Dentalife Dental Oral Care Dog Chicken

A dental chew only works as a habit. One a day, every day, for as long as the dog has teeth — which is why the thing that decides whether it does any good is not the shape of the stick but whether you are still giving it in March.

These are soft and spongy rather than hard, which is the design decision behind them: Purina's claim is that the texture flexes around the tooth and reaches the parts a rigid chew skates over, and that one a day helps reduce plaque and tartar build-up and supports gum health. The composition is cereals, glycerol, minerals, yeasts, meat and animal derivatives at 1.1% chicken, and oils and fats. The published analysis is protein around 7.0%, fat content around 2.5%, crude fibre 1.2%, crude ash 5.0%, calcium 0.9% and moisture 14.5%. The sticks come in two sizes: Purina's feeding guide is one stick a day for a dog from 25kg to 40kg on the larger, and one a day for a dog from 12kg to 25kg on the smaller.

• Soft, spongy daily dental stick
• Cereals, glycerol, minerals, yeasts, meat and animal derivatives (1.1% chicken), oils and fats
• Protein around 7.0%, fat content around 2.5%, crude ash 5.0%, moisture 14.5%
• Calcium 0.9%, crude fibre 1.2%
• One stick a day, sized 12kg to 25kg or 25kg to 40kg
• Complementary treat, not a meal

Chicken is 1.1% of the stick. It is in the product name and it is the sixth thing in the composition, sitting inside meat and animal derivatives, behind cereals, glycerol, minerals and yeasts. That is normal for a soft dental stick and it is still worth knowing, because chicken on the front of a pack reasonably reads as a meat treat and this is a cereal and glycerol chew carrying a little chicken flavour. It is not suitable for a dog on a strict chicken-free exclusion diet, small though 1.1% is. One more oddity: two slightly different analytical panels are published for it — protein 7.1% in one and 7.0% in the other, crude ash 4.3% against 5.0% — so read all of those figures as approximate. Purina's own instruction is to supervise your dog while they have it, and to keep water available.

Who it's for: owners who have been told at a check-up to do something about their dog's teeth and want a once-a-day routine that does not involve a toothbrush and a fight.