will.
Canned food doesn't rot the teeth. It's actually much better (assuming it's a good food) because it's not coating the teeth with sugar.
The very best food for dental health is whole prey or chunks of raw meat and uncooked bone.
If you don't feed raw and don't brush their teeth, chicken necks are a good option. They're often recommended for dental health.
It's best to feed them only dry cat food. If they only eat canned food after a while their teeth will rot and fall off, because they are not getting the vitamins and exercising their teeth.
My maine coon Charlie has gingivits too..His gums are very sensitive and are blood red...All of his front teeth except two have fallen out...
Canned food for you cat is the best you can give her...Dry food will clean their teeth...but the small peicies will scrape her gums and it will be hard for her to chew.
My vet told me that it is better for Charlie to eat canned food because it is soft and easier for him to eat without being in pain..
So I would say keep giving her canned food and once in awhile try to give her hard food..
Also, if you feed your cat with a plastic bowl or such...Go and get either a glass bowl or a metal bowl..Plastic can irritate their gums or areas around their mouth and that can make the gingivitis worse...
We have to give Charlie antibiotics every 3-6 months and he also has to get a shot with steroids in it...
Hopefully your kittie isnt as bad as Charlie and her teeth and gums will get better!
I fill up a medium sized bowl with dry cat food...and give all my cats canned food in the morning...
First, if you truly love your cat and view it as part of your family, make sure you feed it a high quality food, dry or wet. Pets need high quality foods just as much as humans. This extends their life and ensures better overall health. High quality wet foods are not like candy, especially when mixed with dry. Whatever you do, conduct some research on line. I recently did just that and now feel really bad about the food I have been feeding my pet for the past 13 years. Basically, read labels! If you wouldn't eat it, your pet shouldn't either. If you don't know what it is, you probably should not ingest it. Choose a food with as many natural, wholesome ingredients as possible. Avoid foods with a lot of dyes, preservatives, etc... You will be able to tell which these are not only by reading labels but also looking at prices. The cheap and low to mid priced foods seem to generally consist of a lot of poor ingredients. I am not sure about cats, but for dogs they recommend staying away from soy and corn (one of the main ingredients in most low to mid cost animal foods).
Slowly start adding dry to her canned, less and less canned, til no more. Your cat is going to complain and pretend it's dying, you have to be tough and don't give in. She might even not eat for a few days to really freak you out, hoping you'll give in. As far as I've known, no cat has actually starved itself cause it doesn't get canned food.
The vet and everyone is right about canned food and teeth. Did you also know most canned food is 60% water? It's a waste of money and really isn't as good for your cat as dry.
you're gonna get a lot of opinionated people responding :-) ! I've been doing a lot of research on this one. My conclusion? Both. Try free feeding dry, and a once a day canned food meal (or twice if she's young, like up to 1-2 yrs.). The best thing is to read the ingredients. Be aware that a lot of cats have trouble digesting corn and/or wheat fillers. A good quality food might cost a bit more, but generally they'll eat less and feel better (less stinky poop is a possible benefit!). If you do once a day canned feeding, decide which is a more convenient and consistent time for you. Do you get up early? Do the feeding in the A.M. You'll get a fuzzy alarm clock. Home at the same time each evening? Have a very attentive cat waiting for you at the front door. So, my vote is in for a wet/dry menu. Can't go wrong with variety.
Cats are carnivorous, you need to give your cat a range of foods.
We feed tinned, dry, fresh meat and most important for teeth raw chicken necks at least once a week.
To start with very lightly grill the neck/s just to crisp up skin and so they have that lovely roast chicken smell.
Over a period you won't have to do that she will eat them raw.
Hope this helps.
Allie
Dry food is not better for anything including teeth
Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health
Contrary to what you may have heard, dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.
Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s and a host of other problems. The problems with it are that they are loaded with carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. Most of the moisture a cat needs is gotten
out of the food and 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Also, most use horrible ingredients and don't use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.
You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn't have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all. Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods.Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Please read about cat nutrition.
http://www.newdestiny.us/nutritionbasics.html
Both are healthy. It is a misnomer that canned food is junk food. People who think that feed their cats cruddy food like fancy feast. Healthy foods are healthy in the wet form. It is VERY important to feed cats wet food as well as the dry, because in the wild cats eat wet food like whole animals. If they dont get enough water in their food, they are likely to not drink enough, and dry out and get kidney disease later in life, which is very devastating and expensive. So do your cat a favor and feed both. I leave a healthy form of hard food out for free feeding, and since some claim it helps teeth, but my cat who had at hte time only been eating hard food still ended up with gingivitus and a TERRIBLE mouth infection. What you really need to do for the teeth is brush them gently every night for about 20 seconds or even less, to wipe off excess food -- the hard can stick there and damage the teeth just as easily as the wet.
So -- feed a good healthy brand like Wellness, Innova or California Natural, and allow our cat to have soft and hard food for them to be healthy. I am not just repeating info or guessing, this is all from personal experiences. Good luck!!!
PS< the good brands of food do not contain the ash, which is basically extra magnesium from burned food. Feed your cat Wellness and you will see a BIG difference in their glow in just a week, you won't regret it. It's no more expensive than the so called "healthy" food slike Science Diet and AIMS that is full of cancer causing chemicals and byproducts, and bad meat like beaks. Wellness has real meat in it that we would eat ourselves.
JUST A QUICK FOLO -- a good teeth cleaning and the simple brushing I mentioned can resolve the tooth issue and save your cat from a lot of pain, or having to have tooth pulled. You should never leave a tooth problem unresolved, because mouth infections could go internal and get serious.
Dry food is better. Not only is wet cat food back for the teeth but it contains something bad like ash or something and that is bad for the cats organs. My cats get dry food and about once a week I give them a can of wet stuff just to give them a treat. (and on their b-days! :) )
Dry food is generally better for cats teeth, according to my vet. However, because your cat has been on wet food for so long, you are probably going to have to introduce it slowly to her. Mix a small amount with her food now, then gradually add more and more until it replaces her food. This will probably take a good month to do.
Good luck to you!
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