Dentastix

Paul91

These are €2.09 for seven (Lagre breed) in Tesco, you can get vouchers of pigsback for a euro, i just got 70 dentistix for €10.90 - happy days

Any one else use these regular, do seem to make the teeth a lot cleaner

star-pants

Actually we don't use them anymore, noticed a big build up of plaque on our dogs teeth, our groomer asked us what we were giving them, I mentioned we gave dentastix as a teeth clean thing and he told us they're actually worse, because they've a good bit of sugar in them apparently.

Paul91

Did you know 4 out of 5 dogs over the age of 3 have gum disease? Pedigree Daily Dentastix has a unique X shape and when fed daily, its special texture is clinically proven to help reduce tartar build up by 80%. So to help keep your dog's teeth and gums healthy and strong, use great tasting Pedigree Dentastix everyday.

surely they would be sued if that was the case ?

star-pants

Are crap dogfood companies sued cuz their dog food is crap?

The first four ingredients : Rice Flour, Wheat Starch, Glycerin, Gelatin.
Lots of companies say 'clinical tests prove' such and such, or 80% say blah, but 80% of what? and how many tests? It's just my opinion, I would have thought they were fine, but as I said, noticed serious plaque build up, and so we stopped with the dentastix, had to get my dogs teeth cleaned by the vet and she's doing great now.

Allgäuerin

we are giving them from tesco because the much cheaper and sugar FREE:D

Paul91

Allgäuerin wrote: »

we are giving them from tesco because the much cheaper and sugar FREE:D

cheaper than aa euro for 7 sticks?

Allgäuerin

well we pay 4 euro something for 28 sticks, and you would pay nearly 10 euros for the pedigree ones;)

Paul91

star-pants wrote: »

Are crap dogfood companies sued cuz their dog food is crap?

The first four ingredients : Rice Flour, Wheat Starch, Glycerin, Gelatin.
Lots of companies say 'clinical tests prove' such and such, or 80% say blah, but 80% of what? and how many tests? It's just my opinion, I would have thought they were fine, but as I said, noticed serious plaque build up, and so we stopped with the dentastix, had to get my dogs teeth cleaned by the vet and she's doing great now.

following from Wiki - non of it seems to bad, will research more later

Rice flour - is a particularly good substitute for wheat flour, which causes irritation in the digestive systems of those who are gluten-intolerant.

Wheat Stach - Much of the carbohydrate fraction of wheat is starch. Wheat starch is an important commercial product of wheat

Glyrecin - In foods and beverages, glycerol serves as a humectant, solvent and sweetener, and may help preserve foods. It is also used as filler in commercially prepared low-fat foods (e.g., cookies), and as a thickening agent in liqueurs. Glycerol and water are used to preserve certain types of leaves. As a sugar substitute, it has approximately 27 calories per teaspoon and is 60 percent as sweet as sucrose. Although it has about the same food energy as table sugar, it does not raise blood sugar levels, nor does it feed the bacteria that form plaques and cause dental cavities. As a food additive, glycerol is labeled as E number E422.

Gelatin - Common examples of foods that contain gelatin are gelatin desserts, trifles, aspic, marshmallows, and confectioneries such as Peeps, gummy bears and jelly babies. Gelatin may be used as a stabilizer, thickener, or texturizer in foods such as jams, yoghurt, cream cheese, and margarine; it is used, as well, in fat-reduced foods to simulate the mouthfeel of fat and to create volume without adding calories.

lorebringer

We give our dogs raw hide chews for their teeth, our vets opinion (and mine also) is that Dentistix are "not worth the packing they come in" (his words, not mine). They did give one of mine the scuts, and bad breath - not that they have fresh, minty breath anyway but it was worse with the Dentistix. I also feed dry food which is best for teeth and gums. As they get older, they will get cleaned when needed by the vet. But for now, I'm sticking with raw hide!

