First Taste Test Report on Crunch'nClean

The first one we are trying is made by Hartz, the people who make all those products for birds.  If they can sharpen birds' beaks with cuttle bones, they should be able to create a doggy tooth brush, right?   I examined the big box of Crunch'nClean for dogs under 20 pounds ... maximum for that size: 2 per day ... Kenya can have 8 per day.  There are 35 calories in each biscuit so 280 calories worth of this treat for teeth in a day.

Then I read " not for human consumption".  That led me to check out the ingredient list.

wheat flour ... not an auspicious beginning for my dog whose digestive system is not good with wheat.
ground whole wheat ... hmm ... or this ...
chicken meal
wheat germ meal ... more wheat
sodium hexametaphosphate
poultry fat
salt ... as well as sodium?
poultry digest
whey
malted barley
molasses
calcium
brewer's yeast
choline
sodium metabisulphate ... more sodium?
chlorophyl               
colour
ferrous sulphate
vitamin e
2 zincs
vitamin b
vitamin a
2 coppers
niacin
calcium proteinate
manganous oxide
manganese
riboflavin
vitamin d
thiamin
another 2 sources of vitamin b
calcium iodate
sodium selenite ... yet another sodium
folic acid


That seems to be it ... an awful lot of wheat and sodium ...but  only 35 calories ... just a little for a 90 pound dog.

Kenya's reaction to the taste of #1: 

She liked the taste, but the next morning she stuck her nose up at this substitute for her Dentistix. As the day progressed I tried her again and she actually left it sitting on the staircase despite my attempts to convince her that it was a tasty treat.

Her breath is still okay ... perhaps not as nice as with Dentistix but not unpleasant.

Other effects noticed: She has farted a couple of times and Sadie (the puppy)  has been very interested in the smell of her bum.  Kenya is not a farter usually, likely because she has yogurt with every meal. In fact she looks shocked and turns around to sniff her own bum when the unexpected does happen, so this might be the result of the  Crunch'nClean, but I doubt it since she is so reluctant to eat any of them and they are intended for such small dogs.


By the end of today she had actually chewed and ingested 4 of the 8 permitted.

She prefers the taste of her regular treats, and her regular food wins paws down over this treat.  (Her regular food is usually way down on the list ... a mix of two types of Kibble: Gastro from the vet and lamb or chicken without wheat from Costco.)

We have been asked to try each dental treat for a week so we have 5 1/2 days to go before we try the next one.  Either Kenya will acquiesce and accept this one or she will stop eating it entirely if it is bad enough, I guess.

Will keep you posted.