Does kibble kill cats?

Cats are obligate carnivores - meaning they will become very ill and eventually die without meat. Cats have utterly no nutritional requirement for any sort of grain and derive little benefit from the various grains added to most commercial cat food (and yes, there are grains in canned food - despite the attractive pictures on the label, they are not all meat.)
Fact A: Cats need a meat based diet.

Domestic cats descended from desert-dwelling wild cats and retain some of those traits, including a very low thirst drive. This means that cats fed a dry, kibble-only diet are much more likely to develop myriad health problems and live a shorter than necessary life in low-grade dehydration. A typical, optimum rodent based wild diet contains 60-70% moisture. Kibble contains at best 10% moisture and most cats will not drink enough water to make up the difference. This constant state of dehydration can lead to early renal failure, constant urinary tract problems, crystals and bladder stones and bladder infections.
FACT B: All-dry diets are not good for cats.

Grain-based foods (virtually all kibble sold on the market) are heavy in carbohydrates. Unlike humans, cats derive little energy or nutrition from carbohydrates and are more likely to have diabetes, become fat, sluggish and have poor muscle tone - if this is your cat, she is neither happy or healthy.
Kibble manufacturers add flavorants, vitamins and minerals to compensate for an inferior product but these are a poor substitute for proper nutrition. Kibble also has artificial stool hardeners (usually beet pulp) added, because the cat will have constant diarrhea otherwise on the grain by-product based food.
FACT C: Cats are natural Atkins-diet eaters.

Dry kibble is bad for cats' teeth. Although many kibbles have artificial abrasives added (ptrophosphate salts, insoluble vegetable fiber, cellulose) and are sized to encourage chewing rather than gulping, these are generally insufficient to maintain good dental health for the life of the cat. How would your teeth feel after eating a bowl of dry cornflakes for every meal? Would you have cereal mush between your teeth and along your gums, fermenting away? So does your cat. And she can't swill it away by drinking lots of water or brushing her teeth.
Ideally, carnivores will maintain healthy mouths by chewing and eating small bones, cartilege and gristle. Dental diseases are rampant in pets and the bacteria overload in an unhealthy mouth puts stress on many internal organs, potentially leading to disease and early organ failure.
FACT D: Kibble is not good for teeth and gums.

So - the bottom line here is - do not feed an all dry diet! At the very least, even cheap canned food added to a kibble diet is better than feeding all dry, even if you buy a "better" brand of kibble.
Want some veterinary references to the above? OK.
Here.
Here.
Here.
Here, this one's REALLY good.
There's tons more like that, just google "kibble cat health" or similar and ignore websites selling anything.

And read Leigh-Ann's excellent May 5th blog entry on cat nutrition!

So, Carina, what does your cat Elvis eat?
He absolutely adores whole ground rabbit (bones, guts and all.) I buy it for a little over $2/lb, it looks like coarse hamburger. He will also eat chicken necks and various bits of raw this & that along with the dogs. I also keep various brands of canned cat food on hand; I do not want an unnaturally picky cat and he eats most although does not appear fond of beef. Despite what I wrote above about the Evil That Is Kibble, I do keep some on hand because he really likes it! He eats so little that I keep it in the fridge for fear of spoilage, and mostly I buy Innova EVO, which is a grain-free kibble. He's nuts about it. Although it's pricey, it is a more concentrated food without a bunch of junk bulk added to it. I imagine a cat would need to eat much less of it to maintain a decent lean weight.