Dental Chews for Dogs - WHIMZEES - are Vegan.

Click to go to Whimzees website

The rescued dogs in my care are fed a 100% supplemented and balanced vegan diet. I also give them marketed vegan kibble to help ensure they are getting all the nutrients they need. And I sometimes offer it at the end of homemade meals to help clean the teeth a bit. The dogs I'm closely bonded with have always allowed me to brush their teeth. However, I still notice that they could use dental chews. And if you are not brushing the dog's teeth, it seems dental chews are "a must". Keeping a dog's teeth clean is very important to help prevent disease further down the line; a powerful preventative measure for long-term health. So I discovered Whimzees (or actually Paragon at the time). And I have found them in Hawaii at a the feed shop and then in New Zealand at the vet, so I assume they are pretty easy to find! They are a worldwide brand - and they happen to be vegan! 

Paragon Pet Products are located in Veendam, northern Netherlands. They produce vegetable dog chews made of all-natural ingredients. The company use to produce their own brand Paragon - now called WHIMZEES. The dental chews consist of 6 vegetable-based ingredients only: potato starch, glycerin, powdered cellulose, lecithin, yeast, malt extract, annatto extract color or alfalfa extract. No GMO’s, no wheat, no corn, no preservatives, no sugar, no gluten.  All ingredients are sourced in Western Europe and are certified that they do not contain any animal by-products. However, they cannot guarantee that animal by-products were not used as fertilizers for the ingredients, they told me. (That is true of much of the food we buy. It's a grey area within vegan living, unless you grow your own food the vegan-organic method - which some vegans are starting to do. Many vegans like to buy organic food which is highly likely to use products derived from animal exploitation as fertilizers. Hard to get away from this, so it's one of those "as far as reasonably possible" aspects to living vegan.)

the white colored brush

I've tried WHIMZEES out on 3 different dogs and they wag their tail for this healthy treat. If you see a dog is not thoroughly chewing the alligator-shaped or toothbrush-shaped chew - please take it away; true of any dental chew. I have not noticed dogs doing that with this product. You do need to give the correct size though. Stick with the companies recommendations for size, please don't give a small dog a medium sized chew. See chart below for the sizes they offer; they do have petite or small chews specifically for small dogs. 

I did notice on their online shop that they offer an XL toothbrush that has white color made of calcium carbonate, and I did not verify if their calcium carbonate is vegan in that one brush; which I've never even seen. (calcium carbonate can come from several sources, and one of them is nonvegan like shells collected from a seafood restaurant; though it can also be non-animal derived.)

™ / WHIMZEES is the Property of Paragon Pet Products - made in Holland

Old packaging: Paragon is now marketed as Whimzees

New Packaging - these 3 colors are vegan!