| 
| Hits: 206
The vet will probably charge $180.00 to clean your dog’s teeth and remove a couple. Why do pet‘s teeth get so bad? It’s fairly simple. Our pets’ ancestors were lean and fit for chasing and had sharp white teeth for killing, ripping and grinding. That natural use of teeth maintained a healthy mouth and that was the wild carnivore’s only survival ticket. Your pet has exactly the same choppers with exactly the same needs. So we must feed them as naturally as possible or use one of the newer foods designed to keep teeth healthy. Or both. If you’re not willing to tow a road kill around the backyard or nail it to the floor for ripping up how can you easily do it? Well, Felix could get chicken necks or wings twice a week and Fido, lamb necks or rib frames with the meat still between the bones. Warm just a little especially for cats to give off aroma. Cooked bones or old dried bones are dangerous for poor chewers or those with sore gums. There are now some pelleted foods that are tooth friendly. Vets have them but make sure it is the right sort even if labeled tooth friendly. Small pellets are useless because they are swallowed whole and hard pellets shatter and only the tooth tips get polished. We keep two sizes of pellets with a vegetable fibre through them that prevents shattering. The bigger ones are walnut sized. They polish the tooth face and gum but they don’t do much for the incisors. The rib frames will however. Expensive? A bit, but you don’t have to feed it to them all the time. If your pet doesn’t take to it quickly then use that excellent sauce on the food…hunger. The teeth may need descaling before changing to this diet so have a look first.