Ajanta wrote:
I am complete newbie and just discovered this group. Therefore, I'd
like to ask a few questions. I realize that even among the experienced
there may be no consensus. When that is the case, I'd opt for
diversity, so no error is compounded too much.

You will certainly get the diversity you are looking for. Since you new
to the group I think it's about time for another legalese message to
whit:

Although I have been an employee of Hill's Pet Nutrition, makers of
Science Diet and Prescription Diet brand foods, for over 20 years,
anything I say here is my opinion and my opinion alone and should not
ever be construed as the position of the company I work for.

Whew, with that out of the way....

1. Canned v. dry food. I think people seem to prefer canned, but some
make a dental case for dry. It is also more economical. So maybe feed
mostly canned (75%) and but a little dry too?

The sole advantage of a canned food is that it forces more water to be
excreted in the urine. This causes the urine to be more dilute and
lowers the risk of forming cyrstals or bladder stones. Less than 3% of
all cats will get into trouble with bladder stones and urinary crystals
so while canned is appropriate for those cats it doesn't mean that your
cat won't do perfectly fine on dry foods like the other 97% of cats do.
Canned foods are about 3-5 times more expensive to feed than dry foods.
Personally I feed some canned and some dry.


2. Of all brands (both cans and dry), which ones you feel offer the
best dollar value for nutrition? I fthey are only available through
some specialized channels, please include that as well.

Obviously I am quite biased here, so I won't even comment.


3. Mix dry and wet? That is, should dry food be physically mixed with
the canned food or served separately?

It really doesn't matter. I think most who feed a canned food do so for
the major meal(s) and then leave out a bit of dry for snacking during
the day. If you do top dress (add canned to the dry) be careful not to
leave any left over food out as it will spoil and go rancid.

4. Add another spoonful of water to cans? So much praise for canned
food appears to be for its moisture content. If that's so good, should
I just add a spoonful of water to a can?

I would not do that. A pet food manufacturer takes into account the
nutrients a cat will ingest. They work to make sure that when a cat
ingests X amount of food, all of the major and minor nutrients are in
sufficient quantity to meet the needs. By adding water you may reduce
the actual amount of food the cat eats and thus the nutrients would be
reduced as well. Most of the time there is far more of all the various
nutrients than a cat needs and adding a bit of water won't change much,
but I don't see any value to the idea.


5. Of the inexpensive brands, which ones are best nutritionally (both
canned and dry)?

I'll skip this for the same reason I skipped Number 2. I will say that
like anything else you buy, you do get what you pay for. Some foods
contain substantially more calories per ounce than others. You could
very easily end up paying more to feed the cat by buying a less
expensive food than if you purchased a more expensive food. Suppose you
had a food with 3,800 kcals/kg and another at 3,000 kcals/kg. If they
were both priced the same then the higher calorie food would feed the
cat for a longer period of time. A good premium food may require a half
cup per day and a cheap grocery brand require a full cup per day. If
you paid twice as much for the premium food - but end up feeding half
as much you really break even. The better premium foods will greatly
reduce the stool volume and often the odor problems as well.

6. Finally, is it ever desirable to give any human food to cats?
Yogurt, tuna, chicken pieces, veggies, cheese, anything?
Thanks.

Best not to add anything, at least do not add more than 10% of the
total calories in snacks treats etc. Foods are built to contain precise
levels of various nutrients, all of which interact with one another.
It's kind of like dominos (sp) adding a bit of this interacts with
that, which interacts with something else and so on.