How many teeth should a dog have?

Haha yeah I attempted to do what your doing with the whole before and after picture thing before RMB's and raw meals and such, when I was trying to decrease the amount of kibble and increase RMB's and muscle meats and such, to see if I would notice a difference, with my Shiba especially because he's the one that I was noticing a bit of bad breathe and more build up on his teeth (reason why I started decreasing kibble meals and increasing recreational chewing bones and raw meals) but he absolutely HATES having his mouth touched, so I can't even hold him and pry his mouth open long enough to take pictures, so I just have to eyeball it, unfortunately. For my young boy, it doesn't really matter becuase he started out primarily raw fed, and has had lots of bones and such and he's young so he doesn't have dental problems or build up..yet. But my 6 year old Shiba has been half kibble, half raw fed for the last 6 years. I cheated a bit with Cash though, to jumpstart the teeth cleaning, I have luckily been able to use my fingernails to scrape off the little bit of build up he had on his gum lines, took forever, of course because he would fight me (tooth and nail literally!) and since trying to force him to chew on more RMB's and such (he's not a big chewer..so this is hard), and basically feeding him a total of 1/2 cup of kibble a week, as opposed to 1/4 cup a day he was getting the last few years.. over the last couple months i've noticed a difference in the teeth and breathe for sure.. but I would have liked to been able to get pictures to really be able to see the physical difference.

Hopefully you will notice a difference with introducing some recreational chewing and what not.. I never used to give my Shiba any bones, primarily because I'd buy them for him and he'd never touch them.. then of course as soon as a second dog is in the picture getting bones and enjoying them, the Shiba wants them now too.. as mentioned i've noticed slight results but i'm just now beginning to notice even better results that I'm gradually eliminating kibble from his diet (Pretty soon, his one small raw meal a day will be sufficient for him at his age and activity level). It will be interesting to see how Thumpers teeth turn out over time with his current diet. I don't think I could ever afford to feed him a %100 raw diet day in a day out because he eats significantly more than the Shiba lol, but supplementing with the RMB's and recreational chewing things and what not i'm hoping to keep his dental health in check

Still curious about the amount of teeth ... haha, that is going to be the first thing I do when I get home!

Haha I finally got a pic of Thumpers teeth.. this is after two weeks of being on %100 raw and chewing on recreational/raw meaty bones a few times a week.

Cash still wont let me pry his mouth open long enough to get a picture, but his teeth are obviously not in as great of shape as Thumpers, due to mostly his age, and being partially kibble fed and not being a big chewer most his life. However, I check his mouth regularily now, and although he's chipping some of his teeth on raw bones, his teeth are improving big time since he's been %100 raw fed and chewing up more bones. Still not a big chewer, so I have to feed him more boney meals to get him to clean those teeth!

Pic quality isn't great.. man its hard holding a dogs mouth open with one hand and trying to take a pic with an iphone with the other lol

Abbylynn is strange too ... her gums are jet black and the top of them are dark purple? :/ Vet just said "Hmmmm" last time she had a check up. Lol!

Wish it was better pics ... sorry ... cell phone.

Mia's strange teeth:


miateeth by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr

I think there should only be one. My first thought was that it could be a retained puppy tooth, but the teeth look just alike.. I would expect a puppy tooth to me a bit smaller and sharper.

Denali's teeth at a year and a half old