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I had an interesting conversation with my vet today. I mentioned wanting to try again with changing Chilli’s wet food to a different brand, since the one she currently eats contains mostly tuna and I’ve heard negative things about feeding tuna every day. In this country it can be somewhat difficult and expensive to find a good wet food alternative that DOESN’T contain tuna, so I figured I’d see if he had any recommendations.
To my surprise he suggested switching her to only dry food (he uses Royal Canin for his cats). I asked, isn’t wet food considered much better for their health in terms of moisture and isn’t dry food often full of addictive carbs and unnecessary fillers? He sort of conceded but he was insistent that because of how dirty Chilli’s teeth are, kibble would be the best thing for her along with strict water hygiene to make sure she drinks enough. His anecdotal evidence was his 18 year old cat who’s eaten nothing but kibble his whole life and has sparkling clean teeth, versus his 15 year old who ate only wet food and had most of her teeth removed. I was really surprised as I’ve never heard this before. Surely food is food, bacteria is bacteria, in terms of what makes the teeth dirty or clean??
I love my vet and I know he is generally very knowledgeable and skillful compared to many vets here, especially when it comes to dental health and surgeries, but based on the research I’ve done since getting home I wonder if he is just really misinformed and incorrect about the food/nutrition aspect of things here.
Does anyone have any thoughts to weigh in on this? Of course it’d be easier and much cheaper to just feed her kibble, but right now I still intend to find a high quality wet food, because I’ve been convinced by the arguments for doing so. But if it’s jeopardizing her dental health then I suppose I could reconsider.
To my surprise he suggested switching her to only dry food (he uses Royal Canin for his cats). I asked, isn’t wet food considered much better for their health in terms of moisture and isn’t dry food often full of addictive carbs and unnecessary fillers? He sort of conceded but he was insistent that because of how dirty Chilli’s teeth are, kibble would be the best thing for her along with strict water hygiene to make sure she drinks enough. His anecdotal evidence was his 18 year old cat who’s eaten nothing but kibble his whole life and has sparkling clean teeth, versus his 15 year old who ate only wet food and had most of her teeth removed. I was really surprised as I’ve never heard this before. Surely food is food, bacteria is bacteria, in terms of what makes the teeth dirty or clean??
I love my vet and I know he is generally very knowledgeable and skillful compared to many vets here, especially when it comes to dental health and surgeries, but based on the research I’ve done since getting home I wonder if he is just really misinformed and incorrect about the food/nutrition aspect of things here.
Does anyone have any thoughts to weigh in on this? Of course it’d be easier and much cheaper to just feed her kibble, but right now I still intend to find a high quality wet food, because I’ve been convinced by the arguments for doing so. But if it’s jeopardizing her dental health then I suppose I could reconsider.