Today, almost every apartment has a cat. These wonderful animals can not only delight with their playful nature, but also help their owners in stressful situations. However, when bringing a kitten into the house, you must definitely think about its nutrition. Of course, everyone wants their animal to grow up healthy and happy.
Today, pet stores offer a huge variety of food. The most popular of them are dry mixtures. It is believed that the higher the grade of food, the better it will be for the pet. However, quite often, animal owners begin to wonder whether feeding cats such difficult-to-digest food is harmful. Perhaps soaking dry food is the best solution?
That is why it is worth considering the opinion of experts regarding this issue. You need to know that first of all it is recommended to pay attention to the following important aspects of choosing dry food.
About dry food
If we talk about whether it is possible to feed a cat with pre-soaked dry food, then first you need to pay attention to a few useful tips. Cat food packages are usually labeled with a category. The higher it is, the better quality the manufacturer guarantees.
The cheapest food is not recommended to be given to animals in any form (soaked or dry). The fact is that they have a detrimental effect on the cat's health. Therefore, it is recommended to refuse such options or give your pet such food only in the most rare cases.
If the products are of higher quality, then they may well constitute the pet’s main diet. In addition, dry food will not harm your pet if he always has clean drinking water nearby. The fact is that there is practically no moisture in such food products. Because of this, the components are very poorly digested, so the animal must drink after or during meals.
In addition, food should not be mixed. First of all, this applies to various dry products. It is also not recommended to add canned food to granulated food. The fact is that the digestive system must accept a certain type of food. If you mix 2 different types of food, this can lead to stomach problems.
Measure your portion in advance
Both overfeeding and underfeeding can negatively affect the health of pets. Therefore, it is important for the owner to ensure that the pet eats enough, but does not overeat. Dry food in water increases significantly in volume and weight, but the nutritional value remains the same. To avoid confusion with dosages, it is easier to measure the portion in advance. It must comply with the manufacturer's recommendations printed on the packaging.
You will also find feeding tables for Acana and Orijen on the product pages on our website. Please note that the indicated dosages are not one-time, but daily. This volume still needs to be divided by the number of meals, and each portion should be soaked separately (20–30 minutes before feeding).
Adult dogs usually need two meals a day. It’s more difficult with cats: they prefer to eat small meals, so when using soaked food they may need more feedings than when “drying”.
If there is very little left in the bowl, it is better not to remove it for an hour: the cat may return and finish the meal. But this period cannot be extended by several hours due to the risk of product spoilage.
Is it possible to resort to soaking?
If we talk about whether dry cat food can be soaked, it all depends on the specific situation. Veterinarians often comment on this issue.
Often, older cats pounce on food and begin to swallow it very quickly, without even chewing. This happens when an animal begins to have problems with its teeth or its fangs completely fall out. In this case, it is also worth either switching your pet to a more liquid diet, or figuring out whether dry cat food can be soaked.
You need to understand that in the absence of the required amount of liquid, dry components can stagnate in the animal’s body, and this, in turn, will lead to constipation. It is not recommended to allow this, since in this case intoxication will begin and poisons will begin to be released into the gastric tract. It's better to add some water to your food.
When does food need to be soaked?
When answering the question whether it is possible to soak dry cat food, it is worth considering the situation when this is simply necessary. If your pet vomits some time after eating, this indicates that the pellets are causing harm to the stomach walls. In this case, it is recommended to study the consistency of the vomit. If there are whole pieces of dry food in the vomit, this indicates that the animal is not receiving enough water, or this category of food is not suitable for this pet.
In this case, the answer to the question of whether dry cat food can be soaked is clear, since the food must be liquefied. It is also recommended that you visit a veterinarian. He will help you choose a different type of food.
How to soak dry cat food correctly?
For everything to work out in the best way, you must use exclusively purified boiled water. You need to make sure that it is not very hot, as boiling water will destroy the beneficial substances contained in the food. The optimal temperature should be 50-60°. If you use cold water, then solid food will take too long to dissolve.
How to soak and brew dry food and do you need to adjust the diet? Yes, a portion of the product must be filled with water so that all components are completely covered with liquid. The mixture should be left in this state for 10-15 minutes. This time is enough for the food to swell and be ready for consumption.
Some owners of small kittens prefer to fill their food with warm milk. However, experts strongly recommend against doing this. The fact is that milk contains its own nutrients, which can enter into poor symbiosis with the components of dry food. Also, when feeding an animal, you need to pay attention to some nuances.
When do you need to change the type or diet of feeding?
