Dental Health

The Healthy Bark

Every February we see the same advertisements for how important it is to have your pets teeth cleaned. Have you ever truly wondered why pets must have dental care?
Most pet owners take for granted that it is part of owning a pet. You must get vaccines once a year, have their teeth cleaned once a year, put a topical on them for fleas and ticks, and give them heartworm protection monthly. At what point did all this become "normal" and not questioned?

It became the norm when we started feeding our pets food like stuff. Dry processed kibble is not healthy. Let's take a good look at food and see that we are feeding our pets to keep them sick. You have heard many times that "Dry Food" helps clean their teeth. Really? How can pieces of dried up food, that is held together with some form of starch, be fed to our pets and we believe it helps clean their teeth? How many of you have even seen your pet get sick? Was the food chewed up? Was it still in the shapes it started as in the bowl? My guess is other than a few pieces that they managed to bite into before they swallowed, it came back up pretty much the same as it went in.

We all hear the crunching sound as our pets eat, most think they are actually chewing their food. The truth is this is only a reaction from food being in the mouth. Pets do not "Chew" their food, they are meant to rip, tear, and gnaw on their food. They do not have a jaw that is capable of going from side to side, it goes up and down.

If dry pet food was doing such a great job at keeping teeth clean than why does your pet need their teeth cleaned every year? It is impossible for a starched laden, processed food to clean your pets teeth. Would you use pretzels every night to brush your teeth? Really think about that. How can something hard that you might bite into before you swallow possibly clean your teeth? It can't, no matter how great the commercial is, it is exactly that, great advertising.

Ask any raw feeder how their pet's teeth look and they will tell you they are white, the breath is fresh, and there is minimal build up on the back teeth. Why? Because raw fed dogs gnaw on bones, pull meat off of bones which act like floss, and truly do scrap the back teeth and massage the gums. Eating raw also builds strength in the jaw muscles, keeps saliva flowing to rinse the mouth, and makes for a healthy mouth.

If you are one that feeds your pet dry processed food than yes, you will need to get your pets teeth cleaned yearly. The bacteria that grows from all the starch being left behind from the food causes many health issues. It can damage the kidneys, heart, liver, and lungs. By the time they are 6 years old you will most likely be getting teeth extracted because of the damage from not using their teeth as they were meant to be used.

My dogs never really had to have their teeth cleaned when they went to raw. They gnawed on bones, ate real food, and never had tooth issues.  I still had check ups done on them, so I knew where their health was, I just did not do what most consider the normal in pet care these days. So when you think raw feeding is pricey, than continue to feed dried up kibble, go to your vet for all the wonderful things that dry food helps promote, and pay the bills that go along with it. With four dogs to get teeth cleaning done, the blood work, and all the other things they recommend I could have bought around 6 months worth of organic raw food to feed them. Just food for thought on this and many other health issues that you are paying to mask but not omit in your pets.