How to Care for Your Pet's Teeth
🐶😀🐱February is Pet Dental Month! 🐶😀🐱
You already know oral care is very important for the furry guys overall health but we still want to make sure everyone knows all the ways we can help keep those furry chompers nice and pearly white! 🦷
So you can pick one or pick them all! Here are five ways to keep your furry guys teeth healthy! 👇
🥩 Raw diets help keep teeth clean because the necessary enzymes required to break down plaque and debris are only found in raw meat! Don't be fooled by "dental kibbles", they're extremely high in carbs, and carbs turn to sugar and keep the teeth dirty.
Carnivores lack salivary amylase (the enzyme necessary for breaking down carbs). The reason they do not have salivary amylase is because they're not designed to chew their food. Herbivores and omnivores have flat molars that crush and chew food, but are designed to capture and kill prey and to rip and tear meat from bone. Carnivores don't spend much time chewing; nor do they naturally consume many carbohydrates, so there is no need for amylase in the mouth.
🦴 Raw meaty bones are Mother Nature's toothbrush! Letting your furry guy chew on a raw meaty bone will eliminate up to 70% of plaque in one day! 90% in one week! It's important to ensure you get the correct size bone for your pup or kitty to chew in order to prevent any choking hazards and yes...kitties chew bones too! The best bet when selecting a raw meaty bone (never a cooked bone) is to find a knuckle bone close to the size of your pet's head. This will ensure they don't accidentally swallow it and they will simply work to chew it and clean their teeth in the process.
🦷 Brushing! Brushing the furry guys teeth may take a little repetition if they're not used to it, but it's a great habit to get in so you can remove the plaque build up. Brushing needs to happen every 24 hours because that's how quickly plaque rebuilds. Be sure to get a toothbrush appropriately sized for your pet's mouth and a pet safe toothpaste. Don't ever use toothpaste for humans as some of them contain whitening agents or
Xylitol which is lethal for pets. Finding a tasty pet safe toothpaste will definitely encourage the furry guys to brush their teeth more willingly!
💦 Water additives can help with plaque reduction and they're always a good tool in your tool kit, however we wouldn't recommend only relying on additives. Water additives are more designed to "freshen breath" however, before we can work to freshen breath, we need to understand what's causing the bad breath. If it's a dirty mouth then additives will help. If it's an imbalanced gut, then we need to address the root problem and rebalance the gut to freshen the breath.
🍖 Dental chews! This is a tricky one because we want to ensure we're feeding a healthy dental chew. If you use them, you know they don't last that long so they're not really scraping as much plaque off as we'd like. Additionally, if they're full harmful or controversial ingredients or contain a bunch of synthetic ingredients we don't even know how to pronounce...even if they help clean the teeth, it's not worth risking the furry guys health.
A few folks may think, "Wait! My furry guys eats a dental kibble!" And that means, you just might be paying for a food that's actually keeping your furry family's teeth more dirty than clean! If you're feeding a dental kibble, check out this article and see why dental kibble doesn't work to keep their teeth clean!
As always, we're here to help! If you have questions or need more information on the best way to keep your furry family's teeth clean, pop by and see us, give us a call or shoot us a message!