Cat Food Center Search products / Support

Wet, dry, raw & everything else

The format argument is mostly a moisture argument. Here is what each of the seven common formats actually does for a cat, where the evidence is solid, and where it is genuinely contested.

1. The formats at a glance

Seven formats are widely sold. They differ far more in moisture and carbohydrate than in anything the marketing talks about.

Typical values. Individual products vary; always check the label.
Format Moisture Carb (DM) kcal/g Cost Verdict
Canned / pouch wet 75–82 % 3–15 % 0.7–1.3 Medium Best default
Extruded dry (kibble) 6–10 % 25–50 % 3.5–4.5 Low Convenient, dehydrating
Freeze-dried raw 2–5 % 2–10 % 4.5–5.5 High Good rehydrated
Air-dried / dehydrated 8–14 % 5–20 % 4.0–5.0 High Good rehydrated
Frozen raw 65–75 % 2–8 % 1.2–2.0 High Pathogen risk
Gently cooked / fresh 70–78 % 5–20 % 1.0–1.8 Very high Good if complete
Home-prepared varies varies varies Varies Only with a formulated recipe

Rule of thumb

The format argument is mostly a moisture argument. If you take nothing else from this page: get the majority of your cat's calories from something with 70 %+ moisture, and the rest of the choice matters much less than the internet suggests.

2. Canned and pouch wet food

The default recommendation for most cats, for one dominant reason: it delivers water the cat would otherwise not drink.

Strengths

  • 70–82 % moisture: roughly 230 ml of water per day for an average cat, without the cat choosing to drink it.
  • Naturally low in carbohydrate; no starch is needed to hold the product together.
  • Typically higher protein on a dry-matter basis than kibble.
  • Portion control is built in; a can is a defined amount.
  • Retorting (heat sterilisation in the sealed can) makes it commercially sterile, so pathogen risk is very low.
  • Easier for cats with dental disease, and more palatable to inappetent or senior cats.

Weaknesses

  • Costs more per calorie.
  • Spoils within about four hours at room temperature; opened cans keep 3–5 days refrigerated.
  • Cannot be left out for a cat that grazes while you are at work.
  • Some products use thickeners (guar gum, xanthan, carrageenan) that a minority of cats tolerate poorly.
  • Needs a higher taurine specification (0.20 % DM) because processing and gut losses are greater.

Note

Pâté-style products are usually lower in carbohydrate than gravy or “in jelly” styles, because the gravy needs a starch or gum to thicken it. If you are minimising carbohydrate, pâté is the reliable choice.

3. Extruded dry food (kibble)

The most-sold format, and the one whose drawbacks are most often glossed over. It is not poison, enormous numbers of cats live long lives on it, but it has a structural problem that cannot be formulated away.

The moisture problem

A cat on dry food alone must drink almost its entire daily water requirement. Cats descend from the African wildcat, a desert animal that obtained water from prey, and their thirst response does not fully compensate. Studies consistently show that total water intake (food plus drinking) is lower on dry diets than wet, producing more concentrated urine. Concentrated urine is the central risk factor in feline lower urinary tract disease and struvite and oxalate stone formation.

The starch problem

Extrusion requires starch to gelatinise and hold the kibble together. That sets a practical floor of roughly 25 % carbohydrate on a dry-matter basis, and many products run far higher. “Grain-free” kibble substitutes potato, tapioca, or pea starch and lands in the same place.

Common mistake

Believing dry food cleans teeth. Standard kibble shatters on contact and does little for the gum line, where periodontal disease actually starts. The exception is a genuine dental diet with an enlarged kibble and a fibre matrix engineered to scrape the tooth surface, several of which carry the Veterinary Oral Health Council seal; those do work. Ordinary kibble does not, and dental disease is not a reason to feed it.

Where dry food earns its place

  • Cost per calorie, by a wide margin.
  • Can be left out safely, which suits puzzle feeders and food-dispensing toys.
  • Long shelf life and simple storage.
  • Useful as a small measured portion inside an enrichment device even for a mostly-wet-fed cat.

How to use it well if you do

  • Make it the minority of calories, not the majority.
  • Weigh it rather than scooping: density varies and eyeballing overfeeds.
  • Buy bag sizes you will finish within about six weeks of opening; fat oxidises and vitamins degrade.
  • Store in the original bag, rolled shut, inside an airtight container; the bag is a fat barrier the container is not.
  • Never store it in a warm garage.

4. Freeze-dried and air-dried

Raw or lightly cooked ingredients with the water removed, sold as nuggets or shreds. Freeze-drying sublimates water at low temperature; air-drying uses gentle warm airflow that provides some, though not complete, pathogen reduction.

