Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For years, my cats ate almost exclusively a premium pet-store quality dry food mixture. I would give them a treat of canned wet food a few times a week at most.

Two years ago, I had to switch my oldest exclusively to wet because he has lymphoma of the small intestine (he is doing well with chemo, thankfully). He is totally off dry. Needless to say, while I am glad he is doing well, going back to cans reminded me why dry food is so much easier for us humans.

Subsequent to his switch, I am hearing that I should now switch the remaining two cats over to wet, as well---either exclusively, or perhaps a modified diet of a small amount of wet food daily and keeping the dry food out for them to graze, as I do now.

I am told that wet food will help control weight (both are overweight) only if I completely eliminate the dry, because going to wet while keeping dry around will only give them something to snack on.

As an experiment, I tried giving each a half 3 oz can of wet daily, keeping the dry around; I started this a week ago. What I noticed, to my surprise, is that they cut back on their consumption of dry dramatically, as much as 90%. So maybe they know better than people do!

Think I should keep this up and see what happens? If they eat some wet food daily and only graze slightly on the dry, will they lose weight?

Hi There,

Since cats are carnivores, canned food is much more natural to them. This may be why your cats seem more satisfied since they are eating some canned food. Most dry foods are loaded with carbs, which do nothing but cause cats to gain weight and be likely to have certain health problems. Cats that eat strictly dry food can develop diseases such as diabetes, megacolon, and even intestinal lymphoma.

Cats can lose weight while still eating some dry food as long as they eat less of it. Some people who feed dry exclusively think their cat will lose just by switching to a light version of the food. If they feed free choice the cat will just eat more of the light stuff.

What you are doing is fine. Since your cats are eating less dry, perhaps putting less out at a time is a good idea. This way the food won't be sitting in the bowl as long before being eaten. With my cats I put some dry food out 3 - 4 times a day for them and they get canned food twice daily. This works very well with my babies.

Great to hear once again that your kitty with lymphoma is still doing well!

Regards,
PHKitkat

Does that mean that the fact my oldest cat ate almost exclusively dry food his entire life mean that it could have contributed to the development of his intestinal lymphoma? Ouch!

Hi Again,

There is no way of knowing for sure, but some vets believe that a dry food diet contributes to intestinal problems such as IBD and lymphoma.

Of course, there are many, many cats eating dry food and do not develop these issues. My feeling is that some cats are just more susceptible for some reason. Perhaps it might even have something to do with the immune system........who knows.

I always wonder about the "hidden" ingredients in cat foods also, such as food coloring, and by-products and how these may be affecting our babies. For this reason I like to stick to natural and holistic foods when I can.

Regards,
PHKitkat