New kitten owner: stinky kitten breath, meowing all the time? Ahhh!

Helloooo! I'm new here, and I'm also a new cat owner. I've had my kitty Nacho for a month or so now, and he's about 5 months old and is desexed/vacced/all of that. I actually adopted him from a local cat rescue, he was found in a plastic bag on the side of the road with his siblings when he was really young and has been slowly rehabilitated, poor little guy!

Anyway, he lately has shocking breath and spit smell. I googled around and apparently that happens when teething - would he be at the teething age? I've noticed he's chewing stuff more than usual, but the breath is pretty bad since he loves to sleep with his face on my face, which is sweet but gross at the same time. I feed him on a diet of raw kangaroo mince/pet mince morning and night with some dry food available at all times which he nibbles at every now and then, so the raw food probably doesn't help the stinky breath either.

Also, he meows a lot! He is kept in the laundry at night with his food/bed/litter as we have an older cat, Roxy, who is 10 and still trying to get used to him being around (we've slowly introduced him and keep them separated most of the time for now, she's getting better with him, still hisses but there has been no aggression and they even touched noses yesterday!) and I'm assuming he's meowing because he just wants to get out do stuff, but he's started meowing all morning now! Like, non stop meowing, one meow after the other! It sounds like he's going mad! Is this just a kitten thing? Could this be a teething thing also?

Sorry for the long long long post, and I'm not sure if this is posted in the right place. I've never had a kitten before, and I've only been around older cats, so I'm not sure what to expect! Thank you for any help!

Here's some bonus pictures of him so this isn't so boring:

Hi Owletts,

Another Aussie  !

I don't have a complete answer for you, but I would get a quick vet check.  When my kitten had bad breath (it wasn't for long, and doesnt sound as bad), my vet suggested some probiotics.  There are people on here who can tell you what strength you need (the commercial cat ones often are not so wonderful in quality).  However, in our case, Kato hated that powder, wouldn't eat it, and the problem resolved itself within a few days in any case.  He has lovely breath now (except after eating sardines - but I'm sure my breath would smell just as bad!)

Prolonged bad breath isnt 'normal'.

But raw feeding will give your cat LOVELY breath (and poos), so that isn't the problem...with one caveat.  You need to do it 'right'.

In Australia, we have an awful problem with our 'pet grade' roo meat, and packaged cold pet meals, being treated with sulfites.  Our laws don't make labelling on pet food show this.  Sometimes, the manufacturer doesn't even know...it CAME to them as an ingredient already treated.  The problem with sulfites is that they can kill your cat.  Sulfites stop cats absorbing thiamine in that meal, and in other food that is in their system.  Without thiamine, they will die, and many cats HAVE died due to thiamine deficiency in pet food.  Here's a bit more: http://kb.rspca.org.au/Are-preservatives-in-pet-food-products-a-concern_312.html.  Many manufactures try to address this by adding extra thiamine (thiamine is found in ample quantities in meat, so this is just ironic!), the problem is, they don't test their products!  So they don't add enough, or don't know how much sulfite is even in the food.  

I would hop on over to the raw feeding forum.  The resource thread there will help you get up and running with good food, and there's very helpful people on the forum who will help all your questions.  Essentially, good breath, like good fur, will show up as a result of good nutrition and good health.  So review both the nutrition aspect and the health aspect (I dont' know, an infected emerging tooth???) to solve this problem.

By the way, so happy you rescued this fellow - he's BEAUTIFUL!!

Thank you! I'll get him an appointment asap  

http://www.pawsfresh.com.au/pet-food/pouches-cats.asp

This is the mince I feed him, I'm not sure what to look for in good raw food so if anyone here knows anything more that'd be helpful!

Yeah, we dont have a good 'raw' food commercially available here in Australia that I know of - Please, anyone, feel free to update me!  And I do quite a bit of writing to companies to find out their ingredients and what testing etc they do to verify their claims.  I don't get many responses.  We have a completely unregulated system over here; manufacturers may adhere to a voluntary code if they like.  This is why I choose to make my own raw meals: I got a lot of the info from the raw feeding resources and forum.

I did feed BARF (commercial raw) at one point.  Some people like it, many don't for a few reasons; I stopped as Kato hates mince.  It also has quite a course grind of bone in it and a bit got stuck in his teeth once (I poked it out).

I'll be doing a bit more 'cat testing' of some other food options in the next few weeks (hint - look at my signature) as I get sent some samples of stuff where the ingredients look 'ok' to me.  I feed one meal of the day as a canned meal - the rest homemade Frankenprey raw.  Aim for lots of variety.

Thanks for the info, and I'll definitely check out your link

Wow, he has very beautiful markings!

l'm glad you're taking him to the vet to rule anything out. However, my now 11 month old "kitten" who is also raw-fed, had absolutely repugnant breath while he was teething. He's normal now, but l definitely avoided his kisses for a couple of months!