Can A Maine Coon Survive On Only Dry Food?

Can A Maine Coon Survive On Only Dry Food?

With the vast array of foods available for a Maine Coon, picking a food can be tricky.

We all want our beloved Maine Coons, wherever they are, to be happy and healthy.

Maine Coons love their food, and will happily eat a good quality dry food, rich in protein.

But, is it possible, or even good for them, to exist on dry food alone?

A Maine Coon can survive on dry food alone, but it will not be a healthy diet for them if the dry food is low quality. Modern quality dry cat foods contain the necessary nutrients that naturally occur in prey. The main issue with dry food diets is ensuring your Maine Coon gets high protein content and water.

So essentially, test, you could if you felt so inclined, by feeding your Maine Coon dry food only. Personally, I’d only do that if the Maine Coon showed a preference for dry food, but everyone is different.

Alita, my Maine Coon, gets wet food, dry food, creamy treats, and bits of chicken, pork, or fish that I get from the stands around Chiang Mai.

I’m very much for varying the diet, and she happily accepts most styles of food.

I’m quite happy to buy the better brands on dry food so that she gets the benefits from better quality food, namely all the nutrients, proteins, and vitamins.

The No.1 problem for a dry food only diet is ensuring your Maine Coon receives plenty of water.

When hunting in the wild, a Maine Coon will get water from natural sources but also its prey. Dry food provides no hydration qualities so freshwater needs to be present if your precious is ever thirsty.

Lack of water causes dehydration and is a key component in kidney problems.

Maine Coons are like many other breeds of cat in many respects, and much like humans, each individual can have their own preferences.

Some Maine Coons will just have a preference for dry food. They will eat wet food if it’s presented, but an individual cat may or may not like certain tastes.

I have a feeling, most Maine Coons will probably prefer tastes rather than styles of food, like wet or dry.

I’ve yet to see any cat refuse chicken.

Cat’s are still biologically primed to exist in the wild. The normal prey or birds and rodents are rich in proteins but low in fats and carbohydrates.

Additionally, the pantry of nature provides a Maine Coon with the required water content.

So a domestic Maine Coon doesn’t require wet food, as it can exist on dry food only, but it will equally require good, clean, fresh access to a water source.

Higher quality dry foods are naturally better, as they are richer in proteins, but water will still need to be provided.

This is more common than you might think.

Owners can forget that the clue is in the name – dry food.

If your Maine Coon has access to the outdoors then it can always go out if necessary, but indoor Maine Coon owners need to especially think about your cat’s access to water and the need for it to hydrate itself.

A dehydrated Maine Coon risks internal organ problems, and renal failure, as well as crystals developing in the urinary tracts.

Not all dry food is of the same caliber either.

A dry food that is higher quality will have a much better nutritional balance.

For some Maine Coons this can be the only way to go, and often it’s not as expensive as you might think either.

Higher quality foods are naturally richer in protein so they may cost more but lower quality dry food may be priced the same as high quality wet food and will lack any real nutritional benefits.

The low quality dry foods are stuffed full of binding agents rather than nutrition, so you will need more food anyway, but they are full of carbohydrates, so shouldn’t be a large part of a regular diet.

It’d be like eating fast food all the time.

If a Maine Coon is going to be a dry food only animal, then make sure the quality is sufficiently high.

Once dry food is opened, the clock starts ticking on the time available before the nutrients degrade.

Typically, dry food will store for around 6 months and still be both edible and nutritious.

Storing the dry food in the original bag, within an airtight container, in a cool dark place is the recommended way of storing dry food.

NOT the refrigerator as that will enhance the moisture content that lets bacteria grow.