Tartar build up in young cat - any advice

[Mumdiva99]

I've just taken my one year old cats for their annual booster and the vet says one cat has bad tartar build up on her teeth. As bad as a cat much older than her.....he didn't say she needs a GA and removal now - but if it gets worse she would.

Does anyone have any tested methods for resolving this? He mentioned the Hills T/D food - which is £££. (they are currently on 50% dry - natures variety chicken and 50% felix agail)

She's a grazer and eats little and often - maybe this has caused it.....isn't that a natural way for cats to eat? Should I try to stop this....

Has anyone had success brushing a cats teeth? I've googled and can see a method with a cotton bud dipped in tuna water....(that might not help if the build up is because she's eating regularly....as it will just wipe tuna water over the teeth).

Any advice would be great as I don't want it to get worse.

Didn’t they suggest a scale and polish?.

No, because of the requirement for a GA. But if it gets worse then we would need to.

I use Royal Canin dental food for my older cat who had very bad tartar build up when we adopted her. She loves it - downside is it’s quite calorific so we have to put it in a puzzle feeder so she doesn’t put on weight! But since using it her teeth as massively improved.

It is expensive, but worth it in my opinion.

Our cat had to have a dental under GA and since then every cat has had Hills Oral Care. It is expensive but even when our cats have reached 8+ years we've never had to have any more dental work done (other than due to an injury).

We do 50% biscuits and 50% wet food to make them last longer.

Thanks @randomcatgenerator.

@catnamedeaster that's the one the vet has recommended. What do you use for the wet food? (As we currently feed 50/50 too).

Ah - we also give dental food as a supplement to normal food (James Wellbeloved ‘light’ dry food) and wet food (whiskas). Makes it last much longer.

We use Purina gourmet gold, the little tins. I changed to them purely because I wanted a more eco-friendly alternative to pouches and the cat never liked any of the big tins I tried. So she has half a little tin with a small scoop of biscuits, twice a day.
Pp is right that the biscuits are high fat (and the cat was getting a bit chunky) so we measure them out using an old baby weaning pot.

One of my cats had this problem at that age. We were also advised the Hills dental food so we had 5 lumps/biscuits of the food to their usual biscuits once a day and they've had perfect teeth since them. A packets lasts months and I but it online.

I have much older cats but they both love Royal Canin dental food. It is expensive but goes a long way. I mix with whatever wet food I can find at the supermarket.

@catnamedEaster I also use baby weaning pots to measure food!! The tommee tippy ones work best.

I will order the hills and start to add it to their dried biscuits.