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Which is Best: Canned Cat Food or Dry Cat Food?

CatChannel and CAT FANCY veterinary expert Arnold Plotnick, DVM, advises cat owners on which cat food to feed.

By Arnold Plotnick, DVM

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Q: Is canned food good for cats? I was told it is bad, and that I should only feed my cats dry cat food. That is what I have been doing.
 
A: We're wading into controversial waters with questions like this. I'm sure that no matter what answer I give, people will strongly disagree.

Dry cat food is good for:
  • Cats prone to dental issues. Dry cat food, especially the prescription dental dry foods, creates some abrasive action on the teeth when it is crunched, and thus slows down the rate that tartar accumulates on the teeth.
  • Underweight cats. Dry food tends to have more calories than canned food, so dry food would be effective for cats to gain weight.
Canned cat food is good for:
  • Underweight or nutritionally challenged cats, who need to put on calories, because canned cat food smells more strongly and entices cats.  
  • Conversely from the above, overweight cats. Canned cat food has fewer calories and is better for weight loss.
  • Cats with urinary issues also do much better when fed a canned diet. Cats with constipation issues also do better when fed a canned diet, as these diets contain more moisture.
Much has been written about dry cat food, carbohydrates and feline diabetes. Many people believe that cats on a mainly dry cat food diet are at increased risk of diabetes because of the high carbohydrate content found in many dry foods. The carbohydrate content of the dry foods is not responsible, per se, for the increasing incidence of diabetes in cats. Dry foods are much more likely lead to obesity in cats, and it is the obesity that predisposes cats to diabetes.

I feel that the quality, not the particular food, is most important. Feeding a little canned cat food in the morning and evening, and having some dry food out for the cat to snack on during the day is a reasonable approach; cats like to eat multiple small meals throughout the day, and people who work all day are understandably reluctant to leave canned food out all day for their cat.

Cats that become overweight or develop urinary issues should have their dry food reduced. Cats with a predisposition for dental issues should be fed a prescription dry diet, ideally. I personally am not a proponent of “raw” diets, but that's another (controversial) issue entirely.
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Which is Best: Canned Cat Food or Dry Cat Food?

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Reader Comments

Besimon    Los Angeles, CA

3/22/2013 9:26:53 AM

I feed wet and dry. I try to make the wet food, their main food but leave dry food out all day. I know that hydration is very important to cats, that is the main reason I puch the wet food. I try to either serve them the high quality wet/cheaper dry or vice versa or high quality both, if I have the budget. They have been very healthy.

debby    raleigh, MN

1/25/2013 6:23:23 PM

i have always fed my cats dry food do great, some can food here and there. good reading though.

Idalaine    that one place in, CA

12/30/2012 3:10:38 PM

We feed our cats a blend of dry foods and it seems to work wonderfully because we can blend different kinds depending on their needs. They are both young adults who love to play, chasing toys and each other, so calories are not a problem. The female receives mostly light adult food with a little tartar control. The other adult male cat receives a little adult light, tartar control, and lots of hairball control because he has recurring "hairball attacks," during which we switch him to canned food because he seems to be able to keep that down much more easily. As the author mentioned, there is no right answer. You just need to experiment to see what works for your cat.

Gayle    Winnipeg, MB

10/26/2012 8:14:04 AM

Dry good is not good for teeth; see catinfo.org for more info in additon to the below:
Dental Disease: Long-standing claims that cats have less dental disease when they are fed dry food versus canned food are grossly overrated, inaccurate, and are not supported by recent studies. This frequently stated (among veterinarians and lay people) myth continues to harm cats by perpetuating the idea that their food bowls need to be filled up with an unhealthy diet in order to keep their teeth clean.

The idea that dry food promotes dental health makes about as much sense as the idea that crunchy cookies would promote dental health in a human.

First, dry food is hard, but brittle, and merely shatters with little to no abrasive effect on the teeth. Second, a cat's jaws and teeth are designed for shearing and tearing meat - not biting down on dry kibble. Third, many cats swallow the majority of their dry food whole.

There are many factors – known and unknown - that contribute to dental disease in the cat such as genetics, viruses, diet, and the fact that cats do not brush their teeth like humans do. There remain many unanswered questions concerning the fact that cats often suffer from poor dental health but one very obvious answer lies in the fact that Man feeds the cat a diet that does not even come close to what they would eat in their natural state.

When cats consume their prey in the wild, they are tearing at flesh, hide, bones, tendons, and ligaments. This is a far cry from the consistency of dry or canned food.

Neither dry kibble nor canned food comes close to mimicking a cat’s normal diet of mice, birds, rabbits, etc. Given what a cat does eat in nature, it makes much more sense to be feeding part of the diet in the form of large chunks of meat (as large as you can get your cat to chew on) or gizzards (tough and fibrous) which a cat’s teeth are designed to chew. Raw meat is ‘tougher’ to chew than cooked meat so I prefer to use raw meat – or lightly baked to kill the surface bacteria - to promote dental health. See Making Cat Food - Dental Health.
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