 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion GroupsGeneral TopicsCat AnecdotesHealth and BehaviorRescue CatKB.com Contact UsLink To UsSearch & Site Map |
Cat Forum / Health and Behavior / October 2003'dental diet' products
A vet recently recommended that I get food for my cats marketed as having teeth-cleaning properties. She mentioned that these foods have an enzyme in them that breaks down the plaque on their teeth. The fact that they'll only eat regular Friskies aside, I tried giving them Friskies Dental Diet, mixing it in with the regular stuff. They didn't like it. Then I read the bag--apparently it's marketed as teeth-cleaning solely because the food pieces are larger and take longer to chew. A search on Petco came up with a fancier brand name with the same exact thing (larger food). I'm thinking I may have misunderstood the vet about this supposed special enzyme. So...does anyone have recs for what *will* work? I saw something in a catalog that you add to their water, but I'd like to know if it really works before buying it. Any recommendations on teeth-cleaning products that work would be much appreciated! Kirsten >From: filigree00@aol.comigree (Filigree00) >So...does anyone have recs for what *will* work? Kirsten, try Hill's t/d or Science Diet Oral Care. These products carry the VOHC seal and are clinically proven to clean away tartar, plaque, stain on your cat's teeth. It would be much healthier for your cat also, as an average 10 lb cat that eats Friskies would consume about 10 POUNDS of salt over the course of a year! > >From: filigree00@aol.comigree (Filigree00) > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > VOHC seal and are clinically proven to clean away tartar, plaque, stain on > your cat's teeth. There's also all the Iams Dental Diet doohickeys. AFAICT, t/d is the best dry food for dental care. It also seems to be extremely palatable to the furry freaks. On the flip side, it's pretty low calorie (high fibre), which may or may not be of interest. It's also a distressing yellow in colour. What will work best is for you to attempt a daily cleaning of your cats fangs. This may, or may not be possible without loss of own limbs. CET make little cleaning kits so that you can find out how futile the attempt is, give up, and search for a suitable dental diet. I'd probably stick with a predominantly wet diet, with some arbitrary amount of dental diet added in. Maybe 33% dental diet and 66% wet, on a calorific basis. I have no basis whatsoever for those figures, calorific or otherwise. Steve. Steve wrote: >> Kirsten, try Hill's t/d or Science Diet Oral Care. These products carry >the [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >extremely palatable to the furry freaks. On the flip side, it's pretty >low calorie (high fibre), which may or may not be of interest. Actually, it may be of concern for one of my cats--I don't want to give him anything that may cause him to lose weight fast since he's had complications due to dieting in the past. Do you think the fact that it's low calorie might cause an overweight cat to lose weight quickly? It's >also a distressing yellow in colour. So is the Friskies. :) >What will work best is for you to attempt a daily cleaning of your >cats fangs. This may, or may not be possible without loss of own >limbs. CET make little cleaning kits so that you can find out how >futile the attempt is, give up, and search for a suitable dental diet. That will probably be my course of action. >I'd probably stick with a predominantly wet diet, with some arbitrary >amount of dental diet added in. Maybe 33% dental diet and 66% wet, on >a calorific basis. I have no basis whatsoever for those figures, >calorific or otherwise. Just curious--doesn't wet food contribute to tartar buildup more so than dry alone? This was something else the vet told me and so I stopped giving my babies wet food, much to their chagrin. thanks, Kirsten >>> Kirsten, try Hill's t/d or Science Diet Oral Care. These products carry >>the [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] >due to dieting in the past. Do you think the fact that it's low calorie might >cause an overweight cat to lose weight quickly? One of our cats, who was about a pound overweight, did lost most of that pound over the course of several months on SD dental diet. I wouldn't say she lost it quickly, however. And we also feed canned food, so it wasn't her only diet. >It's >>also a distressing yellow in colour. > >So is the Friskies. :) >>What will work best is for you to attempt a daily cleaning of your >>cats fangs. This may, or may not be possible without loss of own [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >alone? This was something else the vet told me and so I stopped giving my >babies wet food, much to their chagrin. Well, that's debatable. Canned food is generally considered a healthier diet overall then dry. I'm not sure there is any real evidence that canned food contributes to tartar buildup. However, if you are concerned, why not feed both? > Steve wrote: (...) > >AFAICT, t/d is the best dry food for dental care. It also seems to be > >extremely palatable to the furry freaks. On the flip side, it's pretty [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > due to dieting in the past. Do you think the fact that it's low calorie might > cause an overweight cat to lose weight quickly? Well, the cat would be more likely to lose weight on a lower kcal diet rather than a higher kcal diet! Facetiousness aside, according to the Hills WWWsite, t/d is a little (~10%) higher in energy density (i.e., per unit mass) than their 'light' formulations, but c. 15% lower than the bum-basic stuff. This suggests to me that t/d would *not* be likely to lead to a 'quick' weight loss, because it is not as low calorie as the diets that are designed specifically for weight loss. IYSWIM! (...) > >I'd probably stick with a predominantly wet diet, with some arbitrary > >amount of dental diet added in. Maybe 33% dental diet and 66% wet, on [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Just curious--doesn't wet food contribute to tartar buildup more so than dry > alone? I believe so, yes. However, the advantages of wet food outweigh the disadvantages, IMO. Moreover, you will certainly need to get professional, periodic, cat-fang cleanage even if you feed the best available dental diet. Mind you, I wish I knew how effective these dental diets are when fed at less than 100% of the daily ration - they are tested as an exclusive food. Steve. > A vet recently recommended that I get food for my cats marketed as having > teeth-cleaning properties. She mentioned that these foods have an enzyme in [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > > Kirsten Doing this may or may not work for you and yours, but it works for me and mine - the brushing of the teeth. Tiny tot tooth brush and a feline tooth paste. Judy & Matilda. |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.