Interesting.  It makes some intuitive sense, but I'm reluctant to believe
anything I see based on only one opinion (not that sheer volume of opinion
guarantees accuracy, either!).

I'm trying to find more such opinions online, without much luck.  Can't seem
to find the right search criteria.

Oscar is also getting some shots in a week; I can ask our vet what she thinks
then.  (Not that vets and doctors can't be wrong!  We talked to a doctor while
Eric was in the hospital who had "never heard of" cat saliva being involved in
cat allergies, and gave us that condescending "I'll humor your silly layman's
ideas" look that I really, really hate.)

   Dry food is not "bad" for cats - such a claim is utter nonsense
and totally unsupported anywhere in the literature. Neither are canned
foods "bad" for cats either.  Current hysterical carbo-phobic claims
not withstanding. Every one of the individuals currently pushing
carbo-phobia in pet foods have consistently failed to answer the
biggest question of all. Feeding canned foods, particularly some of
the ones currently on the market, _vastly_ increases the intake of
calcium and phosphorus. Take Pro Plan Adult Ocean Fish & Crab Entree
for an example. Here's a zero carbohydrate food - perfect for the
carbo-phobics. What happens when you take away energy provided by
carbohydrates and substitute energy provided by fats and proteins? In
almost every case the levels of various minerals _greatly_ increase.
The Pro Plan product is typical example. Calcium at a whopping 2.72%,
phosphorus at a whopping 2.07% DMB. Way in excess of what even a
grwoing kittens needs, much less an adult.

  The carbo-phobics consistently ignore the number two killer of cats
in this country - renal failure. Nobody can determine which cat will
die from this disease. Nobody has a crystal ball capable of
determining which kitty will be the next victim. Unfortunately we
cannot tell if a cat has renal failure until 70+% of the kidney is
destroyed and the cat is on a uninterruptable spiral to death. Feeding
a diet with phos levels as high as the majority of the carbo-phobics
preferred diets, to a cat with undetected sub clinical renal failure
would unquestionably speed that cat toward death. What would happen to
the cat population which contains literally thousands upon thousands
of cats with currently undetected sub clinical renal failure, if we
suddenly dumped all these cats on the carbo-phobics diet plan?

 This is the hard question that the carbo-phobics never want to
answer. If the current crop of hyperbolic carbo-phobics at least had
the common sense to caution prospective cat owners of the dangers
involved it would be one thing. If that had the common sense to at
least caution pet owners with older cats to check phos levels in a
diet it would be one thing. But instead they launch off on a
hyperbolic fantasy trip and alledge, without any proof whatsoever,
that every disease known to cats is the result of feeding a
carbohydrate based diet. An allegation for which they have zero
clinical trials or peer reviewed published data to support.

The website you quoted is typical example of carbo-phobia hysterics.
Below are a few errors from the website.

"Cats have a physiological decrease in the ability to utilize
carbohydrates due to the lack of specific enzymatic pathways that are
present in other mammals, and the lack a salivary enzyme called
amylase."

Nonsense – cats can and do utilize carbohydrates quite well. Cows lack
salivary amylase as well – following this nonsensical logic cows must
also eat a meat diet. While not recommended, cats can and do survive
quite well on a pure vegetarian diet. UC Davis currently has a colony
of cats that have survived quite well for generations on a corn gluten
based diet without any meat of any kind for many years.

"Diabetes:
"Diabetes is a very serious - and difficult to manage - disease that
is very common in cats. Why is it so common? The species-inappropriate
high level of carbohydrates in dry food wreaks havoc on the blood
sugar level of an obligate carnivore. The blood sugar level rises
significantly upon ingestion of dry food. With chronic hyperglycemia
(high blood sugar) the insulin producing cells in the pancreas
down-regulate, or "burn out," leading to diabetes."

Again nonsense. Cats that already have diabetes may be better served
with a low carb diet, or even a high fiber diet. There are lots of
peer reviewed published data to support either method. To make the
fantasy jump in logic that dry foods _cause_ diabetes is just plain
nonsense. Using this same logic - cats with renal failure must eat a
low phosphorus food, therefore high phosphorus _causes_ renal failure.
The proof of this logical fault is as follows: "My father ate green
peas as a child, he died of colon cancer at age 34, therefore green
peas cause colon caner" While the first two parts of the argument are
true, they in no way make the last part of the statement true.

About time for the legalese I suppose:
While I have been an employee of Hill's Pet Nutrition for over 20
years, any comment I make here is my opinion and my opinion alone and
should in no way be construed as representative of the company I work
for. It is my opinion and my opinion alone.

Dry cat food is not "bad" per se.  There is a certain segment of the population
that is fanatical in their beliefs.  Since most cats in the US are fed dry,
wouldn't "most" cats in the US be sick?

The reason Cheeky isn't eating more canned is because she's filled up on
the dry by being allowed to snack all day. When you've been snacking all
day on chips and whatever, my guess is eating a big dinner wouldn't be
too appealing. If you eliminate dry food and get her on scheduled meals
(every 12 hours) of a higher calorie canned food, she'll have the
appetite, will finish the food and you may be able to get some weight on
her. Innova in the red can is what I use to put weight on cats as it has
a higher calorie and fat content so you don't need a lot to get the
results you want.

Megan