Teeth and diet in my dog
Due to improvements in life-style, dogs now live longer but their teeth
do not always do as well and this can detract from their quality of
life in their later years. One of the best ways of preserving your
pet’s teeth is to feed a quality dry kibble diet which also helps
their gums and lips. Dogs are well-equipped with teeth to crunch and
chew, tinned foods just don’t offer this. This is why dry food should
usually be fed dry. If you want to help your pet further - the
following tips may be of use :-
- Offer dogs a raw hide chew strip after each meal to clean
the teeth. The best are simple dried strips of leather, not
reconstituted and coloured leather strips or complicated knotted
leather bones or elaborate toys.
- Use a dog tooth
paste, not a human one which will froth as pets cannot spit it out.
Some of these are designed to reduce scale even if just put on food.
One idea is to put tooth paste on a chew so that the teeth are brushed
whilst chewing.
- Use a nylon-type chew which throws
up spickules to clean teeth as they are chewed. By all means use bones,
but there are some guide lines. The best bone to get is the shaft of a
cow’s thigh with the "nobbly bits" cut off. You should give it raw, but
remove as much of the meat and bone-marrow as possible before hand.
When the bone is chewed down to a size that can be swallowed, it should
be thrown away. Always remember with bones that they can bring out a
primitive guarding behaviour in even the most placcid pet.