A variety of raw meaty bones (never cooked) and natural chews are an essential part of your pets whole food diet and also great for meeting their primal needs, giving your pets the opportunity to exercise their jaws, mouth, head, neck and body and keep their teeth and gums in good health.
Dogs and cats are designed to gnaw, chew, rip and tear their food.
Chewing on bones releases serotonin (mood stabiliser, well-being) and dopamine (feel good hormone). This will help improve or maintain your pets emotional well-being.
Raw bones provide the perfect ratio of calcium and phosphorus to keep your pets bones healthy. As well as chondroitin and glucosamine which are essential for joint health.
A diet of raw meat, bone and organs supports strong stomach acid to digest all the foods that our pets digestive systems were designed to digest.
Because of this, I don’t recommend raw bones for pets exclusivley fed processed diets, such as dried kibble or any other high carb/starch pet foods.
This is because their digestive system won’t have the strong stomach acid/low ph to blitz through the raw bones.
Instead you can try dehydrated or freeze dried chews such as beef tracheas, beef pizzles/bully sticks, dehydrated lamb ears, venison ears, shark skin chews, roo jerky, roo tendons, chicken necks plus many more single ingredient natural chews.
New to the natural chews scene are lamb and goat ears with fur on that are also another option for some dogs.
I offer my dogs, Gus & Mindy, a variety of raw bones and dehydrated chews. Gus is a guts and will chew through pretty much anything I offer him. Mindy has a smaller jaw and teeth, I find she has more trouble chewing through hard chews such as large venison ears and beef trachea, however she loves raw bones, roo jerky and tendons and many other natural chews.
I don’t recommend ‘dental sticks’ as these contain ingredients that don’t align with whole food/natural diet for your pets.
I also don’t recommend ‘raw hide’ as these are a by-product of the leather industry. Chemicals are used to turn these left overs into a toxic pet chew that is also difficult for your dog to digest properly.
Use your discretion with dehydrated/air dried bones as these can be inconsistent with the way they’ve been dehydrated, varying temperatures and time spent in the dehydrator/oven.
Which means if they’re dehydrated at a higher heat this can make the bones more likely to splinter, harder to digest and possibly too hard to chew.
Also antlers were a common request, when I had my store Wholefood Pet Market, however I didn't stock these due to seeing many vets comment dogs were presenting with tooth fractures.
You know your pet best, but it’s good to be aware of these things.
We recommend non weight bearing raw bones to avoid tooth fractures. Choose the right size bones and chews for the size of your dog or cat.
Some examples of raw meaty bones depending on the size of your dog or cat:
Chicken, duck or turkey - feet, necks or wings, lamb necks or ribs, beef bones non weight bearing pieces, roo ribs or tails, plus many other options available from independent pet stores and butchers.
For maximum enjoyment ensure your pet is calm and not rushed or overly excited when you give them a raw bone or chew.
Always supervise covertly from a distance.
There are many independent pet businesses with online and instore options to source your natural chews. Generally fresh bones are best purchased in store.
More in depth reading from a holistic vet can be found in this link.
Or search the internet for Dr Peter Dobias dental