Customer Reviews

C.E.T. Enzymatic Oral Hygiene Chews for Cats, Poultry Flavored

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I'm on my second generation of cats who are growing up using CET Chews. Have you ever tried to brush your cats teeth? If not, trust me, it's not much fun for you or the cat. Still, you've got to do something to help their teeth and gums stay in good shape. That's where the "Chews" come in. My cats think they're getting a treat and mob me when I go for the bag. It took them a couple of tries to figure out the pieces were supposed to be chewed up and eaten, but I simply crumbled up a "chew" and they quickly caught on.

Do they work? Perhaps not as well as brushing, but I can tell you that it cut down on the number of times that my cats needed dental help. Before I started using them I had one cat lose a tooth to decay who got yearly tooth cleaning. After I started the cats on the CET Chews NONE lost any teeth and rarely did they need special cleaning at the vet. They seem to work, and my cats think they're getting a treat instead of a treatment. We give them one "chew" once or twice a week. That seems to be often enough. This product is a winner!

These are not at all what I was expecting, they are called 'chews' but the texture is more like styrofoam wrapped in a clear papery coating and they are much larger than I expected, like a small cork. One of my cats won't even touch them, the other (who will pretty much eat anything) reluctantly accepts them. To be honest they don't look like something that would be appetizing or appealing to a cat, except maybe to bat around as a toy (which I think I did read in someone else's review). If you are thinking of trying these for the first time, I would suggest starting with the small bag - I'm wishing I did but after reading so many good reviews I thought I was safe ordering the larger bag.

CET Chews for Cats (poultry flavor)is an outstanding treat among our cats who now let us know when it is time for their dental treat. If we run out before the new shipment we get sad eyed looks, loud cries, and all the while following us around the house. Also far less plaque buildup - even on our Tonkinese and Abysinians - means fewer trips to the vet.

My initial try with the C.E.T. chews was a couple of years ago. At the time I had mixed results in that some cats tried eating them, but gave up. Same complaint as some of the other reviewers have with the C.E.T. chews ... too big, they roll, and the cats can't get a hold of them. I wrote to the manufacturer and got a most unsatisfactory reply. I stopped using the treats. I have no idea if they are good at preventing dental issues or not. Recently I decided to try again. My cats are bigger (adults now) and my smallest cat manages with a little paw action to get the treat in her mouth. They do seem to like the taste of them... HOWEVER, I switched to the Petrodex chews... same ingredients listed on the bag, also manufactured by Virbac and these treats are half the size of the C.E.T. treats. Still same diameter, however, and they roll... so I have to smash them for a couple of my cats. I think I'd give them 4 stars for taste, 4 stars (5 if they are effective) for formula, 1 star for design. After checking ingredients of dental chews on the market, the C.E.T./Petrodex seem to me to have the best chance of being effective without adding a lot of grains and fillers. I'm glad to read that several long time users have seen improvement on the dental front with them. [...].

I own 2 burmese cats and have always had problems with there teeth. So much that both cats have had to have teeth taken out. I recently went to a new vets and they put me on to CET Oral Hygiene Chews. I thought I would give them a try.

First up my cats went crazy over these chews. My cats normally don't like chews or treats. They pritty much just eat cat food. However they love these chews and they would eat them all if given to them or they could open the container I have them in.

After using them for 4 months, my cats went back to the vets for a checkup. The vets were taken back how effective these chews were. Strange given the vets recommended them to me. No more red gums and only a little build up of plaque.

Almost two years ago, my vet told me that my cats' teeth and gums were in such bad shape that he would have to clean their teeth and pull many of them out! I was horrified even before he estimated that this would cost about $2k for two cats. My cats' previous owner had their little fingertips cut off, and I felt it was inappropriate for me to remove their last remaining defenses even if they are house cats. So I decided to figure out how to save their teeth.

These chews were Step 1 in my tooth-saving campaign. Roswell New Mexico immediately gobbled the first one down, while Miss Minkie decided after watching him that she would take hers into the next room to eat in solitude. If Roswell hadn't dug into his with such gusto, Minkie probably would have taken some persuading. Fortunately it has never come to that.

Yes, these chews are big, and they have a coating that some reviewers think is paper to be removed. Wrong! The whole point of these chews is that the cat has to perforate that clear digestible coating with their needle-like teeth. The physical act of perforating the coating helps to scrape off the plaque. After the tooth has perforated the coating, it is exposed to the dental enzymes in the crunchy part. So the chew is a system, and in my experience it works.

