They have a very unique, specialized tongue that has little projections on it. If you ever feel a cat's tongue, you'll be able to tell it's very different from what you would expect from your own tongue or a dog's tongue. It's designed specifically to help them groom themselves, clean their coat, and do everything they need to do from a grooming perspective. Their specialized tongues allow them to be such good groomers themselves.

If you're a groomer and have experience, then yes. But otherwise, I would shy away from it. I've seen too many cats that come in with lacerations from owners trying to cut out mats over the years. Of course, they feel terrible when that happens, and they never it on purpose, but cat skin is very delicate, and if you've got matting, safely getting it out can be a real challenge. Even in the hands of a professional groomer, I've seen the skin accidentally cut. I recommend not trying it. I think brushing it is great, but avoid using scissors or clippers. Unless you're very comfortable with it, I recommend professional grooming.

That's a good question. Again, it will differ between cats. A lot of cats will be fine just grooming themselves, maybe getting some supplementary brushing, and never needing a bath. Cats that have an underlying skin disease and indoor-outdoor cats that don't adequately groom themselves can benefit greatly from the occasional bath. But that's challenging because it's often a very stressful event for your cat. I suggest you speak with your veterinarian to determine if it's necessary. For cats that are just a bit stinky or not grooming themselves well but their skin is healthy, considering soapless shampoo that doesn't require water could be helpful. You could facilitate the process with a damp, warm washcloth. This could help you accomplish what you want without traumatizing the cat. However, if your cat genuinely needs a bath, I suggest getting some help because it can be scary.

Most cats do a really good job at grooming and cleaning themselves. Whether they do it well or not differs from cat to cat. Generally speaking, the leaner your cat is, the better they are at grooming themselves, but that's not always the case. Cats are generally fairly hygienic, but it depends on the individual cat. Evaluating your cat, making sure that they're grooming themselves well and not getting any matted fur, ensuring their coats are shiny and that there's not a lot of dirt at the base of the coat are all good habits to get used to doing.

It depends on your cat. Grooming in terms of brushing and making sure that your cat is grooming themselves sufficiently is necessary. I think that's a good habit to get into. It greatly depends on how well your cat grooms themselves. Some cats groom themselves very well and have a nice shiny coat with no matting. It's great when that happens, but sometimes, especially if your cat's got longer hair, they will need some support to ensure that their coat doesn't get matted. So at least getting your cat acclimated to being brushed consistently and making sure that it's a positive experience by incorporating some treats can help maintain a good quality coat.

We could probably talk about this a lot. I'll try to pick some of the highlights, but I think some specific things should be touched on because they're super common. The biggest thing nowadays is the grain-free movement that has gained a ton of traction in the last several years. It's been slowed a little bit with the concerns of heart disease linked to it, but it's still a big thing. It's not that grain-free is necessarily inherently bad, but some of the deficiencies they've identified that could potentially be linked to underlying heart conditions in some dogs are certainly a concern. The idea that grain-free diets are inherently better for pets does not have any sort of research behind it to support it. It's more based on assumptions about how nutrition works. The problem with that is that, apart from there being no research to support it, is that dogs that are on grain-free diets tend to be overweight. This is largely caused by what has to be done when you move to a grain-free diet. For example, one of the big concerns is corn. Many people become very heated when you talk about corn in dog nutrition because they believe that corn is a filler that is harmful to pets and that many companies use it to fill the food without it having any benefit.

Corn is, therefore, one of the grains that get removed. But corn, when processed properly, is very dense in nutrition. Pet companies use it because it provides a lot of nutrients for the pet. When a company removes it in making a grain-free diet, they have to replace it with something else or their food will be nutrient deficient. They'll often replace it with a more starchy carbohydrate like potatoes just to be able to label it as grain-free. As a result of that, it tends to be a more carbohydrate-dense diet, and, generally speaking, dogs tend to be more prone to gaining weight. I see that as one of the problems, along with the concerns about the links to heart disease.

