There may be lots of reasons why we choose not to feed canned food to our cats: the smell, the inconvenience, the fact that the cat won’t eat it, and concerns over weight gain. Canned food does have a strong smell and, as a moist meat product, it spoils faster than dry food making it less convenient. But, the benefits of canned food far outweigh these concerns.

Since feeding mice to cats — which contain a good balance of fat, protein, carbs and water — is not a viable option, canned food becomes a close substitute to this delicacy. So why is canned food so important? Cats are not big water drinkers as they have evolved to survive in dry, savannah-type climates. Although this survival strategy works well in Africa, it is not needed by our house cats as they depend on us to take care of them.

Despite having fresh water available at all times, most adult cats drink very little water, which results in hyperconcentrated urine. This high urine concentration, and subsequent decrease in urine output, has led to a rise in urinary health diseases in cats (blanketed under the term Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease or FLUTD) including urinary crystals, stones and inflammation (cystitis). Although many factors can contribute to FLUTD, including anxiety and genetics, one of the universal causes of FLUTD is lack of water. Canned food can provide a much needed dietary source of water.

Commercial canned food is formulated to be balanced nutrition with set levels of vitamins and minerals as outlined by AAFCO standards. Because of the nature of canned foods, they are generally higher in protein and always higher in water than dry food. In fact over 75 per cent of canned food is water compared to 8 per cent moisture in dry food. In addition to providing more water, canned food, on an as fed basis, is actually lower in calories than most dry foods. This fact is helpful if you are trying to manage your cat’s weight.

Weight management is a challenge in cats (as it is in people). Overfeeding your cat by as little as 10 kibbles of dry food a day will equate to 1lb of body fat in a year. Many cat guardians feed their cats both canned and dry food. The misconception about canned food and weight gain exists because guardians often fail to take into account the extra calories from the canned food and decrease the amount of dry food being fed. When incorporating canned food into your cat’s daily diet, make appropriate adjustments to the total amount of food fed in a day to ensure that his total daily calorie intake stays the same.

If your cat eats canned food too fast, then one simple trick is to add more water to it to make it more soupy. The extra water will not only cause your cat to eat slower, but it’s an easy way to get more fluids into them. Cats are a lot like people in that they will only eat what they want to eat so if your cat is picky with what canned food is being offered, then I would encourage you to try different flavours and textures before giving up completely.

So, for the health of all those cats, especially the picky ones, I encourage all guardians to add canned food to your cat’s diet. By doing this, we can promote happy cat bladders everywhere!

—Dr. Liz Ruelle, Willow Park Feline Clinic, is a proud member of the AAFP and CATalyst council and works daily to ensure that Calgary cats have full and healthy lives.