My cat needs help eating his dry food.
June 25, 2013 9:16 AM   Subscribe

My cat, Mars, recently had most of his molars removed and now he's having a bit of trouble chewing his dry food. Is there something tasty and nutritious I can soak it in before feeding him? I was thinking some kind of broth or stock but I'm curious to see what other people have done. Thanks!
posted by Fister Roboto to Pets & Animals (27 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Any reason you can't feed him wet food?
posted by mkultra at 9:17 AM on June 25, 2013 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Mostly budgetary, I suppose. I feed my cats high-quality food, but even still, the dry food is much less expensive per day than the wet food. Also, I have another cat that still has her teeth and I understand that wet food exclusively isn't great dentally so that's a consideration too.
posted by Fister Roboto at 9:21 AM on June 25, 2013


Just water is actually fine. If you want to go with broth, make it yourself, because the store bought stuff is really salty, which is tough on cat kidneys.

(Yes, there are lots of reasons wet food might not be a good answer: cost, dietary needs, cat preference, among others.)
posted by bilabial at 9:22 AM on June 25, 2013


I'd advise against broth or stock unless you make it yourself -- any sort of pre-packaged broth is probably going to be too high in sodium, and you need to be absolutely sure there isn't onion in it, since onion is toxic to cats.

Warm water would be my suggestion.
posted by trunk muffins at 9:22 AM on June 25, 2013 [1 favorite]


This salmon oil is formulated for cats and might be along the lines of what you are looking for. There are other companies that make it, too. My friend uses it on her dog's food as an appetite stimulant.
posted by charmedimsure at 9:29 AM on June 25, 2013


I don't know his preferences or his other health details, but if it's okay for him to have the water or oil from a can of tuna when you open one, he might enjoy that on his dry food. The caveats regarding sodium may apply here as well.
posted by sister nunchaku of love and mercy at 9:30 AM on June 25, 2013


It's been a long time since I lived with a cat, but milk was my first thought.
posted by rpfields at 9:34 AM on June 25, 2013


This article explains the dry pet food production process about a quarter of the way down the page.
"Although the cooking process kills bacteria in the ingredients, the final product can pick up more bacteria during the subsequent drying, coating, and packaging process. Some experts warn that getting dry food wet can allow the bacteria on the surface to multiply and make pets sick. Do not mix dry food with water, milk, canned food, or other liquids."
I can look for some additional links if you like, but basically what I have read suggests you should not mix dry food with water. If you absolutely must, you need to treat it as wet food and take it away after about thirty minutes.
posted by brina at 9:34 AM on June 25, 2013 [4 favorites]


Not milk - cats can't really digest it once they are adults.
posted by amtho at 9:40 AM on June 25, 2013 [5 favorites]


FWIW there are relatively inexpensive semi-soft nugget or morsel types. However this does not help with potential dental issues.
posted by Gungho at 9:43 AM on June 25, 2013


Huh, when I had an overweight cat, the vet actually prescribed adding water to his dry food.
posted by General Malaise at 9:53 AM on June 25, 2013


You may want to sprinkle a little sweet almond oil on it after soaking it - some cats go INSANE for that stuff in a good way!
posted by julthumbscrew at 9:53 AM on June 25, 2013


Hmm I didn't know about the potential for bacteria growth that brina mentioned. I was going to say add a little water, maybe nuke it for a few seconds. I had to do that for my dog once - maybe after she had a tooth pulled? If your cat is a grazer, you might have to feed in smaller amounts so extra isn't left out all day.
posted by radioamy at 10:33 AM on June 25, 2013


I've mixed it with water. Warm water soaks in a lot faster than cold water, I tended to use hot water from the kettle but I imagine hot tap water would be fine. Mix it and wait until it cools down to feed, don't let it sit out like you would dried food, once the food is wet it's a paradise for nasties so pick it up after say half an hour or so and wash the bowl. You can always have some dry out all the time as well in another bowl if you like to have food always available or feed the wet food a couple of times a day.
posted by wwax at 10:36 AM on June 25, 2013


Best answer: From what I've read, it seems the main problem with introducing to water to dry pet food is that you might contain a breeding ground for (already extant) mold toxins. I highly recommend reading Dr. Lisa Pierson's writings about cat nutrition, which, although they are on the preachy side, are very educational. For instance, according to her, current research suggests dry food is actually worse for dental health than wet food is. There's also a chart of various wet foods, which you could use to find a financially comfortable yet healthy wet food if at some point you do decide to switch.
posted by brina at 10:37 AM on June 25, 2013 [2 favorites]


