A Bloody Disappointment (Tesco Dental Bones)

Member Name: FourPaws

Product:	Tesco Dental Bones
Date:	18/06/09 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cleans teeth & freshens breath, resonable price

Disadvantages: They made my dogs gums bleed

*What are Tesco Dental Bones?*
These dog treats are part of the pet care range from the supermarket giant Tesco. The extensive range which includes dry food, canned products, biscuits and treats caters for most domestic kept pets such as dogs, cats, puppies, kittens, small animals and fish.

*The product itself*
There are a couple of things regarding my dogs that I am rather obsessive about- firstly, is worrying about them overheating and suffering heatstroke in warm weather, and the other thing is their dental care regime. My last dog had awful teeth, she was a rescue girl and had been badly neglected by her previous owner and one of the results of this as she grew older was how her teeth declined- they were terrible, causing her a lot of pain and eventually she did have to have a few removed.

So for this reason, I am rather obsessed with making sure my current two dogs teeth are kept in the best possible condition. Grace is still very young, only 20 months old, so she still has excellent teeth- snow white with little or no plaque. Benson on the other hand, is around 4 years old now so his teeth are starting to decline a little bit- he has some plaque, especially on his back teeth and they are generally just starting to go down hill a little bit, which is pretty much avoidable in older dogs.

I never went down the route of brushing their teeth with a brush and paste, instead I choose to use various different products such as dental treats and oral care gels which will hopefully all work together in helping to keep Grace and Bensons gnashes as clean, strong and healthy as possible!

I like to make sure they get at least one treat everyday aimed specifically towards helping with dental care so because of this, I am always on the look out for different brands in a bid to prevent them getting bored. In Tesco recently, I came across their own brand Dental Bones, and picked a packet up for the mutts.

The treats are hard, bone shaped treats that have been designed in a couple of different ways to aid dental care. Firstly, is the texture of them- the strong, tough bone requires considerable chewing from the dog in order for them to be able to break a piece off- the bone shaped design of the treats also targets back teeth in particular, which is the area where plaque is most prone to forming. As the dog chews the treat, the rounded ends of the bone will rub against the back teeth, helping to gently scrub away plaque and tartar, whilst at the same time being gentle on gums.

As well as being good for the teeth, the bones also have the added benefit of being fortified with vitamins and minerals to help with general overall wellbeing and they have breath freshening properties too. As the dog chews the bone, the dogs salvia will activate the fresh minty scent of the bone, helping to neutralize bad breath odours and freshen your pets mouth.

*Packaging*
The treats come packaged in easy to spot clean and fresh looking white and blue plastic packets which inform us of the product name and we are given a little bit of information such as how the product works to help keep teeth clean and healthy. On the reverse of the packet, as you would expect, there is all the usual information you'd expect to find such as ingredients, nutritional information, feeding guides and of course, contact details for Tesco.

*Price & Availability*
Being an own brand product, these treats are obviously only available from Tesco and can be purchased either online from their website with the rest of your online shopping order or from Tesco stores.

The treats are sold in a 130g packet, which is 2 bones, and will cost you £1.04.

*My opinion*
I very rarely venture into Tesco, so recently, on a quick visit to pick up some lunch for myself and my fiancé, I decided to have a little look at what dog treats they had to offer aswell, as little something for Grace and Benson to enjoy when they had settled down for the evening later that night.

Browsing the shelves, I was met with all the usual brands such as Pedigree and the
like but soon came across Tesco's own brand. Having a quick glance through the various different packets for sale, it was these Dental Bones I settled on. I was initially attracted to the clean, professional looking packaging but was then won over by the fact they were a treat specially designed to help with dental care, which is always a bonus so that sealed the deal for me. I purchased a packet and later than evening the terrible twosome got to sample them.

The bones were pretty much how I had expected them- off white in colour with a very slight green tinge to them and they were rock solid- running my finger over the surface of them, they did feel quite smooth but you could clearly see small rougher looking pieces within the bone, which are obviously the particles designed to help with scraping the teeth clean. They had no scent to them, they smelt very bland and plain, so I was unsure whether they would live up to their claims of helping to freshen breathe, but of course, only time would tell, so I handed Grace and Benson a bone each.

I like the fact these treats come in a packet of two to be honest, as it means one each for each of the dogs and no odd one left rattling around the packet and then me having to decide at a later date which dog gets it! I was also very impressed by the price- a packet of the dogs usual Pedigree DentaRasks costs a rather expensive £1.89 but these Tesco ones can be purchased for a much more reasonable £1.04. Comparing the two brands, there isn't much difference at all between them, the Tesco Dental Bones are perhaps a little bit smaller than the Pedigree ones, but that really isn't a problem.

Grace and Benson seemed unable to tell the difference too. They absolutely adore the Pedigree DentaRasks and will get really excited when they see the packet come out but they were enjoying these Tesco ones with just as much enthusiasm. The pair of them were laid down the hall with them, holding the bones upright in their front paws and giving them a right good chew. They were using mainly their back teeth, which pleased me as this is where Benson's most problematic teeth are and they really seemed to be having quite a tough job chewing pieces off. This is quite impressive considering the strength and size of my dogs, and their bones lasted them about 15 minutes each, so more than double the time their usual Pedigree ones last them.
After they'd finished, I called them over to have a quick look inside their mouths- I'm not quite sure why, as I was hardly expecting them to be some miracle cure which removed all Bensons plaque after just one treat, but I did it regardless and was quite horrified to see that both the dogs gums were bleeding. They don't have any gum diseases or problems and have never experienced this before, and seeing as these Dental Bones were the only thing they had eaten for some time, I was confident it was these that caused it.

Admittedly, there wasn't much bleeding, just small traces of blood around the top of their back teeth but even so, I have to say it has put me off buying them again for the dogs. The fact they are so solid and hard to chew is obviously a good thing in term of dental benefits, as they must really be giving the dogs teeth a good scrub clean, but in my eyes, they can be as good at teeth cleaning as they want, but if they damage their gums- well, they are just pretty pointless.

Credit where credit is due however, the dogs did have pleasant breath after they had finished the treats. They both do a rather cute thing after each time they have a treat and this involves them both coming over, jumping up to put their front paws on my shoulders and then giving me a kiss... here, I am very pleased to report they both had nice smelling breath! Don't get me wrong, their breath doesn't stink normally, but after eating these treats, it really did have quite a fresh, pleasant scent to it.

Overall, middle of the road treats. They were very hard and chewy so they were definitely good for scraping the teeth clean but the fact they made the dogs gums bleed really put me off them. The dogs didn't seem bothered to be honest, and they certainly didn't seem in any pain, but it was just something I wasn't very pleased with. The dogs did have the treats once more, my fiancé purchased a pack and gave them to the dogs without me knowing and they did thoroughly enjoy them although the gum bleeding did happen again, which means we won't be purchasing these treats for the dogs again.

I'm just glad Grace and Benson have, in general, very good teeth and gums- I'd imagine these treats could do slight damage to the weaker teeth of another dog or cause considerable pain to those with gum problems. I've mentioned it to Tesco, however 7 weeks later I am still waiting for a reply, I'll update this review if I do ever get one!

Summary: A shame, I had high hopes for these and they just didn't deliever