I have three cats, the get Friskies wet food in the morning and they have Friskies dry out for them to eat all day long. One, or all of them throw up all the time. I am tired of cleaning up the basement - I thought about just feeding them wet food 2x a day - do they need dry food?
Is there a dry food out there that they won’t throw up? It seems like it is only with the dry food - and I have tried many.
They don’t need dry food at all; everything they need is in tinned food. I feed tinned twice a day and leave a bit of dry sitting out but even with two barn cats coming in sometimes, a smallish bag of dry lasts for almost 3 weeks. I have a puker too, and about all she doesn’t puke back is Purina Cat Chow original, probably because she doesn’t like it as much as others and doesn’t try to inhale the whole dish in one bite.
Feeding only wet food is better for cats than feeding any portion of their diet as dry food.
Lots of info about feeding kitties here: www.catinfo.org
try wet.
But be prepared to still have dry out.
Cats are notoriously picky!
I have 3 cats and each has her own preferences. One will not touch canned. Ever. but when you have REAL meat, you better share! :lol: Turkey lunch meat, chicken biscuit…
The others have a thing for Tuna…turn into land sharks when the can opener comes out.
I am feeding the meaty selection from friskies or I think the purina natural (it’s pretty expensive) because those are pretty much the only ones not glorified polenta in the shelf as dry food, friskies canned, one can in the morning, one in the evening, split between 2 cats. They only eat the ones with the gravy on it, and of course the tuna varieties. No pate…
Dry food, even the most expensive premium brand, is terrible for cats. I learned the hard way (one full urinary blockage and one diabetic later!). You’re better off feeding a cheap canned food (though if you can afford it, there are definitely better varieties!) Cats are obligate carnivores; the only grains they eat in a wild situation are the ones in the stomachs of what they prey on. cats also depend on their food for the majority of their water intake, and can be chronically dehydrated on a dry diet. The carb content of dry food is also sky high. If you’re worried about dental health and tartar, toss the cat a piece of stew beef or raw chicken every few days.
A word of caution on canned: you should avoid fish varieties except as for a treat once or twice a week; fish can carry environmental toxins which can be harmful if fed too often. Chicken and turkey varieties are probably best; something like 80% of cats have beef allergies, but beef is also ok if the cat can tolerate it.
Here’s an article explaining the benefits of an all-wet diet: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=59408
There are tips in there about transitioning picky cats from dry to an all-wet diet.
I wish I had known better a few years ago; I might have avoided hundreds of dollars in medical care from the results of a dry diet.
No kidding, me too…
I prefer dry because it’s great for their teeth and I’ve never had a problem (knock on wood) with urinary or gastrointestinal upset, but my cat does drink a lot of water naturally (not diabetic).
Anyway… Maybe the throwing up problem is not the food but that they have hairballs. Have you tried hairball treatment?
[QUOTE=xQHDQ;6047787]
I prefer dry because it’s great for their teeth and I’ve never had a problem (knock on wood) with urinary or gastrointestinal upset, but my cat does drink a lot of water naturally (not diabetic).
Anyway… Maybe the throwing up problem is not the food but that they have hairballs. Have you tried hairball treatment?[/QUOTE]
Many cat people think their cats drink enough naturally, but most of those, in reality, do not. Dry isn’t great for their teeth, either; raw meat is. Wild cats have good teeth from their diet, not dry kibble! Feeding dry all the time would be the equivalent of a human living solely on Cheerios-there would be too many carbs and not enough other nutrients in the diet.
Dry food is packed with carbs, something cats do not naturally eat. This leads to many, many health issues, including diabetes. And believe me, unless you like fitting your entire life’s schedule around your cat’s insulin schedule, you do NOT want to deal with. I can’t go anywhere that I can’t be home from by 7pm (or I have to wait until after 9 to go, so I can make sure his glucose levels aren’t going to drop too low while I’m gone), and there is no such thing as sleeping in, ever.
When my cat was diagnosed, I did a little experiment while I was waiting for my vet to start him on insulin. I gave him the prescription diabetic dry food for a couple of days, and then a non-prescription canned diet for a couple days, taking blood glucose readings throughout. His numbers were almost 200 higher on the dry than on the wet. That alone makes me wonder how many cats would never have become diabetic if fed a wet diet all along. I’ll never feed dry cat food again.
