Took Freddie to the vets for booster this week. Asked vet to check his teeth as i think they are a bit yellow for his age. She looked and agreed with me that they are. So....being fed on kibble, using raw bones, chicken wings, eggs, rawhides/pigears & no c**p has made little difference :-) She has recommended a change in food and/or to brush teeth daily. Other than that she said theres not a lot she can recommend as im not feeding him rubbish or wet food or anything that she could pinpoint to causing it.
Would really appreciate if anyone else has anything to contribute. Dont want my little boy having awful breath (which will happen inevitably) or to suffer with bad teeth.
Thanks.

I have found certain dog foods cause really bad teeth really quickly with my dogs.  For example, when I got my first Bedlington I fed her at first on Pedigree puppy complete (didn't know any different and hadn't done any research at that point), when her adult teeth came through, by 6 months her teeth were not only yellow and tartar'ed but I could have scraped it off there was so much - she hadn't even finished getting all her teeth through! and the oldest ones were only 2 months at most!  I was also giving her bones to chew as it kept her attention off the furniture ;)  So I changed to Burns and within 4 weeks her teeth were sparkling, I did no brushing in between but did keep up with the bones - wild dogs don't brush their teeth ;)     In the last year I found that Burns was keeping them too skinny so I've had to find another food that suits them and their teeth ;) 

It's trial and error I'm afraid, what suits one dog doesn't suit every dog, but there must be one out there that will help, it's just finding it ;)

I know what you mean about the bad breath and teeth, I know quite a few dogs whose breath makes me gag and their owners think it's normal

Hi FredsMum, Polo's got some staining too. Do you live in an area with hard water? The area we just moved from has hard water and causes lots of limescale on kettles, dishwashers etc as well as staining Polo and my teeth .I showed the vet at his checkup yesterday but she thought Polo's teeth were fine,   I have noticed a difference since moving. So if Fred drinks tap water watch out for that, and try and get some distilled water maybe. Just a suggestion. 

For years my dogs have been fed on whatever food I am using at the time, and some have perfect white clean teeth and others have stained and one has teeth that collect plac in a moment of inattention. Large bones and knobbly chews seem to help most dogs but the one with the really dirty teeth it seems to make no difference. Reckon it depends on the quality of the enamel and if it is smooth or pitted. No doubt could be traced back to the dams diet or medication just before and during her whelp.

Hi I have 2 toy poodles aged 3and a half and the other almost 2 as I have had poodles before who have had bad teeth, I started brushing my two current poodles teeth every evening before bed. I started this when they got all their adult teeth and so far their teeth are fine in fact the vet has commented on how clean the older ones teeth are. I use a baby toothbrush and dog toothpaste on each of them and they don't seem to mind as they are so used to it. They are fed mainly on Nature menu pouches but also have Royal canin mini Sensible dry food as well, I feed the pouches because they won't eat sufficient of the dry food.

Unfortunately, some breeds have a tendency to excessive tartar build up - poodles are one of those breeds. 

One of my dogs is in for a dental cleaning today. :-(   I am going to have to do better in terms of brushing their teeth. 

I had my vet check my dogs teeth and i mentioned the small amount of plaque on his teeth. I said that i am giving him large bones to chew on, moving onto raw food and brushing his teeth weekly.
He said not to scrape the plaque off myself as this leaves a harsh surface and the plaque will go back on even quicker.

He said that the only way to get rid of any of it is to get the vetinary nurse to remove it then polish them down.
He said that i was doing everything right and there was nothing else that could be done.

Some dogs will be prone to having more than others for no apparent reason.

I have noticed though that really cheap complete foods seems to increase their chances of having plaque, as seen on my fathers dog.

Well thanks so far. Fred is fed Oscars complete due to his food intolerances but i will do some research to find a food that is good for teeth & also wont upset his tum. Polo: Yes i do give tap water. What about if i put down filtered water for him (i.e. brita filtered, not bottled water) would that help?
I do agree that dogs in the wild dont have thier teeth brushed and the vet said she has never recommended it before but im running out of options really. I do everything i should so if needs be i will brush his teeth. I used to do them when he was a puppy just to get him used to having his mouth touched so i have no worries that h will be ok with it, but i would prefer another option really :-)
Cheers guys.

Our Pomeranian's are terrible for it and I feel so awful but they are not fed a terrible food and they do have pigs ears, bones etc, but the plaque buildup on them is disgusting.  I feed my Spanish the exact same food etc. and their teeth are whiter than white.  My almost 15 year still has her teeth and they are lovely and white although have been worn down a bit over the years.

I think it would help, now I've moved I just give Polo tap water and it seems fine- I'm certain the water was affecting his teeth as his breeders dogs have sparkling teeth and are fed simirlarly (and I've had to brush my teeth less since moving :-)). It's worth a try anyhow. :-)

Cheers guys,
Well as frm tonight i will use the filtered water and research new food. Want to see if that makes any difference before i resort to teeth brushing.
Does anyone use any special denti care food? Apparently you can get kibble that is crunchier and shaped better to "brush" the teeth. I have no idea as never needed to use this before. Any ideas? Good makes/price/flavour etc etc.
Ta.x.

Laughing Dog is irregularly shaped and quite hard. I don't know that it claims any special tooth cleaning properties but it's a 'chew it' type of food. It's baked instead of extruded; think overcooked liver cake broken into pieces.

I once saw a posting on another board which reckoned the homeopathic remedy Fragaria 6x was wonderful for keeping dogs' teeth free of plaque.  The person posting said not to touch the tablets but to crush them in a piece of paper and tip the contents into the dog's mouth between meals.  She gave 2 tablets the first day and then one each day for a month.  Might be worth a try. :)

Are you feeding Kibble in addition to the bones/chicken wings etc? (that is the impression I got from your post)

If so, would you consider changing to totalyul raw/raw meaty bones/BARF and no kibble? The one thing that made me change my girl from complete was her teeth. I thought she looked amazing, and everyone said she looked really, really good. But her teeth were a quite covered in plaque, and brushing didn't help. She had raw bones twice a week and the odd chicken wing. She also had disgustingly stinking breath! :-)

I changed her (and the others) over to completely being raw fed and her teeth are sparkling and her breath smells quite pleasant now! (unless she's just finished eating, in which case it smells like a butchers shop! LOL)

My vet told me that kibble was good for her teeth as it was crunchy, but she never actually crunched it! I just think thye see so many kibble fed dogs, they thinkt hat a dog having to have their teeth manually cleaned (often with ageneral and expensive) is the norm.

I don't think filtered water is a good idea for dogs (and to be honest, I'm against it for us too) because it contains too much sodium.  Tap water (especially in hard water areas) is very good for our hearts!

It's softened water that contains the sodium, Debussy, not filtered water.

My former Mother in law had a water softener installed and my dog wouldn't touch it, fortunately when they install these you have to retain at least one standard tap so I was able to get him water from the outside tap.

Ian

Apparently the kitchen tap should always be unaffected, so that the softened water isn't used for drinking, by adults, children or animals.

My bitch has teeth that tartar up really fast, and my dog does not! I was at my wits end with my girls teeth, but now I have the answer.............I give her "plaque off" supplement in her food regularly to soften the plaque, and give her marrowbones to munch. All the plaque came off in a short time. I tried using the bones without the "plaque off" and it wasnt effective on her. I find it much more effective than tooth brushing :-)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Proden-PlaqueOff-Dog-Cat-Plaque-Off-Teeth-Tartar-60g_W0QQitemZ350067187823QQihZ022QQcategoryZ20750QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem