My kitties don't do well with having their teeth brushed, so I give them tooth powder made out of algae with their food. I know it's not as effective as brushing their teeth so I thought to also include some crunchy/chewy snacks to help clean their teeth through natural abrasiveness.
Vital Essential's freeze-dried minnows are highly recommended on cats.com but, like many of the top foods here, are not available in Europe. One of my babies has a chicken allergy which further narrows down my options.
I like the idea of giving my cats a whole little animal, thinking that might be fun for them and give them more textures to chew on, which led me to think of insects. My cats eat Yora, insect-based dry food, as a small portion of their diets, so why not give them a whole insect like a cockroach or grasshopper, like the ones I can buy for snakes or other animals?
I'm curious to hear feedback from those who know more about pet nutrition than I do – can I feed my kitties what is essentially snake food as a daily snack?
And what else can I do to keep their teeth healthy?
Hi Nusha, it's an interesting idea. Cats, even housecats, will naturally prey on insects. When they were a bit younger, mine would delight in catching (and eating) houseflies. I can't think of reason that eating a grasshopper, cricket, or small cockroach would be a significant problem for most cats to eat on occasion. They can be high in protein and there are even some insect protein-based cat foods that have been around for a couple of years. I think there are a couple of possible barriers to this idea of actively feeding your cat insects. One of course is sourcing. If you get insects from your pet store, it's important to realize they are not intended for cats, but usually for reptiles. You'd need to avoid any dusted insects intended to provide additional vitamin and minerals for reptiles. Probably for most people, the barrier is that you either have to feed a live insect or a dead one. A cat may actually show little to no interest in a dead insect. For many, the idea of releasing live insects into their home that their cat may or may not catch is not a favorable one.