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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...




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