Thursday, December 3, 2015

Clicker Training with #NaturalBalance Treats

We are being compensated for our review of Natural Balance® Pet Foods treats, but A Tonk's Tail only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers. Our promise: you will always receive our honest opinion about any product we review.
_______


When Natural Balance® Pet Foods gave us treats for our Herd Of Three to try, they told us these would be worthy of each pet's unique personality. Given that Faraday is such a character, and his diet includes Natural Balance Platefulls on a daily basis, he was eager to try them out.

I'm always interested when a brand offers grain-free options, and Natural Balance has two: Dental Chews & L.I.T. Limited Ingredient Treats®. They also offer their low-calorie Perfect® Bites formulas for cats like Allie who are watching their figures. Pardon me, having their figures watched FOR them since Allie would much prefer to be unrestricted....

Natural Balance treats are free of artificial ingredients and colors. So we ran over to Petco and found the Natural Balance Perfect Bites Chicken and Salmon Formulas.

NB

Each treat is only one calorie. Considering that a mouse is around 30 calories (according to Allie's vet) and Allie is allowed the equivalent of 5 to 6 mice a day, a few of these one calorie treats won't carve a big hole out of her dinnertime allotment.

First taste test impressions? Check it out:

Maxwell & Faraday stare each other down over a bag of Perfect Bites Chicken Formula
Maxwell: You want a piece of this? Well, do ya kid?
Neither of the boys is big into treats, even though I told Maxie they were calling his name:

Max, seriously, this is how many treats equal a single mousie! SCORE.
Check it out, Maxie: 30 treats - that's equivalent to an entire mouse!

No worries: the girls represented quite well:

Allie: YUM!
Allie: Delish, Mother!
There was only one problem...

*gasp* Only 1 left? Tragedy!
Allie: Do you see the problem here, Mother? There's ONLY ONE LEFT!

To be honest we use treats far more often at the shelter than we do at home, and since the taste-test was successful, I decided to branch out. So I headed over to Wayside Waifs to let a few of the residents sample the treats, too.

Have you ever tried clicker training your cat?

Clicker training can be an invaluable way to help reduce stress in shelter cats. And treats play an important and motivational part.

Take a look as we use Natural Balance Chicken Formula Perfect Bites in this clicker session with Diego, our adorable, adoptable Waif:



Interested in trying these treats for your dog or cat? They're available at Petco and PetSmart as well as online.

***

22 comments:

  1. Your local independent store probably has them too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, you ate your name, Max!!

    Those seem to be super yummy!

    Did the shelter kitties enjoy them too?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kitties do human training in shelters? That is AWESOME! I do a few tricks and I really enjoy it. And the treats I get paid in!

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's really interesting about relating the treats to a mouse, by my reasoning I'm due another 5 mice worth! purrs

    ReplyDelete
  5. Clicker training with cats sounds like fun! I think it's something Mudpie might enjoy too :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a yummy is here. My friend from http://www.paperwriting.xyz/ has two cats. She is totally in love with them. So she buys these two guys only the best. Actually she was talking that not so long ago she bought this Perfect Bites.

    ReplyDelete
  7. that Diego is a smart boy. mom wishes she had tried earlier to work more with Daiq. love the treats spelling out "MAX" :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. That is very cool. I wonder how many calories there are in a gopher?

    ReplyDelete
  9. We all love treats but our brofur Rumpy got some clicker training and it works really well.
    He has this little back end problem and when we meow to Dad that we cannot take the, um, scent any longer he give a click and Rumpy runs in the bathroom for a wash. He then gets his treat and we all breath easier. Yep clicker work wonders for all of us MOL
    Timmy and his nose holding family

    ReplyDelete
  10. Can we ship cat bro Bert to your house for training? We can't train him and Mom doesn't have the patience for clickers. He loves those treats already!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great review. My cats have had these in rabbit and they loved them.

    ReplyDelete
  12. We will have to look into Allie's low calorie treats. Ashton is... umm... thriving on her raw diet. And by thriving, we may mean putting back on that weight it took so long for her to lose.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm not sure I would like that clicker thing, but the treats sound pretty darn good!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Diego sure is a smart kitty! We've tried the Perfect Bites and they get paws up from 2/3rds of us! Guess who didn't like them.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Every time I read about using treat rewards for cats I have to laugh because Raven would probably sniff them and walk away. I guess they would be useful to keep her away from things! I like the idea of spelling out messages using treats. I wonder if that works on husbands. Oh wait, my husband isn't big on treats either.

    ReplyDelete
  16. We enjoyed your review! We tried those treats before and liked them for a few days but then, blech. We have to keep mom guessing you know!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Well I'd say it's a total paws up for those treats at your house..........I've gotten incredibly PICKY about treats AND food but Mom tries things out on me from time to time (usually in my Christmas stocking!).........so who knows what this year will bring - maybe these?!

    Hugs, Sammy

    ReplyDelete
  18. Those treats look yummy! We have never tried clicker training here. Staring intensely with limpid eyes works well for us in most situations. :)

    the critters in the cottage xo

    ReplyDelete
  19. Allie, I also don't appreciate it when Mom L can see I only have one treat left...inconsiderate peeps

    ReplyDelete
  20. Just 1 calorie each sounds great. I wouldn't feel badly about giving a couple of our chubbies several at a time. Thanks for the review. XOCK, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo

    ReplyDelete

Coolio! A comment? For US?