I totally agree with you about mixing dry with wet (or dry with raw, like that new Nature's Variety Raw Bites). In spite of many, even wet food advocates, who argue with me about the digestion times being so different as to cause serious problems for a cat if fed mixed, and say they think it is okay or "they ahve been doing it for years and their cats are "fine" " I still think it is a very very bad idea.
Thanks, MC. It's all good now as another former came along and explained things soooo perfectly, much better than I could have mustered!!
However, in the thread you are referring to, I took it as the vet tech was suggesting this method as a way to transition the cat to an all wet diet. She wasn't saying (at least it didn't sound like it to me) to do it that way forever, just until the cat could get used to the wet food.
Was a combination of that, & another thread in which this had already been stated and the poor OP only ended up confused by the conflicting information:
Keep in mind though that the cat in question has CRF, which means she has different nutritional needs and a site on general nutrition does not apply
Meaning Dr Lisa's site which was provided by previous poster, which certainly DOES apply. Then went on to say that the (CRF) site which
he/she'd provided covers nutrition and 'what to look for in commercial diet'.
I had appealed to the owner of that CRF site 7 or so years ago regarding the dangers of those "rx" diets and to please, at least put a warning up regarding them - explaining why via veterinary citations and quotes/links.
No disputing that getting the cat to eat anything is most crucial. However, what I tried to convey was the fact that it is the *stinky* animal digest and other unimaginables put ONTO this food which entices their sense of smell -- which is what cats go by, as opposed to "taste". Asked to please help to inform people there are ways to make much healthier alternatives enticing, "stinkier"... IIRC, the jacked-up salt content as well, making the poor animal drink more....
There's also the economic factor. People are already dealing with sick cats, stress, unexpected vet bills and now they "have to" be paying out the butt for overly-expensive corn & species-inappropriate junk food on top of everything else because they "don't have a choice"?
The whole "rx' racket is downright criminal, IMO.
And yet another site condoning/excusing these "diets" only strengthens the vicious cycle all the more. Cat may appear to be "improving" in the interim, but what about 6 months from now? Vet visits aren't cheap, either -- and at what cost to the cat's health?
Which brings us to this:
In that PU thread though...gah that thread makes me crazy. Why can't people learn? Why are they so dense about the dry food issue?
For virtually every situation, there remains one constant theme: People are only listening to what their vets "prescribe". These people don't have a CHOICE. They don't know because nobody is telling them any differently.
Here's yet another perfect case in point of how pet owners will blame themselves before the trusted, licensed professional:
Also, as time's gone on, he got sick of the Hills c/d and wasn't eating great. It felt like I couldn't do anything right.
And quote from OP of that thread:
you might want to try Purina UR. My cats (even the non-PU ones) LOVED Purine UR much better than the Hills CD
People simply have absolutely NO possible way of knowing beforehand (or at all) that something which their vet is legally and professionally "prescribing" them could possibly be the culprit, let alone "bad" for a cat.
Nobody with mainstream influence will dispute what 90% of the vets have so easily convinced people as being the all-too-well-established *only way*. There's only us Internet People who, as you've seen in that thread over and over, continually go ignored because we're food snobs and a "vet basing" cult.
Drs. Pierson & Hodgkins would be more renowned than Donald Trump, Bill Gates & Steve Jobs combined in a less corrupt world -- if only
somebody did their jobs they're supposed to do.
Nobody who *should* will speak up and, being the worthless tabloid gossip hacks that they are, the major mainstream Mediots only aid in reinforcing it all the more.