Is it OK to give cats different wet food everyday
Is It OK To Give Cats Wet Food Everyday?
Cat owners always wonder, is it OK to give cats wet food everyday?. Some people try not to give wet food to their cats because it might be messy, and they need to put the opened package in the fridge.
However, there are numerous benefits to eating wet food, and you should feed your cats wet food daily. Lets find out how much wet food your cats should eat a day in the below.
Is It OK To Give Cats Wet Food Every Day?
Wet food isnt a useful treat or an occasional pleasure. Wet food is more beneficial for cats digestive systems than semi-moist or dry food; therefore, they may and should consume it daily.
Rodents, tiny birds, and bugs are all prey for wild cats. Their systems are accustomed to digesting raw meat, which is rich in protein and low in carbohydrates. As a result, most veterinarians advice giving only high-quality wet food to cats.
Cat owners may prefer dry food because it is simple and easy to serve and store. Most cats dont mind having a portion of biscuits. However, the harmful effect of dry cat food is not immediately apparent.
Even if the product is labeled as complete cat food or high-protein, it may create several problems in the long run, including malnutrition, poor digestion, Obesity, and kidney disease.
Although dry food might allow cats to get by, they require regular wet foods to keep healthy and prosper.
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What Are The Benefits Of Giving Your Cat Wet Food Every Day?
As dry food has little moisture, your cat will have to drink from a dish, fountain, or wet food. Feeding a mix of dry and wet food, rather than only dry, is an excellent approach to help your cat consume more water. There are several advantages to having wet food.
Wet Food Contains Fluid
Giving cats wet food together with dry food on a daily basis guarantees that your cat gets sufficient fluids. It is because fresh food from animals includes a lot of water, which is also a vital component in cats health.
Cats should drink enough water throughout the day, or their numerous biological systems might be negatively affected, leading to bladder stones. Cats exclusively consuming dry food commonly have insufficient fluid, resulting in concentrated pee and a high chance of bladder stones.
Wet Food Keeps Your Cat Fit
Wet food offers numerous additional advantages than only the water content. It even aids cats in keeping a healthy weight. In 100g, dry food provides four times more energy than wet food.
Feeding your cat a wet meal makes sure that they are happy with reduced energy consumption, and your pets will be able to keep their weight more easily.
Becoming overweight brings multiple issues for cats and lowers their quality of life, leading to a variety of dangerous diseases. As a result, cat owners should be cautious not to overfeed cats so that they live a full and happy life.
Adds More Variety
Cats might become fed up with their food after eating it for a long time. Some cats want diversity, not simply the same meal every day. Dry food alone could not always fulfill this appetite.
By introducing additional wet food, you can please your cats craving for different and intriguing flavors and sensations. Since wet food cans are tiny, its simple to buy a different choice to check what your cat likes.
With many different textures and flavors, the diet will become an exciting journey for the cat.
Promotes Lean Body Mass
Wet food contains a lot of protein, which helps build strong muscles. Besides, It aids in the maintenance of muscular mass during maturity and cats elderly years.
A cats entire weight is made up of fat mass and lean body mass (LBM). LBM includes ligaments, muscles, organs, bones, and other structures, while muscles and organs are the major contributors to metabolic activity. They support numerous critical processes such as movement, immunity, and others.
Cats lose LBM when they are older. Wet cat food with high protein can assist them in maintaining LBM as they get older.
Other Benefits of Wet Cat Food
Wet food is good for digestion. Additionally, it has all the same critical elements as dry food, such as vitamins and minerals.
- Iron: Promotes healthy tissue and blood
- Zinc: Aid in the growth of the immune system and the maintenance of the eyes, bones, and skin.
- Biotin: Assists in regulating energy released from meals and supports good skin by retaining skin integrity.
So, do cats require wet food? Not absolutely, but a mix of dry and wet food can give your cat the best. The wet food improves her overall everyday water consumption and offers her variety, while the dry food aids in cleaning her teeth
How Much Wet Food Does Your Cat Need Everyday?
Most cats consume three to four meals every day. The frequency is set by: bodyweight, activity level, and circumstances. The protein level of cat food influences the number of servings since this nutrient helps cats feel full and satisfied. With high-protein wet food, three meals daily should be plenty for a cat.
For Kittens
Kittens require more calories than mature ones. Young kittens from 2 to 6 months old develop quickly and have important nutritional requirements. You can slowly lower the meal number after reaching their ideal weight (550850 grams for six to nine-year-old cats).
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Most kittens nutritional requirements will decrease at 6 months of age as development ceases.
A Senior Cat Wet Food?
When your mature cat has been consuming low-fat wet meals with lots of meat daily, you should continue to feed it the same way from 10 years old. If your cat has previously been fed a mixed diet or only dry food, gently switch to grain-free wet meals to promote good aging.
Learn Domestic Cats
A cat with a lean shape weighing 5 pounds will require around 170 calories a day. Meanwhile, a cat with a lean shape weighing 10 pounds will require around 280 calories a day. For A cat with a lean shape weighted 15 pounds, you need to give it around 360 calories a day.
A cat with a lean shape weighted 20 pounds will require around 440 calories a day.
