Dentaflex

This week, I attended the London Vet Show, where I acquired some samples of Dentaflex to give my pair. Dentaflex is being fairly heavily advertised on TV at the moment, and given my two are already developing signs of plaque on their teeth I'm keen to give them anything that will help me keep their teeth in good condition.

The product has two active ingredients, Sodium Tripolyphophate and Zinc Sulphate, bond with the calcium in a dog's mouth and slow down the build up of tartar. In addition, the chew is a slightly abrasive material and shaped so that it will rub against the surface of the teeth while being chewed.
The recommendation is to feed two a week to help with doggy dental care.

Before feeding, I had two concerns: first that one stick is 6.5% of a 10kg dog's recommended weekly calorie allowance, so relatively high in calories for one chew, and the chew contains animal derivatives. While I don't consider this a huge problem in itself, unlike many dog owners, I prefer to have a good idea of what I'm feeding because Cybi is quite an itchy, fretty little creature and some foods just plain don't agree with him - it's easier to make an educated guess on what will work if I know what's in there. But we gave the Dentaflex a go, to see how it worked out.

Cybi liked his, and made short work of it. Daisy sort of pushed hers around on the floor, nibbled the corner of it, chucked it about a bit and then decided she didn't like it. I tried offering it to her again, but she really wasn't keen and just took it off me and rather sadly dropped it on the floor. I felt so bad that I had to give her a rawhide instead - she's got puppy dog eyes well figured out!

So an experiment worth doing but probably one we won't repeat - one dog out of two doesn't like Dentaflex, and the dog that did like it needs a reasonable amount of care with his diet and so ideally wouldn't have unspecified animal derivatives. Back to using a toothbrush it is.