The Good: Inexpensive, My cats like them, It has improved my cat's dental health
The Bad: Not the absolute favorite of my cats.
The Basics: Excellent, but not the absolute best flavor, my cats keep coming back for the Crunchy Salmon and Shrimp flavored Tempting Tidbits!
Sometimes, pet stores have something that the chain grocery stores or big discount stores do not have that truly delights our pets. In the case of my cats, it was kismet that my wife began working at a pet store. There, she found the Tempting Tidbits line of cat treats. There are three different flavors and while my cats, Brillo and Gollum, were indifferent to the liver flavor (reviewed here!) and absolutely loved another, the third flavor, Crunchy Salmon and Shrimp, seems to be the happy medium between leaving the treats alone and bowling each other over for them.
Both Brillo and Gollum enjoy the Crunchy Salmon and Shrimp flavor, such that they pick them out of their food and eat them first when mixed in with their regular food, but not so much that they become territorial and hiss at one another when we have treat time (thinking the other is going to take their treats). And, as occurs with the best of treats, the Crunchy Salmon and Shrimp flavored Tempting Tidbits do appear to clean our cats' teeth.
Tempting Tidbits come in a variety of flavors and we picked up the Crunchy Salmon and Shrimp flavor because these "superpremium" cat treats are advertised as helping to control tartar and possessing a taste cats love. The environmentally protective person within me also likes the fact that these are naturally preserved, but that is more for me than the cats. And in comparison to the Pounce treats, the Crunchy Salmon and Shrimp Tempting Tidbits are great with both of my cats (a small black and a fat Siamese) illustrating a clear preference for these over the more expensive Pounce treats.
In the past, my cat, Brillo, had bad breath and I solved the problem by getting tartar control treats for him. Because I started Gollum young on tartar control treats, he never developed bad breath and the only treats my boys get are ones that have the health benefit of being tartar control. For that purpose, Tempting Tidbits Crunchy Salmon and Shrimp cat treats are more than adequate. For roughly $1.00, being able to avoid a teeth cleaning for my cats that would cost hundreds of dollars seemed like a good idea to me!
After a few pouches of Tempting Tidbits, I can say with some authority that the Tempting Tidbits treats seem to be working well as a preventative measure by effectively keeping tartar from building up on my cats' teeth. Tempting Tidbits cat treats are crunchy little treats that come in various flavors, including chicken, tuna and Salmon. The Crunchy Salmon and Shrimp flavored treats are shaped like little fish and are a half inch in length. Each of these treats is brown and textured, actually having a more mealy texture than the usual treats which are smooth and more manufactured-looking. Only about 1/8" thick, these treats resemble Cracklin' Oat Bran in color and texture more than cat food.
Tempting Tidbits treats have become a cat treat I am happy to give Brillo and Gollum because they work. They are generally affordable, though proportionally they are much more expensive than dry catfood. For the price of a small bag (4.2 lbs.) of cat food ($2.99), I can get three packages of Tempting Tidbits treats when they are on sale (3 oz. of treats in each bag). This is not an extraordinary value. Still, for preventing bad breath and tooth decay, it is worth it.
Because my older cat is finicky about his food - he needs urinary tract health formula food - the Tempting Tidbits treats offer my cats an option for keeping their teeth healthy that I would not otherwise have (there are tartar control cat foods, but not yet one that is both urinary tract and tartar control that I've found). Pounce marketed itself as a champion of classic conditioning, urging pet owners who use Pounce to shake the container to bring cats to the owner for their treats, so my cats know to come whenever I open a bag of the Tempting Tidbits. They recognize the sound of the stiff plastic krinkle bag, but it did not take long before I noticed the cats come running for the Crunchy Salmon and Shrimp flavor whenever they smell them; and the bag does have an odor when it is opened.
Tempting Tidbits treats are available only in the stiff-plastic pouches which make it easy to tell if they have been tampered with. Each plastic pouch is vacuum sealed and has a holographic bag which is very recognizable and protects the treats inside well. The stiff plastic creates a loud, recognizable crinkling sound that brings cats to it right away (I still call out to my cats with the question "Who wants treats?" whenever dispensing this as a treat). Sadly, there are other food products (like vacuum-sealed dinners) that come in similar pouches and when opening them, one's cats are likely to descend, eager for a treat. Pro Pac took a lesson from the makers of Pounce when making the Tempting Tidbits.
The truth is, though, I'm a somewhat lazy cat owner. My cats keep me moving around to play fetch and keep the litter box immaculately cleaned, I'm often too busy (or forgetful) to give them treats every day like they insist they deserve. What I've begun to do is mix the treats in with the catfood, so the cats get the treats like Lucky Charms marshmallows in their dinner. The package makes no recommendations for how many treats a cat gets each day, though it does warn that Tasty Tidbits are intended as supplemental food, as opposed to actual meals for cats. So, my mixing them into the regular cat food seems like a good idea and my boys get five to ten treats that way each day.
Mixing the treats into the food makes a package last about two weeks with my cats. I tend to keep one pouch for use as treats (they get treat time an average of once every other day) and I mix the rest into their food when I jar it up. I jar all of my cat food up to keep the potential mouse population at bay (mice like Tempting Tidbits treats as well, I've discovered, and they can easily chew through the stiff plastic pouch). These treats have a very limited shelf life in comparison to other cat treats. The package which my wife picked up in early July has a October 2009 expiration date, which seems to make sense given the advertised lack of extensive preservatives.
I refuse to taste sample this treat myself to determine whether or not they taste like what they are supposed to (then again, it has been years since I've seen a dentist . . .). My cats love them, they keep coming back for them (and the big one is usually quite lazy) and they have lived up to the promise to maintain (or restore) my cat's dental health. As well, my cats illustrate a strong preference for the Crunchy Salmon and Shrimp flavor versus other cat treats or other Tempting Tidbits.
The Crunchy Salmon and Shrimp flavored Tempting Tidbits are made up primarily of chicken meal, ground whole corn and fish meal before the ingredient list turns into odd things like dried apples, blueberries and carrots. My cats seem not to mind getting vegetables and they have not shown any health changes since we started using the Tempting Tidbits. The Crunchy Salmon and Shrimp flavored treats contain at least 35% crude protein, 16% crude fat and less than 3.5% crude fiber and 6.0% ash. These are not a bad food for my cats.
All in all, the Crunchy Salmon and Shrimp flavored tartar managing cat treats from Tempting Tidbits are a good treat that lives up to its promise of keeping up the dental health of cats. And outside one other flavor of Tempting Tidbits, these are the best!
For other cat treat reviews, please check out my reviews of:
Cosmic Catnip Clam Chowder treats
Pounce Tartar Control treats
Feline Greenies Oven Roasted Chicken
8/10
For other pet product reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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