Link: http://www.margsanimals.com

This is Squeaky

I didn’t know that until I read a great article. I have a cat names Squeaky, the orange cat in the picture that lost all her teeth about four years ago. I don’t know why she lost her teeth, because I took her to the vet regularly and her teeth were checked and cleaned.

So, thinking about Squeaky having no teeth, I was very careful of what kind of food that I would feed her. I tried soaking food and she hated that. I gave her canned food and she would eat that but not crazy about it. And she would sneak into the kitchen looking for some dry food that the other cats had left in their dishes. And she would eat the dry food. Of course I would stop her and go get her something else. It turns out, I guess she could have eaten that dry food, and so now I let her eat some.

I have seen my other cats eating dry food and they do swallow it whole without chewing it. Cats are carnivores. And normally their main source of sustenance is prey animals which they capture and kill. Then they use their teeth to tear off pieces of meat and swallow these pieces whole.

Cat’s teeth are designed for this purpose. They have very few molars and these molars are not designed for chewing and thoroughly macerating food. They do not spend much time chewing.

It probably is a good idea to avoid treats or food that is very big and hard to swallow for cats but for the most part, swallowing unchewed food is normal feline behavior.

A veterinarian, Dr.Eric Barchas, DVM says that he has not seen any reputable evidence that dry cat food is bad for cats. I myself have been told that canned food is better for cats and not to use dry food. But I have been feeding dry food for 30 years now and most of my cats live to be a ripe old age.