The struggle is that many people are moving their pets to grain-free diets because they have an underlying issue, whether it is skin allergies or GI issues, and they think that the grain-free diet will fix the problem. It doesn't because grain is not a common allergen in dogs most of the time. There isn't good research that proves this is a common allergy, and therefore we should move in another direction. It's giving a lot of pet owners false hope. If I have a pet owner that has their dog on a grain-free diet, and the dog's doing much better than before, I certainly won't argue that, and I've had that happen on a few occasions.

The other concept that I see more of, maybe even more so than the grain-free nowadays, is high protein diets. High-protein diets in dogs are extremely common, and it's become the norm that it is good for the dog. Again, the problem is that the research does not support it. Clinically, I see a lot of problems with dogs that are on high-protein diets, especially older dogs. The older your pet is, the harder it is for them to process that protein. A good, well-balanced diet in an adult dog is a diet that's cognizant of the nutrition that's being provided and created based on the current research that's out there. Proteins usually make up a percentage of low to mid-twenties of daily food intake on a dry matter basis. That should be the percentages if you're looking at dry food. These other diets that I'm talking about, and there are so many of them that it's actually the norm now, contain upwards of 30%, even as high as 40% protein.

The liver has to process that extra protein, and the kidneys have to excrete the breakdown products. We often see dogs with abnormalities in their blood work because they're getting all of this excess protein that they don't need but that their body has to deal with. The older your pet is, the more harmful that can be. So the myth would be that high-protein diets are good for dogs. That is just, unfortunately, not true. It's not based on research, and the older your dog gets, the less protein they need. Good senior diets will typically have even lower protein, closer to 20%. If there are significant kidney problems, dogs with kidney disease need an even lower percentage of potentially down to 15 or 16% protein. I could go on about additional myths, but I think those are the two most impactful ones for where we are with pet nutrition.

It tends to lean in that direction, just like human food does. You can do free feeding in a single-dog household successfully and have a lean dog. Sometimes even a multi-dog household can pull it off, but it's a lot more difficult to manage the more dogs you have. If you think about it, if they're free feeding, you have no idea who's eating what, or how much they're eating throughout the day. So there's no way to control their calories tightly. I am a big proponent of meal feeding, typically twice a day because that's most practical, and it keeps their metabolism going consistently throughout the day. That allows you to control exactly how much each pet is eating. You're using a measuring cup and working with your veterinarian to figure out how much to feed with the goal of feeding for an optimal body condition.

No, not typically. I've never seen that be the case. When dogs are eating grass, sometimes they're just dogs. I have a dog that will occasionally eat grass and never throw up. She's kind of like a horse in that sense. I think eating grass because of a deficiency is an uncommon scenario. From what I see in practice, dogs eat grass because they haven't eaten their dog food that day, making them a little nauseous. So they eat grass, and then they throw up afterward, or they throw up, and then they go eat grass. There's usually a presence of underlying nausea or GI upset that many things can cause. Grass eating is typically related to GI upset rather than inadequate nutrition. Them trying to find nutrition in grass isn't typically the case.

Prescription diets are extremely useful in many different circumstances because prescription diets treat or manage specific conditions. So if you're dog has an underlying joint disease, you can use prescription joint diets to help manage that. Suppose your dog has urinary problems or a history of bladder stones, which are actually fairly common in dogs. In that case, there are prescription urinary diets that will help reduce the risk of recurrence once the underlying issue is addressed.

Those are just two of many examples where prescription nutrition can be very valuable. Because they are prescription diets, they have a particular condition that they're treating. They have to be prescribed by a veterinarian to ensure that it is the appropriate diet for that pet. My personal approach in the way I practice is to rely heavily on therapeutic diets whenever possible because if we can manage or treat disease through nutrition, it's always a good starting point.

No, it's not. The big difference is that wet food has a massive amount of water content. Usually, about 75 to 80% of the food in the can is water, which certainly has its benefits in some circumstances, like if you have a dog that is just not a big drinker and tends to get dehydrated if we aren't careful. Adding some wet food to the diet can be helpful because it adds water content. Also, with certain chronic conditions like kidney disease, having added water content can benefit dogs who can't maintain hydration status because of underlying disease. You can obtain adequate nutrition with dry or canned food or a combination of the two.