How do I keep my young pets teeth healthy?

Martha

Firstly, get your puppy or kitten used to having their mouth and teeth handled from a young age. The next step is that you can then get them used to having their teeth brushed. Use toothpaste formulated specially for dogs or cats,not human toothpaste. We use a fish flavoured one for cats and a chicken flavoured one for dogs. Kits are available with instructions. Ask a nurse or vet to demonstrate brushing.

Secondly, encourage the use of chews for dogs. These may be rawhide chews, Dentstix, Nylabones or pigs ears for instance.  These all help clean a dogs teeth 'naturally'.

For cats and dogs, encourage feeding on dental cleaning biscuits-we use Hills Oral Care biscuits for dogs and cats, although there is an even more effective version called Hills T/d that we recommend for many dogs and cats.

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