Benefits of cat wet food

Cat Wet Food Market

Cats have evolved from arid geographical locations and their response to low moisture foods is to concentrate their urine rather than drink more water. Typical prey of the cat has a moisture content of >60% and it has been suggested that feeding wet food would be a more appropriate way to provide water to cats rather than relying on drinking water. 

Dehydration in cats has been proposed as a risk factor for several diseases, including kidney disease. However, it is not clear if feeding dry food results in inadequate or worse hydration compared to feeding wet. There are several studies that assess the effect of feeding dry vs wet foods in the water status of cats, and the results are conflicting.

According to Coherent Market insights the Cat Wet Food Market size, Share, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2019 - 2027.

Wet foods are particularly useful for:

Urinary health – Wet foods are useful to promote more urine that is more diluted, which is useful for prevention of urinary tract problems – the hypothesis is that wet food will promote a more dilute urine that could result in a lower concentration of inflammatory components in the bladder.

Weight management – Water does not provide calories, therefore, wet food always has a lower energy density (calories) than dry food. Typical dry diets provide more than 3–4 kcal/g (some diets even higher), whereas wet food provides 0.8–1.5 kcal/g, with some weight loss diets providing even less. For this reason, wet food is bulkier and can help with weight loss or weight prevention plans.

Constipation – Dehydration is a risk factor for constipation and feeding wet food can be beneficial in these cases, and it is a common recommendation to feed canned food to cats suffering from this problem.