Hello all,

First of all thanks to everyone on this forum, the advice on here is great and much appreciated. I've been lurking on here a while!

Nearly 6 weeks ago I picked up my two 5 year old ragdolls Lily and Maggie - their owner was moving abroad. We love them to bits already. When I picked them up they were fed go cat biscuits with the occasional tin of tuna. After much research I have moved them onto Orijen biscuits in the morning and Grau/ Animonda Carny wet food in the evening. They've done well and will eat most things I put in front of them and actually seem to prefer the wet. The vet says they are fine weight-wise but their teeth are bad and will need cleaning/extractions at some point (so much for dry food helping teeth) and gave me a quote of £500 each!! He also told me that they should be on only dry food (Hills or RC) with a weekly chicken wing. This shook my confidence a bit with the wet food but after coming back here and reading similar experiences I feel I'm doing the right thing! Also I was suprised that the vet had never even heard of Grau or Orijen.

My plan is to increase the wet food to two meals a day (including some of the good German ones) and also include some frozen raw meals. I thought I'd begin with Natural Instinct. I also came across Barf Pet Foods - Pet Food | BARF cat pet food Raw Dog Food, Cat Food & Pet Health Supplements - does anyone know whether this is any good?

I'm going to try them with chicken wings tonight and see how they get on. Is there anything else I can give them which is good for their teeth as would like to try and improve them.

Thanks so much,
Patsy

The chicken wings are the best

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Hey PatsyP, welcome to the PF! Actually, if they have bad teeth I would brush their teeth on a daily basis. Some cats just have very bad teeth, which isn't diet-related (though it can be worsened or bettered with diet) and it could just be that your cats are of that ilk.

To be frank, with cats who are prone to bad teeth and actually other cats too, a chicken wing a week is hardly going to make a difference. Also, chicken wings are really quite an advanced bone for cats who have never had raw food. Yes, it is easily available and cheap, which is why it is promoted so much. However, compared to their normal prey, the bones are way too big (think mouse and small bird and then look at a chicken wing). Give it a try but if you can afford it perhaps also look into quail, woodpigeon etc, which are perhaps more cat-sized. Having said that, it is the tearing motion, not the bone crunching, that helps to keep the teeth clean.

Considering that their teeth are already bad, are you going to go ahead with the descaling etc? That would then give you a good platform to start brushing their teeth (a good vid that outlines a very gentle approach is here: Brushing Your Cat's Teeth | Partners in Animal Health).

However, well done you for doing your research and for feeding them a better diet! And don't be surprised that your vet doesn't know the foods that aren't standard supermarket fare; most consumers wouldn't either. You could have try to educate them next time you see them - grain-free dry with a high meat content and high meat content wet with just a little grain etc. You might even open their eyes.

NI is good but currently only one flavour. I would give the Barf stuff a wide berth; they are not only very expensive but their food isn't complete. It is just minced meat (with or without rice). Keep in mind though that minced raw food again is going to do very little for their teeth.

Thanks spid and hobbs for the replies.

Hobbs, you were totally right about the chicken wings being quite advanced for them. They looked at me like I was crazy. I think I'm going to have to start with small chunks of raw food mixed in with their current food. Do you have any recommendations or should I just try chicken? Then I will try the quail and woodpigeon after that.

As for the teeth, I'm going to try and get them done this month but £500 each seems a lot so going to ring round a few vets. Then I'll attempt the teeth cleaning.

Thank you so much for all your advice on this forum Hobbs, I can't tell you how valuable it is!