Do cats need moist food

Answer 1

YES! Good quality wet food is high in Protein and Fat, and because cats are strict carnivores, they use these two nutrients as their primary source of energy. Moisture is also a very important factor as cats are designed to get their moisture from their food (a trait that has been passed down from their wild ancestors), and therefore have a low "thirst drive" and will not often seek out water on their own. Dry foods, because of their very low water content, leaves a cat in an almost constant state of dehydration and that is what causes Urinary Tract Infections, Cystitis and such.

High quality wet does not smell, give a cat bad breath/gas, nor will it make a cat fat.

Dry food is not very good for your cat in the way of nutrition, and cats will often overeat because they are not getting all the nutrients they need. Dry foods and low-quality wet foods are often packed with carbohydrates - "filler" in the way of corns and grains, none of which cats can digest. Because kibble is baked at such high temperatures, all the "natural" nutrition is destroyed. Wet food isn't processed to such high levels as this, so most of the nutrition stays intact. Also, kibble pieces are hard, so they shatter on contact, meaning the kibble breaks at the tips of the teeth, if the cat even chews at all (most will crunch once or twice or swallow whole). This is like saying eating cookies or other hard, crunchy food keeps OUR teeth clean!

You could feed both, but dry food only really serves as a convenience to us, and provides very little for your cat. There *are* some decent dry foods out there such as Applaws with 80% Meat content in them and zero grains, but even that will never compare to the nutrition of canned food.

http://www.catinfo.org/

http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canned_food.htm