Is there anyway to keep a cats teeth clean and healthy? Three of my sweeties seem to have teeth problems at the minute. Vet says it isn't an urgent thing but will get very expensive! What can I do at home to help them out? They are fed on a diet of wet and dry food. Wet three times a day and a constant supply of dry food. I know for dogs you can buy dentasticks etc but i've not seen anything like this for cats?

I fed Binky those Dentine biscuits for 6 years as they are a complete diet and keep the cats teeth in good condition. Last time he had a check-up he had to have most of them removed as they were rotten! So much for 6 years worth of bloody expensive teeth protecting biscuits!!

Avoid popular tinned cat food (and packet), it contains sugars (to make the cats like it lots) which damage teeth.

Best diet is a good quality dried cat food (James WEll Beloved, Burns, Arden Grange)

emily has whiskers dentabiscuits, theyre only 99p a packet, and she can only have 12 a day so they last a while. she loved them at first but she's started to turn her nose up at them now :P

are all your cats this fussy? :P

You can also buy a cat toothpaste.

Put 1" on a front paw and as they lick it off it's supposed to clean the teath

the toothpaste is a good idea, but I can imagine emily just running round and smearing it everywhere instead!!

Sorry Keely but Emily's mummy is a very fussy cat :hihi:. By the way (and for hattie and tiffs owners) the offical birthday of the kitties is Sunday 22nd of April 2007 :) I found the diary that I thought i had lost on my travels :rolleyes: and I had written it down, knew I had!

emilys like the queen, she has 2 birthdays :hihi:

the toothpaste is a good idea, but I can imagine emily just running round and smearing it everywhere instead!!

We used to put it around our old cats chops, he was a Persian so anywhere else would have caused dreadlocks. Anyway my point is they lick their chops that often that it's gone in a few seconds. It comes in meat flavour so the smell that close to their nose really gets them licking.

But does it work?

It's enzymic in action so it's not like toothpaste that you have to scrub with. There's lots of evidence that it does work if you use it regularly.

I've never used any toothpaste with my cats (bad cat mummy!) but then apart from Tiffy who needed to have a couple of teeth out when she was 10 my lot have never needed to see the dentist. They live on an entirely dry diet (they live on Wellbeloved biscuits) apart from very occasional treats of fresh meat or dried prawns.

There's a genetic factor to whether cats develop dental problems though- I know that the Shelter have had some cats in who had gum disease all the way from kittenhood and ended up with their teeth being removed at a very young age purely to stop them from having to suffer the constant pain and irritation in their mouths.