Nutritionally these can be excellent: very low carbohydrate, high animal protein, minimal processing damage. Two caveats matter. First, they are extremely dry, 2–5 % moisture, drier than kibble: so feeding them without rehydration is worse for water balance than feeding kibble. Rehydrate with warm water and the problem disappears. Second, freeze-drying does not reliably kill Salmonella or Listeria; the pathogen considerations under raw food apply to freeze-dried raw products too.

Rule of thumb

Freeze-dried raw is at its best as a rehydrated meal or as a high-value topper to tempt an inappetent cat, not as dry nuggets from the bag.

5. Raw feeding

The most contested topic in pet nutrition, and the one where it is most important to separate the nutritional argument from the microbiological one.

The nutritional case is reasonable

A properly formulated raw diet is high in animal protein, near-zero in carbohydrate, high in moisture, and free of extrusion damage to heat-labile nutrients. Owners commonly report better coat condition and smaller stools. None of that is implausible.

The safety case against is stronger than most owners realise

Bacterial contaminationWell documented

Surveys repeatedly culture Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, E. coli, and Campylobacter from commercial raw pet foods at rates far above cooked products. A Cornell study found live bacteria culturable from many raw cat foods and none from the cooked comparators. Cats can shed Salmonella in faeces while appearing entirely healthy, which turns the litter tray into a household exposure route. The FDA advises against feeding raw or undercooked meat to pets, and the risk is concentrated in immunocompromised people, infants, and the elderly in the home.

H5N1 avian influenzaCats have died

Since 2024 this has moved from theoretical to documented. Cats have become severely ill and died after eating raw pet food and unpasteurised milk contaminated with highly pathogenic avian influenza. The FDA has notified owners of H5N1 contamination in specific lots of raw cat food, multiple voluntary recalls have followed, and the agency now requires cat and dog food manufacturers using uncooked poultry or cattle material to address H5N1 as a hazard in their food safety plans. Cats appear unusually susceptible to severe neurological disease from H5N1. This is a live, current risk, not a historical footnote.

Nutritional imbalance in home-made rawVery common

Published analyses of home-prepared raw recipes find a majority are deficient in one or more essential nutrients: most often calcium, taurine, vitamin E, zinc, or the calcium-to-phosphorus ratio. All-meat, no-bone diets cause nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism. Whole-bone diets risk obstruction, perforation, and fractured teeth. Raw fish adds thiaminase and a route to thiamine deficiency.

If you feed raw anyway

If you have decided to feed raw despite the above, reduce the risk rather than ignoring it: use a commercially formulated complete raw diet from a manufacturer that applies high-pressure processing or an equivalent validated kill step, never a home recipe you found online; avoid raw poultry entirely while H5N1 is circulating; handle it like raw chicken for humans, separate board, hot wash, no kitchen-surface contact; do not feed raw in a household with an infant, a pregnant person, an elderly person, or anyone immunocompromised; and tell your vet, because it changes how they interpret a diarrhoea case.

6. Gently cooked and fresh-delivery diets

Human-grade ingredients cooked at low temperature, sold refrigerated or frozen by subscription. They occupy sensible middle ground: high moisture, low carbohydrate, minimal processing damage, and cooking removes the pathogen argument that dominates raw.

The questions to ask are exactly the WSAVA ones. Is it formulated by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist or someone with a PhD in animal nutrition? Does the label carry an AAFCO complete and balanced statement for the right life stage: many small fresh brands are “supplemental feeding only” and are not safe as a sole diet? Is the finished product analysed, not just calculated? Cost is typically two to four times canned food.

7. Home-prepared diets

There is one safe way to do this and many unsafe ways.

Home-made diets fail nutrient analysis far more often than not

Do not use a recipe from a book, a blog, or a video. Peer-reviewed evaluations of publicly available home-made cat food recipes have found that essentially none met all AAFCO nutrient requirements, with taurine, calcium, iron, zinc, copper, vitamin E, and choline the usual failures. The safe route is a recipe formulated for your individual cat by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist (ACVN or ECVCN), including the specific supplement products and amounts, followed exactly, and rechecked if you change any ingredient. Services such as BalanceIT and Petdiets exist for this.

8. Mixed feeding - usually the right answer

Formats are not a loyalty test. A pragmatic pattern that works for most households:

This keeps moisture high, keeps cost manageable, gives the cat something to work for, and preserves your ability to switch if a product is recalled. It also means the cat is used to more than one texture, which matters enormously the day it needs a therapeutic diet.

Rule of thumb

Expose kittens and young cats to several textures and protein sources early. Cats form strong food preferences young, and a cat that has only ever eaten one dry food is genuinely hard to transition when illness later requires a specific therapeutic diet.

Sources