My 7 month old cat has bad breath. How can I fix this?

Favorite Answer

You should brush her teeth with kitty toothbrushes and toothpaste (the type for cats, not human toothpaste) or take her to the vet for a dental checkup and possible cleaning. No treats or foods will actually clean teeth, it's just a marketing gimmick designed to sell you the foods.

I'd also feed her a higher quality cat food. Meow Mix is a very low quality cat food. 9 Lives treats are really bad too.

Not all pet food is made equally. A lot of it is full of corn, by-products, dyes, unhealthy preservatives, filler grains and all sorts of nasty stuff. A lot of pet food companies are perfectly happy to the dump cheap leftovers and things that aren't safe for human consumption (from human food processing plants) into their foods. Will it kill your cat? No, it has to be nutritionally complete and safe to even be marketed. Is it healthy? Not by a long shot.

Corn is a low quality ingredient you never want to see in your pet food. Corn and low quality grains are two of the biggest culprits when it comes to food allergies in our pets.

Thankfully, there are some excellent cat foods being made these days that include organic, human grade ingredients rather than trash not fit for human consumption.

Examples of low quality foods to avoid: Anything you can find in a grocery store will be low end, Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Whiskas, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Meow Mix.

Examples of high quality foods to look for: Innova, Wellness, Solid Gold, Felidae, Fromm Four Star, Merrick, GO Natural, Nature's Variety Prairie, Nature's Logic, Artemis Fresh Mix, Timber Wolf Organics.

Although the high quality foods are more expensive, you're getting what you're paying for. Less filler material and higher quality ingredients means more concentrated nutrients... this means you typically need to feed far less of the high quality food than you would of the low quality one. Which also means less poop!

Seriously on a budget? Two of the most affordable of the higher quality foods would be Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul and Felidae.

Before following your vet's food recommendation, keep in mind that vets get /very/ little nutritional training during their schooling. Besides that, what training they /do/ get is usually sponsored or taught by... you guessed it, the crappy pet food companies! They also often get kickbacks from the companies for pushing these products at their clinics (Science Diet, Royal Canin etc.)

A great option is to go with an entirely grain-free diet. Diets high in grain/carbohydrates have been attributed to problems with diabetes in cats. Cats are obligate carnivores, so why should there be grain in their diet? Many of the high quality foods now put out grain-free formulas. Some good grain-free diets include: Innova EVO, Wellness CORE, Blue Wilderness, Nature's Variety Instinct, Orijen, Horizon Legacy, Fromm Surf & Turf, Now!, GO Natural Grain Free, Sold Gold Indigo Moon, Ziwipeak, and Taste of the Wild.

Some pretty decent foods can even be found in common pet stores. Petsmart carries Blue Buffalo products (such as the excellent grain free diet Blue Wilderness). Petco carries Wellness, Solid Gold, Natural Balance, Eagle Pack Holistic Select, Blue Buffalo, Castor & Pollux Organix, Pinnacle, and Halo.

If you can't find a food, most of the high quality cat food brands have websites with store locators on them that will help you find the store closest to you which supplies their products. Simply type the cat food brand's name into Google, go to their website, and type your zip code into their store locator.

Another option, if you can't find anywhere around you that sells good foods, is to order your pet food online. Here's an excellent place to do so: http://www.petfooddirect.com/store/

Remember that foods should be switched gradually (mixing the new slowly in with the old over the period of about week or so), especially when switching to a higher quality one, so as not to upset tummies. For example:
Days 1 & 2: 75% old food, 25% new food
Days 3 & 4: 50% old food, 50% new food
Days 5 & 6: 25% old food, 75% new food
Day 7: 0% old food, 100% new food

Another option for feeding cats is to feed raw. This is something that should be thoroughly researched before being attempted:
http://www.rawfedcats.org/ (Raw Fed Cats)
http://community.livejournal.com/rawdogs/profile/ (Raw Dogs Livejournal Community [not just for dogs despite the name!], excellent raw feeding information on the profile page and overall helpful community for raw feeding questions)
http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.html (Myths About Raw Feeding)

