[La lamy]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

The thing about dry food and teeth is an outright, absolute, 100% marketing lie. Not even a mistruth. It's flat out wrong.

Think about it: imagine you are stuck eating nothing but vitamin/mineral-fortified cold cheerios without milk for the rest of your life. Imagine eating that, and not being physically capable of brushing your own teeth, and relying on someone else to remember it needs to be done.

Cat teeth are made of the same substance that human teeth are made of.

What's worse, is cats have no molars. They can't CHEW. It's physically impossible. They can bite, they can chip, they can crunch and break up a big piece into shards, but they can't do what is known as "masticate."

Next: cats are obligate carnivores. Their digestive system is not designed to handle vegetable matter efficiently. Yes, they /can/ digest some vegetable matter - but not efficiently, not in a way that maximizes their ability to absorb their nutritional intake.

I'm not even talking about them needing grain-free. I'm talking fresh raw dead animal, including some raw bones and offal. That's what cats thrive on most.

That's hardly convenient for pet owners (though some people actually do go that route). The next best thing would be a custom diet of ground meats such as duck and rabbit, with some raw chicken bone ground up into bone meal (never cooked), and a pinch of ground grass, also ground. That will best reflect the diet of an animal that a cat would prey on, in the wild.

Next best would be a freeze-dried raw food from a pet store, re-hydrated with water at meal time. I like Stella and Chewy's, it has some vegetable matter in it, which is what is found in the stomachs of a cat's natural prey, but is mostly raw meat, dehydrated into pellets that I rehydrate with warm water.

Alternate with grain-free wet food that does -not- have pea protein or a high vegetable content. Fish should be the last animal protein choice, because of the mercury content. But if they like fish, give'em fish in your rotation. I like the BFF from Weruva, she gets a small can of a variety of chicken-based flavors (they all contain fish) at bedtime.

And oddly enough - Fancy Feast TENDER meals are grain-free, low-veggie content, and inexpensive commercial food. But make sure to get the "Classic Tender" varieties, the other varieties have gluten and/or grain. Cats are gluten-intolerant.

Cats are also intolerant to lactose from cows' milk. A sip or two won't hurt them. But a saucer full can wreck their intestines for a few days.

Cats have naturally low thirst drives. Some cats like water but most don't, and will only drink it if they're already dehydrated. Most cats that are dehydrated, are dehydrated because their owners refuse to give them wet food.

And for the love of everything holy - don't give them Hill's Rx diet. If your vet recommends it, find a new vet. That stuff is poison. Just read the ingredients some time and remember "cats are obligate carnivores."

Wow, thanks so much for this info!