Homemade raw diet and bad breath?

My two 6 month old kittens have been eating strictly raw meals for more than two months now.
They get course ground meat/bone/organ from haretoday currently mixed with chicken hearts and alnutrin. Also sprinkled with a probiotic daily. They eat and like the chicken, goat, and rabbit so far

I've noticed that when both of them yawn in front of me that their breathe smells like...poop? Or death? Haha.

Is this a sign of anything bad, just bad breathe from diet? Anything I can do?

Stool is pretty normal for raw food and they are extremely active!

Any help would be awesome. I assume it's just diet related, I plan to start adding more chunks of cubed up meat and maybe that will help "wash the raw smell down" lol I don't know...

OliverWinston said:

Is this a sign of anything bad, just bad breathe from diet? Anything I can do?


 

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Probably just normal bad breath from lack of dental hygiene. Try brushing your cats' teeth with pet toothpaste I know some people give their cats raw chicken wings and organs or just chunks of raw meat for dental health.

If the problem is pretty persistent, which it sounds like it is, I would suggest checking with your vet... When we adopted our two cats at 10 months, one had bad breath: it also smelled like poop or death or a combination of the two. It didn't go away until we had the cats' teeth cleaned: they were only two years old but both had developed more plaque and gingivitis than is normal for their age. Our vet tested them for the Bartonella henselae bacterium, which is fairly common and thought to be a cause of dental problems, among other things. Both cats tested positive and we gave them a course of antibiotics. They'll be retested in June. The vet told us she's seen improvement in lots of cats' mouths after antibiotics. I hope it helps our cats because we don't want to put them (or our bank accounts!) through regular dental cleanings!

We also started brushing the cats' teeth after their full cleaning. I got a CET toothbrush kit from the vet and the cats love the (seafood-flavored) toothpaste. I don't always get a lot of brushing in but they're much better about the new routine than I thought they would be. It takes some time to get them used to it but I think finding toothpaste the cat sees as a treat helps a lot. It may help that our cats don't get regular treats!

Good luck!

Thanks so much for the detailed responses! I really didn't want to resort to brushing their teeth haha. I was hoping the raw diet would take care of it more or less. I'm working on getting them into more whole bones (as stated above) as well as more chewing of cubed up meats. Their actual teeth are spotless and gums look great too. I mean I'm no vet lol. I also don't want to put them on antibiotics unless necessary :/.

Since the post their breathe has kind of seemed fine... Maybe the couple times they were laying on my chest were burps haha? I will keep an eye on it and update you guys!

Trying to keep them as healthy as possible without my girlfriend thinking I'm more in love with my cats than her lmao. The making of food, taking them on walks, and daily brushing seems to have her already thinking I'm nuts :lol3:

That's great that your cats' teeth and gums look good: our cats' did not! I hope their breath stays better: Edwina's was horribly disgusting. I do wonder if part of it might have been that whatever they'd been getting fed before we adopted them (well, really, not fed: they were very underweight) didn't agree with her sensitive little stomach. She's a lot less smelly on all ends ever since we switched them to lots of (commercial) raw and canned foods. Good for you for making your own food. Some day I will have time to figure out how I'd really like to feed these two!

The brushing really isn't that bad because the cats really do love the toothpaste. They even line up for it! I

That's great that they're doing better! Yeah all the build up from dry food I'm assuming is what you got stuck with after adopting them. I was doing the commercial raw in the beginning as well as weruva. It was very expensive. I pay less now and it last about 15 days longer. It's about 2 1/2 hours of mixing and bagging the food on my day off and then I'm set for almost 40 days!

I might have to try the teeth thing then! If they like it that much I have no problem doing it like once a week! Here's the food bagged up in 4oz portions (goat and rabbit). And a photo of winstons teeth

The teeth could still have plaque and bacteria on them, maybe a food particle stuck in a tooth somewhere. Once a week tooth brushing is good if that's all you can manage or your cats will allow. I brush my Aby's teeth every day, mostly because the breed is prone to gingivitis and other dental issues. The Care and Grooming section on TCS has threads on how to brush a cat's teeth.

Oh I see. Ok I'll check that section out and see if I can manage more than once a week then

Here are some threads:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/270807/tooth-brushing

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/293541/tooth-brushin-cat-making-progress

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/224627/tooth-brushing-and-teeth-cleaning

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/294516/how-to-clean-cats-teeth

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/230391/can-you-brush-their-teeth

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/95624/advice-on-brushing-my-cats-teeth

I brush my cats teeth at least 4 days a week. I also now add chunked meat to the raw I fix up.I have paid a lot of money in dental care for previous cats and now I am determined not to go down that road again

I use an enzymatic tooth paste for my cat, that you don´t need to "brush" with. It only has to be placed on the teeth. I use a normal toothbrush for kids, brush a little and let her chew on the brush. She loves the toothpaste, and jumps onto my lap when it´s time for the daily toothbrush session. 

I feed whole bones as well, I´m not sure if I need to brush her teeth, but better safe than sorry! (and much cheaper than going to the vet for tooth cleaning).

Some cats go through a "detox-period" when starting raw. The fur could be affected, so why not their breath? The body needs some time to get rid of the old food that the body has dealt with, and the system needs time to adjust. But if it doesn´t get better in a month or so, I´d go to the vet just to be sure. 

Thanks so much everyone and thanks for the threads LTS3!!!

My cats love the enzymatic toothpaste (CET) and think of it as a treat. They don't like it when I brush, but they will eagerly lick toothpaste off my finger and they will tolerate me rubbing toothpaste all over their teeth and gums.