The Good: Generally good ingredients, Good dental benefits, My cats love them!
The Bad: A bit expensive for what one gets
The Basics: Feline Greenies Ocean Fish Dental Treats are helping to keep my cats’ teeth strong and breath fresh!
Sometimes, I am surprised by how I take a long time to get products from a product line I like in after reviewing one positively. It has been years since I reviewed the Oven Roasted Chicken Feline Greenies (reviewed here! ) and so it is surprising that it has taken this long for me to get in another flavor. The new (to me!) flavor for Timber and Gollum is the Ocean Fish Flavor Feline Greenies Dental Treats.
Feline Greenies come in a variety of flavors and we picked up the Ocean Fish flavor because they were dental treats and, frankly, I have noticed Timber’s breath lately. Given that both our boys love fish flavored cat treats, the Ocean Fish Flavor was a very safe bet. Unlike some of the other cat treats on the market now, these do not trade on being all natural or anything, so I was a little wary of that, but the moment I opened the bag for the first time, both Gollum and Timber came running.
Both of my cats enthusiastically devoured the Ocean Fish Dental Treats. They crunch right down on them and they do seem to do all they promised to. Because I started Gollum young on tartar control treats, he has seldom had bad breath and usually only treats my boys get are ones that have the health benefit of being tartar control. While the Feline Greenies do not make that claim, the fact that cats have to chew them supports the dental benefits claim on the package. For general dental health, Feline Greenies Ocean Fish cat treats are more than adequate. For roughly $3.00, 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 Feline Greenies, the Feline Greenies treats seem to be working well as a preventative measure by effectively keeping tartar from building up on my cats' teeth, at least as effectively as other treats which do have tartar control claims. Feline Greenies cat treats are crunchy little treats that come in various flavors, including chicken, salmon and tuna. The Ocean Fish flavored treats are shaped like tiny fish and are three-eighths inches wide. Each of these treats is green and slightly textured, though I’ve seen other treats with more surface texture in recent days. These appear quite manufactured-looking. Only about 1/8" thick, these treats resemble dry cat food.
Feline Greenies treats have become a cat treat I am happy to give Timber and Gollum because they work, but they are expensive. In fact, these are very expensive, at least through the store we purchased them through. For the price of a small bag (4.2 lbs.) of cat food ($2.99), we get a single 2.5 oz. package of Feline Greenies treats! This is not an extraordinary value at all. As such, I ended up downrating in the 2.5 oz. size because of the expense.
Because my older cat, Gollum, is finicky about his food - he needs urinary tract health formula food - the Feline Greenies 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 Feline Greenies. They recognize the sound of the stiff plastic crinkle bag and my cats came running for the Ocean Fish flavor they same way they did for Pounce's tartar control treats.
Feline Greenies 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 brown plastic 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. Like many other cat treat manufacturers, Feline Greenies took a lesson from the makers of Pounce when making the Feline Greenies.
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 Feline Greenies 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 (though the suggested serving is something ridiculous like 18 – 21 pieces for cats the size of my boys!).
Mixing the treats into the food makes a package last about a week 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 Feline Greenies treats as well, I've discovered, and they can easily chew through the stiff plastic pouch). These treats have a great shelf life in comparison to other cat treats. The package which I picked up last week has a November 2014 expiration date, which seems to make sense given the extensive preservatives in the treats.
I refuse to taste sample this treat myself to determine whether or not they taste like what they are supposed to. My cats like 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, but they illustrate no preference for the Ocean Fish flavor versus other dental health cat treats. They both chose these over Pounce, though, the last time I gave them a choice.
The Ocean Fish flavored Feline Greenies are made up primarily of chicken meal, rice flour and wheat flour before the ingredient list turns into the many preservatives. There do not appear to be any vegetables in Feline Greenies. The Ocean Fish flavored treats contain at least 27% crude protein, 12% crude fat and less than 10% crude fiber and trace amounts of taurine. There is no more than 10% moisture in these treats, which is probably why they keep so well. These are not a bad food for my cats.
The Ocean Fish flavored cat treats from Feline Greenies are wonderful, though, pricy, nicely freshening the breath of cats of all ages!
For other cat treats, please check out my reviews of:
Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance Perfect Bites Salmon Formula cat treats
Cloud Star Buddy Biscuits Savory Turkey & Cheddar Flavor cat treats
SmartyKat Catnip Mist catnip-infused spray
7.5/10
For other pet product reviews, please visit my Pet Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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