What is the Most Affordable Daily Dental Treat?

I recently posted about Bright Bites daily dental treats, which had me pondering the actual cost of feeding dental treats every day. Little things like that really add up! I love collecting data, so I took a tour of the major online retailers to see how much, or how little, it would cost to feed my dogs a daily dental treat every day.

The Criteria

Photo by Erin Koski

For the purpose of comparison, I chose to include only products that were both marketed and packaged for daily use. Though I can find many individually-wrapped dental treats at my local pet stores, I only included those that could also be purchased in a larger quantity. Few people are going to buy 30 individually-wrapped Bright Bites for the month, but plenty will buy four bags of 8. A company that sells a bunch of dental chews in one bag is definitely taking that "daily dental care" thing seriously.

I also chose to specifically compare products intended for a size range that included both of my girls. So most of these are labeled for medium or regular-sized dogs. Sisci Godzilla weighs 28 pounds, and Zip weighs 36 pounds.

The Results

Cheap

The absolute cheapest dental chew marketed for daily use is Dingo Dental Sticks, at 17-cents each if you buy the bag of 48 sticks on Amazon. The next cheapest is Purina's DentaLife treats at 23-cents each if you buy the package of 40, followed by Pedigree DentaStix, Purina Beneful Healthy Smile Dental Twists, and Milkbone Brushing Chews, ranging from $0.33 to $0.41 per chew. Yes, these are all grocery-store brands, mostly made from by-products. I expected them to all be made in China, but surprisingly all but the Dingo treats are made in the USA.

Standard

Greenies makes the classic daily dental chew, before them I don't remember anything being marketed for daily use like that. Their price point is right in the middle of the pack at $0.81 per regular-sized chew in a package of 36. Bright Bites were slightly more expensive at #1 per chew, along with KaNoodles and Ilio TeethTreats.

Absurd

Every time I see Cloud Star's Dynamo Dog dental chews I am horrified by the price. In the largest package sold, these things will set you back a whopping $2.31 per bone. Yes, they are grain-free and potato-free, but they would also cost $70 per month to feed on a daily basis. Yikes!

Surprise!

Pretty much all of the dental treats (with one freakishly expensive exception) are made from wheat, rice, potato, rawhide, or a combination of these. Many of the more affordable ones are made with chicken by-products as well. I decided beforehand that my personal standards for a dental chew product was that it had to be made in the USA without by-products. I expected the least expensive daily dental chew that met these standards to be somewhere in the middle of the price range. 

Nope! It's Pedigree DentaStix, the third from the bottom at $0.33 per chew. Made in the USA. No by-products. Crazy.

I was also very surprised to see Missing Link's Once Daily dental chew towards the cheap end of the spectrum. This product also contains a daily dose of Missing Link's skin and coat supplement, and somehow it's only $0.52 per chew. I had dismissed the idea of daily dental chews as being too expensive, but it looks like they can be surprisingly affordable!

Treat Tuesday: Bright Bites Daily Dental Treats

Bright Bites are star-shaped dental treats that are fully digestible. They are usually sold in large bags, but one of my local pet stores also carries individually-wrapped bites. The treats come in cinnamon, spearmint, and peppermint flavors.

Good For:

• Giving the dogs something to gnaw for several minutes
• Making their breath minty fresh
• Possibly reducing plaque and tarter if your dog takes their time and chews very thoroughly

Not Good For:

• Being an affordable daily treat
• A substitute for professional dental care

How Much We Like Them

The girls thoroughly enjoy chewing these things. However, the fun little stars cost $1 each when purchased in a big bag, and the manufacturer recommends your dog gets two of them each day. That's $60 a month in dental treats. How much are Greenies? I think I need to do a daily dental treat research project...

Treat Tuesday: Kong Proactive Care Rawhide

This Kong Proactive Care Knotted Bone appears to be a slightly expensive regular rawhide bone. This is yet another licensed Kong-brand product that is not actually made by the Kong Company. The actual company behind it is Jakks Pacific, purveyors of kinda cheap dog and kid stuff. The packaging says it contains a patent protected bio-available form of Vitamin C. The actual ingredients are rawhide, Lactoferrine, Lisozyme, and L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate. That last one is Vitamin C. I had to look up the others.

Lactoferrin is a protein found in various mammalian secretions, milk seems to have the most. The protein has antimicrobial properties, and it has been clinically proven to improve oral health when used topically. This is definitely a good thing to use on a rawhide chew, but they've spelled it 'Lactoferrine' with an 'e' on the end which is throwing me off a bit. I've only found this spelling on ingredients lists, and I currently believe it to be a misspelling of Lactoferrin and not a sneaky way of making us all think it's got that in there.

"Lisozyme" is hopefully another funky misspelling, because Lysozyme is an enzyme present in saliva and various other things including egg whites. Its antibacterial properties were discovered by Alexander Fleming, the same guy that discovered penicillin. Lysozyme has shown antibacterial properties, so it is often included in human mouthwashes and products for dry mouths. This is also something that make sense to put on a rawhide chew.

I'm still not totally sure why they chose to advertise this bone as having Vitamin C, because I can't find compelling evidence that it does anything for healthy dogs on quality diets. Looks like it's just the generic "boosts the immune system!" claim.

One their website, Jakks Pacific claims that Kong rawhides are made in the USA. However, the package for this one says "Made in Mexico from U.S. beef hides." As the USA is the primary supplier of beef hide for the entire planet, even rawhides from China are usually made from USA beef hide. Not impressed. Not at all. Sisci isn't terribly impressed either, she usually gets to work on rawhides chews right away, and all she's done with this one is carry it around a bit.