PSA: Feed your pets dry food only

Per my vet, cats need more wet food than dry, due to poor water intake. I give mine a mix of both plus lots of water in their bowls. They do like to drink out of the sink.

I let my dog eat out of the neighbors trash. He's happy and it's very good for the environment. No waste.

This study was brought to you by Purina Pet Food. Come one, you know you want to feed your pets our animal byproducts!

You can't feed cats dry food exclusively, it leads to kidney disease. This is bad journalism and bad science.

r4 I don't think that's true at all. My neighbour's sweet boy is thriving on dry food only. Her previous Persian lived to twenty on kibbles only as well.

R2 my lab pup gets vegetable peelings and offcuts of meat and fishskins and broken eggs sans shell from our meals, as well as cheap dry biscuits (which we try to limit and only use because of cost, as they aren't healthy really). His coat is lovely, and we frequently get compliments from other walkers on what a healthy happy dog he looks.

[quote]and broken eggs sans shell from our meals

What does this mean? You give him a raw egg here and there?

Actually, egg shells are a really good source of calcium for dogs and they really like them mixed in with their food.

I flipped out recently when I saw my mom buying premium cans for the (spayed) semi-abandoned cat that lives in the shed next to her rented garden. Duck meat with chia seeds, smoked ham with salmon... Bitch, that's better food than I eat!

She showed me a couple of photos of her on her phone and she is quite majestic, I have to admit. Hard not to fall under her spell and just give her anything she wants. And I'm not even a cat person. Crazy the lengths we go to for these little shits.

I feed Honest Kitchen, which is a dehydrated food, to which I add water. Both my dog and cat eat their food. I have on occasion given them kibble, but when I do, I add warm water to it to provide additional hydration.

The dog drinks lots of water on his own, but the cat doesn't drink much, and when she does she dips her paw in the bowl, and then licks the water off of her paw.

My dog eats chicken, ground beef, roast, pork, green beans, eggs, cheese, carrots, salmon, and steak (Kansas City Steaks sandwich steaks). I usually just make him extra, unseasoned food that I'm eating. He gets a small scoop of Iams lamb dry dog food at night. He was on death row when we got him at the pound. He had been taken to the pound and then he was adopted and returned. They didn't even do the required yard check. Poor guy! I wish that I would have fed all of my past dogs real food too.

[quote]and when she does she dips her paw in the bowl, and then licks the water off of her paw.

Confirmed aspie. Curios that she can't pick it up from observing the dog. Though like I said, probably an aspie.

I make my own cat food out of turkey scraps, vitamins, eggs, and some wet food

Dry food also adds weight to cats. My exclusively cat vet endorses wet for the water and it's similar to prey, and dry, which helps with tartar for the teeth.

But if you have a chonk, you need to cut down on the dry food.

PSA: You can turn dry dogfood into wet dogfood by adding an equal amount of hot water and letting it soak for a few minutes. It becomes light, fluffy soft little morsels that your dog will love, especially if you put it in the microwave (low setting) for a few seconds so it’s nice and warm.

Problem solved!

I only feed my cat wet food. It’s more expensive and not as convenient as dry but it’s healthier for him.

Exactly r16 cats really need a lot of wet foods in their diets, especially altered males who are prone to urinary blockages

I thought cats were smart. Why won't they drink enough water? On top of that, people make it easy, by running a skinny stream of water from faucets. (Cats like drinking from a "waterfall.")

R6 when i first read your post i read fishskins as foreskins and was horrified.

r10, I strongly recommend Grandma Lucy's too if you ever need to change brands. I used that when I had 3 dogs and couldn't do raw with them. Now, with just one, I do raw.

Honestly people should just feed their animals the best food they can afford (best being most nutritious not most expensive). My neighbor buys really expensive pure bred chocolate labs only- and feeds them puppy chow which is the equivalent of feeding your kid popcorn every meal.

My idiot neighbor made her poor dog eat vegan.

My cats are fed canned food for their main meals and kibble as limited snacks.

It's eye watering how expensive canned pet food has become. A 12 OZ can of the Wellness pate my cats eat is around $4.50. Canned food for me is less than $2 when on sale at the supermarket.

My local Key Food raised the price of a tiny can of Fancy Feast from .79 pre pandemic to $1.49. I buy it at Target for .85.

[quote]Per my vet, cats need more wet food than dry

[quote]dry food exclusively, it leads to kidney disease

[quote]the cat doesn't drink much, and when she does she dips her paw in the bowl, and then licks the water off of her paw.

