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Mikey is going to be a year old in a couple weeks. Shes been eating strictly dry food her whole life. I just got another bag of 10lbs of kitten kibble today. I was reading online at about.com that canned food is necessary for them. I thought otherwise? Anyhow I'm wondering if I should switch, or use both, or stick with dry food.

She is small, but robust for her size. I'm going to take her to the vet for a check up around her birthday, but I'm pretty sure she's doing great. She's very playful and active, and has never shown any signs of being unhealthy at all.

I don't mind the added expense or trouble of canned cat food, I just want to know whats best for the cat.

I don't know whether cats need wet (canned) food or not. My cats eat mostly dry, with once a day offering of 1 oz of wet food (old guy gets 2xday). It allows me to give meds without struggle (I mix them into food). They like the anticipation and love the food, at least the youngsters. I understand that in older cats, it can be another source of water since it's more than 70% water (old cats are sometimes mildly dehydrated). I'd ask your vet what he thinks and go with what you feel. Canned food is expensive(!) and stinky, so if I'd probably skip it if I could, but that's me!

good luck,

LisaS. mom to Taharqa (almost 12 yrs), Ptolemy and Alexander (young guys at 10months) and two bunnies!

Many vets are beginning to feel that canned food is the best simply because it contains less corn meal and has more water than dry. However SOME dry foods are better than SOME canned foods - again it has to do with how the food is processed. If you can find a dry food that doesn't list corn meal and does list meat protien as the first or second ingredient you are doing pretty well. As suggested before, talk to the vet and see what s/he thinks!
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Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!

I am not sure which is better. I do know that canned food makes two of my cats (Tucker and Crash) very sick. So I do not give any of them canned. I have tried nutro, science diet and Iams canned food. They all made the Tucker throw up, and Crash would get it the other way. So I figure it's not good for them.
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Jaime owned by
Mya the dog
and the cats:Crash, Moxie, Gabby and sometimes Tucker

>>Mikey is going to be a year old in a couple weeks. Shes been eating strictly dry food her whole life. I just got another bag of 10lbs of kitten kibble today. I was reading online at about.com that canned food is necessary for them. I thought otherwise? Anyhow I'm wondering if I should switch, or use both, or stick with dry food.
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>>She is small, but robust for her size. I'm going to take her to the vet for a check up around her birthday, but I'm pretty sure she's doing great. She's very playful and active, and has never shown any signs of being unhealthy at all.
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>>I don't mind the added expense or trouble of canned cat food, I just want to know whats best for the cat.

Well, as some of the people here can tell you, I'm really kind of obsessed with catfood. I'm always trying new things to find what works best for me and for our cats. This is what I like best and the cats really thrive on-- I chose 3 different types of dry food and they always have a big bowl of that out and I rotate daily what type they get. I feed them 3 different brands of canned food, and there are many flavors of each that they like. At each meal (morning and night) they get 3 6oz cans between the 4 of them. I try to give one of each brand at every meal and rotate the different flavors of those brands. It would be better if I could feed the premium brands of catfood, but my cats really don't care for them. IMO, and from all the research I've done, canned is better since it gives them more water and less filler like corn. However, dry does help clean their teeth, so mine get both. If you don't want to feed dry, it would be a good idea to bush her teeth daily (actually that's a good idea anyway). Lastly, canned IS definately smelly, and expensive, but for me it's worth it, because my babies are always SO happy to get it. -- Jennifer
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My vet steered us away from canned food. He said that wet food is much more caloric than dry food and can lead to obese cats. So because I have 3 cats, one of whom is large and loves to eat as much as he can, i have stopped with the canned food and now feed only dry food. I use Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care. It's premium high quality cat food and my babies love it.

I don't give my cats wet food at all because it gives them horribly smelly gas (that they like to pass right in my face) and makes their poop smell extremely bad. Also, one of my cats is overweight and she would gorge herself on the wet food. When I got my new kitten, she was underweight and a little dehydrated, so I fed her wet food, but weened her off of it very quickly.

My cats do love the taste of it, but the gas, diarreah, and occasional vomit it causes in my cats has made me stop giving it to them altogether.