Discodog

star-pants wrote: »

Actually we don't use them anymore, noticed a big build up of plaque on our dogs teeth, our groomer asked us what we were giving them, I mentioned we gave dentastix as a teeth clean thing and he told us they're actually worse, because they've a good bit of sugar in them apparently.

Ok I know that I am coming in as the last of the late posters but I had a totally different experience. I started my two on the Chum dentastix after a recommendation & then changed to the Tescos ones.

My vet was amazed at the improvement in both dogs teeth & I have continued giving them one each every night. The sugar comment is a bit odd as I am looking at the packet & I can't see it mentioned. They appear to be a dog chew with added Vit A, D3 & E plus a touch of copper. The cleansing is achieved by a tiny amount of pumice as with many toothpastes.

Oh & the dogs utterly adore them !.

star-pants

Discodog wrote: »

Ok I know that I am coming in as the last of the late posters but I had a totally different experience. I started my two on the Chum dentastix after a recommendation & then changed to the Tescos ones.

My vet was amazed at the improvement in both dogs teeth & I have continued giving them one each every night. The sugar comment is a bit odd as I am looking at the packet & I can't see it mentioned. They appear to be a dog chew with added Vit A, D3 & E plus a touch of copper. The cleansing is achieved by a tiny amount of pumice as with many toothpastes.

Are you talking about the Pedigree Dentastix or the Tesco ones?
Ingredients for Pedigree ones are:
Rice Flour, Wheat Starch, Glycerin, Gelatin, Gum Arabic, Calcium Carbonate, Natural Poultry Flavor, Powdered Cellulose, Sodium Tripolyphosphate, Salt (Iodized), Potassium Chloride, Vitamins (Choline Chloride, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate [source of Vitamin C], Vitamin A Supplement, Niacin, D-calcium Pantothenate, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin [Vitamin B2], Pyridoxine Hydrochloride [Vitamin B6], Dl-alpha Tocopherol Acetate [source of Vitamin E], Thiamine Mononitrate [Vitamin B1]), Potassium Sorbate (a Preservative), Smoke Flavor, Zinc Sulphate, Green Tea Extract, Turmeric, Iron Oxide, Copper Sulfate.

I just said that they 'apparently' have sugary type content. As after using them my dog had built up a lot on her teeth, so it was my choice to not use them. There have been cases of dentastix causing the runs in dogs too, and my personal choice is to not give them to my dogs.
Funny thing is - if anyone said they were feeding their dogs Pedigree Chum dog food, people would warn them away as they are seen as a 'supermarket brand' - so why the big difference with their other products?

Either way that's grand if your dogs are ok on them - though you do say they're on the Tesco ones now and I've no experience with them - they just don't suit mine.

Whispered

I give raw bones from the butcher, I assume they would do his teeth good? For smaller dogs that night not be possible, but might be worth a try StarPants? Just make sure it's a big one so it wont shatter. If you feel uncomfortable feeding your dog raw meat, you can bake them for a few hours (I'm not sure how exactly).

With Harley, a dentastix or any produced dog treat lasts all of 2 mins. Including pigs ears and other raw hide products. It's funny, when we do give him those pedigree marrowbone treats, he tries to lick the marrow out as he would with a real bone.

Discodog

I use the Tescos ones but I would have a lot of faith in Pedigree. I do not subscribe to the view that Pedigree foods are not as good as other brands. Both mine get what, some would consider the two evils, Pedigree Chum complete with added Bakers Meaty Chunks. My vet in Barna is one of the most professional that I have ever met. On every visit she will give my two a total examination. Last week her words were that they are in "fabulous condition" & I often get asked what I feed them on.

As with human food there is a big trend for specialist diets & suppliers. Vets make a huge income from this. Even Pedigree have joined the bandwagon by introducing "natural" ranges. None of the higher cost producers do it for fun - the profit margins are enormous.