Cats, particularly males, are prone to a buildup of ash (leading to urinary stones and eventually kidney problems) which is flushed out of their system with sufficient hydration and you should be careful to watch the ash content in the food. Dry foods are generally higher in ash content than wet foods, and don't include the moisture necessary to eliminate it from their systems. Regarding funny drinking habits: anything to get them to drink more water.

[quote]that's better food than I eat!

Then why aren't you eating cat food? I hate it when people say this. It only shows they know little about how and from what pet food is made.

[quote]I feed Honest Kitchen, which is a dehydrated food

Good choice but pricey for what you get. You're paying for their office and higher salaries inherent in San Diego (not a criticism but just an observation). It's the same for Grandma Lucy's, Sojos, et. al.

Regarding giving your pet people food, there is nothing wrong with that at all. You just need to make sure they're getting all of the vitamins and nutrients that they need, which is accomplished by giving them a bit of commercial food (or you can buy the vitamin pack and add it to their diet yourself). Look for anything labelled "complete and balanced" which is a legally-controlled phrase and only allowed on the package if the food meets requirements bestowed by AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials). And do not season the people food you give them as they don't need extra salt, sugars or spices (which can lead to stomach upset).

I've had pets all my life, work in the pet food/care industry, and have gone from feeding my childhood cat pretty much crap and he lived 18 years, to the most expensive raw food for my recent dogs which did little to extend their lives. The important thing is to make sure they're getting a balanced nutritious diet, keeping their weight stable, and whatever works for you whether it's kibble, canned, pouches, dehydrated, freeze dried or raw.

[quote]Then why aren't you eating cat food? I hate it when people say this. It only shows they know little about how and from what pet food is made.

Bitch, I was clearly joking.

Yeah, I know. I've heard the joke a million times. My comeback always shuts it down.

Cats are more challenging to feed than dogs. They require taurine, which is only available in animal flesh, which is why they're obligate carnivores.

My vet said all of these "grain fee" keto inspired foods aren't healthy. Even though cats are obligate carnivores, they do need carbs. In the wild they eat grass and of course their prey eat carbs. Dog vets are finding liver, cholesterol and heart problems with dogs eating an all meat diet.

No F***ing way! Dry food is ULTA processed crap. It’s by products and scraps. The best is to give them freeze dried meat. If you can boil Turkey and chicken daily , give them freeze dried food which is like what they eat in the wild. It has all their nutrients. They need taurine which is not naturally occurring in dry processed food. It’s cheaper for a reason.

my comeback is 'do you eat only one or two cans of food a day?'

Dogs being omnivores can eat cat shit and thrive. Cats being carnivores and need meat, mosty meat in their diet as R27 said, cats do need complex carbs. I think about what a feline in the wild would eat….if it’s a rabbit they are getting their carbs by eating the contents of the rabbits belly.

Kibble is like eating burnt cereal as your entire diet. Has all the right ingredients, but shitty for your system because it’s super-processed and pro-inflammatory.

My dog gets cooked veggies, fresh cooked or canned chicken breasts, a little rice, boiled egg, sweet potato, apple, and water in her meals. She also gets a multivitamin and omega 3 supplement. Similar to what a human would eat if on a super healthy diet.

My dog has to eat rice or she’ll lose too much weight and look emaciated on her fresh diet.

This all sounds so heavenly.

I hate cats

I feed them raw food. Kibble is for poor people who can't afford the best for your dogs.

[quote]....require taurine, which is only available in animal flesh

And dairy, but it's a little more complicated than that. What we've found with dogs and taurine is that their bodies process the amino acid in conjunction with other ingredients found in grains, which is why the grain-free diet was exposed a couple of years ago as deficient and leading to DCM (heart) issues. Cats process taurine differently than dogs, and taurine has been added to cat food for decades, while manufacturers are only getting around to it for dog food.

[quote]Kibble is like eating burnt cereal

Not all kibbles are created equally. The processes vary greatly from one manufacturer to the next, and obviously some are better than others. It's really all about the ingredients; read the label and if it starts with a grain or a meat by-product, move on.

I feed my cat to my dog. Lucky the pound is full of cats otherwise it would be very expensive.

I want a bag of Kibbles and Bits and I want ONLY THE BITS..

Also, unless the dog food is raised and manufactured in either the United States or Canada you are playing Russian roulette with your pet's life.

That's a bit of a generalization, rescue-chick. There's plenty of manufacturers right here in the US that use substandard ingredients, less-than manufacturing processes, and who make mistakes and poor choices that put pets' lives in danger. And there are manufacturers based overseas that make fantastic high-quality product.

