Is it ok to feed wet food only?

[KittyQuestions34]

Hello cat parents of mumsnet!

I'm after some advice pls - my 1 yr old BSH calico female (cat tax included of course!) has been fed a mix of wet/dry food since we got her at 3 months. She's settled on Scrumbles pate and McAdams dry food.

Unfortunately over the last few months she has become quite constipated, resulting in vets trips and enemas. Vet couldn't identify a reason, just said to make sure she's drinking water, which she is.

I'm wondering whether it's ok teeth and health wise just to feed wet food, as I think it might be the dry food clogging her up? At the moment she has 1 tin of wet split over the day (so half in morning and half in evening), and a bowl of dried which she grazes on over the course of the day. She always finishes her food.

I'm concerned that her dental health may suffer if I stop the dried, as I've read it's good for removing plaque. Is that right?! Or would some 'Dentalife' treats every day help with that?

Thanks so much!

Yes, it is perfectly fine. My cat only gets dry food as a treat. Just make sure it is a complete feed and not complementary. Given that your cat has suffered from constipation, I would make sure that it is a high quality food without grains or other fillers.

Thanks @Mia184 that's reassuring! I think scrumbles is pretty good quality (as far as I can tell!!) and she seems to like it. The consistency is very smooth which she doesn't have to chew much, but I think that's ok? Will try her for a while with reduced biscuits (maybe just a few in the evening?) and see how she gets on.

Any other tips for helping with constipation? The vet gave us some lactulose but it's run out - is it ok to give them the normal 'human' version?!

Thanks

Bumping for the morning crowd 😊

"Any other tips for helping with constipation? The vet gave us some lactulose but it's run out - is it ok to give them the normal 'human' version?!"

The stuff from the vet is the normal human version- AFAIK there is no animal licensed version (yet- no doubt some drug company will go through the licensing process with this drug that has been around for ever, call it "Lactucat" and charge fifty quid for a small bottle probably, and we'll all be legally obliged to use it because Cascade).

I have read a couple of times that psyllium husks works well in cats with constipation but I‘ve never had to use it in my cat so I don’t know anything about dosages.

Your cat is gorgeous btw!

Beautiful cat btw!

Hmm what else:
Water intake by any and all means possible - google "cat water intake FLUTD" for ideas (not that your cat has FLUTD, and a happy "side effect" of a wet diet means that she is probably less likely to get FLUTD and also less likely to get fat, just that FLUTD is a common reason for wanting to increase water intake so you can piggy back on the FLUTD information for ideas of how to encourage water intake).

Check not hairballs- although if your vet has already performed enemas they've probably hoked through the poo they retrieved for fur. Furballs can be a cause of gut problems (abnormal amount of hair trying to pass through the gut of an overgrooming cat) or an effect (the cat is only grooming and ingesting a normal amount of hair, but an abnormal gut with dodgy motility can't deal with it) or both. Pull the poo apart - if there's enough hair in there that the strands are trying to hold it together, that suggests that hairballs could be a problem for her even if she isn't puking them up- they don't always.

I assume, since you had her from a kitten, she's never had a pelvic fracture narrowing the pelvic canal (you'd know, they generally have to be hit by a car to cause this and they are properly lame and sore for a while) or other injury to her spine or tail (mind you, again with a tail pull injury you'd know, the tail would have been floppy at the time and she would probably have urinary problems before she'd get constipation problems).

Teeth- I think when deciding her diet, the constipation problem probably trumps the teeth so they'll have to take their chance. Dry food isn't the be all and end all of of dental health anyway, I think it's protective effect is overstated. A few Dentabites might help and I see that they are VOHC approved (scroll to the bottom for cat products)
https://vohc.org/accepted-products/

*sorry you said Dentalife which are also on the VOHC list

If the wet food and increased water intake doesn't work, then maybe explore the possibility that she's developing inflammatory bowel disease. Bit unusual for constipation to be the main sign- but IBD is reaaaallly common in cats. If your efforts don't yield results I'd try feeding a hydrolysed protein diet exclusively for a few months (and I'd even stop the dental chews and everything else for this trial...no Dreamies no chicken no cat milk no nuttin' but water and the trial food). But talk to your vet first- I'm overstepping with the internet diagnosing of somebody else's case here!

My cat is 10 and has been on a wet food /raw since he was about 3,no teeth issues at all. He doesn't even have dry treats.

Ah that's good to know! I will go buy a big bottle then (just like I did after having my children 😂)

Thanks - I will see if I can get some of that and give it a try.

Thank you! She is a lovely little floof 🥰

Thanks - I think so too 😃

Thank you, this is all so helpful. Next time she poos I will check for hair. She doesn't shed an awful lot so kind of ruled that out but I didn't think to actually check her poos! No injuries (that I'm aware of!) and nothing else has changed at all.

I tried changing her little box and litter, which did seem to help for a bit (I thought she might just be holding it in because she didn't like the little box) but I don't think it was that as she's now not pood again.

I'm going to try doubling her wet food and halving her dry food and only give her dry in the evening when she's had her wet food, and see if that makes any difference.

She's had some lactulose this morning so hoping that will help for now

Thank you - that is so helpful!

More cat tax 😃

That's good to know, thanks!

Cats have a low thirst drive, they are designed to get virtually all of their fluids from food, wet is much better for them.

Regarding teeth, does eating biscuits clean your teeth?

No advice but she is adorable! 😍

Isn't she just! I'm trying to add another pic but it's not working!!

Trying one more time to add another pic...

I’d still give some dry food or dry treats for her teeth but it doesn’t have to be much, Scrumbles do specific dental cat treats. My cats get 5-6 tins/ pouches of wet food and a large bowl of dry between them, they’re still growing so will probably reduce this once they’re a year old (or if I think they start to look chubby on current portions before then) to 2 wet meals each and a small bowl of dry as I think my cats like the variety of a mixed diet.

For water I have found my cats drink best out of metal water bowls, cats also don’t like to drink water if it’s kept near their food or litterbox as in the wild water next to meat/ poo could be contaminated. I have 3 water bowls positioned around the house and the cats do drink from them.

Btw when my cat Micky (female) was fed wet food exclusively for the first years I had her (I got her when she was 5 years old), she needed to have a plaque removal twice. The 2nd time involved a blood examination due to her age and cost 600€ and did not involve any tooth removal but general anesthesia. Luckily, she is insured.
When I discussed dry food as a treat to prevent plaque, my vet said that the dry food needs to be big enough for the cat to actually chew it - quite often, cats swallow dry kibble whole without chewing it so that it doesn‘t prevent plaque. The last plaque removal was in October 2023 and Micky‘s teeth are without plaque so far.

Royal Canin, cat biscuits fibre response gastrointestinal help my cat go, maybe worth a try, they are high fibre, but she gets some once a day and I've been able to take her off the meds used for constipation.

This sounds good - do you have to talk to vet first or can you just give them it straight away?

What a beautiful cat! I'm sure it's fine to feed only wet food as long as its what called a complete cat food,not a complementary one.

Just make sure they have regular dental check ups. We fed mainly wet food and our cats had to have several costly and painful extractions - we had tried to brush their teeth to no avail. The vet blamed wet food. Said it sticks to their teeth.