Small salmon rewards for brushing and nail trims

Salmon treats for cat grooming at home are small bits of freeze-dried salmon, handed over after an action you wanted, such as a brush stroke or a trimmed nail. For a cat the salmon goes out in small pieces only, in an amount your vet gives you. Keep the pouch closed within reach.

When do you hand out salmon during cat grooming?

After the action, not before it. The bit pays for something that just happened: a stroke of the brush, a paw offered, a nail finished. If nothing you wanted happens, no bit goes out, and that is fine too.

How to trim a nail, where to cut and how far, are questions for your vet or a groomer.

The bits themselves are small. Our listing says cats can have the salmon, broken small or crumbled over food, and the pieces come medium sized, so you snap each one down before you start. The pieces include skin; those bits get snapped just as small as the rest. Snapping the bits means handling salmon that was raw before it was freeze-dried, and the bag is clear about that part: "Wash your hands after handling it."

How do you pair salmon bits with brushing?

Set up before the first stroke, in this order:

1. Break the salmon into small bits and park them where the cat cannot get at them.
2. Keep the closed pouch within your own reach.
3. Have the brush or clippers ready.
4. Pay a bit after the action you want.
5. Stop whenever you decide the session is over.
6. Close the pouch the way the bag says, and wash your hands after, as it also says.

Then you brush, and when the cat gives you the thing you were after, one bit follows. What counts as the thing is your call: letting the brush touch, one finished pass, staying put. Decide it before you start and pay for that same action all session.

The bit is a payment for an action. The brush does the rest of the job.

How do you reward a cat during a nail trim?

The same way: pay after the action, since the bit goes with something that has already happened. Nail trims are a separate job from brushing, so give the bits their own setup. Snap a new set of bits, shut the pouch and keep the clippers where you can reach them. A finished nail earns its bit when the clippers come away, not while they are still in your hand. If the cat pulls its paw back, let it go and pay nothing for that nail; wait for the next finished one, or end the session there.

Keep the tools and the pouch apart. The pouch stays closed and the bits stay in a spot where the cat cannot get to them, because you want to be the one handing them over.

The bag also asks for supervision while feeding, in these words: "Provide fresh water and supervise while feeding." You are right there with the cat during grooming, so the supervising is covered, and the water just needs to be somewhere your cat can find it.

How much salmon fits into a grooming session?

That is a question for your cat's vet. The calculator on our product page is a dog tool, and neither its 10 percent setting nor its calorie figure carries over to a cat.

Whatever amount the vet gives is for the day, and a grooming session's bits come out of it. Take the pouch along when you ask, so the vet can read the guaranteed analysis printed on its label. Salmon here is an extra on top of a cat's own meals. The bag says: "Not intended as a complete diet."

For the cat basics on the pouch itself, see the cats page, and the guides hub has the other how-to pages.