VetriScience Composure Calming Chews for Cats – Supports Relaxation & Balanced Behavior During Travel & Vet Visits, Daily Stress & Anxiety Support Supplement, Trout Flavor, 30 Count

Our cat was a feral rescue we got as a kitten. She has spent the last 8 years indoors and spends a majority of her day sleeping, hiding, and running when you want to snuggle, pet, or just show any small amount of affection. We typically see her twice a day when she demands to be fed. Typically an hour or two before it's her designated feeding time. She has had a couple of big moves and suffers from terrible anxiety. When she was a kitten she endured a 17 hour drive without eating or drinking anything and cried the entire time. It was heartbreaking. She hid for a week straight. Then a few years later we had a very short distance move and the stress from that made her even more nervous and less trusting. She was finally getting comfortable being out during the day and about that time we found out we were going to be moving to Hawaii. Instantly memories of her distressed crying for the majority of a 17 hour drive came flashing back and I talked to the Veterinarian about our options to make the flight possible. She was going to be flying in the cabin and I knew if she was under severe distress there was a possibility she couldn't fly. Plus I didn't want to subject others to the awful sounds of those throaty cries. The Vet said that we could use an antihistamine to make her sleepy as airlines don't allow animals to be "drugged" and seemingly out of it. I really didn't like the sound of attempting to give our family pet a medication designated for humans but heard it was quite successful for many in long distance moves and flights. Well it didn't work. I tried every recommendation the Vet and internet had to offer on getting our cat to eat a small amount of the antihistamine and all it resulted in was our cat being under so much stress she was literally foaming at the mouth. Then she didn't trust me and if I fed her at meal times she wouldn't eat. It was very sad and I felt terrible. It was then that I began researching homeopathic remedies to ease some of cat's tension and make her less jumpy and more trusting. She isn't a vicious cat, and many who have ever came over often forget we even have a cat until she makes a cameo appearance in a social media photo. We've had people stay for a week and never saw her. We used to make her wear a collar with a bell just so we knew she was still around. I ended up with these and a couple other items in the shopping cart in an attempt to make the upcoming move more tolerable for our fluffy feline. I began giving her the recommended 1-2 per day with her daily feeding schedule a couple weeks prior to our move. We noticed a change almost immediately. She was no longer rushing around trying to hide if someone acknowledged her fluffy presence, and was sleeping right in the middle of the entire family. Usually she only trusts my husband and myself and our child are shunned. The Vet said we could likely give her more than the recommended dose on highly stressful days and she would be okay. She is 17+lbs so the morning of the move I gave her two treats right away, then one prior to boarding and one every 2-4 hours depending how much she was moving around. She was easy to take out of the carrier for TSA (Using a leash and harness in case she panicked and fled) and easy to put back in. She didn't meow the entire day, and moved around a few times on the flight. I gave her another treat prior to her being taken to be checked at the animal quarantine station after getting off our flight and they said she was very calm. A little nervous but didn't try to run or hide. Big life events are often stressful for pets. I wish I would have found these much earlier in her life because I feel like she has spent so much time hiding away. These have given her new life and she can often be found snuggling up with our 6 year old or making sure she's right in the line of activity so she can get all the pets! These were a life saver during our move and we still give them to her because she likes them and it makes her more at ease. They make her a little sleepier than usual but she now prefers to cuddle up instead of slinking off under a bed or in some dark corner hidden away from sight. We no longer have the collar on her as she makes sure she is seen at all times of the day. I highly recommend these treats! Our cat hears the sound of the bag and will come running up purring for a treat! These do have a bit of a vitamin like smell to them, but our cat doesn't seem to mind that at all. When we purchased a larger bag of treats some of them were harder than others and we just broke them into smaller pieces. They are a bit larger in size than typical cat treats so if you have an older cat or a cat who has a hard time chewing I recommend breaking the treats into smaller bits and you could even try mixing with wet food. These have changed the dynamic in our house so much as we all are able to provide lots of pets and loves to our fluffy feline now that she's more relaxed. Definitely give these a try! I know that these may not be ideal for all cats, but they're at least worth a try!