US-based pet food manufacture is largely unregulated, and even the parts that fall under overall food regulations are so laxly enforced it's a joke. It's also part of why when there is a problem (like the DCM issues and grain-free diets) it gets overblown in the media, mostly because a problem has to get large to get noticed.

And then there's the issue of when a brand develops a great reputation, and is sold to a conglomerate; the public continues to think that the food still has the quality and care of when it became famous, but in reality it goes to shit because the three big pet companies care only about the bottom line. For example, Blue Buffalo used to be a high quality and dependable brand; then General Mills bought it and, as the name implies, stacked with grain and cheap fillers so that it could be sold into grocery stores for a price that grocery store shoppers would pay.

In the end, it's all about the ingredients.

That DCM study was largely bullshit paid for by Purina's parent company Nestle.

R1

Same.

Thanks R39. I used to use Nutro decades ago and then they started with the -meals, fillers, etc. Science Diet has a good reputation for being balanced but I never had a cat who liked it.

SD has a lot of crap too but they really pushed their products to vet offices. They now have the rep as the specialty or medical food.

You should only feed your dogs egg shells if they come from a farm. Grocery eggs are cleaned with chemicals and should not be eaten.

If you are interested in pet nutrition look up Dr Judy Morgan.

[quote]Yeah, I know. I've heard the joke a million times. My comeback always shuts it down.

Speaking of aspies...

If we put Chrissy Metz down, we'd cut CO2 emissions in half.

Will this cut down on all the little green bags left on sidewalks and in planters by dog walkers?

r24/r26, demonstrating that you're a humorless twat is indeed a surefire way to get people to no longer want to speak to you. Kudos.

Yeah, dog owners really need to worry about their carbon footprint.

R12 my grandma’s cat used to stir the water with her paw or would scoop it to her mouth.

My sister’s cat sometimes dunks her face in her water dish & then reflexively lifts her (dry) right paw & shakes it. The cat also shoves her face into her crunchies & pushes it around like she’s in a pie-eating contest, & makes contented sounds while she’s doing this. She eats her wet food like normal.

Kibble is not as good as fresh for the same reasons living on ultra-processed food is bad for humans. It's funny that we're still pretending feeding kibble (why not pasteurize McDonald's burgers at extremely high temps, destroying any natural vitamins and minerals, throw in some vitamin powder, shape into small nuggets and dry them to fuck and then live on that as a human? you know why, because that shit would make living on fresh McDonalds look healthy - and those McDonalds burgers are made with much higher quality ingredients than kibble!) to pets is "healthy." It isn't. Just like it isn't for us. And someone's pet making it to a ripe old age on kibble is as much proof of its inherent healthiness as a 100 year old smoker is that smoking is excellent for your health. Come on. Where is your critical thinking, people like R24?

My dog eats all fresh-prepared, after actually thinking about what kibble is a few years ago and deciding not to feed it to her anymore. Mostly it's a mix of (all organic) oats and sweet potatoes, canned (no added salt) salmon, a vitamin mix from the vet, an Omega 3 supplement and a mix of kale and blueberry mush mixed in the blender. Fuckin dog eats cleaner than anyone I know, but she's also my responsibility so I had to do right by her.

R51, you realize you're insane, right?

Yes, R52. I'm OK with it.

Advice to humans: stop breathing. It's very good for the environment.

I give leftovers to the strays that come by. Very environment friendly.

Well this thread is definitely filled with lesbians and fat fraus.

Cos gets SD for breakfast; just one scoop. I alternate between Perfect Weight and Hairball and Urinary Tract Health varieties. He was spayed at 8 weeks so I'm keeping an eye out for urinary issues. My sister's cat had a lot of urinary issues and had to have surgery 2x to fix it.

He gets one can of Fancy Feast Savory Centers for dinner. I feed it to him in quarters so that it lasts longer. Otherwise, he'll eat it all right away or eat a little at a time which then makes it dry and crusty on top.

I tried BB but the kibble is too tiny for him. He likes SD because he can bite them in half, which is really good for tartar. At 6 years old, he's only had to have his teeth scraped 2x. He seems to drink a sufficient amount of water each day. I can hear him lapping it up a couple times a day.

As someone posted upthread about making fresh cat food, I read an article about that as well. It mentioned that fresh food is fine as long as you add in the taurine and other minerals cats need.

To keep his weight manageable, I watch how much dry food he gets at breakfast. As an indoor cat in a spacious one-floor condo, he doesn't get much exercise. He does get the zoomies occasionally which means he tears from one end of the condo to the other and back again.

This type of "here is what you need to do to reduce your environmental impact, and slow climate change type of article is just a smoke screen. Yes, there are things you can do, but it is mostly pointless until the big corporations start doing what THEY need to do, as they are the ones that have a real impact on the environment.

