Natural Oral Hygeine?

I've been doing a lot of research lately and I came across the fact that some people brush their cat's teeth? I don't think that you can get specialised cat toothpaste over here, or cat toothbrushes, either? So I'm kind of worrying about what I can do to make sure Indie and Butty's teeth stay in top shape!

They're fed on raw and partially-cooked chicken heads, chicken feet, and chicken breast/thighs, as well as raw or sometimes partially-cooked liver. They have to do a lot of chewing with their food (especially w/ the chicken heads and necks) but I was wondering if this is enough to keep their teeth clean? Or should I give them some chicken wings to chew on too? Butty is a bit fussy when it comes to bones and hardly eats them unless he's really in the mood.

And other than bones is there anything else that I can give them to keep their teeth nice? They're currently a nice creamy white at the moment and their breath doesn't smell bad at all! Butty's teeth are smaller than Indie's, though I'm guessing that's just due to him being a year younger?

I'm sure that you could brush a cat's teeth with a small toddler toothbrush and skip the toothpaste. The most important thing is the mechanical abrasion of the brush to remove plaque.

You can find cat toothbrushes and toothpastes on Amazon. Here's a search link for you so that you can browse the selection, and I am sure there are more things out there. 

Hope this helps you, and KUDOS on thinking of your kitties' teeth! Many folks forget about feline dental health, and a lot of vets just don't educate pet parents very well about it. Perhaps that might be because many vets just aren't sufficiently well-versed in it themselves, hmm?

I'm so glad that I worked in practices that promoted oral hygiene as much as they did... it was always so rewarding to perform a thorough cleaning on a dirty (but otherwise healthy) mouth and have it show results immediately. We used to do "before", "during" and "after" photos for our pet parents whose kiddoes were having "routine" cleanings. The reaction was almost universal: "Oh, WOW! What a difference!" And in cats who had kidney values that were beginning to tick up... we would repeat the test 6-8 weeks post-dental. Often, the kidney values returned to normal limits. Thus, we could show that the bacteria from a "nasty mouth" doesn't just affect the mouth-- it goes far and wide.

This is SO important for your cats' overall health! Good on you for investing the time and interest in daily or at least regular home care.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_s...&sprefix=cat+toot,aps,191&tag=&tag=thecatsite

Hi everyone, I am new to this site and am really seeking help for my furbaby... my cat is constantly rubbing her mouth (teeths and gums) on rope and string that hang. She holds her paw on it and rubs her gums up and down. She also has bad breath could this be indicating she is having mouth issues ?

Samanthaleddy said:

Hi everyone, I am new to this site and am really seeking help for my furbaby... my cat is constantly rubbing her mouth (teeths and gums) on rope and string that hang. She holds her paw on it and rubs her gums up and down. She also has bad breath could this be indicating she is having mouth issues ?

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How old is your cat? Kittens often chew because they are teething but if your cat is an adult, she may just be chewing because she sees the rope and string as toys. Please keep all string-like objects away from your cat because if the string is actually chewed through and ingested, it can cause an intestinal blockage. Bad breath can indicate dental issues, anything from plaque build up to resorptive lesions. Your vet can examine the teeth and determine if the teeth need to be cleaned or a bad tooth needs to be pulled.

To the OP's original question, wrapping a piece of gauze around one of your fingers works well as a sort of brush to clean a cat's teeth with. Or try a very soft baby / toddler toothbrush. Toothpaste is helpful but if you can't get in your country and ordering online is too expensive, then just a manual scrub with a brush of some sort is better than nothing.