Good Question! I'm not sure if I'd want to feed raw clams...
Have you thought about trying the little salad shrimp? I have a cat that loves those, so when I'm fixing myself a shrimp salad, she always gets two or three!
Hopefully other's will chime in here soon!
Sharon

 

Oh, if there's any suggestions for other foods that would work well as treats I'm all ears.

Keep in mind this is solely for training the cat to do tricks, so it'll be fed in small amounts so nutritional value is no factor here. I just want to make sure that the food won't make the cat sick or something.

 

Steamed mackerals you find in asian markets the small ones. After you wash it put in a steamer or you can bake it. We fried these to eat no salt added and give to the cats when we have leftovers. dont know if cats can eat the fish bones but to be safe i pulled out the bones and give to them they all love it. Some like chicken livers too

 

Why not just use actual cat treats? I used freeze dried chicken liver when I thaught my cat to shake a paw. Lol

 

I figure the results will be better then more the cat likes the treat.

And real food will likely taste better than some chicken by products they shove into cat treats.

 

Oh, you're not limited to that, no worries! I feed Jasper little freeze-dried shrimp or freeze-dried pieces of chicken; there's only one ingredient in each: shrimp, and chicken :mrgreen: he LOVES these and will do most anything for them.

Look for something like this at your local pet store, I guarantee it'll be a hit with your kitty.

 

You are right, there are a lot of garbage treats out there, but the freeze dried treats are generally a hit in my house and it's just that, freeze dried pieces of meat or organ. I look for single ingredient treats without any byproducts or junk.

 

As far as training goes, both Samantha and Jules have both responded very well to freeze-dried shrimp and the Orijen freeze-dried treats (the kitties would HIGHLY recommend the Tundra flavor!). I would be a little leery on feeding raw clams...I never feed raw fish to the cats unless I know the sourcing is very good...fish/shellfish always has me a little scared these days (seriously, that big island of garbage in the Pacific has me terrified...).

 

(seriously, that big island of garbage in the Pacific has me terrified...).

Wow, I looked that up. It's not an "island." The trash patch in the pacific covers the area the size of a continent.

I would not use clams as a training treat...they're messy and they're chewy. You want something that is easy to keep in your pocket or hand and that the cat will consume quickly and get it's attention back to the task. The freeze dried meat treats are high value, easily broken into small pieces and consumed quickly...they work great.

Yeah, good point. It'd be messy to handle when I'm also holding other objects for training (like a clicker and a hoop).

 

I would not use clams as a training treat...they're messy and they're chewy. You want something that is easy to keep in your pocket or hand and that the cat will consume quickly and get it's attention back to the task. The freeze dried meat treats are high value, easily broken into small pieces and consumed quickly...they work great.

 

Freeze dried treats contains sodium phosphate, salt and carregenean and you have to make sure its made in USA . There are alot of recalls in cat food and treats. Beneful was recently in the news for causing the death of many dogs. I think its best to give cooked chicken breast, it's fresh and you know that its not made from other countries.

 

Freeze dried treats contains sodium phosphate, salt and carregenean and you have to make sure its made in USA .

There are plenty of freeze dried meat treats that do not contain those ingredients...Whole Life, Pure Bites, Stella & Chewy's, Orijen right off the top of my head...all made in the US or Canada from US or Canadian ingredients.

 

Yeah, I think I'll just buy some shrimp or some meat the the grocery store and cook it up.

 

One other thing I've used, the Hebrew (kosher) brand of hotdogs! The all beef ones, they don't have all the additives that regular hotdogs have!
Sharon

 

My local independent stores don't sell Halo products or freeze dried treats...I wonder if it's due to its ingredients? Or sourcing? It doesn't say on the labels or website where they source their proteins from. I love Ellen Degeneres, but I have never purchased Halo products.

It's also interesting to note it's only the chicken breast treats in Halo that has those ingredients...it's not included in their freeze dried beef or salmon.

 

Halo is way overpriced. Their grain free dry cat food pricing is pretty comparable to Orijen. Protein is 33% vs 38% and they have pea protein as the 3rd ingredient. Since they use only chicken and no chicken meal, it's pretty easy to conclude that a really large portion of the protein is vegetable based. By using "recipe" in the name of the product means that chicken can be as little as 25% of the dry matter.

Their canned food pricing is also high as compared to other foods with similar ingredients. Many of their skus contain a ton of veggies.

They're also available at Petco and Whole Foods. All reasons for a knowledgeable independent food store owner to avoid carrying their products....we have very limited space and there are many other better choices.

Oh...their sourcing is fine. Mainly US, a couple ingredients from places like New Zealand and Canada

 

Oh, ok. Good to know! Thank you for the info as always, doodlebug.

I guess I've never considered foods available at Petco and other stores for reasons being the independents don't want to carry them. I've never bought it due to the heavy vegetable content. I mean, some of those look like chicken & (LOTS of) veggie soup, not just chicken soup that's heavy on the meat content, which is what kitties would need more of.

 

We often can't complete on price with big box stores. Some food manufacturers value their independent stores and make sure that big box doesn't undercut us but others don't.