My cat has very dry skin, any recommendations?

He may be dehydrated, which can be dangerous. Adding a low-ash wet food to his diet may help. Your vet can hydrate him via IV; it only takes a few minutes.

He may need a food that contains more oils or fatty acids, or may be suffering from some vitamin or mineral deficiency. Your vet can recommend a food or a supplement after examining him.

He may have allergies, either to his food or to something in his environment, that is causing a skin condition that just looks like dry skin. Your vet can test for allergies and/or recommend some action.

In your place, I would take him in very soon for a general check-up and explain the situation to the vet.

Congrats on the two new additions. It can be very overwhelming when trying to choose a cat food as there are so many to choose from. Cats are carnivores so the more meat the better. The second most important thing is availability. No matter how good a food is, if it isn't readily available, than it's not worth the effort. The first two brands I've listed below are available at Petsmart. All of them are available at Petco. Some good food choices are: Blue Buffalo's Wilderness Wellness' Core Natural Balance's Alpha Solid Gold's Indigo Moon And there are many more.

The answer believe it or not is food. Proper food for the species

Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health

Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.

Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingredient a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things?

http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Read_a_Pet_Fo...

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/P...

Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s, constipation, and a host of other problems. Male cats are especially prone to blockages

from dry food. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with grains and carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. ( Have a fat cat?)

An even bigger problem is that it IS dry and it dehydrates no matter how much your cat drinks

Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food. Cats are not naturally big drinkers.

95% of the moisture is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Think about it.

Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don't use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.

http://www.catinfo.org/#My_Cat_is_Doing_Just_Fine_...

You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn't have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all.

THE BEST CAT FOODS CONTAIN NO GRAINS NO BYPRODUCTS

Cats are meat eaters not cereal or rice eaters

Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. I would rather feed a middle grade canned food then the top of the line dry food.

Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=librh...

/www.felinefuture.com/?p=470ary&act=show&item=doesdryfoodcleantheteeth

Please read about cat nutrition.

http://www.catinfo.org/

http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.htm

http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm#Dry_Food...

Vetinarian diets The reason your vet thinks so highly of the pet food they sell probably has more to do with money than nutrition. In vet school, the only classes offered on nutrition usually last a few weeks, and are taught by representatives from the pet food companies. Vet students may also receive free food for their own dogs and cats at home. They could get an Iams notebook, a Purina purse and some free pizza. http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/P...

Nutritional Education Program website page for the American College of Veterinary Nutrition. Notice who they are receiving grants from for this program

http://mypetcarnivore.com/educational_grant.htm

Take you kitty to a vet for a good check up. You might need to add a bit of Vitamin E to his diet. I give our Gracie one third of a can of Fancy Feast(wet)cat food every day for "lunch". Wet food(canned meats)helps keep moisture in the skin and hair. They don't need a lot of the canned stuff, it can make them gain a lot of weight, but dry food can be supplemented with the wet on occasion. Also, if the heat has been on in your house, things are probably drying out because of that. Get a humidifier going. The more moisture you get into the air, the better for everyone in the house.

Just a note to the others suggesting fish. Fish and fish oils can give male cats bladder infections. Stay away from fish and fish oil unless otherwise instructed by the Vet. Males tend to have more of a problem with this than females, but it's best to stay away from the seafood all together.

If he has scabs is it possible that he has fleas? Also, try giving him a few spoons of tuna fish packed in oil with his food. The fat is necessary for a healthy coat and skin. You may want to change his food also, because that may be causing his symptoms.

He's most probably allergic to the food you are giving him. Go to a good petshop and try some hypoallergeen cat food and see if it gets less.

You may want to give your baby boy some moist food as well. I use to put olive oil into the food..helps with the hairballs.

Get the better kind of wet food...becareful of the ash content. High ash content means kidney problems later on....

well, ive heard of that before, i know that they make some kind of lotion that's in a tube. you squeeze it around the area that is most dry...

hope he'll be ok!!! por little guy...

He's broken. Time to trade him in for a new one that works.

maybe your brushing to hard??? i heard fish oil in his diet is great . but you have to realize they are gonna shed alot if they're black