While my cats' gums were still red and horrible looking, Step 2 was to give them poultry flavored feline toothpaste on a brush as a treat. They are adult cats who were semi-feral before their previous owner got them, so they are not naturally trusting. We never developed the actual brushing skill, but I believe the dental enzymes in the toothpaste, which they licked off the bristles as if it were an oddly presented treat, may also have been helpful in healing their gums. I would ask them to take turns jumping up on my desk to get their toothpaste treat, and then I would give them a chew as a reward.

Step 3 in my tooth-saving campaign was to adjust their diet. At the time I was feeding them raw home made food based on the Feline Future diet (which had a miraculous effect on their general health, but that's another story). However, I was double grinding their food so that it was fairly fine in texture. I improved my approach by single grinding the food, so that the bones were much more coarse. This additional texture helped to brush their teeth as they wolfed down their food. In addition, without changing any of the proportions of the recipe, I reserved some raw chicken breast meat from grinding and instead cut it into dice big enough to require some gnawing. This required my cats to use their teeth to perforate their food while eating, just as they would if eating prey in the wild.

After several months of following Steps 1 through 3, my cats' teeth were strong, white, and all there, their gums were firm and showed no inflammation...and I saved $2k. After awhile I stopped giving the toothpaste as a treat (although I still give it occasionally) and now use the chews as treats once or twice a week. Their cat sitter uses the chews as a daily treat when I am out of town, which helps them overcome their natural concerns at a change in their routine. Step 3, the coarse textured food with chewable raw meat in it, is the critical center of my cats' tooth-saving campaign. Like I said, we've been at this for nearly two years, and my cats' teeth and gums are still just gorgeous.

I read another reviewer's comment that his/her cat had bad breath from eating so much protein. My cats, who eat pretty much nothing but raw protein (being obligate carnivores) do not have bad breath, and did not have bad breath even when their gums were inflamed. Fillers like corn are the feline diet equivalent of high fructose corn syrup in the human diet, and I have to wonder if that could cause bad breath in a cat. If you are feeding dry with a lot of fillers, you may wish to consider other options. When I occasionally feed canned, for example, I use PetGuard, which although cooked is at least high quality protein.

If you do not make your own raw cat food, but do give canned food, you can introduce diced raw chicken breast into your cat's diet to see if it will help your cat's teeth as much as it has mine. Try giving these chews plus the toothpaste treat daily, and consider adding diced raw chicken to their canned food to give their teeth something to perforate as they eat.

I hope this helps others whose cats have dental problems. Good luck and try these chews as part of your tooth-saving campaign!

...because these chews? Are GINORMOUS. My cat can't get his mouth around them well enough to get a good chomp down. We have to break them up into little pieces, which I suspect defeats the purpose of the plaque-busting casing that the enzymatic goodness comes in. The stuff crumbles all over the place, makes a mess, and smells horrible -- I certainly haven't noticed an improvement in my cat's breath since we started using them. I'll give them two stars because Kitty seems to think they taste good, but it's a reluctant two stars at best.

I got these treats at my vet's recommendation. Apparently these treats are purposely big so the cat has to gnaw at it quite a bit to consume it. Also you are supposed to leave them intact to promote the gnawing which removes plaque from the back teeth. My cats did not like these at first, but I got them to like the treat by cutting one in half and letting them alternately lick it (while I held it) and bat it around the floor. Eventually after a few sessions of this, they realized they liked the taste of it and went through the effort of getting their mouths around it. Now they eat them whole, with great relish! However they like them so much, I have to leave enough distance between kitties that they don't get possessive - there was a little growling at one point ("my treat!!"). Also I feed these on the carpet so they stay put and don't get batted around (otherwise there would be crumbs everywhere). Now kitties love them & look forward to them daily.

My cat Clancy loves the poultry flavored toothpaste and I use it on him daily so I purchased the treats thinking he would like this. He has eaten just one piece of the treats! The pieces are very large, probably better for a dog. The only way I could get him to eat one piece was to chop it into smaller pieces and just mix in his food bowl.

Clancy is a Ragdoll and weighs nearly 15 pounds and the size of the pieces was a problem. It might be more appealing if the size of the treat was reduced to maybe a quarter of the current size. It is too large for a cat. The manufacturer may want to check the size of "Temptation" cat treats which is more appropiate for a cat.

I would not recomment this product to anyone mostly due to the size.

Our cat loves these. It was recommended to me from my mom. At first our cat didn't like them, she would sniff and lick them but as time went on she craves for them on a daily basis. The earlier you get them on these, the better!