Overweight Domestic Cats
You should be careful, as being overweight will create an uncomfortable feeling for your cat. Thus, your pet will need 180 calories daily if your cat is 5 pounds overweight. However, when your cat is 10 pounds overweight, he only needs 240 calories.
For 15-pound overweight cats, the daily calories should be around 280, and 310 calories are for 20-pound fat cats.
Pregnant Cats
Pregnant cats will eat regular food and calories for 5 weeks upon breeding. They should then be changed to a growth or kitten diet, with a gradually increasing amount.
- A pregnant cat weighing 10 pounds requires around 390 calories each day.
- A pregnant cat weighing 15 pounds requires around 510 calories each day.
Nursing Cats
Cats continually lose weight when feeding their babies, even if they eat the most they can. Nursing cats should be given a lactation or growth diet on their own.
The age and number of kittens will impact calorie consumption. Some pets with huge litter may require 3-4 times their normal calorie intake.
Sick Cats
Although wet food is good for ill cats, they may not eat their normal three meals each day while recovering. Follow your sick cats instincts and provide two or three wet foods daily, in addition to handmade dishes such as a bone broth or a light soup.
Conclusion
Is it OK to give cats wet food everyday? Yes, wet food is better than dry or mixed food as they offer many benefits. They can provide a fluid and keep your cats fit.
Even though it takes extra time to clean wet food, you should feed your pets daily so they can live healthily and happily.
Is Variety the Spice of Life?
How do you feed your cat? Is it the same thing day in and day out, or do you spice it up a little and offer different foods from time to time? There is no right answer to this question. As with most aspects of cat care, it depends on the individual.
Some cats definitely do better when they eat the same thing every day. Reasons can vary from diet-responsive health problems like inflammatory bowel disease or food allergies, to a more generic sensitive stomach that rebels to change, to extreme finickiness. If your cat is thriving on a nutritionally complete and balanced diet that satisfies her whims and medical needs, Im certainly not going to recommend making a change. If it aint broke, dont fix it, right?On the other hand, a diet that includes some variety does have its benefits, as long as your cats gastrointestinal tract can handle it. Any life-stage appropriate, commercially prepared food that is labeled as being nutritionally complete should meet all of a cats basic (emphasis on the basic) dietary needs even when it is that individuals sole source of nutrition. But to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, There are unknown unknowns. Things we don't know we don't know.Our knowledge of feline nutrition is not perfect, and commercially prepared foods are not identical. One brand may contain a little more of this, another, a little less of that, and a third, something completely missing from the other two. One way to hedge your bets is to rotate through several different types of cat food in the hopes that, in the aggregate, they will supply just what is needed.If you offer both canned and dry food on a daily basis, you are already doing this to some extent. You can mix things up even more by mixing two or more types of dry food together in the bowl, which also works if you feed dry food only. To maintain freshness, make sure you buy smaller bags of food since youll be going through them more slowly.I dont recommend offering a different variety of foods, either canned or dry, at every meal, however. Frequent flavor rotation has been implicated in the development of finicky eating behavior, probably because cats fed in this way learn that if they arent thrilled with whats in front of them, they can just wait for something better to come along. If you feed primarily canned food or dont like the idea of having multiple bags of kibble lying around, you can still provide your cat with variety by rotating through different products on a more gradual basis. Every few months, as you are running out of one type of food and are due to purchase more, switch brands. Take a few days to mix the old and new together to minimize the risk of gastrointestinal upset.Of course, all of the foods that you offer should be of the highest quality possible, or you cant expect to see much of a benefit from mixing things up a bit.
Dr. Jennifer Coates
Image: buildscharater / via Flickr
WRITTEN BY
Jennifer Coates, DVMVeterinarian
Dr. Jennifer Coates is an accomplished veterinarian, writer, editor, and consultant with years of experience in the fields of veterinary...
Meal Feeding vs. Free Feeding Cats: What's Best?
Meal feeding means you're providing food to your cat only at specific meal times during the day. Both canned and dry foods can be fed in this manner.
Advantages:Food intake can be closely monitored, which means it will be easy to tell if your cat has had a change in appetite. In addition, if you have the joy of amultiple cat household, all cats will have access to food without one being dominant over the others one cat could be eating all the food and gaining too much weight, and the other cat(s) could be missing out on the nutrients they need to stay healthy.
Disadvantages.Cats might beg for food between meals. Your cat cannot control how much she eats at a certain time. However, if you are following your veterinarian's advice with proper amounts and regular feeding, you can rest easy that she is indeed getting the right amount of food and nutrients.
The bottom line.While kittens should be fed up to three times a day, once a cat becomes an adult (at about one year of age) feeding once or twice a day is just fine, says theCornell Feline Health Center. In fact, feeding just once-a-day should be acceptable for the majority of cats. "Once cats reach adulthood, once a day feeding is fine as long as they are healthy and have no disease problems suggesting a reason to feed differently," Cornell reports. Again, always check with your vet before deciding on a feeding regimen.
If you have multiple cats, ideally each cat should have their own food and water station in a quiet, low-traffic place where the cat likes to spend time,The Cat Doctorsadvises. That's because cats are solitary eaters they prefer to be alone when they eat.