How to Break the Treat Habit

[happilyretired]

My current girl is a rescue (thrown out of a car when she was about 3 yrs. old), and she's the only cat of mine who 'hid' when she arrived--for two weeks. The people on this board were enormously helpful in getting me through that time. It was 'treats' that eventually won her over, and she's become a total love bug.

She's been with me for 5 years now, and although she's only gained about a pound, she's 13.5 lbs, and my vet suggests she should be a little less. She actually doesn't eat that much--I'm at fault. Because of her 'tragic past,' I tend to feed too many treats, and now she's come to expect them. I feel heartless if I ignore her.

Any advice for me in cutting back on the treats? It's mainly Greenies Indoor Cat.

 

[Kflowers]

We have a pudge factor too. What we do is use Dr. Elsey's pure chicken regular dry food as a treat (and because I was trying to get SG where she could tolerate chicken. That worked if the amount is small.) The treats are dispensed twice a day - once when people have lunch and later when the puppy has dinner. Each time, I count out 5 of the little kibbles and throw each one for SG to chase. I keep to the same pattern of where I throw so she doesn't miss any. Total 10 treats or pieces of the kibble a day.

When we tried cat treats she got rather frantic about them. We started with Party Mix -- frantic. Moved to healthy treats that had blueberries or cranberries in them. SG lost interest. That is one way to let kitty feel it's her choice to not get treats. Then you can move to another form.

 

[Tobermory]

What we do is use Dr. Elsey's pure chicken regular dry food as a treat

I do the same thing! I feed only wet food, but I give the Dr. Elsey’s chicken kibble as a treat. They each get five pieces in the morning and the evening. The pieces are so small that you could spread it out during the day if your kitty swears up and down that she’s going to keel over if she doesn’t get a treat.

I do keep the bag in the fridge because it lasts so long using the kibble as only a treat. I don’t want the kibble to get rancid.

And when she gives you those pathetic looks, be strong!

 

[Alldara]

I also use kibbles are a treat. They tend to be lower calories and at least they're nutritionally "whole".

You can also start with just giving less per treat session.

 

[RainBoots]

I have no advice, because my husband had to stop me from giving cheese to our darling tonight, but I wanted to stop by and offer a hug. It is so hard to retrain ourselves!

 

[heatherwillard0614]

Seems I'm a little late to the party.. What others have mentioned about giving a good quality dry as her treat.. I have seen it work very well for kitties addicted to treats lol..
I think K Kflowers has a great idea about getting treats she won't be interested in so it is her choice to go from her favorite treats to kibble.
I hope it works, please keep us posted.