On average, cats fed canned cat food eat fewer ounces of food per day

VeritasKarishma

Dear Karishma,
could you elaborate answer C ?
(C) How much it costs to feed a cat a given kind of food depends only on how many calories per ounce that food contains.


We know that the canned food contains more calories per ounce than dry food.
Hence, > calories -> higher price -> higher cost

"Canned foods - Cats eat fewer ounces per day." So let's say they eat 2 bowls per day.
"Dry food - Cats eat more ounces per day." So let's say they eat 3 bowls per day.

"Still feeding canned food is more expensive." This means 1 ounce of canned food is certainly more expensive than 1 ounce of dry food.

"1 ounce of canned food provides more calories than 1 ounce of dry food."
This could be why cats eat fewer ounces of canned food. Or they may feel full faster with canned food, we don't know. In any case, calories has nothing to do with cost.

Which of the following must be true?

(A) On average, cats fed canned cat food eat more calories per day than do cats fed dry cat food.

We don't know. Cats eat fewer ounces of canned food but each ounce gives more calories. How many total calories they get depends on how much they eat and how many calories each ounce has. Until and unless we have exact figures, we cannot say what outweighs the other.

(B) Typically, cats are fed either canned cat food or dry cat food, or both.

We cannot say this. Nothing in the argument conveys this.

(C) How much it costs to feed a cat a given kind of food depends only on how many calories per ounce that food contains.

How many calories that food contains doesn't have any relevance to cost. The argument gives no such connection. Do cats eat less of the food if it has higher calories, we don't know. Also, this option talks about "given kind of food". The argument only discusses canned vs dry food. We cannot deduce a general "any kind of food" from a specific example. There is no discussion of say home cooked food.

(D) On average, it costs no less to feed a cat that eats fewer ounces of food per day than it does to feed a cat that eats more ounces of food per day.

It depends on the kind of food it eats, not just how much food it eats.

(E) Canned cat food typically costs more per ounce than does dry cat food.

Correct. Only then will feeding canned food cost more.

Answer (E)