If you’re a distributor within the dog health and wellness space, you already know that the category is rapidly expanding. Retailers are catching onto the fact that consumers want a higher-quality product for their dogs.
They want their friends to be healthier and live longer.
One thing has become abundantly clear: pet owners want to know and understand what they’re putting into their dogs’ bodies. Consumers just aren’t buying products with dozens upon dozens of ingredients anymore, and retailers and distributors alike are doing their best to keep up.
Taking care of a dog’s teeth and gums has become a large piece of this focus on overall well-being, and people are looking for the treats and tools they need to keep their dogs’ breath fresh and their teeth free of plaque buildup.
However, when it comes to the ever-growing category of dog dental health bones, there are plenty of factors to consider when determining whether a bone is truly high-quality and “good” for a dog.
From the ingredients to the design and shape of the bone, it’s critical to know what to look for so that you can ensure stores across the country have the best bones for dogs stocked on shelves.
At Indigenous Pet Products, it’s our mission and passion to provide the best, science-backed dog dental health bones. To do this, we’ve become intimately familiar with the space, and what is and is not considered a high-quality dog bone.
In this article, we’ll be outlining what makes a high-quality dog dental health bone, as well as the ingredients that matter most. By the end of the article, you’ll have a clear understanding of what ingredients make up the best dental health bones, and why they matter.
What Makes a High-Quality Dog Dental Health Bone?
A truly well-made dog dental health bone has two key things working together for the good of a dog’s teeth:
- Functionality
- Ingredients
Functionality:
When it comes to functionality, this most often means the inclusion of ridges along the bone. There is a common misconception that dry dog food alone will keep a dog’s teeth clean, but that is not the case. Food alone cannot be counted on to clean a dog’s teeth.
Instead, a ridged dental health bone works to remove plaque on teeth and can help prevent gingivitis. Ridges need to be present on the bone in order to clean the dog’s teeth, which is why dry dog food will not keep them clean: these small kernels have no ridges.
Most major brands (Greenie’s, Whimzees, Merrick’s, and Indigenous Pet Products) have incorporated these into their designs.
Some of the other players in the mass market space get a little bit blurred when it comes to quality. In the past, many of them were playing a price game: they could buy their place on shelves regardless of what was inside their product. Now, however, everything is more regulated, and ingredients matter much more.
Ingredients:
When a consumer is reading an ingredients label, if they know what an ingredient is, they are already doing better than most. A good rule of thumb is that if a consumer doesn’t know what something is, or would not eat it themselves, chances are they shouldn’t be giving it to their dog either.
Common, healthy ingredients for dog dental health bones include:
- Kelp meal
- Salmon oil
- Potato starch
- Leptin
- Calcium carbonate
- Inulin
- Parsley (for fresh breath)
- No artificial coloring (fruit juice, tumeric, etc.)
- Among others
Additionally, less is always more when it comes to ingredients. The ideal number of ingredients in a dental dog bone is eight or fewer to be considered healthy, though many of the key players in the space have not achieved this number yet.
At Indigenous Pet Products, we are down to about 12-15 ingredients per product and continually working on bringing that number down. Whimzees are down to about ten ingredients, and Greenie’s have about fourteen.
Anything over twenty ingredients means that the brand is most likely adding in preservatives, which are not good for dogs. These preservatives build up inside the dog over time and don’t always pass. Indigenous Pet Products contain Inulin for this reason: it is a digestive aid that helps the dog process and digest food effectively.
Summary
At the end of the day, the more a consumer knows about what’s going into their dog, the better off they will be. If they can’t understand an ingredient statement, chances are, they should not be giving it to their pet.
The key things to look for in a high-quality dental dog bone are a ridged design and healthy ingredients.
These ingredients include:
- Kelp meal
- Salmon oil
- Potato starch
- Leptin
- Calcium carbonate
- Inulin
- Parsley (for fresh breath)
- No artificial coloring (fruit juice, tumeric, etc.)
- Among others
Ready to bring Indigenous Pet dental health bones to a pet store near you? Fill out our Distributor Application today to get started!
