Dry food toothless cat

[Nikkib1024]

My cat loves his dry food but only has his Incisors so can chew it. If I put it in a good processed and make it powder is that okay?

[booktigger]

I have used a food processor to grind cat biscuits to a powder, but found most can eat biscuits with little problem, they just swallow whole, smaller biscuits like James Wellbeloved are good

[Ruth B]

I'm not sure doing down to a powder would be good, he might end up breathing it in if it was too finely ground, but a breadcrumb consistency would probably work.

However I have had two cats who had to have all their teeth out, Blue (no longer with us unfortunately) had most of them removed when he was about 13 years old, and the rest about 6 weeks later when the problem didn't go away after the rest were fully cleaned and scaled. He always loved his dried food, (Purina One) and as we had failed to take it up while he was at the vets the second time he was straight into to the bowl the moment he got out of the carrier. He lived another 3 years before old age finally took him and never stopped preferring the dried food.

Saturn, one of our current cats, had to have the root of one of his canines out earlier this year after the crown snapped off, and while he was under the vet phoned to say he need his molars out as well, his incisors and premolars had already gone. We knew this was coming as he has always had a dental problem and we were warned it would lead to him losing all his teeth, he is only 5 years old so we had hoped it would hold off a bit longer but we went with the vet's advice. Now the only teeth he has left is one upper canine and his two lower canines, and it hasn't slowed him down in the slightest He still eats plenty of dried food, Dreamies, Felix treats, cooked meat, raw meat as well as the normal wet cat food. He is still an avid hunter although it did seem to take him a few goes to learn how to do a killing bite again, fortunately after a few live mice, he is back to bringing them home dead again.

I once heard it said that a cat with no teeth is better off than a cat with one bad tooth and I believe that to be true. See how yours goes but don't feel you need to act to mash everything up too quickly he might surprise you.

[Nikkib1024]

Thank you all. I ground it down to a bread crumb consistency and we shall see how it goes.. thanks again!

[booktigger]

That's true Ruth, the cat I used the food processor taught me a lesson about a month after doing that when I caught her eating my other cats biscuits!

[Kay]

years of coping with several cats who like dry food, and like bringing it up again, convinces me they all swallow it whole anyway, and that it is the texture rather than the taste which makes them favour it

my current cat won't put even the tiniest morsel of any wet food in her mouth, even though the smell of it can get her really excited

[MarkB]

I Have had two toothless cats over the years and they both favoured dry food. In both cases they started eating it the same day their teeth were removed as it was probably easier for them to swallow it whole than try to chew wet food. Bearing in mind that kibble is usually sprayed with the flavouring, i would guess it is more appetising when whole anyway.

[abbyally]

I wouldnt bother grinding the food, your cat wont like the texture anymore so probably wont eat it. Also, Dont worry about giving dry to your toothless cat, they dont chew their food like we do as their lower jaw is fixed, so tend to lap up the biscuits and more often that not, just swallow them! ....Have you seen regurgitated dry food, its mostly whole lol