Pet owners want the best for their cats! As a new owner of a furry feline, pet owners may become overwhelmed with the responsibility of providing for their essential needs of food, water, shelter, and safety. We are here to help our viewers provide for their cats. Let us start by looking at what to feed your pet? In this article we will discuss dry vs wet cat food pros and cons.
Also, we review some of the better products available in Amazon and Chewy stores to help our viewers with food purchases.
Dry vs Wet Cat Food Options
Walking down the pet food isle of the supermarket, you are presented with multiple brands of wet and dry cat food, each with brightly decorated packaging marketing depicting hungry cats devouring their product!
Generally, cat owners do not have the time to scrutinize each product, compare pricing and read ingredient lists to work out which cat nutrition is best for your cat, and their budget. Most people just want to ‘cut to the chase’.
Even though cats may have differences in age, lactating, health, breed, weight and whether they are an indoor cat or an outdoor cat, essentially, they will all have similar nutritional requirements.
A good cat food, whether dry or wet, should offer a diet with the correct balance of nutrition suitable for carnivorous cats.
There has always been a debate as to which is better- wet or dry food. Our team at Cat Food Advisor has studied cat nutrition and looked at many cat food products. Our view is: they are both suitable!
It is not whether the food is dry or wet that is important, but rather the quality of the recipe, particularly regarding the ingredients, that is important in determining if the product warrants a place in your home.
8 Best Wet Cat Foods (Fully Reviewed HERE)
| Canned Food | Customer Ratings Average | Good For | Price AMAZON | Price CHEWY | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Soulistic Moist & Tender | 4.3 STARS | Free of by-products & additives |  | |
 | Delectables Soft Pate | 4.7 STARS | 100% nutritionally complete with Vitamins | |  |
 | Dr. Elsey’s 03255 Clean Protein | 3.9 STARS | Hydrated and made with clean protein | | |
 | Dave’S Grain Free Cat Food | 4.3 STARS | Protein-rich, grain &gluten-free | | |
 | Muse Natural Canned Food | 4.4 STARS | Balanced diet with tender cuts of real meat | | |
 | HILL’S Rx DIET i/d Digestive Care | 4.6 STARS | Improve digestion and stool quality | | |
 | Purina Pro Plan UT Health | 4.7 STARS | Specific for Urinary Health | | |
 | Royal CaninUrinary SO | New | Good for cats with Urinary Tract issues | | |
Cat Nutrition 101
We have written many articles on our advisory site on cat nutrition. The best way to look at it is to study what cats in the wild eat. We are not referring to lions and tigers (although their general nutrition is pretty much the same!), but wild cats cousins of your pet.
Cats will chase down and eat small rodents, frogs, birds, lizards and even insects. A hungry cat will eat the entire animal, head, organs, skin, and bone. You will not find cats grazing on grass, eating grain, or munching on fruit and vegetables. Cats are obligate carnivores. That means, they get all their nutrition from meat.
The #1 Ingredient Must be Meat
When considering dry vs wet cat food pros and cons, it is important that the first ingredient is a quality meat/s. A quality meat is ‘real meat’ from poultry, beef, lamb, fish, or rabbit. Taurine, an essential amino acid required by cats is abundant in unprocessed meats. Unlike dogs, cats are unable to synthesise taurine, therefore they require it in their meat based diets.
6 Best Dry Cat Foods for Outdoor Cats (Fully Reviewed HERE)
| Product | Average Customer Rating | Features | Price AMAZON | Price CHEWY | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Friskies Dry Cat Food, Surfin’ and Turfin’ Favorites | 4.8 STARS | All age cats Inexpensive Chicken flavor | | |
 | Purina Beyond Grain-Free, Natural | 4.8 STARS | Adult cats Grain free Natural probiotics No artificials Chicken | | |
 | Purina One Tender Selects Blend | 4.8 STARS | Adult cats Crunchy bites Real chicken Omega-6 | | |
 | Blue Buffalo Wilderness High Protein Grain Free, Natural | 4.5 STARS | Adult cats Real beef High protein 36% Grain free | | |
 | Royal Canin Fit Active Dry Cat Food | 4.8 STARS | Adult cats Chicken flavor Balanced calories | | |
 | Wellness Complete Health Natural Dry Cat Food | 4.5 STARS | Adult cats High protein 36% Salmon meat Balanced nutrition | | |
What About Meat By-product?
Meat By-products are essentially the non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat derived from slaughtered mammals.
Much of it is organs such as kidneys, brain lungs, spleen, livers, cleaned stomachs and intestines; as well as blood, bone, undeveloped eggs and feet.
Cat food companies use meat by-products in their wet and dry cat food recipes largely because it is an inexpensive ingredient as it is the offal from animals not considered suitable for humans.
Is Meat By-product Good for Cats?
Meat by-products do provide nutrition for cats, and it is accepted by the AAFCO as suitable for use in animal food, however, we suggested that meat byproduct should not be the first ingredient on the list. It may, however, be used in conjunction with real meat.
