Gnawlers Crunchy & Tender Dual-Texture Cat Treats - 65g - Salmon

Gnawlers Crunchy & Tender Cat Treats are small two-texture bites -- a crisp shell with a soft paste centre. The combination is the whole idea: cats who ignore a plain biscuit will often take one of these, and at under 2 kcal each they are small enough to hand out one at a time during training.

Key Features

• Two textures in one bite: A crunchy outside with a soft middle, which is what gets a fussy cat interested.
• Five flavours: Salmon, chicken, tuna, salmon and milk, or chicken and milk.
• Under 2 kcal a treat: Small enough to use as a training reward without the calories mounting up.
• Training-sized: One bite each, straight from the pack, so you can reward quickly and often.
• Also a topper: Scatter a few over their usual food to get a reluctant cat started.
• 65g pack: Around a fortnight at eight to ten treats a day.

How Many To Give

Gnawlers' guidance is 8 to 10 treats a day, depending on your cat's size and how active they are. At under 2 kcal each, that works out to roughly 16 to 20 kcal -- about a tenth of what an average four-kilo housecat needs in a day, which is exactly where a treat should sit. Gnawlers list the range at 372 kcal per 100g, so these are not low-calorie by weight -- they are low-calorie because each one is tiny. On those figures a 65g pack is around a fortnight's worth.

How Treats Fit Into The Day

Treats should make up no more than about a tenth of what your pet eats in a day, and the rest of their food should come down to make room. That is the single rule that keeps treats from quietly turning into a weight problem -- and it is easier to break than most people think, because a small pet needs very few calories.

How To Use Them

• One at a time, from your hand, the moment your cat does the thing you want. Cats train well on food, and these are the right size for it.
• Scattered on the floor or hidden around a room, to make a cat work for food rather than stand at a bowl.
• Crushed over a meal if your cat has gone off their food -- though a cat who stops eating needs a vet, not a topper.
• Reseal the pack properly. The crunchy shell goes soft once it has been open a while, and that is what puts cats off it.

Who Makes Gnawlers

Gnawlers is a brand of Foshan Phoenix Pet Products Co. Ltd, a Chinese pet chew and treat manufacturer founded in 2002 and based in Foshan, Guangdong. Gnawlers say the plant runs to 30,000 square metres and that they export to more than 50 countries.

Good To Know

• Not for kittens under three months old.
• Some Gnawlers material describes these as complete and balanced nutrition. At eight to ten small treats a day they are not feeding your cat, so keep their normal food in the bowl and treat that claim as marketing.
• Introduce it gradually. A new treat on top of a full day's food is the usual cause of a loose stool, and that is not the same as an intolerance.
• If your pet is already overweight, or on a diet your vet has set, count these in and take the equivalent out of their meals rather than adding them on top.
• Only the salmon flavour is in stock at the time of writing. The other four are listed so you can see the full range.
• Keep fresh drinking water available.
• Store somewhere cool and dry, and reseal the pack after opening.
• Not for human consumption. Keep it out of reach of children.