What Causes Tartar in Cats?
📝 Summary
We know cats are clean animals that groom themselves, but they can't brush their own teeth—that's the owner's job. Yet many owners forget, brushing themselves but neglecting the cat's teeth. People wonder: how does a cat get tartar? Here we explain the causes.
1 Causes of Cat Tartar
I. Causes of Cat Tartar
1. Dry food high in carbohydrates
Cats are pure carnivores and need no carbohydrate food; proper cat food contains almost none. But if a cat eats dry food, it inevitably takes in excess carbohydrates, harming body and teeth. The carbs and sugars feed harmful bacteria already in the mouth, causing overgrowth and oral inflammation.
Another point: cat saliva lacks enzymes to break down carbohydrates. So carb-rich dry food also changes saliva pH, making harmful minerals deposit more easily on teeth and worsening oral inflammation.
2. Persian and British Shorthair cats are more prone to tartar
Because their jaws and noses are naturally short, their teeth get little room in the jaw, often becoming misaligned or crooked. Even with saliva or owner wiping, these teeth are hard to clean fully, raising risk of gingivitis and other oral disease.
3. Oral inflammation from weakened immune system
After feline leukemia or feline immunodeficiency virus, cats more easily get oral mucosal inflammation. With a damaged immune system too weak to fight inflammation, harmful bacteria breed and deposit on teeth, forming tartar.
4. Also, overly soft cat food is a main cause of tartar, especially for cats with naturally misaligned teeth.
II. Cat Dental Care Methods
Now we know the causes; how to care for cat teeth? As follows:
1. Regular effective brushing is the most effective cleaning method, done before tartar forms. This includes using cat-specific toothbrush and paste and cleaning thoroughly—owners must not be careless.
2. Also, during daily care, use dental bones, mouthwash etc. to remove deposited tartar, with some preventive effect. But don’t use raw animal bones instead of dental bones—their hardness and shape don’t suit chewing, and sharp ends easily hurt the mouth and gut; raw bones also breed bacteria and are hard to digest, so use proper dental bones!
Our introduction to cat tartar ends here; we hope owners are careful when caring for pets, because a healthy cat surely depends on a very attentive owner!
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