Do you clean your cats teeth?

I have thought about this and one of the local mogies brought this to mind yesterday. He is a ginger Tom who has taken to sleeping next to our dustbin and yawned at me yesterday. He is a very old cat. His poor teeth were absolutely covered in calculus.

Does anyone clean their cats teeth? Or does diet have as much to do with it? I was shocked to see that Whiskas cat food contains added sugars!!!!!

Hi Katie

I have never cleaned my cats' teeth - I might have lost a few fingers if I had tried! But you can get special dry food formulated for dental health, and raw chicken bones (eg wings) are also supposed to be really good for getting off calculus (NB: must be raw - cooked chicken bones can splinter and kill a cat).

No idea why Whiskas would add sugar, cats can't taste 'sweet' tastes.

Emma

My husband noticed that tuna hi-life was 70% tuna with the rest being glucose/sucrose.

I make an effort to brush my cats' teeth once a week. Sometimes I do get lazy and go 2-3 weeks before cleaning them. They are both pretty good about it. I just use a kids soft toothbrush. My vet told me it wasn't necessary to use any toothpaste, so I don't. During one of my cat's last visit to the vet, he told me that she had very nice adult teeth and that brushing once a week was sufficient.

_________________
~Trisha~

Well, well, I bought a new package of cat litter yesterday and there was a sample package of "tartar control treats" in there. I remember looking at some at the store and wasn't quite impressed by the ingredients. And this one seems to be even worse! I'm contemplating dumping it in the yard as bird food. I can't figure out how it is supposed to control tartar. Based on the guaranteed analysis, it's about 50% carbohydrates! We have:

- Ground Yellow Corn - grain #1 (they advertise "wholesome grains" on the bag)
- Poultry By-Product Meal (source of chicken flavor) - haha! ground up feet and bones from unspecified birdies for chicken flavor... (they advertise this as "made with real chicken flavor" on the bag)
- Corn Gluten Meal - more grain
- Animal Fat preserved with mixed tocopherols (form of vitamin E) - as if vitamin E can distract from the fact that this is probably rendered, rancid restaurant grease and other waste fats
- Soybean Meal - more grain, or rather legume this time
- Animal Liver Flavor - another haha! what the heck is this?
- Powdered Cellulose - I've read this could be recycled cardboard, is this supposed to clean off the tartar?
- Soybean Hulls - hulls, huh? is this supposed to clean off the tartar? I've read it can cause bowel irritation
- Malt Extract - for flavor (sweetener - but cats don't even have the taste buds for sweet!) and color
- Phosphoric Acid - sequestering agent for rendered animal fats, goes with that restaurant grease listed above
- Calcium Carbonate - for buffering against the acid
- Shrimp Meal - for flavor
- Salmon Meal - for flavor
- Tuna Meal - for flavor
- Salt - used to cover up rancid meat and fat
- Potassium Chloride - mineral
- Choline Chloride - emulsifies fat
- Taurine - essential amino acid for cats, at least they're adding vitamins and minerals
- Zinc Sulfate - mineral
- Ferrous Sulfate - mineral (iron)
- Vitamin E Supplement
- Niacin - vitamin
- Parsley Flakes - huh? isn't parsley toxic for cats? I guess this is in here so they can advertise "a touch of garden greens" on the bag...
- Manganese Sulfate - mineral
- Added Color (Yellow 5, Blue 2, Red 40) - oh look, potentially carcinogenic chemicals
- Vitamin A Supplement
- Calcium Pantothenate - vitamin
- Thiamine Mononitrate - vitamin
- Copper Sulfate - mineral
- Riboflavin Supplement - vitamin
- B-12 Supplement - vitamin
- Pyridoxine Hydrochloride - vitamin
- Folic Acid - vitamin
- Vitamin D-3 Supplement
- Calcium Iodate - mineral (iodine)
- Biotin - vitamin
- Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of vitamin K activity)
- Sodium Selenite - mineral

Would you give this to your cats? I don't think I want to subject mine to this "treat" and I don't see how it is supposed to help control tartar...