Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Almost two years ago, my vet told me that my cats' teeth and gums were in such bad shape that he would have to clean their teeth and pull many of them out! I was horrified even before he estimated that this would cost about $2k for two cats. My cats' previous owner had their little fingertips cut off, and I felt it was inappropriate for me to remove their last remaining defenses even if they are house cats. So I decided to figure out how to save their teeth. These chews were Step 1 in my tooth-saving campaign. Roswell New Mexico immediately gobbled the first one down, while Miss Minkie decided after watching him that she would take hers into the next room to eat in solitude. If Roswell hadn't dug into his with such gusto, Minkie probably would have taken some persuading. Fortunately it has never come to that. Yes, these chews are big, and they have a coating that some reviewers think is paper to be removed. Wrong! The whole point of these chews is that the cat has to perforate that clear digestible coating with their needle-like teeth. The physical act of perforating the coating helps to scrape off the plaque. After the tooth has perforated the coating, it is exposed to the dental enzymes in the crunchy part. So the chew is a system, and in my experience it works. While my cats' gums were still red and horrible looking, Step 2 was to give them poultry flavored feline toothpaste on a brush as a treat. They are adult cats who were semi-feral before their previous owner got them, so they are not naturally trusting. We never developed the actual brushing skill, but I believe the dental enzymes in the toothpaste, which they licked off the bristles as if it were an oddly presented treat, may also have been helpful in healing their gums. I would ask them to take turns jumping up on my desk to get their toothpaste treat, and then I would give them a chew as a reward. Step 3 in my tooth-saving campaign was to adjust their diet. At the time I was feeding them raw home made food based on the Feline Future diet (which had a miraculous effect on their general health, but that's another story). However, I was double grinding their food so that it was fairly fine in texture. I improved my approach by single grinding the food, so that the bones were much more coarse. This additional texture helped to brush their teeth as they wolfed down their food. In addition, without changing any of the proportions of the recipe, I reserved some raw chicken breast meat from grinding and instead cut it into dice big enough to require some gnawing. This required my cats to use their teeth to perforate their food while eating, just as they would if eating prey in the wild. After several months of following Steps 1 through 3, my cats' teeth were strong, white, and all there, their gums were firm and showed no inflammation...and I saved $2k. After awhile I stopped giving the toothpaste as a treat (although I still give it occasionally) and now use the chews as treats once or twice a week. Their cat sitter uses the chews as a daily treat when I am out of town, which helps them overcome their natural concerns at a change in their routine. Step 3, the coarse textured food with chewable raw meat in it, is the critical center of my cats' tooth-saving campaign. Like I said, we've been at this for nearly two years, and my cats' teeth and gums are still just gorgeous. I read another reviewer's comment that his/her cat had bad breath from eating so much protein. My cats, who eat pretty much nothing but raw protein (being obligate carnivores) do not have bad breath, and did not have bad breath even when their gums were inflamed. Fillers like corn are the feline diet equivalent of high fructose corn syrup in the human diet, and I have to wonder if that could cause bad breath in a cat. If you are feeding dry with a lot of fillers, you may wish to consider other options. When I occasionally feed canned, for example, I use PetGuard, which although cooked is at least high quality protein. If you do not make your own raw cat food, but do give canned food, you can introduce diced raw chicken breast into your cat's diet to see if it will help your cat's teeth as much as it has mine. Try giving these chews plus the toothpaste treat daily, and consider adding diced raw chicken to their canned food to give their teeth something to perforate as they eat. I hope this helps others whose cats have dental problems. Good luck and try these chews as part of your tooth-saving campaign!