The safest homemade dog toothpaste is the simplest. Use a pea-sized dab of plain coconut oil or unsalted homemade broth on a soft brush, with a pinch of chopped parsley or cinnamon if your dog likes the taste. Leave out bouillon cubes, salt, essential oils, hydrogen peroxide and any peanut butter you haven't checked for xylitol. Most recipes also use a little baking soda. A pea-sized dab of it holds little sodium, but we leave it out too.
The brushing matters more than the paste. In dog studies the brushing did the cleaning, whether a paste or plain saline was on the brush, and brushing is the center of cleaning your dog's teeth at home. So a homemade paste has two jobs. It has to taste good enough that your dog accepts the brush, and it has to be safe to swallow every day. We checked the popular recipes on both counts.
A safer homemade toothpaste
Mix two tablespoons of softened coconut oil with a pinch of dried parsley or ground cinnamon. If your dog prefers a meaty taste, use a tablespoon of broth you made yourself without salt, onion or garlic instead of the oil. Make a small batch, keep it in a lidded jar, and keep it in the fridge if it contains broth.
Use a pea-sized dab, about a quarter of a gram, worked into the bristles, and brush along the gum line on the outer surfaces of the teeth.
How often you brush counts too. In two beagle studies from 1986, brushing three times a week kept healthy gums healthy, but only daily brushing cleared gingivitis that was already there (Tromp and colleagues, Journal of Clinical Periodontology). We found no trial of any homemade toothpaste in dogs when we searched in November 2026, so our recipe stays plain.
What's in the popular recipes, ingredient by ingredient
Most recipes build on coconut oil and baking soda, then add a flavor and sometimes a "freshener".
| Ingredient | Our verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Coconut oil | Fine in a dab | Dogs like it. No dog dental trial |
| Unsalted homemade broth | Fine | Flavor without salt or onion |
| Parsley, cinnamon, turmeric, a few fresh mint leaves | Small pinches | Flavor only. No dog study shows they freshen breath |
| Plain unsweetened yogurt | Small amounts | Flavor only |
| Baking soda | We leave it out | Sodium every day, and nothing shows it cleans better than the brush |
| Salt, bouillon cubes or granules | Leave out | Sodium, and most cubes list onion or garlic |
| Peanut butter | Only if the label has no xylitol | Some nut butters contain xylitol |
| Essential oils, such as peppermint or tea tree | Leave out | Concentrated oils can poison dogs |
| Hydrogen peroxide, aloe juice | Leave out | Stomach lining damage, and the aloe plant is toxic |
| Kelp powder | Leave out | Iodine content varies widely |
| Crushed eggshell, sea salt, clay | Leave out | Gritty and untested on dog enamel |
Baking soda and the sodium in a pea-sized dab
Most recipes use a little baking soda as a mild scrub, and the usual advice is to use it sparingly. For the dab on the brush, the sodium numbers back that up. Baking soda is about 27% sodium, and the US Department of Agriculture weighs a level teaspoon at 4.6 g. We worked out what a pea-sized dab of five common recipes holds.
| Recipe | Sodium in a pea-sized dab |
|---|---|
| Baking soda and water, a tablespoon of each | about 33 mg |
| Coconut oil and baking soda, a tablespoon of each | about 34 mg |
| 1/4 cup coconut oil, 3 tablespoons baking soda, 1 bouillon cube | about 31 mg |
| 1/4 cup coconut oil, 2 tablespoons baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon salt | about 21 mg |
| 1 cup coconut oil, 4 tablespoons baking soda | about 14 mg |
For scale, the National Research Council puts a 33-lb adult dog's daily sodium allowance at 200 mg, so one dab is small. A loaded brush holds several times a pea, though, and a vet counts every source of sodium for a dog on a heart or kidney diet.