German scientists have concluded that a person who doesn't have children has so much smaller environmental impact than breeders, particularly multiple, that I can aford Fifi the finest steaks.

Science diet is crap now especially for dogs, it's full of corn and soy.

Science diet sells low/noniodine dry cat food for hyperthyroid cats that is purely CORN protein. You heard that right. Cats are carnivores but SD sells this byproduct for like $75/bag by prescription only. They are making a killing off of this food. You can’t tell me that this is healthy for your pet cat. Mine ate it for a little while but she still lost weight and died about 6 months after starting it.

I used to buy Blue Buffalo, American Canyon, etc. (the “healthy” and expensive dry food) for my dog and cat (plus expensive canned wet food) but kibble is still very processed regardless of the brand if it’s dry and contains everything you need. Unless it’s fresh ingredients cooked or raw and freeze dried, it isn’t healthy.

I’m surprised vets recommend it. I told mine I was switching to a fresh diet and they acted like my dog would starve.

Ive been informed kibble has too much sodium for pets and causes thyroid issues

When pets get older, especially cats, their teeth can get bad and they can't eat dry food as well. Dry food often has ash, bone meal and other by-products that aren't good for elder animals' kidneys, as other posters have said. "Wet" or homemade food is often best for our elder babies.

Anyone who believes this is an idiot. I feel sorry for your pet.

[quote]He was spayed at 8 weeks so I'm keeping an eye out for urinary issues.'

Since only female cats can be spayed, I'd like to know what your cat's pronouns are.

[quote](why not pasteurize McDonald's burgers at extremely high temps, destroying any natural vitamins and minerals, throw in some vitamin powder, shape into small nuggets and dry them to fuck...

[quote]Where is your critical thinking, people like [R24]?

Here's my critical thinking: not all kibble is manufactured through the processes you describe. Some of it is. I've named Blue Buffalo as one brand that I wouldn't feed to a stray, let alone my cat or dog; someone else mentioned Science Diet (particularly, one of their "prescription" diets), another brand that at one time was great but has gone through ownership (read: formula and process) changes many times, and is now owned by Colgate-Palmolive... which should tell you all you need to know about it. But there's also brands of cat and dog kibble that are carefully formulated, minimally processed, and packed with all of the vitamins and nutrients our pets need.

More critical thinking: the vast majority of pet owners don't want to spend the money nor take the time to properly feed their pets. Think of kibble as the lowest common denominator in this equation. In the industry, we worry about and mock the idiots who complain "that's better food than I eat!" because they're reducing the most important component of our pets' health that a pet owner can control to a complaint about what they pay for it — when the reality is that pet food is, pound for pound, cheap.

Which leads to my last critical thinking regarding pet food: pet food manufacturers privately acknowledge that they are aware that extremely poor people eat pet food due to its low cost and yet complete nutrition. Let that sink in.

I spent years and years and thousands of dollars buying really expensive wet and dry food for my 2 cats. Moved, changed vets, and new vet (old guy who’s been in practice for decades in an old, wealthy town) said the cats were too fat, too lazy, and had shitty teeth. He’s right. Then he looked over their diet and said, essentially, don’t be shocked at what I’m going to tell you, just trust me and do what I recommend to help your cats lose weight, better gums and teeth, and more energy…stop buying super expensive cat food, stop giving them dry food, except a few treats every day, and buy Fancy Feast Classic Pate canned food. It’s super low in carbs, good moisture content, and it has everything cats need to stay healthy.

6 months later, he’s right. The cats are sleek, slim, their teeth are cleaner, their turds are tight and compact, they never puke, and they run around and play every day now. One is 13, the other 8.

Thank you R44 for mentioning Dr Judy. I wanted a trustworthy source of information about homemade dog food and combatting struvite crystals in my dog's urine.

My vet's suggestion was the anti-struvite diet they sell in the office. When pointed out that she couldn't eat chicken (which is found in the vet recommended diet), they offered no solution.

I forward to following her advice.

My cats LOVES cool ranch Doritos!

R24 what are your recommended brands?

My dog refuses to eat anywhere but this fine dining establishment.

Good dry kibble is EXPENSIVE, more than my food. Then there's the gimmick Fresh Pet refrigerator pet foods, mostly fillers and I think it had a recall for listeria.

LOL, R65! He was NEUTERED. My apologies.

His pronouns are "Moochie," "Smudge," and "Monkey Doddles."

R67, I used to feed Cos FF Pate; he only liked the chicken and liver, though. Maybe the salmon? Maybe I should go back to that.

