I’m gonna do it again. How about I start out by telling you what it’s not?
MOST toothpastes made for pets have four different kinds of sugar in them. The manufacturer tells you that it’s “poultry flavored” or some kind of junk like that. But let’s look at the ingredients.
Glucose Oxidase, Lactoperoxidase, Sorbitol, Purified Water, Dicalcium Phosphate Anhydrous, Hydrated Silica, Glycerine, Poultry Digest, Dextrose, Xanthan Gum, Titanium Dioxide, Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Thiocyanate.
Did you catch all four of them? Glucose, sorbitol, glycerin, dextrose.
And to top it all off… in order to get that poultry flavor, you sure you wanna be feeding poultry digest? This is not made from happy healthy chickens. To put it bluntly, these are the chickens that died about two weeks ago, got thrown into a dumpster and were exposed to the elements, the cockroaches, the flies and the rodents, and then were sent to the rendering factory to “render“ them safe. It’s the rotten dead animals that we don’t use for people food, but that’s what we’re going to use to make toothpaste for our pets??
Sorry, but that is GROSS!
In the malt flavored tooth paste… the gross poultry digest is replaced with barley malt syrup. That’s sugar number 5! Syrup. Yup. In toothpaste.
There are some toothpaste or DIY recipes that include baking soda. I’m a bit hesitant to recommend baking soda mostly because dogs don’t rinse and spit. Instead, they swallow whatever it is we put in their mouth. And the problem with baking soda in the toothpaste is that puts baking soda in the stomach, which cancels out the beautiful acid making ability of the stomach. The stomach must have acid in it for dogs and cats to digest their food. I’ve even been told of some correlation between baking soda and increased urinary tract infections, especially in cats. Think cat litter “freshened“ with baking soda.
We have been cautioned against using human toothpastes. I actually kind of partly agree with this. I don’t wanna put fluoride in my dog’s mouth, more than I want it in mine. Again, they will swallow the toothpaste. I don’t want them eating fluoride. The fluoride free toothpastes use xylitol. As you know, xylitol kills dogs. And I don’t know that dogs appreciate that zingy minty taste.
So that’s what a good toothpaste isn’t.
And what are we looking for? We are looking to disturb the plaque off the teeth before it builds up and turns into tartar. That’s why we humans brush twice a day. And yes, we use something gritty. But we don’t have to. There are some toothpastes that do not have grit.
A lot of tooth cleaning action is simply the stimulation of the gums and “vibration” due to moving toothbrush on the tooth.
So how about we do what is safe? How about coconut oil?
Also, a toothbrush is nice. But if your pet is a little silly about the whole toothbrush thing in their mouth, how about a piece of gauze on your finger?
Coconut oil has mild antibacterial properties.
So does hemp oil. Hemp oil would be a suitable tooth cleaning choice as well.
And finally, there is a human Ayurvedic toothpaste, Auromere. It has a little bit of grit. As of this date, there is nothing dangerous for dogs in the Ayurvedic toothpaste. It does have a little bit of glycerin in it, but it doesn’t have four other kinds of sugars!
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Oh and by the way… kudos to you if you’re brushing your pets teeth, especially on a daily basis.
Still seeing patients in Tampa, Clearwater, and virtually.
