# Raw & stinky breath



## Rvent (Apr 15, 2012)

I thought raw was suppose to help with bad breath, Babs & Macy both are raw fed, for about 16 months now, they are both 13 years old and have really bad breath. Macy does have some dental issues, Babs still has some tarter the do get bones (necks and feet nothing really to big) it does not seem to help, neither of them are willing to let me brush their teeth. do you think its just age related and not much will help.


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## Tobi (Mar 18, 2011)

There are many things that contribute to bad breath, such as gut flora, and intestinal health and flora as well, however... Your opinion of what is bad breath could be quite subjective, Tobis breath still has an odor to it, some might call it bad but I call it an improvement :tongue:


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## BearMurphy (Feb 29, 2012)

if they aren't getting any complicated cuts of meat, they are probably not getting too much cleaning action. chicken feet are too small to do much and unless you are feeding large tom turkey necks, other necks aren't going to take long enough to eat.

I try to give murphy something that takes a while to eat at least once a week to keep his teeth clean and i often feed it frozen so it takes longer. maybe find a good teeth cleaning cut that you are comfortable with feeding them...i've used frozen beef trachea/gullet, split skulls, lamb necks, cuts with big bones like pork shoulder, lamb legs.


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

Only time I noticed bad breath on my dogs was when I fed chicken, don't feed that anymore so no more bad breath unless Leo gets in the kitty box to eat poop. LOL I would really examine their teeth and give some good rec. bones for cleaning.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

we feed venison legs for them to gnaw on which cleans their teeth. we feed pork necks, bison necks, lamb necks....complicated eating and their breath is better from it.

lamb shanks work well, too.

we try for bones that are too hard to eat, but not so hard they will break teeth.


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## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

Shadow got a piece of chicken (we think!) stuck in between his teeth last year, and that breath just about killed us. Look in their mouths REALLY good. Sometimes small pieces can be hard to find if that's what it may be. Otherwise, ours breath isn't bad at all. In fact we don't even smell anything unless it's been just after they have eaten.


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