Indoor cat on dry food only, what is your experience?

[Idratherbewithmycat]

My cat is a female BSH (neutered), 1 year old. Breeder (very experienced and I trust him as he has been doing this for 15 years) has advised to only give her high quality dry food on an unlimited basis now she is an adult. Reasons behind this are:

• cats are natural grazers and tend to develop eating disorders when "forced" to eat at meal times or when food is not always made available to them. If dry food is available all the time, they will self regulate
• wet food is appealing to them so they will often eat it also when not hungry, on top of the dry food hence why they will eventually gain weight

Now I have tried both approached and I have to say that my cat just doesn't seem to like wet food that much. I have spent a lot of money on it and tried very good brands like Canagans, Royal Canin, Hi Life and a few more and she has pretty much rejected almost all of them (she mainly licks the liquid as soon as I put it down and then leaves most of the food there to dry out). I have also tried different types like shreds, pate', jelly etc etc.

She does love her dry food and I have been using the Royal Canin British Shorthair which is specifically designed for her breed. I am thinking I should just stick with this as she seems to like it and eat it and it is what the breeder had recommended. My main fear is the lack of hydration so wonder if I should have multiple water bowls or a water fountain (live in a small space so that's a bit of an issue).

Is anyone else feeding their cat dry food only and have they developed issues over time?

Re the self regulation, she is definitely a grazer, seems to have a few bites here and there throughout the day (I know this isn't feasible with some cats but she doesn't have a labrador appetite like some!)

My Ragdoll is very fussy, and prefers dry food, but will eat wet food if it’s been microwaved for 15 seconds. Naturally we oblige, as she was very poorly when a kitten and we had to work hard to get her to eat and gain weight. 3 years later I still worry about her, even though she’s absolute menace

A dry food diet really isn’t good for them and can cause kidney failure as well as constipation.

Mine are all fed a predominantly wet food diet with a small amount of dry mixed in. Unless they’re unwell, they have never left even a scrap of food in their bowls. We never free feed though - set meals only.

My boy would live off dry food but knowing the issues with male cats I was determined he would eat wet
when he developed cystitis I was mean and removed all dry food and had to be “it’s this or nothing”
female cats I wouldn’t be as bothered but male cats I would really push wet food

Water bowl on same tray as dry food has never caused a problem for my cat.

I thought I'd share an update as it might be useful for people coming across this post in the future.

I decided to persevere a bit longer and reduced the amount of dry food my cat was having (used to be always available) and kept offering wet food first thing in the morning when she was very hungry. I have found a texture that she doesn't seem to dislike as much (chicken chunks in broth) and offered that every day and she is currently eating it. I am still trying to understand how much dry food I should then offer during the day as she does seem very hungry all the time even though I am technically following and slightly exceeding the feeding guidelines for her weight and age. I guess it's a big change as she was used to having dry food always available to her?