# Adding water to canned food... How much?



## kimouette (Jul 26, 2012)

I wanted to ask that question a while ago!

My cat is an "ex-diabetic" cat who also add a serie of idiopathic cystitis for about a year (two years ago while she was still eating dry kibbles). She no longer needs insulin, never had any cystitis ever since she started eating canned food, and seems to be in great shape for a 14 year old lazy indoor cat that only wants to sleep and watch birds while she rests on the balcony!

She eats Mac's canned food (chicken poultry and duck) and sometimes I also add Hound and Gatos (chicken) to one of her 2 daily meals. 

She eats between 200g and 225g daily, but if I listened to her, she would probably eat twice that amount!! I know that with that quantity her weight is stable so there's really no reason to change it!

I am aware of the importance of water in cats. Actually I've been mixing water with her food ever since she started eating canned food : it keeps the food moist for a longer period (while I'm at work) and I'm pretty sure it helps her feel less hungry.

Now the question is... Is it possible to give too much water?
Until recently, I was adding 120ml of water to her 200g of daily food. I recently decreased water to 60ml/day thinking that if it's cold outside she might not need that much... But I never actually found any specific recommendation of water anywhere over the net!

I've been helping (and still currently helping) a lot of people with sick or old cats arround me, and now that question is popping up again : how much water is enough water? And can we give too much water?

Anyone has any idea?


----------



## Cookieandme (Dec 29, 2011)

I don't feed canned but I feed raw. 120ml sounds like a lot of water to add. I add a small amount of water to my girls meals but this is literally just enough to make a sauce, my reasoning is that even a small amount will be good for her. 

I would say enough to make a sauce/gravy but not too much that it is swimming in water.


----------



## newfiesmum (Apr 21, 2010)

I was told by a cat expert that the reason my cat drinks hardly anything is because she is fed on wet food and it is mostly water anyway. I don't think you should be adding water to to it at all.


----------



## hobbs2004 (Mar 12, 2010)

I agree with both of the girls. I can see why you perhaps would want to add some more water to your cat's wet food if she has a history of cystitis but 120 ml is way too much. Yes, you can theoretically be giving her too much fluid, which would mean that she would be secreted out too many electrolytes, which can cause a problem (just like drinking too much water etc can be a problem in humans). 

I don't add any water to my cats' wet food - though I add a little to their raw food but even then I only add a little splash (sorry, nothing scientific).


----------



## Sussexplumber (Oct 5, 2011)

hobbs2004 said:


> I agree with both of the girls. I can see why you perhaps would want to add some more water to your cat's wet food if she has a history of cystitis but 120 ml is way too much. Yes, you can theoretically be giving her too much fluid, which would mean that she would be secreted out too many electrolytes, which can cause a problem (just like drinking too much water etc can be a problem in humans).
> 
> I don't add any water to my cats' wet food - though I add a little to their raw food but even then I only add a little splash (sorry, nothing scientific).


Yeah I quite often add a drop of water, but only a drop. Not 120 mls! lol

And importantly, it needs to be eaten pretty much straight away. Otherwise u might end up with a lovely rich bacterial soup! If you are worried about her going hungry during the day, start her day off with a nice slab of beef heart, something substantial and filling. Mine had a good feed late last night and slept the night indoors so shes still got a full tum and used very little energy. Only had a chick for breakfast. That`ll see her through and she`ll get a good feed again when I get in. I don`t leave food with her because i dont want magpies eating it, other cats eating it, flies etc laying eggs on it or it going off....


----------



## Tobacat (Oct 24, 2009)

My girl is prone to cystitis and she is also now on wet cat food all the time, which along with cystease, makes all the difference. Now we have the cystitis pretty much under control, I only add water if I see possible early warning signs of cystitis coming on or in the summer when it's really hot. I only add about 5mls at a time and she has four small meals a day. I know it's not much extra but she won't eat it if I put too much in anyway. 120mls does seem a lot on top of the moisture they get from wet, so I'd certainly cut this down.


----------



## Jansheff (Jan 31, 2011)

As far as canned goes I feed pate style foods (Grau, Mac, Animonda) and they are pretty solid and dense. I usually add about a dessert spoon to a bowl full. I use water from the hot kettle and the food is straight from the fridge and it helps take the chill off it. I don't use jelly/gravy foods, but I wouldn't add anything if I did as there's loads of water in there already. I usually put one bowl of raw down as well, because my moggy prefers it and don't add anything to that.


----------



## kimouette (Jul 26, 2012)

To all of you who don't add any water: does your cat drink water?

I get the point, I mean I know now I am giving way too much and I will stop that immediately! But again, no one has any numbers to share? Like if there's 80% moisture in the food only add 10ml?
Or something like a cat needs to drink atleast 150ml of water everyday ?

Any specific numbers would be very helpfull!


