I have just bought a beautiful birman blue point kitten but she has had bad breath for the few days we have had her. She is 24 weeks old and from a reputable breeder. She is just starting to lose her baby teeth and she has been wormed a few weeks ago. She is on various pouches and hills science plan biscuits. Any ideas please.

Bad breath has various causes, but mostly it's either oral/dental disease or digestive issues. If it was my kitten I'd have it off the junk food and straight onto raw meaty bones and suchlike. ESPECIALLY at such a critical time as teething when the oral cavity is sore and ripped, bloody and susceptible to infection.

Try her on a whole chicken quarter or a whole raw fish (you can get whole sardines or mackerel from a fishmonger or supermarket for about 25p!). Stick to the one protein source until she's used to feeding raw, and watch the bad breath disappear. Cats are obligate carnivores, so please don't think I'm trying to push you onto a bandwagon. Obligate carnivore means they MUST eat raw meat, bones and offal. It doesn't mean a dry food or pouch consisting of a large percentage of grains and vegetable matter. JMHO, and enjoy your new addition.

thanks Rainmaker for your advice. I willtry it.

Actually an obligate carnivore gains all its nutrition from meat, and CANNOT digest vegetable matter. It does not mean it has to eat raw meat.

If you do intend to go the raw food diet way, then make make sure you give it tinned or some other complete food until you have researched what is a balanced died, as giving a cat totally raw food has to be done in a balanced way and something like just fish is bad for them as fish do not have enough taurine in them to make it a complete food. (Basically think where a wild cat would live and what it would kill and eat; insects, grubs, small animals mainly and that's what evolution designed it to eat)

There are plenty of post on this forum on raw diets for cats. (Having said all that I am happy giving mine raw 2 to 3 times a week and feeding a good quality wet food the rest of the time.)

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Do not wake the sleeper

The bad breath is probably due to her teething - its quite common when they are teething.

Theres great info here about raw feeding if you are thinking of going down that route Feeding Your Cat** Know the Basi

Ours had halitosis when teething and it resolved once the teething process was completed. Congratulations on your new kitten

Splitting hairs, surely? Even pet food manufacturers will happily tell you a cat is an obligate carnivore. Judging by the rest of your post I think we're on the same page regarding the correct diet for them and it isn't high in grains.

Just a note though (I've raw fed for a lot of years and am well past the panic stage)... Yes you need to feed more than one protein source, but my original post said AT FIRST. A cat isn't going to die (or even become faintly mildly ill) from malnutrition in less than the week it takes to adjust to raw. You can add as many protein sources as you like after that.

Too much is made of 'complete and balanced' for pet diets, you can read more about that in Dr Tom Lonsdale's book "Raw Meaty Bones: Promote Health" or "Work Wonders: Feed Raw Meaty Bones". If you have children (if not, replace 'child' with 'yourself'), do you sit down every time you feed them to make sure they're getting a complete and balanced diet? LOL No you just feed a variety of species-suitable foods and over time a general balance is reached. You certainly don't sweat over the taurine, selenium, vitamin C or other nutrient content of each and every meal. Just feed a variety of fresh foods, and nature does the rest.

It's the exact same with dogs, cats and ferrets; and that's not me talking that's Dr Lonsdale, so please don't think I'm just trying to be clever or fatuous as I'm really not. I'm just saying don't become too worried about these things as they're not as big a deal as the pet food companies like to make out. Unfortunately, however, this worry seems to have become ingrained in the pet-owners' psyche by now, and it's hard to shift.

"OOHH!! Pet nutrition is rocket science! You couldn't POSSIBLY trust yourself to do it at home. Pay us and get '100% complete and balanced' food instead!!".

So why do we not have to buy 100% complete and balanced food for our children? After all, nutrition is so difficult...

However do they come out with 'new and improved formulas' every few months (check their adverts) if it was '100% complete and balanced' to begin with? Just a rhetorical question for your amusement.

Taurine is found in high levels (plenty enough for a carnivorous animal like a cat to remain healthy) in fresh animal meats and heart. Feed those and the cat will be fine.

I do not think I was splitting hairs. It was more about the degree of information in your first post.

You originally posted I think there is a big difference between saying something cannot eat vegetables matter to saying it MUST eat raw meat. Having said that I did not disagree with what you tried to say in your original post so much as was concerned over the emphasis placed on a couple of items without the relevant information. I only tried to say to take care, and not dive into giving only one (or even two) kind of raw food. The point about fish is that it is not normally a natural part of most felines diet and is deficient in specific nutrients so if too much is given then it will be come nutritionally lacking in a cats diet (unless a supplement is used). These are things that an uninformed person could easily fall into doing from what was first posted.

Having said that your second post was far more informative if you want to feed a pet raw food, although I must point out that certain people these days have to take parenting classes to find out what is good food to feed their children.

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Do not wake the sleeper

As I said before we're definitely on the same page, and I appreciate what you had to say. Fair play. Sadly all too true about the parenting classes also! But I think everyone knows what I meant.

About my second post being far more informative: you're right, and I think I need to remind myself sometimes that not everyone has the benefit of the years of practical experience and research/reading/studying that I have. I need to explain a bit more without jargon, in future, I think. Thanks for pulling me up on it.

As with everything in life, everyone would benefit from doing their own research, never taking the word of one particular person or group of people, and reaching their own conclusions. Alas not everyone is so inclined, but it's great fun for those who do. All the best.