Canned Cat Food Better Than Dry Cat Food?

I believe many cat owners are currently feeding their cat with dry cat food because it is convenient, easier to store, doesn't spoilt the cat, makes litter box easier to clean-up, and most cats like the crunch of eating dry kibbles. However, cats that eat solely dry cat food are losing out the extra nutrients of a canned cat food.

According to Syufy, F. in her article "Canned Cat Food: Can Your Cat Afford to Live Without it?", many commercial dry cat food might increase the risk for diseases due to its poor ingredients like carbohydrate fillers, usually corn, listed as "corn meal," "ground whole corn," "corn gluten," or even more thinly disguised as "maize," "ground yellow maize" or other misleading names.

Some dry cat food also filled with grain. As to Syufy, F. says in her article "In the wild, a cat will eat only a very small quantity of any grain, namely the stomach contents of mice, rabbits, or birds he catches. Why then, should a pampered household cat eat a diet that is loaded with the one food nutrient he really doesn't need? Although french fries and Twinkies might be tasty treats on occasion, what human would consider living on them day in and day out, much less feed them to their children as a regular diet? Why then, would we do less for our cats? ".

According to her, dry cat food might contribute to the following health conditions:

• Feline Diabetes
• IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease)
• CRF (Chronic Renal Failure)
• Urinary crystals and cystitis
• Diarrhea
• Dehydration

An article titled "Cat Food: Full Report" updated February 2009 simply stated that canned cat food is closer to raw food and contains a lot of water, which helps cats get the hydration they need. Canned food also generally contains less filler and carbohydrates, though reading the labels carefully is key.

For certain cats with kidney or bowel problems, dry food can exacerbate the condition, and if your cat has urinary issues, the water content in canned food can be especially valuable.

Although some experts suggest that dry cat food should be eliminated totally from the cat diet, I still believe that we could mix a small portion of dry cat food to our cat's diet. However, canned cat food should be our main diet because wet cat food comprises a better diet for cats as it is more accurately reflects the nutrient and water-to-protein balance a wild cat would consume in nature.

Anyway, small amount of dry cat food can be given to our cat to increase the variety of food, for convenience when we are away from home for long hour, and to slightly helping in dental hygiene. Because canned cat food are more expensive than dry cat food, supplementing with dry food will definitely help in reducing our cat food expenses.

Finally, no matter what you give to your cat, read the label carefully. Not all canned cat food is good, due to poor ingredients used. Not only on the ingredients, the nutritional value should also take into consideration. For example, the ingredients used in a cat food could be of high quality. However, if all that does not meet our cat's daily nutritional need, it is not a good choice too.

Sources:

Counsumersearch.com, 2009, Cat Food : Full Report, February 2009, [Online] Available: http://www.consumersearch.com/cat-food/dry-vs-canned

Syufy, F. 2009, "Canned Cat Food: Can Your Cat Afford to Live Without it?", About.com [Online] Available: http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canned_food.htm