Wet vs dry cat food: the yearly sum

All wet costs a 4 kg neutered cat about £510 a year. All dry costs about £73. Those sums use Felix As Good As it Looks at £15 for 40 pouches (£4.41/kg) and Whiskas 1+ chicken at £5.99 for 1.9 kg (£3.15/kg), both read on Pets at Home on 2 November 2026.

The gap comes from water. Felix prints 750 kcal/kg and 82 % moisture. Whiskas prints 3,760 kcal/kg. Per kilo the gap looks modest. Per calorie it isn't: £5.88 per 1,000 kcal against £0.84 per 1,000 kcal.

I'm working from labels, store prices and named sources. I haven't fed either food to a cat, and the calories are the store's statement.

The sum

Calories come from the Merck Veterinary Manual: 70 x 4^0.75 x 1.2 is 238 kcal a day, or 86,720 a year. Merck warns that one animal may need as much as 30% more or less, so treat each line as a starting point.

Look at that last row. Battersea's cat cost page, updated on 6 July 2026, says a typical adult needs two pouches a day and around 20 g of dry. On these labels that's 203 kcal, which by the same formula suits a 3.2 kg neutered cat. So it isn't a like-for-like line with the others, and it still costs more than the half-and-half split.

The makers' own tables sit close to the formula. At 4 kg, Felix suggests 3 to 3.5 pouches and Whiskas 55 to 65 g. Follow Felix's 3.25 pouches and the wet year falls to about £445.

One pouch is worth about £117 a year

You needn't pick a side. One Felix pouch holds 63.75 kcal by the store's listing, the same as about 17 g of this Whiskas. At the prices above, the pouch costs about 37p and the 17 g about 5p. Swap one pouch a day and you keep about £117 a year. Whiskas's own wet listing suggests 16 g in place of one of its pouches, so the arithmetic sits close to what that maker prints.

That's the number I'd look at if pouches are stretching the budget.

Wet isn't always the dearer one

The headline depends on which two foods you pick. Pets at Home's own-label wet box, at £9.49 (£2.25 per 1,000 kcal), comes to about £195 a year for the same cat. Lily's Kitchen dry, at £24.49 (£3.12 per 1,000 kcal), comes to about £271. Both read on 2 November 2026.

So a budget pouch can beat a premium bag. For the full range, see the best-value wet cat food list and the best-value dry cat food list.

Set against what the charities say

Battersea's table, with no separate date on its costs, puts food at £20 to £55 a month. Cats Protection, with no date on its page, says £20 to £50. All-Felix works out at about £42.50 a month, inside both. All-Whiskas is about £6, well under both floors. I can't see what either charity assumed, so I wouldn't call them wrong. I'd only say an all-dry cat on a budget bag can come in below them.

Neither sum covers health. If you're feeding wet for a health reason, that decision belongs with your vet. Your own cat's weight goes in the pet cost calculator.