Update 11/3/2020: I'm cancelling my subscription to this product. Over the last three monthly deliveries the quality has steeply declined. Each delivery has come more hard and stale. Where my cat eagerly glomped them down in during the first few months, she is now flat-out is refusing to eat them because she is having a hard time chewing them. I've noticed a problem when I break them in half for her, so it's not just her. They used to break apart cleanly because they were soft chews. Now? Not so much. They tend to crumble because they are hard. So, yeah, the quality has declined a lot. Three stars because she used to love them and it used to work for her, but they are useless if she can't chew and eat them. ---end of edit--- Update 6/8/2020: My foster cat got adopted! I passed these chews along to the adopter and let her know how I was using them. The adopter didn't use them - at all. Now I'm not saying that the chews were essential, but in addition to the stress of the move, she also lost a calming agent. My girl freaked out. When the adopter brought her back she officially became a foster fail. She is sleeping peacefully beside me as MY adopted former colony cat. She's still skittish when there are loud noises and still seeks out places to hide occasionally, but she's mostly calm and happy. I'm going to give partial credit to the chews, which she loves. ---End of edit I'm fostering a former colony cat during the pandemic. She's very skittish and human shy. Noises scare her. I purchased this with the attitude of "Why not? It certainly can't hurt." Over the past month or two I noticed major improvements in her behavior. She's now at the point where she's lolling in a chair and softly batting our hands to be petted now. I was very proud of all our efforts to calm her and give her a safe space when she needs it. Then I forgot to give her one of the VetriScience Calming Chews when she came out as she normally does in the morning. She did not want to be petted and behaved skittishly. Eventually, she went to her 'safe space' behind a chair. She hid the entire day and only came out very late at night. The next morning I gave her a chew and was able to enjoy her company for most of the day. I really think that with all herbal remedies, it varies from animal to animal. But, it has made a huge difference in the way our cat lives in a short amount of time.

These calming treats do work pretty good. I have a 6 year old female cat and recently got a kitten. My 6 yr old cat doesn't like the kitten very much and was growing & hissing at her a lot . These treats help the 6 yr old not hide away all day. She still hisses and growls at the kitten but not as much. I do not like the fact that the treats are really big and they are hard and way too big for my cat just to eat as a treat so I have to smush it up and it turns into like a powder and I have to mix it with her wet food and unfortunately when I get her wet food she sometimes has diarrhea and gets it all over her white fur. If I could change 1 thing about the treat it would be the size . They need to be smaller. You're supposed to give your cat one treat a day. Well if they were smaller you could give them two treats instead of one & that would help big time

First of all my cat could not eat them whole because they are super big.I cut them in 4 and she ate them mixed in her regular food. Be aware....my cat trow up a couple of times after eating these and had soft stool and you can't return them.

...piu' che altro perché dopo 2 giorni di assunzione gli ha dato problemi intestinali e ho dovuto sospenderlo. Ma il mio gatto e' sensibile di suo ai cibi, quindi di sicuro per altri gatti andra' bene. Posso dire che dopo mezz'ora dalla somministrazione dormiva che era una meraviglia, anche se il problema per cui lo ho acquistato era di smorzare la tensione che lui ha nei confronti dell'altro gatto di casa….lo aggredisce spesso per gelosia...un vero peccato che non abbia avuto la possibilità di testare bene il prodotto. Spedizione perfetta come sempre. Grazie Amazon.

Update: Sadly this product was only effective for a few days combined with his prescription med and then not at all, even with the max number of treats given. We ultimately had to max his dose of prescription medication and have started with a dog CBD treat. Not optimal but we are working with what we have available. I was really hopeful but hopes were dashed. I think this may work well for cats for temporary measures like a vet visit but was definitely not the answer for us. We have a 6 year old cat with significant behavioural issues. He has been under vet care for his issues for almost 4 years. We have used multiple prescription medications combined with CBD and Felaway for Friends diffusers in our upstairs and downstairs zones. These helped but definitely not a cure. Slowed his inappropriate urinating and spraying (yes he is neutered and it didn’t start until he was over 2) to sometimes once a week to once a day which was a huge improvement to what was happening at the beginning. Often times we were at a loss for what to do. We learned that the CBD cat treats we can get him to take masked with pate treat are not available with no ETA. So this brings us to trying this composure treat as an alternative. It arrived the next day as promised. He started this yesterday morning and no problem giving it to him. Boy loves them. He might be a little sad he is only getting 1 in the morning and 1 12 hours later. I really don’t know yet if it will be a long term fix BUT he was a different boy yesterday after just 1 treat. No aggression to the other 2 cats and no inappropriate urinating. He showed his affectionate side without obsession. I lowered his prescription med in half (cannot eliminate cold turkey) but hoping to be able to eliminate this med over the next few days. We will see if it works for the long term but seeing favourable results so far. Fingers crossed.

so stinky can't even put in cat's food. disappointing

My cats hate them and I can't get a refund. The cats smell them, suspect its medicine, one attempted to bite into the treat but they are too big to chew easily making crumbs everywhere, then they just walk away from the half eaten "treat" leaving me with a mess to clean up and my cat is still anxious. I wouldn't recommend if your cat is fussy with food.