Diet and Dental Disease in Exotic Companion Mammals.

Diet is essential for dental health, yet diets chosen by humans for pets often do not conform to state-of-the-art recommendations. For many animals, non-natural diets high in easily digestible carbohydrates from cultivated fruit, colored vegetables, cereals/grains and derived products including cereal-based compound feeds, represent risk factors for reduced chewing activity, oral dysbiosis, caries and periodontitis; if not supplemented, also disturbances of the calcium/phosphorus metabolism. In rabbits and rodents, with teeth that have the permanent capacity for controlled compensatory regrowth after wear, the resulting loss of alveolar integrity and/or germinative tissue disorders often leads to disproportionate dental growth.