Orange cats and gingivitis?

[MissClouseau]

I will never understand this. My response when I hear that idiotic nonsense is, "Do you eat granola to clean your teeth?"

We don't eat granola to clean our teeth but we are capable of thoroughly brushing our teeth 2-3 times a day every day. We can even use mouthwash and floss. SOme cats don't even allow brushing once a day.

The research shows chewing hard food helps cleaning the tartar. And in the case of eating wet food the food sticks to their gum (especially pate food) and a hard food removes them off the gums. It's not the ideal method but the ideal methods don't work well and/or are not enough with every cat.

 

[Talien]

We don't eat granola to clean our teeth but we are capable of thoroughly brushing our teeth 2-3 times a day every day. We can even use mouthwash and floss. SOme cats don't even allow brushing once a day.

The research shows chewing hard food helps cleaning the tartar. And in the case of eating wet food the food sticks to their gum (especially pate food) and a hard food removes them off the gums. It's not the ideal method but the ideal methods don't work well and/or are not enough with every cat.

That "research" is junk science paid for by the companies that produce dry food, it's not so much research as it is spin. Dry food is where they make most of their money, it's very cheap to produce and is sold for massive profit so they have a vested interest in aggressively pushing it as something "good" when it is the opposite of good.

A Cat's teeth are designed for holding and tearing, not for masticating food into small pieces. They have very little horizontal surface area and are vertically oriented, more like knives than teeth as we tend to think of them. Raw meat is easy to rip apart into small chunks to swallow which is what their teeth are meant to do. Kibble, on the other hand, basically explodes when pressure is put on it, especially by a small surface like the end of a Cat's tooth. There is no scraping action on the long vertical surfaces and any contact is limited to the tips of the teeth. Cats in the wild have their teeth cleaned by tearing away fur and feathers from prey, and by cracking bones open. There are some foods with larger pieces that are marketed as "dental health" but they really aren't much better for this purpose and there have been cases where Cats have tried swallowing the pieces whole and choked on them.

Among other sites/blogs/articles/etc. catinfo and feline nutrition foundation have good info on the subject.

 

[MissClouseau]

That "research" is junk science paid for by the companies that produce dry food, it's not so much research as it is spin

Which one? There are several different ones that I saw.

Cats in the wild have their teeth cleaned by tearing away fur and feathers from prey, and by cracking bones open

Exactly. So they clean it with food. Then it shouldn’t be surprising another (dry) food might help too.

Not to promote one food or the other. But it’s not false nor idiotic to say dry food helps dental health.

 

[JulieHarr]

I posted today in the Cat Health area about my ginger cat. Featured - Dental Issue questions
Not sure if this is because he is a ginger. Vet said, this sometimes happens, possibly genetic.