Fish Bone Cat Dental Chew Toy with Silvervine

You've never once managed to brush her teeth. Every cat owner has tried it. The brush, the meat-flavored paste, the towel wrap. She got a paw free, you got a scratch, and the tube has lived at the back of a drawer ever since.

This fish bone cat dental chew toy works the other way around. She picks it up because she wants to, and does the chewing herself, on silvervine wood that reaches plenty of cats who shrug at catnip.

Somewhere else to put the chewing:

• Long nose to tail: too long to swallow whole, and light enough for her to carry from room to room
• Three plant materials: catnip, gall fruit and silvervine wood in one toy rather than a single filling
• For the cord chewers: somewhere to put the habit that's currently going into cables and houseplants
• Nothing added: pressed catnip, gall fruit and silvervine wood, and nothing else
• From six months: supervised, like any chew

Three plants, one fish. The head is pressed organic catnip, the tail is organic gall fruit, and the bones between them are silvervine wood. The catnip draws her in and starts the play. The wood is what she actually gnaws on.

Silvervine sticks are hard and slightly fibrous, and a cat gnaws them side-on between the back teeth rather than nibbling at the front. That's simply where the chewing happens with a stick this shape.

It's a toy for the chewing instinct, not a treatment, and it doesn't replace a veterinary cleaning.

Some cats carry it around all day. The fish shape gives her something to pick up and take with her, which is the difference between a toy that gets one session and one that lives on the living room floor for a month.

Getting the size right

One size. The fish is 7 in (17.8 cm) nose to tail and 2.6 in (6.5 cm) tall.

That's long enough that it can't be swallowed whole, light enough for a cat to carry in her mouth, and small enough to end up under the sofa like everything else.

Specifications

• Type: Fish shaped chew toy on silvervine wood sticks
• Head: Organic catnip
• Tail: Organic gall fruit
• Bones: Natural silvervine wood sticks
• Size: 7 in (17.8 cm) long, 2.6 in (6.5 cm) tall
• Use: From 6 months, supervised chewing, replace when the sticks wear down

Safety note: Supervise chewing and take the toy away once the sticks are worn down or splintering, so no loose pieces are swallowed. Not for kittens under six months.

Drop it on the floor where she already chews the cables, and let her keep the habit she has on something that's meant for it.