Royal Canin Oral Sensitive 30 or Nutro Complete Indoor?

We adopted Fred & Ginger (brother & sister, both 10 months old) from shelter 5 weeks ago. They had their first vet visit last Wednesday. Everything is good except both have mild gingivitis, also Fred has tarter on one tooth. Vet recommends Science Diet Oral Care which I do not care for- we were given 2 bags of Science Diet Kitten food from shelter and their elimination stink the entire house. The smell was gone when I mix 50/50 Science Diet with Nutro Adult. The best part is both cats chow down Nutro first .

I searched the forum and it seems Royal Canin has good reputation as well. Nutro Complete Indoor claimed its 'unique shape and texture helps scrub away plaque and tartar for healthy gums and teeth'; Royal Canin has one formulated specifically for oral problem. Which one should I use? Or it doesn't matter since I will be brushing their teeth? Here's the website:

Royal Canin Oral 30
http://www.royalcanin.us/catfood/oral.html

Nutro Complete Indoor
http://www.nutroproducts.com/ncccdry-in-ad.shtml

Thanks!

If you can brush...

while both of these products contain dental care dry food will not clean teeth and you may want to move to a wet diet... think which cleans your teeth better ceareal or an apple

I prefer Natural choice reg to either ....

you can also buy tatar control treats too. i like Nutro over Royal Cainn, but thats me,lol.

If it's for keeping their teeth clean, brushing is really best. My kitties had a sample of the RC oral sensitive and they seemed to like it.

I have used Royal canin in the past but only the indoor and kitten formulas.

we also use natural choice indoor care, i also prefer nutro to RC but that is JMO.. if tarter is a problem i agree getting a brush is probably your best bet

In general, I prefer Nutro over RC.

I agree with the others...the best route for oral hygeine is a brush.

And a ditto on incorporating wet food...that's essential IMO.

When you watch the cats eat dry food...half of it gets swallowed whole and the vast majority of the rest gets "shattered" rather than chewed. It's really not an effective way to clean teeth. A lot of it just gets stuck between them, making the problem worse instead of better. I'm not a big dry food fan, you can probably tell.

Thanks for the feedback. I was leaning toward Nutro, now I am definitely stick with it. I start brushing (well more like wipe) their teeth on Sunday, as soon as they get used to my finger in their mouths hopefully I can switch to a brush.

I found this website after we got Fred & Ginger. I learned so much about cats since then. I understand this type of question come up almost daily and appreciate everyone's patience in answering mine.

Thanks again!
Rone

We got 2 of those soft rubber brushes that fit over our fingers and some kitty toothpaste that supposedly tastes like malt.

raven likes to chew on his hartz electric toothbrush. i bought it at the grocery store for a few bucks. i swear the one i bought said for cats or dogs and looks smaller. raven is obsessed with the electric toothbrush i use for myself. now he has his own. i put a little cat toothpaste on it, he licks the toothpaste first, then chews on the brush. it's pretty silly. it works though. last night he got some food out of his teeth. he never liked the gummy finger brushes or using gauze.

I can't brush the cats teeth if I want to keep my fingers intact... lol

What you need to do before you switch foods/etc is make an appointment to have their teeth scaled and cleaned. You also need to start brushing their teeth regurally (you can get little slip on finger brushes at any local pet store- and use just a small pea sized amount of toothpaste). once you do this it really does not matter so much as to what food you feed them as far as special diets go. the vet is trying to get you to use science diet because vets offices directly profit from doing business with science diet / Go online- do some research and look at the ingredients/what your kitties need and make an informed decision based on that - also many other member on here are quite experienced with feline nutrition (i know Sharky, Jennifer is one of them! she's helped me out many times! ). Good luck hon!! Best of luck to you and your kitties!