:):) !!

Yeah, I know (I'm obsessive) and I've been conflicted about this for a while. What about the teeth cleaning quality of dry food?

The teeth cleaning thing about dry cat food is a myth. Vets aren't often taught well about pet nutrition - and don't let anyone from Hill's Science Diet try to tell you otherwise.

Look at my cat chewing on the pork chop above. THAT is what cleans my cat's teeth. Some dry stuff that breaks up into particles which will probably get stuck between the cat's teeth at least sometimes isn't going to do the trick.

Think of yourself: Which is more likely to clean your own teeth? A dry cracker? Or something moist and chewy, such as, well, a piece of raw meat? Or maybe a peach or mango or tomato?

Think of wild cats: They don't eat any kibble but their teeth do just fine. Meat is what nature intended cats to eat.

Grrrrr .... Here kitty kitty ...

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Thanks for the input and I agree. I kinda hate feeding pigs to cats as I love them both so I was hoping I could feed my cat cow meat (no offense to cows). But I'm down with my cats teeth for life so pork chops it is.

The first thing you might want to try are chicken hearts. They've very cheap, and they're also very nutritious. They're also small and easy for a newbie cat to handle - and even then I always chop them in half for my cat.

If your cat has never eaten raw meat it might take some amount of effort to transition him/her over to it. My cat was really easy since I started her on this when she was about 9 months old. But if you browse through some cat forums you'll find that some people are practically pulling out their hair getting their cat to eat the raw meat. Some cats have gotten so accustomed to their diet they can't even imagine that raw meat is supposed to be food.

Other things you might want to try is chicken (the most common thing I feed my cat are chicken breast tenders), turkey, beef, and some fish (freshwater fish like trout is better). Also be sure to include some organ meat like livers (but you have to be careful with liver, it's very nutritious but almost to a fault, if you feed too much you can give your cat Vitamin A poisoning). Different cats will like different things - not all cats are sensitive to beef like mine. I've read about other cats who are sensitive to chicken.

THE place to read about all of this is here:
CATINFO.ORG

And BTW - for the dog people reading this thread, all of this applies to dogs, too. I'm not familiar with what might be the best website for dogs on this issue, but it looks like this one will get you started. Frankly, if you read the Catinfo.org site I linked above, most of what she says on that website also apply to dogs.
Raw Fed Dogs - Natural Prey Model Rawfeeding Diet

Thank you! Chicken hearts it is. I'm certain my cat will like them. She's a vicious beast.

Let me know how it goes!

And I've been doing this for 4+ years with my cat, so if you have any questions let me know.

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Crass cat.

Nice cats man.

You too Seq.

If their food doesn't contain enough water they go and drink some. It isn't as bad as you are making it out to be imo.

I'm not against a raw food diet but I just think it's expensive and I would never do it personally. I'm perfectly fine feeding my cats dry food that's labeled oral care. It does wonders for their teeth.

Also you should probably buy your cat a tooth brush and toothpaste to brush it manually since you aren't giving it any dry food. I would say those dental pads but screw those things. So hard to clean their teeth with that in my experience.

Animals usually keep their teeth clean by munching on rough harder material. The reason why lions and bigger cats end up having clean teeth despite eating wet food that creates so much plague is that they also are out in the wild and munch on sticks that help to clean their teeth.

Eating something that is hard does help clean your teeth. The example that you used in another post is kind of bad. To break it down for humans, If you eat an apple which creates some type of roughage it helps with your teeth more than eating oatmeal that has all the moisture in it. Soft foods don't clean your teeth, roughage does and roughage is better for human digestion as well. Need that fiber but that's unrelated to cleaning of the teeth.