Now the question is, do you feed wet or dry? Wet is the correct answer. The reason is, in the wild, cats normally get most of their water content directly from their prey items and drink very little. Domestic cats are no different, and because of the fact that they are designed to take in water with their meal, they have a very low thirst drive. Cats often just don't drink enough. This leads to urinary tract infections and crystals. The bit about dry food being better for teeth is a myth and has not been proven in the least (cats barely even chew their dry food and, really, does a pretzel clean /your/ teeth? Cats should have their teeth brushed with cat toothbrushes and cat toothpaste at least a few times a week as well as see the vet for dental cleanings when necessary /regardless/ of what they are being fed). Canned/wet food is better because it more closely mimics the cat's natural diet. More on why canned food is best:
http://www.catinfo.org/ (Excellent cat nutrition information by a vet)
http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=library&act=show&item=whycatsneedcannedfood (Why Cats Need Canned Food)
http://www.blakkatz.com/dryfood.html (The Truth About Dry Cat Food)
http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canned_food.htm (Canned Cat Food: Can Your Cat Afford to Live Without it?)
http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm (Max's House: Feline Nutrition)

Another option to get cats to drink more would be a cat fountain. Cats tend to like to drink from running water and cat fountains see to that need, encouraging cats to take in more water.

Also remember that freefeeding (leaving food down) is the fast lane to feline obesity. Make sure to have scheduled feeding times loosely based on the feeding guidelines on your cat's food. Adult cats are typically fed two meals a day.

More:
http://www.petfoodratings.net/cattable.html (Cat food reviews. Four stars is a good food, five stars is a great/excellent food [click the name of the cat food brand for a more indepth analysis of it])


Darksong~...Show more

There are products that you should be able to get at your vet office that are wonderful! Vibrac makes all kinds of at home oral care products. The # 1 best thing for your pets teeth is to brush. Virbac makes tooth paste for pets in 3 flavors (Ploutry, Malt, and Vanilla Mint.) **DO NOT USE HUMAN TOOTH PASTE!** They also make feline dental treats called CET chews. They have a film on the outside that has an enzyme that helps fight tarter and bad breath. If you can't brush you can also try the aquadent, which is an additive you can add to your pets water or the Oral rinse. All are great products that we use in my clinic. If you want to get a good treat from the store, you can try greenies, however, Virbac has a money back guarantee if your can't wont eat the treats and they are safer.
Hope this helps.

Also, since she is 7 months, maybe you could mix a little bit of a good dental diet to her food. I suggest Hill's Perscription Diet T/D or Purina D/M....Show more

Cat breath generally doesn't smell nice, but if it as bad as you say you may want to bring him to the vet. Bad breath can sometimes indicate a health problem. It also could be that he just needs his teeth cleaned, or he needs a change in diet. Meow mix is cheap, low-quality food. That very well could be the cause.


Remember when changing your cat's diet, it must be done gradually to avoid stomach upset. Mix a small portion of the new food in with the old food, and slowly increase the amount of new food as you decrese the amount of old food each day. This way, there is less of a chance that he will turn his nose up to the new food, or get sick from the dramatic change.

Check out these websites for more information:
http://www.petplace.com/cats/halitosis-bad-breath-in-cats/page1.aspx
http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/news/badBreath.htm
http://www.catsofaustralia.com/cat-bad-breath.htm...Show more

If you can afford a better food, don't feed her meow mix. it's a terrible brand and is more likely to make her obese, or have diabetes in her later years. Try wellness, performatrin, royal canin...something like that. Grains aren't the greatest, animal by-products are bad. Look for foods with the first ingrediant meat, or a meat meal, if you can avoid grains all together thats great.


Oh, and your cat likes meow mix because, even though cats don't need grains they like the taste because it's sweet.

You'll save yourself a ton of trouble if you switch her to a better food. Your local pet store owner/employee can probably tell you better brands then your vet. Your vet is paid to sell you one perticular brand. The pet store guys get paid regardless of which one you choose, so they are more inclined to give you a good one (I work at a pet store and I've seen this happen countless times)

Your cat will eat less of a good food because it's not all crap, it will poo less (you'll spend less on litter) it will shed less, and will be halthier in the long run.

Good luck with your kitty
There are cat treats that are designed to make her breath smell better. Ask around in any pet store for something like that....Show more

Yeah, that's the way it usually is with cats. Especially if they eat the fishy food.
Also, If anything, I would recommend feeding her better quality food. It'll be cheaper in the end, with the vet bills. They tend to get sicker over the years with the crappy food....Show more