How best to give dental treat to cat.

Frank123

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I took my 3 year old cat (Cali) to the vet this morning for her annual checkup. Everything turned out normal except the vet found a little tartar buildup on her teeth. The vet gave me a 30 day supply of Dentees dental chews. The instructions were to give her one per day.
For those her are not familiar with these, these things are huge. It seems Cali wants to eat one but finds it difficult to eat because they are so large and not to mention hard. She'll put it in her mouth, chew on it for a few times, spit it out, and repeat this process. After a while she'll just give up, walk away and leave it on the floor. I get that the purpose of these is to make it difficult to chew to facilitate the cleaning of the teeth, but I'm wondering if there is a way to make it so that she is able to consume the treat.
I have thought about cutting it in half but figured it may defeat its purpose.
 

Talien

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You could just brush your cat's teeth. That's better for dental health than a dental treat, IMO. If the treats are too difficult to eat, there's no point in trying to get a cat to chew / eat it.
Yup. If you're concerned the best thing to do is brush her teeth.
 

tarasgirl06

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I took my 3 year old cat (Cali) to the vet this morning for her annual checkup. Everything turned out normal except the vet found a little tartar buildup on her teeth. The vet gave me a 30 day supply of Dentees dental chews. The instructions were to give her one per day.
For those her are not familiar with these, these things are huge. It seems Cali wants to eat one but finds it difficult to eat because they are so large and not to mention hard. She'll put it in her mouth, chew on it for a few times, spit it out, and repeat this process. After a while she'll just give up, walk away and leave it on the floor. I get that the purpose of these is to make it difficult to chew to facilitate the cleaning of the teeth, but I'm wondering if there is a way to make it so that she is able to consume the treat.
I have thought about cutting it in half but figured it may defeat its purpose.
In addition to dental treats -- we like Greenies Feline -- there are liquids that you add to your cat's water every day. We have TropiClean, available widely and through Petco.com.
 

Krienze

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We tried a few things, but greenies seems to be the only thing ALL of my cats will eat.

...Including the one with no teeth. Don't ask me how.
 

Danneq

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I'm actually in a similar situation. Most solutions don't work with our circumstances, but I was thinking about making up a batch of the stuff you add to their water and then mixing some of that water in with her food. Anyone think that would work, for me or OP, or would it not be enough to make a difference?
 

Talien

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I'm actually in a similar situation. Most solutions don't work with our circumstances, but I was thinking about making up a batch of the stuff you add to their water and then mixing some of that water in with her food. Anyone think that would work, for me or OP, or would it not be enough to make a difference?
This is what I do and it works fine.
 

Purr-fect

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We tried a few things, but greenies seems to be the only thing ALL of my cats will eat.

...Including the one with no teeth. Don't ask me how.
My boys are addicted to greenies. Im not sure how useful they are in actually cleaning teeth. I guess they look pretty clean.
20170412_165020-1-1.jpg
 
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