Could a dental problem be making my cat picky?

A cat with a sore mouth often looks like a picky eater. She comes to the bowl interested, then backs away. She chews on one side, drops food or suddenly wants only soft food. Before you decide your cat is simply being fussy, it is worth ruling out dental disease, because it is common, painful and easy to miss.

Quick take:

• Dental disease is very common: studies find 50 to 90 percent of cats over four years old have some form of it.¹
• A cat with mouth pain usually still wants to eat. It just hurts, so the eating looks selective.
• Watch for dropping food, chewing on one side, pawing at the mouth, bad breath and a new preference for soft food.
• This is not a home fix. Dental disease needs a veterinary exam, often with dental x-rays.
• Left alone, dental pain can progress until a cat stops eating altogether.

How a sore mouth looks like pickiness

Dental pain rarely takes away a cat’s hunger. It changes how she eats. A cat with a painful tooth may approach the bowl eagerly, take a bite and flinch away. She may chew only on the side that does not hurt, tilt her head while eating or drop pieces of kibble. Many cats quietly adjust their own diet, leaving hard food and eating only the soft or wet parts. From the outside, all of this reads as fussiness. Underneath, it is a cat trying to eat around pain. If your cat’s mouth checks out fine, the cause may be preference or setup instead, which our picky-eater guide covers.

What dental disease does

The common feline dental problems are gingivitis, periodontitis and tooth resorption. Cornell notes that between 50 and 90 percent of cats older than four have some form of dental disease, and that it causes real pain and discomfort, in many cases enough to make a cat stop eating.¹ Tooth resorption is both common and easy to overlook: the tooth erodes, often below the gumline where you cannot see it and it is genuinely painful. Bad breath, drooling and red or bleeding gums are other clues that what looks like picky eating is actually a mouth that hurts.

What the vet will check

A dental problem needs a veterinary exam. The vet will look at the teeth and gums, but a conscious cat will only allow so much and disease below the gumline often does not show on a surface look. A full assessment usually means a dental cleaning and x-rays under anesthesia, where painful or resorbing teeth can be found and treated, often by extraction. Cats are remarkably good at hiding oral pain, and owners are frequently surprised by how much brighter and hungrier their cat becomes once a bad tooth is dealt with.

When to call the vet

• Bad breath, drooling or red or bleeding gums
• Dropping food, chewing on one side or tilting the head while eating
• Pawing at the mouth or face
• A new preference for soft food or backing away from hard kibble
• Any of the above alongside weight loss or a real drop in appetite

Once the dental side has been ruled out or addressed, take our free picky-eater quiz for a feeding plan tailored to your cat’s eating pattern.