Been to the vets this evening with my springer bitch for her annual jab etc & as per usual got the sales talk on wormers/flea treatment/food etc but she also said rosie needed her teeth scaled, but when she pointed out which ones it was the two upper canine teeth, the other teeth were fine & I am certainly not putting her under a GA for that! I have only recently started on a more raw based diet & wanted to know if certain bones were better at teeth cleaning than others?

Any other suggestions for gels etc gratefully recieved!

I find a rack of ribs with lots of meat of, and not just one or two ribs stuck together are really good for cleaning teeth, or things like chicken carcasses etc

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Harvey - staffy
Chance - american bulldog (rescue)

19 snakes, 5 geckos, phibs, T's, inverts, fluffies and hedgehog.

Actually last week I bought a load of breast of lamb most still had part of the spine on aswell as the ribs, would this be as good?

Definitely! as it takes them a long time to get through it really helps to clean the teeth!

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Harvey - staffy
Chance - american bulldog (rescue)

19 snakes, 5 geckos, phibs, T's, inverts, fluffies and hedgehog.

CSJ sell "Ribbies" which they recommend as excellent for teeth cleaning. They are air dried venison ribs and stripping the dried fibres of meat off acts as flossing as well as cleaning the teeth.

Have a word with them if you like, Ceri is v helpful. She sent me a pic of her 11yr old collie with a ribbie and another pic showing the collie's pearly white teeth.

They are quite expensive so raw ribs will be a cheaper option.

I havent tried the Ribbies - but kept them on the back burner for future reference. At the moment, Heidi's teeth are staying in peak condition with raw chicken wings.

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"Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another’s trouble, Courage in your own”

I've found that for whatever reason, the spaniels seem to build up tartar easier than Labs, I'd second the lamb bones, and chicken carcasses/necks, it's what I've used before.

Thank you all

I will start dropping some of the mince/cooked meals & upping the bones then,

I bought some of those stagbars last night so will see how they go with those to

I give Tummel a whole rabbit every so often which keeps his teeth looking pretty. I just remove the guts and pop the legs out of the skin(keeping the skin on means Tummel has to take his time and chew everything up to get it off) and it's all his!!! My OH shoots the rabbits so it's a sporadic treat but if you could find a local supplier they are very cheap. I've also had the pleasure of presenting Tummel with a red deer shank complete with meat(about 2/3lbs of meat) which took him a few hours to work his way through(he didn't get any other food that day) and a femur with lots of meat and sinew(we were going out that night and needed a distraction) for later.

I love giving Tummel some meat, he won't eat chicken/beef/pork raw(never tried lamb) and until recently wouldn't touch venison but we're toying with accomodating more raw into his diet as it's much nicer for him and we enjoy watching him eat it I'm not comfortable with giving him a total raw diet though as i don't trust myself to get the balance right