Large kibble dry dog food.

Artytarty

My vet has suggested I change my dog to a larger bites roy food to help clean her teeth. We brush them now and then but he says that's only about 10% of the work . The food is very important.
Stupidly I left without asking fora recommendation.
She is currently on Burns, the bits are about as big as my thumb nail.
Medium sized collie cross breed.
Thanks.

amandagreen82

Ol'Roy's are quite good, and are quite cheep as well

gettingready

denta sticks?

teddysmum

Fish skin treats from Fish4Dogs are good for teeth and give oils for the coat. They are quite expensive, but I buy when on offer, as they have a long use by date (about a year).


One of my dogs (cavaliers) had awful teeth, as he won't have them brushed, but the skins cleaned them up (except for his canines).


Although they are small dogs, I buy at least 2cm cubes or large twists, as they tend to swallow smaller treats, but gnaw on these, allowing the layers to scrape their teeth.

Artytarty

Thanks, dentastix just go down the hatch in two gulps.
Do the fish skins smell.
I absolutely loathe fish myself and even the smell makes me retch!
I remember now the vet did suggest a very large nylon bone, but won't her teeth get worn away?

krlyr

I would try natural chews. Zooplus sells a huge range, and is often cheaper than local petshops. Cows ears, pizzle sticks, etc. are chewy so will help with the teeth, far more than soft chews like Dentastix or biscuits.

Alternatively I'd feed the odd raw meaty bone. Chicken wings are good but you need to be careful with larger dogs to make sure they chew them, instead of trying to bolt them down. Holding one end can help - but be very careful with your fingers! Larger pieces like spines, ribs, etc. are good for bigger dogs, but be careful of larger weight-bearing bones like legs (especially larger animals like cows), knuckle bones, etc.

Rev

Dry kibble will no more clean a dogs teeth as a rich tea would ours. And dentastix are sugar filled. Vets get a total of one day food training, usually given by a dog food company interested only in pushing their product.

Plaque off is good to add to food. You use a tiny amount and it works really well.

Dogs clean their teeth naturally by tearing meat from bones and gnawing on the bones. Carrots are good, especially frozen. Stag bars too. But the best is a raw meaty bone. Mine are raw fed but I give them a raw chicken thigh/leg/carcass a few times a week and they have perfect teeth.

Artytarty

Mine is a older and has actually had surgery to remove a children in need bracelet and a bit of tennis ball so I'm very wary of bones, I have today bought large breed royal Canin which has a big kibble. I'll be giving her the weight appropriate amount. Also the lady in the shop showed me the antlers, but she only had small ones, so I might try a big one of those if I can get it.
We do brush with logic from time to time but she now runs for cover when I go near "that" .cupboard!

Raksha

I use antlers for my dogs, but the springer won't touch them. The thing thats helped her was a good old gnaw on a raw beef leg bone from the butcher.
Just be aware that antlers are very tough and can expose hidden damage

teddysmum

I used to have springers, who adored hide chews, but after one of my cavaliers, a big boy, had two (one could be coincidence)near choking incidents involving them, I've not used them since. Likewise bones, when a triangular piece sheered off a marrow bone. He lost a tooth , but luckily passed the sharp piece through his system.


One of my boys had awful teeth and none of the usual suggested things worked (He was the one who 'broke' a marrow bone). We tried brushing, which he hated, frageria, Logic and Plaque-off to no avail. The vet said that some dogs' chemical makeup is such that the only treatment is a vet descale....but fish skins were only becoming popular towards the end of Izzy's life and have really helped Joly, one of my present dogs, who also had awful teeth and detests his mouth being touched.

krlyr

Different bones have different risks. Smaller bones like chicken wings are far less likely to splinter, but with larger dogs there's the risk of them being swallowed whole or in large chunks. Larger bones like marrowbones tend to be far more dense and more likely to splinter/shatter. Cooked bones are much more brittle, and shouldn't be fed at all.

However, I understand raw feeding (or even just raw bones) aren't for everyone. I'd probably go with the natural chews for teeth cleaning more than kibble, as the actual of chewing something tough for 5-10 minutes has gone to have more of an effect than one or two crunches on kibble. Bear in mind that dogs aren't built for chewing food like we do - they don't have molars and they don't produce the same digestive enzymes in their saliva, their teeth are designed to rip and shred meat and bones to be swallowed in larger pieces, it's their strong stomach acid that does the work digesting food, therefore with kibble you'll find they often scoff it down with barely a bite or two.