Since Chris had eight teeth pulled, I have been thinking about ways I could help keep our cats’ teeth clean. The vet says dry food is good for that which makes me question my choice of vets. I think dry food cleans a cat’s teeth as well as a cookie cleans a human’s teeth.
I could try to brush their teeth but that would cause trauma and be a nightmare beyond belief. Floki, especially, would be impossible considering we can’t even trim his nails.
Bones are natures teeth cleaner for cats but, even though I feed them raw cat food, I don’t give them bones. I’ve recently started including a few ground chicken wings with bones (the wingettes are all my food grinder can handle) but they need the entire bone to help their teeth. Chris barely eats his wet food the way it is, I can’t see him or any of our boys eating the entire chicken wing, although Frankie might attempt it.
I recently came across Solredo Silver Vine Chew Sticks that claim to clean cat’s teeth among other health benefits. On Amazon they are labeled as “Matatabi Cat Catnip Sticks.” I assume Matatabi is another word for Silver Vine but Catnip is probably wrong since they are Silver Vine sticks.
They arrived last week and I took three out of the resealable package and gave them to our boys with mixed results. They were interested at first but it didn’t last. Frankie even started playing with his Kitty Kick Styx. It seemed holding the sticks was much more effective after the initial interest subsided. Unfortunately, holding them is not realistic. Perhaps they should sell a device that holds them ten inches off the ground.
Has anyone tried these? What do you think?
Bad Cat Chris 
I’m the stick or bone holder in our house too… ;O)
🙂
My vet said something similar to yours – and when I gave my two extra large dry food (only a little) they crunched it well and had henceforth no more problems. Apart from developing FORL.
That is not good. 🙁
No, it wasn’t but Kessy recovered swiftly and even with bare gums loves to crunch the big teeth cleaning kibble.
My heart always breaks a little. But better than tooth ache forever and not being able to eat at all.
I’m amazed that cats can eat kibble after having your teeth removed.
You aren’t alone on that.
We’ve not tried those, but most of us do get our teeth brushed every day.
I can’t see our boys allowing us to do that. I would also worrying that that wouldn’t cause mistrust. After trying and failing to cut floki’s nails he usually hides from us for a day or two afterwards.
Not tried, but I will when I see somewhere those sticks. Kosmo has had no tooth problmes, he loves dry food, maybe the reason. Brushing cat´s teeth, maybe if a cat is used to it as a kitten. Kosmo is an easy cat, nails cut in 5 minutes, vacuuming, brushing ok, but I would´t try to brush his teeth.
I don’t have to try it to know that brushing my cat’s teeth would be very difficult.
My human brushes my teeth sometimes, apparently not often enough because every time she sees a dental post, she suddenly remembers I need a brushing! Those sticks sound interesting, but I think it would be more fun to gnaw on a raw bone.
Yes, I think the raw bones would be better. I think I would have an easier time getting them to eat the bones and the brush their teeth.
Wait. What? Cookies can clean my teeth? Yes! Finally! I know that’s not exactly what it says, but still…. Cookies!
Love and licks,
Cupcake
😁
No way we would want our teeth brushed…but we like silvervine!
I wouldn’t want someone brushing my teeth.
Sorry the cats weren’t thrilled.
It happens sometimes.
Teddy had no interest in the silvervine sticks although he seems to like silvervine. I think if a cat is a “chewer” they’d be more likely to use those sticks and probably keep their teeth stronger. As for cleaning them somehow I doubt it……Sammy ate dry food all his life and never had tooth or gum problems – in fact he only had one actual CLEANING and that was after we first adopted him. In spite of several vets seeing him for checkups through the years, none of them ever thought he needed a cleaning and were amazed he had no tartar buildup or issues. I am SURE this story is an exception though (!!).
Pam
Sammy must have had good genes.
HA…..yes I think he must have although he was believed to be an abandoned feral kitten living under a house when he was found and taken to the shelter all those years ago. Luck of the draw!
Vets here in my city say the same about dry food. This is a very common saying. They suggest this too to keep cat teeth a bit clean. You’re probably right with the cookie example… but they probably mean that dry foot at least grinds off old plaque from their teeth. With the given fact that brushing cat teeth is difficult, it’s probably meant as that, a compromise for pets. I got that suggested too after Shyna had dental work a few years ago.
I regularly buy China similar chewing-sticks… they’re better for that than the common dry food I think. Nonetheless, she’s getting older… like we do. I checked her teeth because she sometimes has bad breath now. I hope she doesn’t have renal insufficiency or diabetes, because that can lead to bad breath too. But she generally looks healthy, I saw she has some dark teeth and will let a vet check it soon.
What I wondered the last two weeks… do cats show it if they’re in pain? What was with Chris teeth? Was it just the breath or did he miaow all the time and you became concerned and went to the vet to let them check what’s going on? I have no idea if cats show it if they’re in pain. Because mine doesn’t seem to make an unhappy or stresses impression.
I am currently also testing if it’s related to certain types of food. She definitely has worse breath after fish, which makes sense of course, but also with some other things. And then there are days where the bad breath is gone. This is for example after using chewing sticks… so, maybe it’s really just about food residues in her mouth. But I’m still worried and will talk to a vet if this continues.
Cats are very good at hiding their pain. I think is instance because in the wild they don’t want to show weakness. Chris was at the vet for a different reason when he discovered his teeth were very bad. I would like to find out if there is a study done with cats that eat dry food and cats that eat wet food to see who has the better teeth.