Best Dry Food For Oral Health?

[andys1988]

Hello, all!

My kitten - Ralph - is 10 months old and is basically a panther. He's already about 11 pounds.

For most of his life, we had him on a variety of Blue Buffalo's wet food for kittens. We also kept Wellness dry food for kittens out 24/7.

Due to some stomach issues, our vet recommended we switch Ralph to a grain-free low-carb option. So, we're now feeding him Wellness grain-free wet food in the morning and at night. Since he's still young, we want to keep dry food out for him to nibble on, too.

The vet recommended ScienceDiet Oral Health for Ralph, because he noticed some early stage gum disease. I heard ScienceDiet has a lot of fillers, however.

Basically, I was wondering what you all think about ScienceDiet Oral Health? Also, do you have suggestions for good alternatives?

I hope to transition him to the new dry food in early May. Unfortunately, I think he ate a long piece of elastic string on Thursday. So, I'm still on poop watch and don't want to change things until I know he's out of the proverbial woods.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts and suggestions!

 

[kittyluv387]

Please dont feed him science diet. It is really low quality food and Ralph's current diet is so much better. Many of us here believe that dry food isnt any good for teeth. Would your teeth get clean from eating crackers? In the wild their teeth would get clean from tearing flesh and munching on bones. For indoor kitties the best thing you can do is brush their teeth! Makes a huge difference. Ralph is still youngish. Would you be able to brush his teeth? Regular dentals is recommended but brushing in between is best. My kitty who's teeth i cant brush he needs a dental every year and a half. My other kitty would be fine every 2.5 years or so because im able to brush his teeth every other day.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Brushing his teeth really IS your best option. Here is a thread that has lots of good into on that: Brushing teeth?

Otherwise, I've actually heard good things about that Science Diet Oral Care, although I, personally, do not really like many of the ingredients in it. I have a friend who uses it for his cats and he says it works. He says the nuggets are large enough that his cats actually have to bite into them, which causes them to scrape some teeth, which acts as a sort of brushing effect, and apparently there IS something in the food that is supposed to help keep the tartar and plaque down.

 

[IndyJones]

If possable brush his teeth with a toothbrush. I personallly used a baby toothbrush to brush Hector's teeth. She really liked the vanilla mint toothpaste.

 

[IndyJones]

When you think about it, eating cookies doesnt clean teeth so I really don't think feeding a cat kibbles does anything for teeth.

 

[Willowy]

Oral Care is specially made with the size, shape, and texture made for scraping the teeth. It also has an anti-plaque ingredient. Most kibbles don't have any dental benefit.

I've heard of some people (mainly for cost reasons) using the Oral Care food as a treat---maybe 15-20 pieces a day. That way it wouldn't be his whole diet but he'd still get the benefit.

 

[IndyJones]

Oral Care is specially made with the size, shape, and texture made for scraping the teeth. It also has an anti-plaque ingredient. Most kibbles don't have any dental benefit.

I've heard of some people (mainly for cost reasons) using the Oral Care food as a treat---maybe 15-20 pieces a day. That way it wouldn't be his whole diet but he'd still get the benefit.

This sounds like a good compromise that way he'd still get canned for the bulk of his diet. This is really important for male cats who's penis can get plugged if they don't get moisture in their food.

 

[lisahe]

I have to agree with mrsgreenjeens about the ingredients in the Science Diet food: ingredients like corn and wheat--which are in the oral health food--are definitely not optimal for a cat with a sensitive stomach! (Honestly, I'm not sure why a vet would recommend a grain-free, low-carb diet plus that... it makes no sense to me.)

I'm with mrsgreenjeens and IndyJones about brushing Ralph's teeth. We brush our cats' teeth daily -- they also had mouth troubles early in life -- and it helps tremendously. We use a CET toothbrushing kit; they love the seafood flavor toothpaste. We also had them tested and treated for the Bartonella bacterium; it's the same bacterium that causes cat scratch fever. Treating it for mouth problems is a bit controversial but our cat specialist vet says many of her patients see big improvements after that and brushing. We definitely have!

 

[LTS3]

CET makes dental chews which would be a better alternative to the Science Diet dry food, IMO. You can buy it online since it's hard to find at independent pet stores (not sold at chain stores like Petco). Amazon is one place, Chewy.com, DrsFosterandSmith.com, etc.

Early stage gum disease is worrisome. It can progress further into periodontal disease or resorptive lesions even with home care like brushing. Did your vet say anything about possible cleaning? If not, you may want to seek out a veterinary dentist.

 

[maddies momma]

Oral Care is specially made with the size, shape, and texture made for scraping the teeth. It also has an anti-plaque ingredient. Most kibbles don't have any dental benefit.

I've heard of some people (mainly for cost reasons) using the Oral Care food as a treat---maybe 15-20 pieces a day. That way it wouldn't be his whole diet but he'd still get the benefit.

Yes as everyone has said oral care is designed and proven through trials that it does clean the teeth. It's ok to not feed it as a main food. Using it as treats is a good idea as well. I use a veterinary dental kibble for my cat. He is fed mostly wet and then I give him some of the dental kibble after each canned meal.

 

[abyeb]

Oral Care is specially made with the size, shape, and texture made for scraping the teeth. It also has an anti-plaque ingredient. Most kibbles don't have any dental benefit.

I've heard of some people (mainly for cost reasons) using the Oral Care food as a treat---maybe 15-20 pieces a day. That way it wouldn't be his whole diet but he'd still get the benefit.

I've heard this too; six pieces of dental food is approximately equivalent to one brushing. Make sure that you don't break the kibble into smaller pieces. It needs to be large to work up into the gum area and to encourage cats to chew it instead of just swallowing it.