My cat loves this. It's kind of a compromise between dry and wet food (both price-wise and physically).
posted by destructive cactus at 10:42 AM on June 25, 2013


The recommendation that dry food is better for cat's teeth is outdated (the best explanation I read is that cats don't really seem to chew their food all that much anyway); within the last few years the recommendation has switched over to wet food being better for cats' health. So if that's your main concern, it probably doesn't need to be a concern.
posted by jaguar at 11:11 AM on June 25, 2013 [2 favorites]


I know a few friends who have older cats that add water to the dry food. It looks disgusting but the older cats can better eat it after the dry food gets soft.
posted by wcfields at 12:56 PM on June 25, 2013


Maybe you can split the difference with one of those "soft dry food" styles? (I remember Tender Vittles from decades back, but am not sure what the current versions might be.) This would allow you to stick with free feeding and giving both cats the same thing (and avoiding those stinky stinky cans) while not having to soak...
posted by acm at 12:59 PM on June 25, 2013


Did you actually look into Mars' mouth to see if there are any infections? (It should look pale pink)
How long ago were his teeth removed? For the first few days he should only eat soft food.

I have a cat that has only one tooth left and can eat dry food just fine. Please make sure his mouth is okay and no kibble pieces got stuck in the wounds.
posted by travelwithcats at 1:21 PM on June 25, 2013


Put the dry stuff in a plastic bag, mash it with a can of soup and make the pieces smaller. Don't go so far as to turn it to dust. You can also use a rolling pin.
posted by jaimystery at 2:04 PM on June 25, 2013


Huh, I've actually seen a number of toothless cats eat dry food just fine. I've also seen many cats WITH teeth just sort of inhale the kibble without even chewing it. Cats don't actually need to "grind" their food in order to eat it, being carnivores (as opposed to omnivores or herbivores). In the wild they'll use their teeth to tear meat but they still often swallow it in chunks. In short, I'd just keep giving your kitty whatever he is used to eating. Provided he doesn't have stomatitis or gum issues (both of which cause mouth pain) he should do all right.
posted by aecorwin at 2:45 PM on June 25, 2013


Ok so anecdotal, but dry food isn't great for teeth either. My parents' cat ate dry food for the first 14 years they had him, but his teeth got so worn down from it that it basically got to a point where he could barely eat dry food and they had to switch him to wet food because he would have just starved himself to death.

Is there a reason you can't feed your two cats different types of food? Dry for the toothy one and wet for the toothless?

If you want to go with wet food for your toothless cat but are concerned about the price of quality wet food check out Sheba. I have found it to be definitely on the cheaper side and it is straight up meat. No rice, corn, or filler. It's sold online if you can't find it in stores.
posted by donut_princess at 3:30 PM on June 25, 2013


Cats do not need to chew their food like we do. In the wild, they chew it down to swallowable chunk size. Dry kibble is already swallowable size. He might be having problems in the beginning because of healing or pain, but that should subside. My friend had a completely toothless cat who actually wouldn't eat wet food and stuck to dry food with nothing added.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 3:56 PM on June 25, 2013


Dry food does not help their teeth unless it is specifically designed to do so (and the dental-specific diets tend to have crap ingredients). Most cat specialist vets recommend at least 95% canned food diet (and definitely not the semi-moist nuggets, read the ingredients, they're the worst of the worst as a general rule). Even a lower-quality canned food is preferable to a high quality dry food according to the specialist vet I work with, and Nutro's new grain free canned cat foods are very reasonably priced and high quality.
posted by biscotti at 5:05 PM on June 25, 2013 [2 favorites]


If you are avoiding wet because of the cost, there are the long-term heath benefits of feeding wet over dry. Among other considerations, ats are less likely to become obese on wet food, they feel full sooner and eat less. You may end up paying more for health care, even if you are paying less for dry. I know it's hard to quantify potential costs though.

We feed our dog dehydrated food that we reconstitute. It's cheaper than canned, and much easier to not have to deal with super stinky food and recycling many cans. The dehydrated cat food I found, Prowl dehydrated mix, is made from really high quality ingredients, no grain, and is a bit more expensive than most dry food, but less expensive than most good wet food. A cup dehydrated makes one pound of hydrated. So that might be an in-between option.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:02 PM on June 25, 2013 [1 favorite]


If you decide to stick with dry food without added water, you could also take a look at the actual size of the kibble. My cat has most of his teeth but hates to chew, and when we get a brand of kibble with small pieces he will inhale it. Larger brands of kibble seem to require crunching.

As other posters suggested above, we mostly give him wet food because we think it's healthier, and supplement with kibble.
posted by bayleaf at 6:32 PM on June 25, 2013


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