Bad Breath w/ raw food

[LucyBrind]

I'm just wondering if anyone else feeding raw has a puppy with bad breath? When we first started w/ raw, she was fine but latley her breath is really bad. She is now 19mo. We feed mostly pre-packaged raw from the butcher. We've been trying to give her more bones to help clean her teeth, but she just burries them in the backyard.
Just looking for any comments or suggestions. Thanks.

 

[Checkers]

Maybe you could try feeding her things like beef and pork ribs. They give a really good teeth clean and she can consume them so there is nothing to bury

 

[gmacleod]

Are you feeding her the sorts of raw bones that she can crunch right through and consume? That is what is needed for teeth cleaning If not, then the options are either to include some of those in her diet (small ribs are a good choice) or else brush her teeth.

Another question - since you're doing a pre-made food... are there vegetables in that mix? I ask because I have come across a number of cases with pre-made raw with vegetables (actually, usually the Nature's Variety brand) that the dog develops foul breath. Upon switching to a vegetable-less raw, the bad breath disappears. It is too many cases to be coincidental - but since ditching the vegetables has also required changing brands (since NV doesn't do veggie-less raw), I cannot say with absolute certainly which, if any, of the vegetables was the cause.

 

[LucyBrind]

Thank you for your suggestions. We'll try no veggies in her food and smaller consumable bones. I'm not sure how brushing her teeth would go but we could do our best to give it a shot, I think it would take both of us, she doesn't even like us looking at her teeth when we try to open her mouth she closes it tight and pushes her tongue through her teeth so you can't see them. Thanks again.