Ziwi Peak is extremely expensive, and for a tiny bag.

Ziwi Peak is excellent food. It is air dried. It isn't kibble,

Morbidly obese people, particularly the Americans, could and should do more for the environment by losing 150 lbs of their dead weight! It's soul-crushing to see 350-lb people in the news every day.

It's a revolving door, R70. I have two brands that I consistently recommend: for domestic produced kibble (and cans), I recommend Fromm for consistently good quality, good ingredients, well-run manufacturing and good prices; the kibble I feed my dogs is Farmina, imported from Italy (but made largely in Serbia and the Czech Republic but with ingredients sourced all over Europe, and you have to recognize that the UE has much higher standards for pet food than we do) and with the prices you'd expect but well worth it. As a second-tier choice, try Open Farm or Lotus, both American brands but manufactured in Canada.

I used to feed and recommend Orijen (Champion Pet Foods, Canadian), but that went to pot when the opened a factory in Kentucky and quality plummeted. They were recently acquired by Mars which should finish them off as a quality brand. It's the norm in pet that an acquired brand declines in quality. I've seen it happen over, and over, and over again.

The one confounding brand that I can't wrap my head around is Hill's/Science Diet. They have a stranglehold on veterinarians and it is inexplicable. It's crap. I've asked dozens of vets why they recommend it and sell it themselves, and it boils down to two reasons: they're paid by Hills to recommend it, and to a much lesser extent they just don't know if quality food makes a big enough difference to justify higher prices (even though SD isn't cheap). If anyone has a vet who's recommended it or they use it, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts. (Full disclosure: I tend not to criticize vets because their jobs are pretty horrible. You have to be a special person to go into veterinary medicine and deal with the shit they do on a daily basis.)

Thank you, but no. I give my dogs Royal Canin Mini Ageing wet food. Yes, it's owned by Mars Petcare, but at least, it's made in Austria, not shithole Kentucky, or somewhere in China.

[quote]Much of America’s pet food packaging could be contaminated with PFAS “forever chemicals”, creating a potentially dangerous exposure to the toxic compounds for cats and dogs.

[quote]In a recent study public health advocate the Environmental Working Group (EWG) checked 11 bags of pet food and found that all of them contained the substance, including several at extremely high levels.

In case you're wondering why this "research" came out:

[quote] funded by Grandfood Industry and Commerce (PremieR Pet)

[bold] PremieR Pet [/bold] is a Brazilian company that makes...you guessed it...dry dog & cat food.

I have always been the kinda guy that doesn’t buy German machines or car or whatever, out of spite, cause it is so douchey and petty bourgeois, you know all these assholes praising German quality etc. But, for ma little girl I buy made in Germany dog food. And domestic locally produced Barf.

R77, I adopted Cos from my local vet. We've used him for as long as I can remember for our dogs and cats when I was young. When I adopted Cos, I asked what they were feeding him and they Hill's so that's what I bought. I knew bringing him into my home, away from his siblings, would be hard so I thought giving him the same food would be a good start to making him feel comfortable.

I'm happy to try any dry kibble but I need something with a larger size than BB. Anyone have any suggestions? Also, I don't know that Cos will eat duck or whatever fowl they offer now. I tried a can of Blue Wilderness (about $2 for a small can) and he looked at me like this was an April Fool's joke gone horribly wrong. The old adage of "leave the food down, the cat will eventually eat it" does not apply in this house. That shit got old and crusty and he never touched it!

I’m waiting for a study not funded by kibble companies that compares a fresh diet to kibble.

Companies have no idea how much of each mineral is needed by dogs and cats, hence why they Los too much iodine in EVERY wet and dry cat food, even “natural” companies. Why should we trust them to decide what our pets need?

You did exactly what experts recommend when you adopt a pet, R81, and there was and is nothing wrong with continuing to feed them what they're accustomed to eating. But Hill's is crap and all you have to determine this is to read the ingredient panel. If it starts (meaning that is the largest portion of the ingredients) with a grain, it is not what a carnivore needs no matter how good that grain is (but you can rest assured that Hill's is not using good grains).

Why are you looking for a larger piece size, Cosmo? This is an unusual need for cats.

There are over 500 [italic]brands[/italic] of pet food and most manufacturers make multiple diets. There are dozens of options for cats that are not based on exotic proteins, are balanced and nutritious, and don't break the bank.

[quote]I’m waiting for a study not funded by kibble companies

Don't hold your breath.

R83, Cos is a goofball. He swallowed the BB pellets whole and promptly threw them up. I guess most shitty cat food has a large kibble, i.e., Purina One, Friskies, Meow Mix.