Do cats need soft food or hard food?

Answer:

The best answer is a combination of both, using high quality foods. Some cats only eat when hungry so you could leave out a bowl of dry during the day, but this is not advisable. Dry food only can cause urinary tract problems.

Answer:

I had a cat that I fed canned (wet) food exclusively, and her jaw broke. The vet told me (after it was too late) that feeding the cat wet food exclusively caused calcium to leak out of the jawbone and can result in jaw fracture.

Answer:

I have NEVER heard of a cat breaking a jaw from their food. Bone can be weakened from an underlying problem such as severe dental disease, kidney disease or infection in the bone.

Actually, cats need soft wet food far more than they do dry. High quality wet food is high in Protein and Fat, and because cats are strict carnivores, they use these two nutrients as their primary source of energy. Moisture is also a very important factor as cats are designed to get their moisture from their food (a trait that has been passed down from their wild ancestors), and therefore have a low "thirst drive" and will not often seek out water on their own. Dry foods, because of their very low water content, can leave a cat dehydrated. A cat left dehydrated for any period of time can develop a urinary tract infection, Cystitis or other such issues.

A high-quality wet, grain free, food should not give a cat diarrhoea, nor does would it not smell, give a cat bad breath/gas, nor will it make a cat fat.

Many dry food brands are not very good for your cat in the way of nutrition, and cats will often overeat because they are not getting all the nutrients they need. A lot of dry foods brands and low-quality wet foods are often packed with carbohydrates - "filler" in the way of corns and grains, none of which cats can digest. Because kibble is baked at such high temperatures, all the "natural" nutrition is destroyed. Wet food isn't processed to such high levels as this, so most of the nutrition stays intact.

You could feed both, but dry food only really serves as a convenience to us, and provides very little for your cat. There are some decent dry foods out there such as Orijen and Applaws with 80% Meat content in them and zero grains, but even that will never compare to the nutrition of canned food.