----------



## dexter12 (Aug 28, 2012)

kimouette said:


> To all of you who don't add any water: does your cat drink water?
> 
> I get the point, I mean I know now I am giving way too much and I will stop that immediately! But again, no one has any numbers to share? Like if there's 80% moisture in the food only add 10ml?
> Or something like a cat needs to drink atleast 150ml of water everyday ?
> ...


i dont add any water to my cats wet food, and they drink out of the dogs water bowel, have no idea how much they drink a day


----------



## hobbs2004 (Mar 12, 2010)

kimouette said:


> To all of you who don't add any water: does your cat drink water?
> 
> I get the point, I mean I know now I am giving way too much and I will stop that immediately! But again, no one has any numbers to share? Like if there's 80% moisture in the food only add 10ml?
> Or something like a cat needs to drink atleast 150ml of water everyday ?
> ...


Do my cats drink even though they are wet/raw fed and no additional water is added to their wet? No, not really. At the end of the day, cats have evolved to satisfy most of their moisture needs from the prey that they catch - meat contains a lot of water but they also drink the blood of their prey. So, for example, raw food contains about 70-80% of water, and wet food contains about that too (typically roughly though around the 80% mark).

Indeed, studies have shown that cats who are fed a diet consisting of wet food that contains about 70-80% of moisture don't tend to (and don't need to either) take in any more water from external sources. Also, cats who previously were fed dry food and were drinking a lot stopped drinking from external sources when fed a food high in moisture content.


----------



## Sussexplumber (Oct 5, 2011)

dexter12 said:


> i dont add any water to my cats wet food, and they drink out of the dogs water bowel, have no idea how much they drink a day


That`s the dog`s bowl, is it? lol


----------



## kimouette (Jul 26, 2012)

hobbs2004 said:


> Indeed, studies have shown that cats who are fed a diet consisting of wet food that contains about 70-80% of moisture don't tend to (and don't need to either) take in any more water from external sources. Also, cats who previously were fed dry food and were drinking a lot stopped drinking from external sources when fed a food high in moisture content.


Thanks for that specific answer!
As you may have guessed, my cat is not a big drinker. I mean, even when she was fed dry kibbles (she had dandruff, greasy hair, then like I said, repetitive cystitis and diabetes), and still she didn't feel thirsty! 
I know she is never gonna drink even if I stop adding water to her canned food, so this is why your answer is so important : I wanted to make sure if canned food containing 80% humidity was *enough* or not.

I'll stop adding water to her food, her bowl of water will continue to be a useless piece of decoration, but I hope she doesn't feel too hungry without it!
:dita:


----------



## Alessa (Oct 21, 2012)

I do not know how reliable this vet/author is, but here is a very useful article

How Much Water Should My Cat Drink Every Day? | Catster

According to him, approximately 60 ml-115 ml (on top of the water intake he gets from his food) is ideal. Because he is on wet food, he needs less water (closer to 60 ml perhaps).

Another article (with scientific references) estimates as low as an extra 30 ml (+ wet) to 207 ml (+ dry), where the total water consumption should be between 140 ml to 280 ml or 60 ml/kg/day. It also tells you how to calculate water consumed for the type of food you are feeding

http://animalendocrine.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/daily-water-requirements-and-needs-for.html

So, if you are feeding your cat 200g every day with an 80% moisture wet food, she is already getting 160 ml of water. so 60(Weight of cat in kg) - 160ml = Estimated extra water intake in ml (if it exceeds 280 ml total, I am guessing that means you stick to that maximum, finding it hard to reconcile an 8kg Ragdoll cat needs 480 ml water a day LOL)


----------



## kimouette (Jul 26, 2012)

Wow Alessa thanks a lot for these references!
My cat weights 4kg
She eats 200g of canned food containing 80% water (160ml/day)

At 60 ml/kg/day she needs : 240ml/day

240 (required) - 160 (moisture in food) = 80ml missing

So it is true, 120ml was too much, but I'm glad to hear that the 60ml I have been adding for the last couple of days is not completely exaggerated!

I don't know what other people are going to say about that calculation, but until someone finds a concrete reference with specific numbers like those 2 articles you posted Alessa, but claiming that a cat needs less water, I'll keep adding 60-80ml a day to my cat's food!

Again, thanks Alessa for sharing these 2 references!


----------



## Alessa (Oct 21, 2012)

No problem! I was wondering about this to! It's nice to be able to approximate with some numbers. It seems I will have to add more water to my raw if I want to free feed him dry food.


----------



## hobbs2004 (Mar 12, 2010)

Alessa said:


> It seems I will have to add more water to my raw if I want to free feed him dry food.


which surely you are not going to do!


----------



## anotheruser (Aug 17, 2011)

In summer I will add a bit of water to their wet food.

If you think of a tip-ex bottle... then think of it made of water.... that is how much water I add, maybe slightly less. Dunno how many ml it is 

I still continue to fill their small water bowl and notice a few days later that it's evaporated... and not through the cats drinking it mind..... unless they are secret drinkers!


----------