One of the reasons that I posted was that I had never heard or read anything negative about dental sticks. I only started using them after discussing it with friends who had experience. Now if you are certain that the tartar build up can only be from the Denatastix it could be that your dog is reacting in a different way but I would of thought that was unlikely. If the stick deposited enough sugar to cause a build up then the pumice should of removed it.

i would suspect that the sticky content is not sugar as such but gelatin & gum which are used as binding agents. These are the same as in bones & hide type chews. I do think that the effectiveness of dental stick can be influence by the breed of dog & how they chew. My Saluki enjoys hers & will spend a couple of minutes working it around her mouth. My young Greyhound who still has memories of being a starving stray devours hers in 10 seconds but even so they has been a big improvement in her teeth.
I suspect that swallowed lumps of dentastix or hide chew could cause digestive problems.

If there are any good internet sleuths out there I would love to know who makes the Tesco's dental & joint sticks. The Tesco joint sticks have twice as much active ingredient but are one third the price. I have seen a lot of evidence that would make me choose Tesco. The UK consumer association did a big report on vitamins & supplements - Tesco scored highly.

I used to clean my old Boxers teeth with doggy toothpaste & an electric toothbrush. He loved it but god it was messy. Tooth brushing is bound to be better than any stick but in reality the stick is so much easier & therefore more likely to be done every day. But I don't see the sticks as total replacement for brushing because the cannot clean close to the gum line.

I would be wary of any advice - including mine !. There are so many rumours & old wives tails surrounding animals. Brilliant though she is even my vet knows & welcomes the fact that I will always seek other opinions - always a good sign.

star-pants

Thanks Helena - but my mother has issues with raw bones in the house, and I'm a little afraid of giving them some bones, as I had to deal with a friends westie who got a piece of bone lodged in the roof of his mouth, suffice to say it was horrible to try and help him.
We've given them cooked bones before and once they're under supervision it's ok.

Discodog - they weren't getting anything else that could have caused it and had only noticed it after a while of giving them to Lily (the older one). As I said - maybe they just don't work for my dogs - maybe it's how they eat them etc. I was just saying what my groomer had said, and what we'd noticed. Everyone has their own opinion and advice and that's grand
Both my dogs are crazy about food so any 'treats' never last. Raw hide chews have caused both to choke on separate occasions, especially Daisy as she eats too fast and tends to swallow bits of it. So we have to be careful what we give them anyway. I have been looking for something healthy and safe to give them, but it's less easy when they don't take their time.

Discodog

My Saluki is a Lily !

kildara

star-pants wrote: »

We've given them cooked bones before and once they're under supervision it's ok.

Be careful with cooked bones; I always thought they splintered moreso than raw. For example, I know you can feed raw chicken wings to dogs but cooked ones are a big no no.

...Love Lily myself!

star-pants

AFAIK you should never feed dogs chicken bones, they splinter way too easily.
These were rib bones and were soft to them, thus we allowed them to eat them

kildara

Raw chicken wings are fine for dogs.
Only reason I know is that I researched feeding a RAW diet to ours and was very surprised as, like you, I was always under the impression that chicken bones were bad, but apparently not.
Saying that, I would still be apprehensive.

boodlesdoodles

kildara wrote: »

Raw chicken wings are fine for dogs.
Only reason I know is that I researched feeding a RAW diet to ours and was very surprised as, like you, I was always under the impression that chicken bones were bad, but apparently not.
Saying that, I would still be apprehensive.

Raw chicken bones are ok cos they don't splinter its when they are cooked is the problem. I get raw t-bones, obviously the steaks have been cut off, for my Westie and God does he adore them. I don't cook them (as my Vet recommended) and they don't split and you get at least 10 hours of peace out of them over a couple of days. That said, I've taught my dog only to eat bones & pig ears in front of us in the living room. If I give him a bone in the kitchen he'll run to the living room door waiting to be allowed in. I find comfort in this as he nearly choked on a pig's ear when he was younger and now I can make sure he's safe.

star-pants

Aye I think it's best to keep them under supervision with bones - just after seeing mine choke on raw hide and my friends dog with the lodged bone I'm just always afraid.
But it's good to know what you should and shouldn't feed your dog (bone wise) so cheers for peoples experiences