Pocket Leopards Bengal Cats

Another extremely important nutrient with respect to overall health is water. It is very important for a cat to ingest water with its food, as the cat does not have a very strong thirst drive.  This is a critical point.  This lack of a strong thirst drive leads to low-level, chronic dehydration when dry food makes up the bulk of their diet. 

Cats are designed to obtain most of their water with their diet since their normal prey contains approximately 70 - 75 percent water.  Dry foods only contain 10 percent water whereas canned foods contain  approximately 78 percent water.  Canned foods therefore more closely approximate the natural diet of the cat and are better suited to meet the cat’s water needs. 

A cat consuming a predominantly dry-food diet does drink more water than a cat consuming a canned food diet, but in the end, when water from all sources is added together (what’s in their diet plus what they drink), the cat on dry food consumes approximately half the amount of water compared with a cat eating canned foods.  This is a crucial point when one considers how common kidney and bladder problems are in the cat.