If the issue IS hairballs, a wet diet will likely improve that as well…it certainly has for my cat!
Like I said, feeding dry food has cost me hundreds of dollars. Take a look at the link I posted (it’s not just for diabetic cats), which was written by a vet. It’s amazing what a proper diet does for cats, even healthy ones.
I feed both canned and dry food to my cat. He gets a 5.5oz can of Wellness grain free split into 2 feedings and I leave out a bowl of Blue Buffalo Wilderness dry cat food. He loves the Blue Buffalo so I let him have as much as he wants since he is on the lean side anyway.
I also have a water fountain for my cat. I know he increased his water intake with the use of the fountain because he pees a lot more than he used to but he smell is not strong like it used to be.
I did find that when he was on just straight dry food he threw up a couple times a week. Now that I added wet food he does not throw up.
I have 7 cats and I had the same trouble. It turns out that i just needed to find a food that they could all tolerate. They all get canned food morning and night and they have two different kinds of dry food out at all times. If I feed the indoor cats any of the outdoor cats food two of them will start throwing up. I don’t think that it necessarily has to do with wet or dry but again finding a balance on which food they can all tolerate easily.
IMHO the problem is more likely to be the Friskies brand, than the fact that it’s dry, or wet. You’ve tried “many” dry foods - were they all on the quality par with Friskies?
Cats don’t NEED dry food. I’m sure there are some exceptions. Dry food doesn’t clean teeth - if anything, it contributes to more tooth and gum issues. Go eat a pretzel. See where the pretzel residue ends up sticking. It’s sometimes hard for you to get it off your gumline - darn near impossible for a cat (or dog), and it just has to “melt” away. That’s what is a major contributor to gum issues.
Cats are also not designed to have free choice food. It works for some, does not work for nearly all. So yes, twice a day feeding is better, and a quality food is better still 
Many, if not all, of you folks here need to realize that there isn’t any ONE definitive do-or-die diet for cats (or dogs). Good friggin grief.
For every one of you saying that dry diets are death to cats, there are just as many folks as ME who keep a big bowl of dry cat food available 24/7, & feed canned food once a day. AND - amazingly enough for you folks - all of my cats (& I’m talking DOZENS over MANY years) have ALL lived into their late teens/early twenties before passing away due to nothing having to do with their diets. Gee - go figure.
I can’t even BEGIN to state how sick & tired I am of people automatically assuming that their way is always the right way, & the rest of the populace is borderline abusive re: their cat (or dog) feeding habits. Get off your soapbox people.
[QUOTE=Bacardi1;6049241]
Many, if not all, of you folks here need to realize that there isn’t any ONE definitive do-or-die diet for cats (or dogs). Good friggin grief.
For every one of you saying that dry diets are death to cats, there are just as many folks as ME who keep a big bowl of dry cat food available 24/7, & feed canned food once a day. AND - amazingly enough for you folks - all of my cats (& I’m talking DOZENS over MANY years) have ALL lived into their late teens/early twenties before passing away due to nothing having to do with their diets. Gee - go figure.
I can’t even BEGIN to state how sick & tired I am of people automatically assuming that their way is always the right way, & the rest of the populace is borderline abusive re: their cat (or dog) feeding habits. Get off your soapbox people.[/QUOTE]
Get off yours. I’m happy for you and anyone who has had lots of cats do fine on a dry diet. I’ve had many cats do fine on it, too, in that they never developed any life-threatening conditions. I sincerely hope that you never have to deal with aiabetes or a urinary blockage. Personally, I’m going to take the advice of several VETS and feed my cat wet food, which has been proven to be better for them than dry.
Your cats, your choice. If you want to feed your kids candy all the time, that’s also your choice, and they will probably survive. But if someone asks for advice as the OP did, I’m going to give the advice I’ve been given from vets and my personal experience so that they can maybe avoid having to go through the financial and emotional burden of a sick animal, just like I’d advise them to lighten up on the candy if their kid didn’t feel well and was eating too much of it.
