HILL'S PRESCRIPTION DIETt/d Dental Care Chicken Flavor Dry Dog Food, Veterinary Diet, 5 lb. Bag

UPDATE (1/17/2024): Things are a little better for me financially now (sadly, because I'm now down to one dog. At least Winston had a good long life. . . .)First, Momo (the Chiweenie) loves the big kibbles, and she's only thirteen pounds. It could be because she first met them as treats that two other dogs were gobbling down and she is in fact a very mighty chewer (I have to get her dental treats in the next size up). I hear the folks saying their small dogs don't like them, but Momo is a small dog, too, and she is thrilled to be getting them as her regular diet.Second, I did a little recordkeeping and discovered that a pound of the big kibbles is about a hundred individual pieces, give or take three or four. The bag Momo recently finished had 517 kibbles (although toward the end I was combining much smaller kibbles to approximate the size of the average kibble). Just to help folks approximate how much food they need to buy if feeding by the kibble rather than the cup.My comments on the expense still hold. It's just that now that Momo is an only dog (as she has always wanted to be), I have more cash just for her. I have also discovered how expensive prescription diets are (Winston was on the kidney function diet toward the end)! I just wouldn't think a dental diet would be quite as expensive as a kidney one.ORIGINAL: I did try to feed it to my dog as her regular diet. She loved it, her teeth cleaned up; her breath didn't smell like anything at all. But at $6–7/lb . . . I try to not buy food that expensive for me!I do feed this as a treat when I can afford a bag, and all three of my dogs love it, although the other two's dental issues are less severe than the little one's. I cannot buy it at my vet's because it's too expensive to go that often (cab, $30 round trip), and if the vet ships it, the price is about the same.The food is great, it works brilliantly, the dogs love it, but there's no way I can keep feeding it, even as treats, with any kind of consistency. It's just too expensive.

We have a Sheepadoodle and I had not realized that poodles are prone to periodontal disease - more so than most breeds. We NEVER give our dog anything but dry dog foods and dry treats but by time she was 3 years old she started developing tartar build up and bad breath. Fortunately my vet explained to me that small hard kibbles don't work to clean a dog's teeth the way these very large pieces of dog food do. These are large enough so the dog really needs to take the time and effort to chew them up. I saw an improvement over just a few days regarding the tartar build-up on her teeth! We are waiting for COVID quarantine to end before getting her teeth professionally cleaned for the first time as they still have build up around the gum line of course, but I am confident they will stay clean for a long time if we continue this food as part of her regular diet. HOWEVER...I do have two complaints about ALL of the dental care food products on the market. The ingredients are not as high quality as they could be, especially for the price you have to pay. And that leads to my second complaint - why are they all so outrageously priced? We buy our dog top of the line foods (limited ingredient $75/25lb range) and this food a double that with lower quality ingredients. What you are really paying for is the large kibble and that seems a bit ridiculous. Yet I gave it a 5 star rating because my purpose for buying it was to improve her dental status and it worked incredibly well. Because of the ingredients not being overly impressive, we do combine a 5lb bag of this food with a 25lb bag of regular kibble, higher quality food. We have also switched to giving her one of these kibbles as her regular treat (every time she comes in from outside...so 3-4/day). We are very impressed with the improvement in tartar build-up - went from being approximately 1/3 of the tooth, to just having tartar stains along the lower gumline. Should add that our dog LOVES this food. She does pick it out from the regular kibble food and looks at me for more. Like most humans, the sweeter higher carb food tastes more appealing than the high protein food! LOL But...we don't give her more large kibble food until she finishes what is in her bowl (usually later on in the day).

Vet recommended giving our pets 9 of these a day to clean and to keep clean their teeth. Over several months it took away about 75% of the brown tartar on our oldest dog, Miss Molly. They are not her favorite part of her meal. She would leave them in her bowl when we first started, until she realized she would not get anything else until she ate them. After that, she eats them with her favorite kibbles.We started giving them to our newest edition who was 1-1/2 yrs when we got her. Miss Luna had pearly whites then, and at age three they are still perfect! They are not cheap, but not bad for a supplement to their regular food. They obviously worked on Molly--her teeth were VERY heavily stained. I have no doubt Luna's teeth will look great as she ages.

Our Australian Shepard had the worst breath. Hills / td was recommended to me and I ordered it that day. On day 3 the bad breath was gone! I give her two bites twice a day. This gets a 10 from me.

Nothing cleans like brushing the teeth but this stuff does seem to help remove about 90% of the tartar. Where the dog chews determines what gets left, if he doesn't use certain teeth in munching this stuff it won't clean them.. Still better than nothing.

My cocker spaniel is such a picky eater that buying treats I often end up giving them away.I was shocked when he tried these at a friends house and ate it.Twice I have paid to have pups deep cleaned which means he needs bloodwork, anesthesia, and lots of money. This is a good size nugget which has him chewing a bit more than his other treats. His breath smells great and I'm hopeful at his next exam there will be no need for deep teeth cleaning.

Use the pieces as a treat

have a senior pet that doesn't enjoy brushing anymore so i give these as treat to help with keeping teeth clean. he loves the taste as well.