Nutrition for Good Dental Health
Taken from Animal Wellness January 2020
Diet can minimize plaque and calculus
- Hard kibble can help knock off the plague that is forming on the teeth. Soft kibble can’t remove this plaque.
- The type of hard kibble is also important. Many people are going to a grain free diet for their pets. This can be optimal for some pets, but usually the problem is just a high carbohydrate food. Cheaper quality foods will use fillers that are loaded with simple carbohydrates that provide sugars that feed bacteria causing faster growth in the mouth.
- Read your ingredient label. It should read with ingredients you recognize like meat, vegetables, broth; NOT meat meal, powdered vegetables, etc.
- Use treats that provide chewing and help knock tartar and plaque from the teeth.
- Provide your pets with chew toys that will hep remove the plaque. I sometimes smear the pet toothpaste on these chew toys to be able to avoid brushing their teeth! This chewing provides the mechanical abrasion necessary to decrease plaque on the teeth.
- Raw bones can also provide the same mechanical abrasion as chew toys . However you may not be comfortable giving them to your pet. If you opt to use raw bones, limit chew times to 15-20 minutes and either throw away or wrap and refrigerate. Never cook bones which will make them brittle and splinter, which can cause massive problems in your pet.
