How long before introducing dry food to toothless cat

[Desley (booktigger)]

Ginger liked to eat biscuits after a dental, and despite ending up toothless, he would sulk if he didn't get his supper biccies (was only allowed 10 though, as he was on a diet too!!). He had Turkey JWB, they are quite small, and he pretty much swallowed them whole. The Lamb ones are a similar size, but he didn't like the Duck ones (don't think I got hold of the fish ones while he was still here). You might find his coat is dull due to his CRF rather than the wet food though, and with his kidney issues, dry should be kept to a minimum.

[Mark]

I will just play it by ear. His coat is dull compared to the other 2 so I'm sure he doesn't get brilliant nutrition from Whiskas/Tesco etc wet food. I'm will mix a few kibbles of hill's in and see how he goes. If he would eat decent wet food, I wouldn't bother but he refuses to eat it.

[Sabrina (Auferstehen)]

Mark I have over the years had a few cats who would not eat anything else but dried and they have eaten it  straight after the op, although they had been ofered wet

Penguin dived into the food bowl after having 9 teeth removed (he'd already lost 6) we had to take it up while I ran down the street to get a variety of wet food (we thought we had some wet food in the house but it was just the empty plastic thingie).

He ended up eating everything in sight and after speaking to the vet on the phone she said let him just keep an eye on him and his gums. Mind you, they would have been happy to see him again as he won over all the staff 

[Ela]

Mark I have over the years had a few cats who would not eat anything else but dried and they have eaten it  straight after the op, although they had been ofered wet

[Hippykitty]

Polly lost her teeth (no idea why) and can eat munchies, but I only allow about half a dozen on top of wet food, to avoid kidney probs.

I'd recommend that you keep your cat on wet food for a few months, to allow the gums and underlying tissue time to fully heal. It takes more than a fortnight. Although the top layers of gum tissue will have rejoined, there will still be unhealed deeper tissue, and dry food would be like biting a bullet - Ouch!

There's no real reason why cats should eat dry food at all. Wet is better because of the liquid content, and cats rarely drink. Personally, I'd keep your cat on good quality dry food. If Clapton already has a renal issue, get some wet food designed for this.

If you really want to give dry food, Mark, wait for a few months first, otherwise you could disrupt the healing process.

[Mark]

If he's going to have go-cat there's no point giving him dry - the idea is to improve his diet, not up his cereal and additive intake 

[Millys Mum]

As he will probably just swallow them id go for a round type of biscuit so its nice and smooth.
k/d dry seems to be quite palatable and its round so you could try a sample of that. Im sure Clapton will decide he likes go cat 

[blackcat]

Should be ok to start by now, but perhaps dampen it a bit so it is softer then usual and gradually build up to the hard stuff...

[Mark]

Its over 2 weeks since Clapton had his last teeth out. I want to improve his diet by including some dry (he won't eat quality wet). He is eating just Senior & regular wet at the moment. He had always eaten wet only but quite happily ate it with some dry mixed in until about 3 years ago when his mouth problems started. I don't want to start to soon as I don't want him to associate eating with pain any more. Also wondering if I should get renal dry or something more palatable. As his numbers are pretty good at the moment, I don't want to defeat the object of improving his health. Any suggestions?