Which is better
When reading the composition, you need to pay special attention to the first 3–5 places in the list: these are the components that predominate in the food
Carnivores primarily need meat, and it should predominate in the food composition and be at the top of the list. It’s good if the meat is dehydrated, that is, water has been removed from it, this means that there is really a lot of this component. After all, liquid is evaporated from fresh meat during the production of dry food, which means its weight and volume decreases several times.
There is little or no plant protein in good food, especially grains. Wheat, corn and their derivatives are completely useless for cats; rice, especially brown rice, and oats are more useful. In any case, grains should occupy a small proportion of the product composition. Components such as vegetables and fruits, eggs, fish oil, vegetable oils, seeds, probiotics, vitamins, minerals, glucosamine, chondroitin increase the biological value of the feed.
The natural prey of cats are mice and birds, so meat should predominate in the composition of cat food.
Harmful or useless components of dry food are by-products and animal fats without specifying the name, flour from products, crushed grains, soy, dyes, salt, sugar, caramel, chemical additives (ethoxyvin and others).
I am the proud owner of two pets who have been eating dry food for many years. An elderly cat was switched to it after surgery to remove a tumor. This veterinary line food from Royal Canin is called Gastrointestinal Moderate Calorie, it was recommended to us by the veterinarian based on the results of the cat’s tests and taking into account her advanced age.
The cat is now 17 years old, she has recovered from surgery and is doing well. But if you take a closer look at the composition of her food, then rice comes first, not meat. And it is no longer produced in France, as before, but in Russia. But I don’t plan to change the food, so as not to stress the cat at her advanced age.
Our cat is quite young, he is 4 years old. He is a true Bengal with pedigree. The breeders' cat ate holistic food, but we gradually switched to Leonardo food (now it is classified as super premium). Unfortunately, Leonardo periodically disappeared from sale and we switched to the more popular and always available in stores Royal Canin (for neutered cats).
In principle, I have no big complaints about this food. The cat is healthy, shiny coat, good and active appetite. But he is always hungry, constantly asks for food and at the same time gets fat. I carefully read the composition of his food and found that there were a lot of grains and little meat. We decided to switch him to a higher-class food with a predominance of animal proteins.
The choice fell on Farmina N{amp}amp;D food, its composition is very attractive, and there is also a wide variety of tastes. We first bought a small pack, made sure that the cat was delighted with the new food, and gradually switched to it. Now the pet eats the variety with chicken and pomegranate. The composition is dominated by meat and includes fish, as well as many other useful components.
The cat is very happy, although he asks to eat even more often and more actively than before. Of course, it is too early to draw final conclusions: he has been eating it for only two weeks. It is absorbed perfectly, the cat’s feces are fine. The food granules are finer and have a stronger smell than Royal Canin. By the way, both the cat and the cat periodically eat food from our table.
The cat loves beef, turkey and fish, and the cat loves boiled sausage and frankfurters. I know very well that this is harmful, but I am not able to refuse them. I try to give them their favorite treats rarely and little by little. As for water, the cat drinks from the tap, and the cat drinks from her bowl. The cat had problems with his bladder, and now we are trying to get him to drink more by opening the tap and inviting him to drink a stream of water.
The cat has always drunk well and has no problems with the urinary tract or kidneys. Sometimes we buy them both pouches with wet food from the same brand. Pets go crazy for wet food, growl at each other and gobble up wet food with great speed and greed. It is easy to understand that for them this is the best delicacy, and much tastier than natural food.
Thus, I urge everyone to study the composition of dry food in a timely manner, and also not to forget about the need to drink plenty of fluids. If you have the financial opportunity to pamper your cat with wet food of the same brand, do it - your pets will be very grateful to you. I recommend a convenient resource for comparing the composition of feeds.
It is generally accepted to divide feed into economy, premium, superpremium, and holistic classes. However, such a classification is not officially recognized and the criteria for division are very conditional. Manufacturers take advantage of this by advertising their products as belonging to a certain class, and cat owners are confused by this information when trying to choose the optimal diet for their pet. The solution is quite simple: you need to focus not on the class of food, but on its composition.
- Feeding a cat dry food is the same as feeding a person only crackers. This is a completely incorrect comparison, because good food is a complex product that includes all the chemical elements necessary for the animal. A large number of different products are involved in the production of dry food. You can rather compare it to food for astronauts.
- Dry food contributes to the development of urolithiasis in cats. This is not true, because the main causes of this pathology are an excess of carbohydrates in the animal’s food and a lack of water. Yes, there are problems with the lack of water a cat drinks on a dry diet, but this is the owner’s task - to provide the pet with fresh and clean water and make it drink. To replenish fluid, you can diversify your pet's menu with wet food.