The bigger risk is the jar. The bouillon recipe above holds about 41 g of baking soda, and the oil and stock make it taste like food. The American College of Veterinary Pharmacists puts the toxic dose at 10 to 20 g per kg of body weight. A dog of about 9 lb that eats the whole jar reaches the low end of that range. That risk, plus no dog evidence that it cleans better than the bristles, is why we leave it out. Brushing with plain baking soda is a bigger dose again. A quarter teaspoon holds about 315 mg of sodium, more than that 33-lb dog's daily allowance, so baking soda on its own isn't safe for cleaning dog teeth.
Bouillon cubes add onion as well as salt
Dogs love the meaty smell, so recipes often call for a stock cube. One beef bouillon cube holds about 860 mg of sodium, according to the USDA food database. On November 11, 2026 we read the ingredient lists of the first 25 beef bouillon cube listings in the USDA branded foods database, 25 different barcodes from 19 brands. Twenty-three of them name onion or garlic, usually as onion powder.
The Merck Veterinary Manual links onion and garlic poisoning in dogs mostly to concentrated forms, such as powders and dry soup mixes. It also rates garlic as 3 to 5 times more toxic than onion. A dab holds very little of the cube, but there's no reason to brush it on daily when unsalted homemade broth tastes as good to a dog.
Peanut butter, essential oils and peroxide
Peanut butter is a common flavor. The FDA warns that some peanut and nut butters contain xylitol, which may be listed as birch sugar or wood sugar. Xylitol can drop a dog's blood sugar dangerously, and it's one of the reasons human toothpaste is unsafe for dogs. Read the label every time you buy a new jar.
Essential oils are the add-in we'd drop first. Some recipes add drops of peppermint oil, or clove, thyme or eucalyptus to fight plaque, and we found no dog study behind that. The ASPCA lists the mint plant as toxic to dogs because of its essential oils. A few chopped leaves are one thing, but a drop of oil is the concentrated form. In 443 cases reported to the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center, dogs and cats exposed to concentrated tea tree oil drooled, wobbled or trembled within 2 to 12 hours (Khan and colleagues, 2014, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association).
One recipe mixes aloe vera juice with 3% hydrogen peroxide. When vets gave 3% peroxide by mouth to six healthy dogs, all six had damage to the stomach lining within 4 hours (Niedzwecki and colleagues, 2017). A brushing uses far less, but daily. The ASPCA lists the aloe plant as toxic to dogs too, though it calls the gel edible. We'd skip the mix.
Kelp, eggshells and other add-ins
Some recipes add a teaspoon of kelp powder. Brown seaweeds such as kelp hold 2,500 to 10,000 µg of iodine per gram (Smyth, 2021, European Thyroid Journal). That's a fourfold spread, added daily on top of a complete food that already supplies iodine. If your dog has a thyroid condition, keep kelp out and ask your vet before adding any seaweed.
Crushed eggshell, sea salt and bentonite clay turn up as polishes. Dog enamel is thinner than ours, 0.1 to 1 mm in a study of 194 dog and cat teeth (Crossley, 1995, Journal of Veterinary Dentistry). None of these has been tested on it, and the bristles already do the scrubbing.
What a homemade paste can't do
No paste, homemade or bought, removes tartar. Plaque hardens into tartar within about 2 to 12 days, and once it sets it needs a professional cleaning under anesthesia. The American Veterinary Medical Association notes that most dental disease sits below the gum line, out of reach of any brush, and advises a vet dental check at least once a year.
A homemade paste also can't carry the Veterinary Oral Health Council seal, which needs trial data. If you'd rather not mix your own, a bought dog toothpaste is fine.
If your dog won't accept a brush at all, a powder on food is another option. Caniclean is ours, a seaweed powder that helps reduce plaque and new tartar, but it won't remove tartar that is already hard. Seaweed contains iodine, so ask your vet first if your dog has a thyroid condition.
See your vet if you notice red or bleeding gums, a loose or broken tooth, brown tartar, swelling on the face, or breath that stays bad after a few weeks of daily brushing. A dog with a sore mouth may bite, so look gently.
