I've heard both "don't use dry food, it causes issues" AND "don't use wet food, it causes issues" so... You're going to have to provide some citation for your opinion.
Wet food causes dental issues but isn't a problem with regular checkups unless your vet prescribes dry food to a cat especially prone to dental issues caused by wet food.
Dry food is tied to obesity due to being higher in carbs, and obesity -> higher chance of diabetes.
As for nutrition - high end dry food will always be better than cheap wet food but overall, from what I've gathered from many vets, is that wet food is better.
So I can see the argument for "wet food is taking better care of your cat" but, unless you notice your cat getting overweight, I don't think kibble could be considered harmful.
Some studies cite that, although with small sample sizes (making the difference between 11% and 39% only a factor of 8-12 cats).
The often cited danger is urinary obstructions and studies like [0] that show wet canned food treats the condition. Another study [1] show it happens less frequently with cats who eat wet food as opposed to dry food. So many people make the conclusion that wet food prevents and treats a potentially fatal condition, therefore wet > dry.
I don't find either study entirely convincing, most vets and studies don't seem to cite dry food as the inherent problem, but rather free-eating cats, overweight, and indoor-only (lack of exercise specifically). (No citations this time, sorry. I don't keep all this stuff handy!)
When the studies themselves aren't blaming dry food (entirely) and vets don't seem to overwhelmingly condemn the use of kibble, I don't see reason to do so myself. I trust the studies and vets.
Comments
don't feed kibble to your cat please.
I've heard both "don't use dry food, it causes issues" AND "don't use wet food, it causes issues" so... You're going to have to provide some citation for your opinion.
Wet food causes dental issues but isn't a problem with regular checkups unless your vet prescribes dry food to a cat especially prone to dental issues caused by wet food.
Dry food is tied to obesity due to being higher in carbs, and obesity -> higher chance of diabetes.
As for nutrition - high end dry food will always be better than cheap wet food but overall, from what I've gathered from many vets, is that wet food is better.
So I can see the argument for "wet food is taking better care of your cat" but, unless you notice your cat getting overweight, I don't think kibble could be considered harmful.
I thought the lack of any moisture in dry food can create other issues too?
Some studies cite that, although with small sample sizes (making the difference between 11% and 39% only a factor of 8-12 cats).
The often cited danger is urinary obstructions and studies like [0] that show wet canned food treats the condition. Another study [1] show it happens less frequently with cats who eat wet food as opposed to dry food. So many people make the conclusion that wet food prevents and treats a potentially fatal condition, therefore wet > dry.
I don't find either study entirely convincing, most vets and studies don't seem to cite dry food as the inherent problem, but rather free-eating cats, overweight, and indoor-only (lack of exercise specifically). (No citations this time, sorry. I don't keep all this stuff handy!)
When the studies themselves aren't blaming dry food (entirely) and vets don't seem to overwhelmingly condemn the use of kibble, I don't see reason to do so myself. I trust the studies and vets.
[0] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10023397
[1] Paywall, but I think this is the study. http://jfm.sagepub.com/content/suppl/2014/03/12/16.4.DC1/JFM...
I think dominotw is a cat. If so, don't expect a citation.
I was thinking all that for dry food, what a con.
The next step is to make a device that opens a wet can and let the cat choose with buttons or different drop targets.