You may or may not know, but February is National Pet Dental Health Month! Over on The Days of Johann they are challenging everyone to brush their dog or cat's teeth every day through the month of February. It's a pretty tall task and I will be the first one to say that it's going to be a pain in the butt to remember, but I'm going to go for it with both of my guys!:o) They're teeth are in quite good condition so I don't feel the urge to brush them religiously. However, they both have a wee bit of tartar starting to build up and my goal for the month is to not only brush both of their teeth every single day, but I'm going to document the brushing with pictures and see if I notice any changes in the tartar over the course of the month. That would be great if it got quite a bit reduced or went away all together!!I'll start things off with Heffner's chompers. As you can see, it's mostly the canines that have some tartar.
And here are Bess'. Again, she has the pretty much the same thing going on with build up predominantly on her canines.
While I don't have any pictures YET of me brushing their teeth, you'll just have to take my word for it. Unfortunately I only have the minty flavored toothpaste that the dogs do NOT like. Heffner is better about putting up with it than Bess. Bess kind of acts like I'm trying to stick a scorpion in her mouth. Once she gets over the initial shock, she just sort of puts up with it. They are very good doggies for indulging their momma! I'm definitely going to have to give them some good cookies if they're going to put up with this for 28 days straight!!My challenge to you is to join in on the "fun" and give your dogs better oral health for at least one month. If you've got a blog, post about it and then post a comment to Johann's blog so that you can be included. I'm going to shoot for just doing weekly pictures of the dogs' teeth and we'll see if there's much of a difference over the course of the month. And I have definitely got to get some better flavored toothpaste for these guys!!
8 comments:
I'm so joining this challenge because the only thing we ever get negative comments on at the vet is Vegas' tartar. I'm going to blame it on the fact that we (gasp!) used to feed kibble. ;)I just ran downstairs and scoured through all of the pet stuff and can't find Vegas' toothbrush though! That tells you what a bad mom I am about her teeth. So, tomorrow I'll pick one up at the store and get her started on a brushing regimen. And hey, Linds - you have your 52 weeks picture for this week! lol
Ok, i hope i'm not confusing you with someone else (i can't keep it all straight nowadays lol) but don't you feed your two raw? I used to brush Dante's teeth weekly but ever since i switched him to raw his teeth has been squeaky clean! Atia, who was fed raw from the very beginning had perfect pearly whites!
Yes, I do feed them raw, but they both started out on kibble and I think that's where some of the staining comes from. I also use kibble at times as a training reward. I'm thinking that I feed enough little bits of non-raw stuff that it's leading to some build up on their teeth. Their teeth aren't bad, I'd just like them to be a little bit better.:)
How fun! While I don't think we could get Darwin to let us brush her teeth every day, I think we could do it at least once a week. I check her teeth pretty often though, and so far they are pretty clean! She's on a kibble diet, but every week or so she gets a raw bone to gnaw on and some raw meat (she's spoiled that way).
btw, We have an award for you on the blog! Check it out!
http://evolutionofdarwin.blogspot.com/2010/02/02feb2010-award.html
Oh, we just wrote about teeth-cleaning too! I had an unfortunate visit to my dentist and when he told me whatever I do my teeth will eventually fall out I became concerned for the pooches. Miss M. likes her toothpaste too much so she's so hard to brush. Some people recommended chews which we might have to look into.
There are also some enzyme sprays on the market now that are supposed to help. I'm anxious to try them out.
Picked up a toothbrush and paste tonight and brushed Vegas' teeth!
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