Questions owners ask
Can I brush my dog's teeth with just coconut oil?
Yes, as a flavor for the brush. No study shows coconut oil cleans dog teeth on its own, so the brushing is what counts. If your dog is on a low-fat diet after pancreatitis, keep it to the dab and don't let your dog lick the spoon.
How long does homemade dog toothpaste keep?
Make a small batch you'll use within a week or two, and keep anything with broth or yogurt in the fridge. Throw it out if it smells off or grows mold.
My dog ate the jar of homemade toothpaste. What now?
Note what was in the recipe, your dog's weight and roughly how much is gone, and call your vet or an animal poison line. The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center is on (888) 426-4435 and the Pet Poison Helpline on (855) 764-7661, both open 24 hours. Vomiting is usually the first sign of too much baking soda.
References
- Brayer L, Rennert H, Gedalia I. Effect of brushing the teeth with a fluoride-containing and fluoride-free dentifrice on the gingiva of dogs. J Dent Res. 1976;55(5), 825-828.
- Crossley DA. Tooth enamel thickness in the mature dentition of domestic dogs and cats, preliminary study. J Vet Dent. 1995;12(3), 111-113.
- Khan SA, McLean MK, Slater MR. Concentrated tea tree oil toxicosis in dogs and cats, 443 cases (2002-2012). J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2014;244(1), 95-99.
- Lowe C, Anthony J. Pilot study of the effectiveness of a xylitol-based drinking water additive to reduce plaque and calculus accumulation in dogs. Can Vet J. 2020;61(1), 63-68.
- Niedzwecki AH, Book BP, Lewis KM, Estep JS, Hagan J. Effects of oral 3% hydrogen peroxide used as an emetic on the gastroduodenal mucosa of healthy dogs. J Vet Emerg Crit Care. 2017;27(2), 178-184.
- Smyth PPA. Iodine, seaweed, and the thyroid. Eur Thyroid J. 2021;10(2), 101-108.
- Thornton-Evans G, Junger ML, Lin M, et al. Use of toothpaste and toothbrushing patterns among children and adolescents, United States, 2013-2016. MMWR. 2019;68(4), 87-90.
- Tromp JA, Jansen J, Pilot T. Gingival health and frequency of tooth brushing in the beagle dog model. J Clin Periodontol. 1986;13(2), 164-168.
- Tromp JA, van Rijn LJ, Jansen J. Experimental gingivitis and frequency of tooth brushing in the beagle dog model. J Clin Periodontol. 1986;13(3), 190-194.
- Watanabe K, Kijima S, Nonaka C, Matsukawa Y, Yamazoe K. Inhibitory effect for proliferation of oral bacteria in dogs by tooth brushing and application of toothpaste. J Vet Med Sci. 2016;78(7), 1205-1208.
- American College of Veterinary Pharmacists. Pet poison control list, baking soda. https://vetmeds.org/pet-poison-control-list/Baking-Soda
- American Veterinary Medical Association. Pet dental care. https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare/pet-dental-care
- ASPCA. Toxic and non-toxic plants, aloe and mint. https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants
- Merck Veterinary Manual. Allium spp toxicosis in animals. https://www.msdvetmanual.com/toxicology/food-hazards/allium-spp-toxicosis-in-animals
- Merck Veterinary Manual. Pancreatitis in small animals (reviewed September 2025). https://www.merckvetmanual.com/digestive-system/the-exocrine-pancreas/pancreatitis-in-small-animals
- National Research Council. Your dog's nutritional needs. National Academies Press, 2006. https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/10668/dog_nutrition_final_fix.pdf
- US Food and Drug Administration. Paws off xylitol, it's dangerous for dogs. https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/paws-xylitol-its-dangerous-dogs
- US Department of Agriculture. FoodData Central, baking soda (FDC 175040), salt (173468), beef broth cubed (171561), coconut oil (171412), and branded beef bouillon cube listings (searched November 11, 2026). https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/