Just because something has always worked doesn’t mean better ways haven’t been researched and developed. Horses did okay on straight oats for years, and some still do, but there have since been more complete feeds developed, which many people choose to feed, especially for sporthorses. It’s the same thing. Just because something has worked fine for years doesn’t mean it’s the best way.
[QUOTE=HenryisBlaisin’;6049271]
Get off yours. I’m happy for you and anyone who has had lots of cats do fine on a dry diet. I’ve had many cats do fine on it, too, in that they never developed any life-threatening conditions. I sincerely hope that you never have to deal with aiabetes or a urinary blockage. Personally, I’m going to take the advice of several VETS and feed my cat wet food, which has been proven to be better for them than dry.
Your cats, your choice. If you want to feed your kids candy all the time, that’s also your choice, and they will probably survive. But if someone asks for advice as the OP did, I’m going to give the advice I’ve been given from vets and my personal experience so that they can maybe avoid having to go through the financial and emotional burden of a sick animal, just like I’d advise them to lighten up on the candy if their kid didn’t feel well and was eating too much of it.
Just because something has always worked doesn’t mean better ways haven’t been researched and developed. Horses did okay on straight oats for years, and some still do, but there have since been more complete feeds developed, which many people choose to feed, especially for sporthorses. It’s the same thing. Just because something has worked fine for years doesn’t mean it’s the best way.[/QUOTE]
Uh - read for comprehension much???
My cats get wet food once a day, in addition to their 24/7 bowl of dry food. The combination of the two has had different vets’ blessings over 3 decades now. Since the 1970’s, I’ve had more cats than I can count, & they’ve ALL lived extremely LONG healthy lives, even one who came to me with diabetes & required daily insulin injections.
How sad that you feel the need to be so pompous rather than recognize the fact that you’re not 100% right.
Like I said, your cats, your choice. Glad they’ve lived so long. The OP asked for advice, and I gave it based on current medical research and personal experience.
Again, just because something works, doesn’t mean it’s the best way. People used to believe that horses were best trained by throwing a saddle on and riding out the bucks until the horse was exhausted, or if that didn’t work, tying up a leg with a rope so that the horse couldn’t move, or snubbing a horse and witholding water and food until it was too weal to protest. Lots of horses got trained that way, and lots of them lived long lives and were ridden for years. That doesn’t mean that training method was the best way.
I’ve done my research (and many, many hours of it!) and feel that a wet diet is best for the vast majority of cats. Current scientific research supports that. Just because your cats didn’t die young doesn’t mean that feeding all wet isn’t 100% correct. For many, many cats, it is!
Speaking of reading for comprehension, try the link I posted earlier, written by a vet who has done lots of research. It’s an eye-opener.
Ayup, me too.
Did you mean to post this article, though? The link in your previous post goes to a thread on the feline diabetes message board.
Oops, meant to post this one: http://www.catinfo.org/
If that doesn’t link directly to the article, it’s the tab on the right that says “Feeding your cat: the basics”
The one Simkie posted is also a good one!
I’m going to disagree with some posters who say that dry food is not necessary for cats. I’ve tried feeding my cat a wet-diet only after he started refusing to eat his SD dry food and eventually threw it up, but it didn’t work. His poops eventually deteriorated into bad diarrhea.
He’s now on a balanced schedule of half a can in the morning, and half a can at night. He almost always has Purina sensitive systems dry food in his bowl as well, which he will eat but not as much as the wet food. It’s a good combination that keeps his GI system happy and myself happy
Apples to oranges–SD is full of stuff cats shouldn’t be eating, anyway. As is Purina Sensitive Systems Dry. Have you read the ingredient lists for those foods?
I imagine your experience would be different if you tried a meat-only wet food.
Agree Simkie 
SD in general may be ok for short-term used, but again, in general, it’s not something that tends to work well long-term. It’s really amazing the contrast between it’s recommended and who is recommending it, vs what’s actually in it
I have a cat who’s on a wet-only diet. No runny stool at all. However, it’s high quality food, very little grains (some cans have some grain, some are grain-free, none have significant grain).
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