Comments on: Feeding Bones To Dogs Is Linked To Less Dental Disease

By: Dr Gary Beilby

Dr Gary Beilby — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 06:40:39 +0000

Great blog – and well done for trying to do your own valid research on diet. I’ll admit I’ve gone a bit conspiracy nut over “Big pet food”. I feel like we were groomed from the very beginning of vet school to believe commercial foods are the only thing and raw/unprocessed foods are an evil we must protect our pet owners from.
I would love to see more research done on natural diet alternatives.
I’ve been telling my pet owners to feed raw whole chicken pieces or other meaty bones for years.

By: Pauline

Pauline — Mon, 23 Jan 2023 14:40:52 +0000

Thank you for this article. I have a Service Dog Program and it is almost impossible to find good things for our dogs to chew that vets will approve of. I feel we are a don’t do this, don’t do that society but we are not providing people with direction on what to do. i have fed marrow bones for 30 years and have never had dental problems with my dogs. I have to say if there is a problem then possibly it was an underlying condition that eventually would have shown up. Thank you for your study. It’s hard to buck industry…

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 01:29:16 +0000

In reply to Anne. Hi Anne. You can see the full statistical analysis in the linked pdf file, but the short answer is yes, the analysis was rigorous or we would not make such a claim.

By: Anne

Anne — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 01:12:04 +0000

Hi Andrew, interesting results! I have a question about the analysis. Given that you found working dogs have lower incidence of periodontal disease, did you try controlling for dog breed in the statistical analysis? That is, was there also a significant benefit for toy dogs taken separately? It might help to tease out whether some breeds have better teeth because they have been bred for performance above looks, or whether working dogs etc. are more likely to be fed bones by their owners.