Neal: Hey, everybody. It's Neal from Growlees. I wanted to talk about toothbrushes for your dogs and your cats. Unfortunately, a person who I really respect and who has been coming to us for a long time told me the other day that their little pup has-- He's an older guy-- the dog, not the guy. [chuckles] The pup's an older guy, and he's a little guy, so under 20 pounds. He may have to have a whole bunch of his teeth removed.

I wanted to talk about toothbrushes and how to mitigate that. I just want to say that he thought he was doing the right thing, and he probably was doing really well, but let's clarify what I mean when I talk about toothbrushes. He had a-- I think it's 12 to 14 pound pup. Great guy, doing the right thing, being responsible owner, yada, yada, yada, and he was using chicken feet. Fantastic toothbrushes for little dogs, but not perfect if you have a gulper, if you have a dog who's going to go crunch once and swallow.

What happens is, unless they get the opportunity to fully masticate through that bone and aren't just sword swallowing-- because you really got to watch them, because they become experts at eating things and experts at just wolfing them down as quickly as possible, because they don't want things. They're not like us where they're going to savor something wonderfully, because they have one-seventh the- What's the word I'm- taste buds, one-seventh the taste buds that we have. It's not about flavor for them. It's about eating and getting it in.

When they're eating those chicken feet, they're eating them as quickly as possible. Bear with me. For kitty cats, we're going to start with kitty cats. We start them with these chicken wing tips, and they're just the tip of a wing. There's the three sections to a wing. The tip, the meaty wing with the two bones, and then the drumette. Those, by the way, wings, oddly shaped, like part of a W or a Zed. Those are really good as whole wings toothbrushes for dogs and cats, especially small dogs, because they're unusually shaped and they have to chew them to get them down.

Now, the wing tips are really good for tiny, tiny, your little three pound dog or your kitty cat. Often, these are used not as toothbrushes so much, although it starts them towards using toothbrushes. What those are used for is the opportunity for a cat to build up their jaw muscles and learn how to chew through things, because when they eat kibble, they don't chew it. They scarf it down as quickly as possible. They might bite one or two things, but they don't really eat it or chew it. They just eat it as whole little cookies for the most part.

What happens then is when they do a scarf and barf, you'll notice that those weren't really chewed up. They ate the whole things, and so in no way does that crunchy cookie ever clean teeth. It causes tooth problems. They do the same thing with these. They'll eat them as quickly as possible once they learn how to eat them. See, that's the thing. That's the trick. Once they learn how to eat them, they're going to start getting them down as easily and fast as possible, which is little chewing as possible.

What you want to do is give them as big a bone as you can give them that's appropriate for the animal that makes them chew. In this scenario, with these little dogs - they're scarfing down these these chicken feet like there's no tomorrow - we want to go up in size either to chicken necks or even half a turkey neck. That forces the chew on those back teeth, on those fret teeth pulling. It forces the chew. We need to ensure the chew.

For instance, with a medium-sized animal-- They're scarfing back the turkey necks. Then, we move up to chicken carcasses, because they're oddly shaped and they have to chew them to get them down. It's the same for smaller dogs to get them to chew. If they're scarfing back those chicken feet too much, too fast, then we need to get them onto something bigger. Half of a duck neck, for instance, is big enough to be a meal for a little dog, as well as a toothbrush.

With the cats, after they've learned how to eat those-- or those little three pound dogs. After they've learned how to eat those wing tips, we have to move up in size as quickly as the cat will allow. We move into tiny little chicken necks. This [unintelligible 00:04:46] are tiny little chicken necks. They're not very large. They're big enough that for a cat, they have to chew them to get them down.

Then, of course, once they're doing those really quickly, we can move on to quail. A whole quail, again, just like a chicken carcass for a medium-sized or a large size dog, offers that they have to chew, that opportunity to chew and masticate through the soft hollow bone and actually brush their teeth. If you've been doing toothbrushes and you notice that your dog gets through those chicken feet really quickly or gets through that chicken neck really quickly, move on up. Move on up in size.

If they're doing duck necks, and they're too small, and they're wolfing them back real quick, move on up to turkey necks or move on up to chicken carcasses, because the bigger the bone, the more tooth brushing you're getting for every session. Using these as an occasional meal replacement once or twice a week to encourage that tooth brushing, because oral hygiene is so important, and they have to have whole, raw meaty bones in order to brush those teeth.

Let's use those toothbrushes in the way that they need to be used, so that that chicken neck and that turkey neck and that duck neck and that chicken carcass, and those wing tips and those chicken feet are all fantastic toothbrushes. Now, some of the other things we have are wild boar ribs or goat chunks. These are things that, depending on the size of the dog, are totally appropriate toothbrushes.

Again if they're getting through them too fast, you're not getting the benefit of the chew, and they're not really cleaning their teeth, even though it started off as a perfect toothbrush, because they've learned how to eat them. They've learned how to make them food as quickly as possible. You want them to eat. You want them to eat them. You want them to crunch them. You need them to take time.

Hi, there. I'll be right with you.

Neal: I guess I'm going to wrap it up a little bit, but first, I wanted to just show off the freezer. Where is it? I'm terrible camera person. This freezer here, that's what we're giving away for Growloween. It's a nice little chest freezer. It will have a hundred dollars worth of raw food in it. I have not confirmed which raw food company will be supplying that yet. We'll be having some other giveaways as well.

If you could, we will be having the draws in store here for the entire month of October, with the draw on the end of business day, October 31st, Growloween. We'll be here with costumes and candy and whole chocolate bars for you and cookies.

Yappetizers, a great Canadian treat company, has given us a whole bunch of wild salmon treats-- dehydrated raw salmon treats to give away on that day as well. Thank you, Yappetizers, for your kind and generous support for our Growloween event. We're looking forward to that. I just wanted to let people know that is coming up, and I just wanted to let everybody know Chantel's moving on to another company. We'll miss her terribly. She's been phenomenal.

I know you all have been pleased with her customer service levels and her wealth of information, so we're going to miss you, Chantel, but thank you so much for being with us as long as you have. You've been fantastic. Have a good day, and want to finish off-- Don't forget, too, tha we're here. We have more parking around back. My camera-- I'm a terrible cameraman.

We have more parking around back. We do deliver. Follow us on Facebook, like us on Instagram, or like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram. We're also on YouTube and LinkedIn. Thanks so much everybody. Have a good day.