Best cat food for Scottish Straight with dental issues

Scottish Straights are wonderful cats, but that flatter face does create real feeding challenges — their jaw angle makes it harder to grip and chew certain textures, and dental disease is genuinely more common in brachycephalic cats, so what you feed and how it's presented matters more than most owners realise. Cats are obligate carnivores with specific nutritional needs many commercial foods fall short on, and wet food is almost always the better choice — especially at six years old, when kidney health starts to become a real consideration and hydration becomes critical. To point you in the right direction: does your Scottish Straight have any diagnosed health issues, is she on any current food, and have you noticed any difficulty eating or signs of dental discomfort?

The leaving food behind is a flag worth taking seriously — it can mean mild oral discomfort even when a cat isn't making a fuss about it. Brachycephalic cats often just quietly eat less rather than showing obvious pain. Dry kibble is also the worst possible choice for a cat with early dental inflammation and early kidney vulnerability: it adds zero hydration, and the abrasive effect that people think helps teeth actually does very little at that jaw angle. I'd move her off kibble entirely and onto a high-quality chunked wet food — not pâté, which requires more tongue-pressing effort, and not hard chunks, but a tender, soft-chunk format in a natural jus or light gravy. What's your rough monthly budget for her food?

Vets often don't, partly because the kibble-cleans-teeth myth is deeply embedded. Here's what I'd recommend: Animonda Carny Adult in the chunked variety, available in multipacks on Amazon UK. It's a German brand with an unusually high named-meat content — typically over 70% animal protein — no added sugar, no cereals, and the chunk texture is soft enough that a flat-faced cat can manage it without the jaw strain that tougher pieces cause. It comes in a wide range of single-protein flavours, which also lets you rotate proteins and reduce the risk of food sensitivities developing over time. At her age and with early dental issues already flagged, the hydration from wet food alone will make a meaningful difference to her kidneys over the next few years. A 24-can multipack sits well within your budget and gives you good variety. I'd phase out the kibble over a week or two rather than switching overnight — mix increasing amounts of the wet in until she's fully transitioned.

Switching food is the most impactful single change, but it won't reverse existing tartar — that'll need a professional scale and polish at some point, which is worth discussing with your vet now that you have a clearer picture of what's contributing. Once her mouth is in better shape, you can look at dental gel or a vet-approved water additive like Vet Aquadent to keep on top of things between checkups. Tooth brushing is ideal in theory but genuinely difficult with flat-faced cats given their jaw structure, so I wouldn't set yourself up for a battle there. Focus on the food change first — it's the foundation everything else builds on.

That's exactly the right approach. Getting the scale and polish sorted and moving her onto quality wet food puts her in a much stronger position — both for her mouth and her kidneys long-term. Animonda Carny is well-tolerated by most cats and the variety keeps mealtimes interesting, which helps with the transition. Good luck with the switch — and if she's still leaving food after a few weeks on the new diet, it's worth going back to the vet to check whether there's more going on with her teeth.