food; discharge from eyes and nose

Question
Is it OK to feed my cats only dry cat food? And is it OK to leave the bowl full all day, my cats are not overweight, and they eat until they are full, they do not eat a lot because the food is there, should I remove the bowls anyway?
And my 3 persian cats always have brownish black discharge from their eyes and noses, my vet says that this is common in persians, but still i'm not so sure about it, because i think that discharge from noses is not common, what do you say? by the way, my cats are a nearly 4 year old mother and 2 nearly 4 month old kittens.
Looking forward to your reply, and thanks a lot for your help.
Regards,
Deborah

Answer
Deborah,

As far as feeding goes as long as your cats are not gorging themselves and becoming overweight free feeding is perfectly acceptable. As long as you have clean fresh water in ample quantities available at all times kibble or canned is a personal preferance. I feed kibble, because I am concerned about dental health and fibre intake. I give the occasional can of a super premium food as a treat.

Persian cats, due to the severely shortened nose and face unfortunately are prone to nasal and ocular discharge. To prevent infection you must clean their faces with a damp cotton ball or face cloth several times a day. The sad part about the extremes breeding standards encourage is that they can cause serious health and breathing issues in animals like the persian cat. Whether or not it should be done is an ethical debate I am not prepared to get into. As I said the best thing that you can do for your persian beauties is to make cleaning their eyes, ears and nose part of your daily grooming routine.
Hopefully this answers your questions. If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me in the future.