Mixing wet and dry food

Why not just half and half by weight?

Dry food often has about 3,500–4,000 kcal per kg, wet food about 700–1,300 kcal per kg. If you just halve the weight, you can easily feed too much or too little. So split the daily calories instead.

How to work it out

• Work out the daily calories, for example with the food calculator.
• Split them the way you like, say half wet and half dry.
• For each food: its share of calories ÷ calories per cup (or per kg) = amount.

Example: cat

A spayed or neutered 9-lb cat needs about 241 kcal a day. Half and half is about 121 kcal each: about 5 oz of wet food with 850 kcal/kg and about ⅓ cup of dry food with 380 kcal/cup.

Example: dog

A spayed or neutered 22-lb dog needs about 629 kcal a day. A quarter wet and three quarters dry: about 5.5 oz of wet food with 1,000 kcal/kg and about 1¼ cups of dry food with 380 kcal/cup.

Water for cats

Dry food is about 10% water, wet food 75% or more. Cats that only eat dry food often don’t drink enough to make up for it. Wet food brings water with it. Fresh water should always be available, ideally not right next to the food bowl.

Which is better?

Without a specific reason, wet food, dry food and a mix are all fine. No source sets a fixed ratio. What matters is that the amount is right and your pet stays lean.