- The best foods are recommended by veterinarians (Royal Canin, ProPlan, Hills, etc.) Often such recommendations are associated with agreements between veterinarians to advertise certain products. Before buying food recommended by a specialist, you need to study its composition and read reviews on the Internet. And remember that the most active in the advertising market are manufacturers of economy and premium class products, while high-quality food is practically not advertised.
- Dry food cleans animals' teeth. Unfortunately, this is a myth. Pieces of food do not have abrasive properties and are not capable of cleaning teeth. It is better to have your teeth cleaned regularly at the veterinarian's office.
- Good feed contains little ash, which leads to urinary tract diseases. It has now been established that ash has nothing to do with the development of these diseases. But grain ingredients in feed increase the alkaline reaction of urine, which promotes the formation of struvite. A high-protein diet, natural or grain-free, will help here.
- High-protein feeds can harm the animal; they should not be fed on a regular basis. This is true if the proteins are vegetable. Their excess, observed in low-quality food, can worsen the cat's health. First of all, these are proteins from soy, corn and wheat. And food with a predominance of animal proteins (meat, fish, eggs) is close to the natural food of cats and is definitely healthy. It is possible and necessary to feed your animal the right food at all times.
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Yes, it is possible, but only if the food has the correct composition with a predominance of animal proteins, the presence of healthy carbohydrates, fiber, and taurine. Otherwise, it is necessary to enrich the diet with natural products and vitamin complexes to maintain good health of the pet.
It is permissible to mix dry food when switching from one diet to another. Such a need may arise on the recommendation of a veterinarian or in connection with the decision of the animal owner to change food. This will not be mixing, but gradually adding a small amount of new food to the old. They usually start with 1/6 of the new food, day by day increasing this amount until they completely replace the old one.
You can feed your animal dry and wet food from the same manufacturer. This is how veterinarians recommend diversifying your pet’s diet. Usually they offer dry food in the morning and wet food in the evening. It is not recommended to supplement the diet with wet food from other brands, as it can upset the balance of nutrients in the cat’s body.
Pouch packs are suitable for daily supplementing your cat’s diet with wet food - they are very convenient to use.
It is not recommended to mix dry food and natural food in the diet. After all, to process natural food and dry food, different digestive enzymes are needed, and the digestion time of these products also varies greatly. Dry food takes much longer to digest. However, many owners like to treat their cat to natural treats, and some breeders of purebred cats create their own mixed diets.
Soaking the dryer is recommended if the cat drinks little water. Then the owner has to take care of adding liquid to the pet’s food. Old animals may have bad teeth, in which case soaking the food will allow them to eat properly. It is also sometimes practiced to soak food for small kittens.
Features of feeding kittens
If a kitten aged 6 to 12 months lives in the house, then he should be given no more than 100 grams of dry food per day. Older pets require 2 times more. As a rule, food packages indicate the approximate volume and how many times the animal should be fed.
It is also worth considering that animals do not always understand exactly how many nutrients they need to fully function. Fluffy fidgets love to climb into the refrigerator or on the table at night and feast on what people have left. At the same time, you should carefully monitor the animal and try not to spoil it. If you give him what people eat, it will not help the development of his digestive system.
When a cat looks much larger than its fellows or suffers from obesity, then it should be fed no more than 2 times a day, no matter how much it asks for more.
If there are more than two pets living in an apartment, then you need to allocate a bowl for each of them and make sure that both pets receive the required amount of food.
How to Preserve Soaked Food
You should not save uneaten food. What children do not consume within 2 hours is fed to the mother or thrown away. Fermented food can cause food poisoning. At the next feeding you will be able to find out how much the babies eat. If the diluted food is not enough, the kittens are offered some dry food. At first, babies may ignore wet feed because it is cold and should not be heated.
Soaking dry food can be considered as a technique for teaching weaned kittens to eat solid food. But not only. There are a number of indications for the use of diluted feed for older young animals, as well as for sick, elderly and weakened animals.
What needs to be done to ensure that the pet is healthy later?
When feeding your pet, you need to follow a few simple rules that will help maintain the animal’s health for a long time. First of all, it is worth considering that adult cats should never be fed food intended for kittens. The fact is that depending on the age of the animal, certain additives, minerals and vitamins are added to the products. Therefore, experts do not recommend buying inappropriate food.
It is also worth considering that dry food should never be mixed with fresh food. This may lead to indigestion. Sometimes pet owners decide to add some natural meat to their dry food. This is a completely wrong decision. If an animal, for one reason or another, refuses to eat dry food, then there is no need to force it. Packages of food must be stored tightly closed; there is no need to put them in the refrigerator.
