Wet cat food is great, just ask your cat. Why is wet cat food so great? There are several reasons wet cat food is an excellent cat food type that you should consider if you have a feline companion at home. Wet food is the middle child of sorts when it comes to pet food, the jack of all trades. While it is slightly less convenient than dry food and doesn’t have the sheer nutritional power of raw food, it does offer all the nutrients your four-legged companion needs without costing as much as raw or dehydrated pet food.
In addition to the health and nutritional benefits of wet cat food, because it has been processed less than dry food, it most likely tastes better to cats. While this is mostly speculation, it is supported by our experiences with cooking food, who thinks overbaked food is better than food cooked just right? As a result of the reduced processing, wet cat food contains more complete proteins than does dry cat food. The processing of wet food also makes it less likely to contain harmful bacteria which is a common worry with raw pet food.
The benefits of wet food don’t end there, let’s look at 3 reasons wet cat food is the best cat food type!
Reason 1: Wet Cat Food Has A Lot of Moisture
When it comes to cats, moisture is one of the biggest concerns for most pet parents. Most cats are inherently bad at drinking water from a bowl. This has to do with cats originating as a desert species that is fairly good at retaining any moisture it takes in, which for cats is through their diet. If you take away the moisture content from their diet, they typically will not get enough moisture to support their bodies and complications can arise. This is common for kitties that are only given dry cat food.
A great way to ensure your furry family member gets the moisture they need from their diet is to feed your cat wet cat food. Wet cat food has a very high moisture content, usually around 75% or more, and will provide your kitty the moisture needed to keep them hydrated and healthy. By feeding wet cat food you can help reduce the likelihood of issues such as calcium oxalate and struvite crystal formation, commonly referred to as cat ‘crystals.’ Crystal formation in cats is a serious issue and it can quickly become fatal for male cats.
Check out these high-quality wet cat food options to get started. Wet cat food is easy to feed and can be cycled with dry for an easy rotation diet that will keep your kitty happy, hydrated, and healthy!
Smooth & creamy paté consistency, high-quality ingredients, and a delicious flavor make this wet cat food a winner with just about any cat! The large can size makes this food a bargain.
Reason 2: Wet Cat Food is Higher in Protein & Other Nutrients
Cats are obligate carnivores; this means they get nearly all of their dietary nutrition from animal proteins. Animal meat is high in protein and as such cats require a high amount of protein from their diets for optimal health. Dry cat food often provides the lowest concentration of nutrients, including protein. Due to the lower nutrient content of dry food, feeding wet cat food will give your kitty more balanced and complete nutrition than dry food in the same amount of food, in short, pets have to eat a larger serving of dry food to get the same nutrition as a smaller serving of wet food.
It is often pointed out that wet cat food containers list nutritional facts and some of the values listed, protein, for example, are lower than those same values on bags of dry cat food. You might be asking yourself how wet cat food with 11% protein is higher than a bag of dry food that says it has 38% protein. The answer is simple, sort of, it all comes down to something called ‘dry-matter analysis.’ It is important to know that the nutritional facts on any foodstuff, including human food, is the ‘as-fed’ nutrition, not the true nutritional content.
Dry matter analysis takes into account the moisture content of the foodstuff which has an impact on the values listed on the bag or container of food. In a nutshell, after performing a few calculations, you can determine the dry-matter nutrition of any food. It is not uncommon for dry pet food values to actually decrease when you analyze the dry-matter whereas wet pet food values tend to get dramatically higher. For instance, a 38% protein dry food with 10% moisture will be about 42% protein. A wet food with 11% protein and 78% moisture will be 50% protein.
In essence, moisture matters! If you are looking to give your kitty some high-quality, protein-packed wet cat food, check out our recommendations below.
Treat your cat to one of the highest protein wet food recipes on the market. Instinct Ultimate Protein provides your precious feline all the nutrition needed to keep your cat healthy and happy!
Reason 3: Wet Cat Food Has Fewer Filler Ingredients
The last reason we are covering today for why wet cat food is the best type of cat food is the ingredients included in the food. Dry pet food usually contains various binding or filling ingredients that are meant to provide the food structure and solidity. Most of these binding ingredients are not processed very efficiently by your cat’s body and are essentially unnecessary from a health standpoint. Since wet cat food is sold in cans and or boxes it doesn’t need to retain a ridged shape and therefore don’t need the same binding ingredients dry food does.
It is because of this lack of binding ingredients that wet cat food is more bioavailable than dry cat food. Cats will be able to assimilate more of the nutrients from wet food than they can from dry food.
With all the cat food options available it can be hard to choose the one that is just right for your furry family member. Wet cat food represents the best of both dry and raw cat food without as many negative aspects as dry and without the financial investment of raw pet food. With several different textures and a myriad of flavors, you are sure to be able to find a wet cat food your kitty will love!
Having trouble choosing a wet cat food? Check out our recommendations for the best wet cat food brands and flavors here.