Posted on 09/28/2008 7:42:05 PM PDT by martin_fierro
So earlier today we had a most illuminating thread on the travails of bathing one's cat.
Now I'd like to hear from cat owners' experiences with brushing their cats' teeth:
We have a cute little kitteh or two here whose breath is beginning to represent The Crypt. And I've heard that remedial dental work on cats can be $pendy as all get-out.
The best way is to tie a brick to their tail and then put a twenty pound test line around their neck. attach line to top of door leaving cats head at brushing level. LOL
This is HORRIBLE! Please tell me that whomever dipped this cat in oil had the crap beaten out of him! Did the cat live?
http://www.petzlife.com
Do it a little at a time until they get used to it. Like a couple of seconds of brushing. Then lots of praise and treats and chin rubs and more praise and more treats and more chin rubs. Next day try three seconds of brushing, followed by same routine. As long as you don’t give the cat a chance to get seriously annoyed, the cat will gradually come to regard the toothbrushing as just a strange but harmless human idiosyncrasy that precedes treats and praise and chin rubs.
BTW, this system also works well for teaching kitties to take pills without a fuss.
Maybe just give kitteh a TicTac?
It’s water. See the hand in the background checking the temperature?
(Yes, Angror lived. Angror agrees with you on the crap beating part)...
You want flexibility? Bottle feed a baby squirrel.
This product really works. A vet dental is very expensive & bad teeth cause lots of health problems for pets.
Feeding a premium diet & good dental care will save lots of vet bills in the long run.
Heh! Years ago, I was holding my kitty as directed by the vet so he could give her a shot for an infection she had - she just wouldn’t take any of the medicine he’d prescribed, and his assistant wasn’t able to help, so he enlisted me. I had her by the scruff of the neck, with her body against me and her two front paws in my left hand. I thought I had a good, tight hold on her, but when that needle went in, she bit me on my left thumb, through the leather gloves I had on, mind you. I still have the scar!
Have you tried taping a toothbrush to a hamster or mouse and just let the cat’s playful nature take its course?
Thanks for the ping LucyT. Around here we have so many squirrels, they are a grand nuisance. They are cute little creatures, but they sure create havoc with our fruit trees, and our vegetable gardens. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Wasn’t always that way, but since most of the Citrus groves have been removed in the area, they have decided to make the RQSR theirs.
Awwwwww he’s cute. (But not quite as cute as Mr Flibble)...
It’s not. I certainly hope it’s not being fed cats milk, too.
I’ve never seen a cat with bad teeth... and I’ve seen a lot of cats but they were all outdoor cats. Indoor cats have more dental problems because of the limited diet, I suppose. I’ve never seen an adult cat with missing teeth either so I doubt bad teeth are common in healthy non-hockey-playing cats. Usually cats only have bad breath immediately after eating, and never any body odor unless Fido’s been using them as chew toy. If your cat has chronic bad breath there’s probably some other problem going on that tooth brushing will cover but won’t fix.
Stale water could be an issue- cats being desert animals don’t drink much, but in the house they drink even less. They won’t drink enough water if the water is more than a day old even if it looks perfectly clean. In the house, water starts getting ‘flat’ pretty quick because it doesn’t move, which is why you’ll often see dogs and cats preferring the frequently flushed toilet over the dish. Outdoor cats can drink from many sources such as ponds with vegetation which keeps water fresh, or bubbling creeks that naturally are high in oxygen, so they drink more than enough when outside just because it tastes better to them. If yours can’t go outside, refill the water dish frequently, throw in a few ice cubes once in a while to freshen it, get a dish that recycles water with a built in pump, get a table fountain, or even keep a bowl of water with sweet potato vine clippings or a juncus reed or water hyacinth growing in it to encourage the cat to drink frequently... you could even put mint sprigs in the water if your cat is an elitist Barbara Streisand type. The cat will drink more often and the stinky breath will likely go away, and this might save the cat from the urinary problems which cats are vulnerable to if kept indoors on commercial diets.
Commercial cat foods make for stinky breath, particularly the dry kind, and are missing the enzymes found in raw meat which keep their digestive tracts healthy and so, help with the breath. They are often low in the kind of fiber a cat needs to digest their food so it helps to grow some grass in a pot for them to eat if they need it, and to give them a bit of rare or raw fish, meat, marrow or livers for the enzymes. Yogurt may help too. Supplementing your cat’s food with scrambled eggs or barely coddled eggs will keep the fur glossy— eggs are cheaper than pet food, fresher, and nutritious. Chicken gizzards, pork rib bone, t bone, and gristle from a steak will help them massage their gums which is safer than you doing it with a tooth brush and fun instead of stressful for them. Just hope your cat won’t stick is nose up at the idea of chewing meat off a bone- if they do then you may have to try the dremel tool, duct tape and c-clamp method.
My old cats still have complete sets of nice white teeth and pointy claws. Lizards and palmetto bugs must be good for the gums and the snakes must make good dental floss for cats. Speaing of squirrels, one old geezer cat finally caught a squirrel the other day and the way it ate it up leaving only the tail and no bones I guess the teeth are fine.
In my dog’s case, his whole body stinks to high heaven if I feed him dog food so I quit... now he gets eggs of which I have tons thanks to the chickens, and he gets leftovers, cornbread, yogurt, sweet potatoes, catfish, raw meat and raw soup bones once in a while. Now he doesn’t stink [unless he rolled in something dead], his fur is shiny, and his teeth are white. But he’s an outdoor dog- an indoor dog might get too fat on this diet.
If your heart’s really set on brushing its teeth yourself, you can get a metal cone called a killing cone from a poultry supply place; just drop the cat in head-first and the only thing that will stick out the bottom of the cone is his face— his feet and the claws will be inside the cone and out of your way, freeing one hand to hold the toothbrush- or dremel tool with polishing bit- and the other to prop his mouth open with a chicken leg bone, pair of tongs, or screwdriver.
Of course, you can get cats for free so you could always just replace them when the teeth get yellow and enjoy a nice bowl of tiger, phoenix and dragon soup. ;-)
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