I’ve never been more grateful that I’ve weaned Buddy off of Temptations.
The treats, which are famously irresistible to cats thanks to some strange alchemy that definitely isn’t healthy for them, now come in Tasty Human flavor in a new promotion for Halloween. (They’re heavy on corn and other fillers, as usual, but the meat ingredients in Tasty Human flavor come from chicken, liver and beef. Apparently we taste like KFC and burgers.)
The commercial spots are clever and humorous.
“I read that if our cats were bigger, they’d try to eat us!” a man whispers as ominous music plays and his cute cat grooms himself in the background. “So this Halloween, I’m gonna keep him satisfied with these.”
The man tosses a nervous look over his shoulder at his cat as the music swells with a horror movie-style orchestral stab, then he shakes the bag.
I won’t be buying any.
The popular cat treats are made by Mars, the almost $40 billion pet food and candy multinational that has had its own significant controversies, particularly with the use of slave labor in sourcing particular ingredients. Many of its pet food brands, such as Whiskas, are loaded with cheap carbohydrates and use by-product meal as their primary protein sources.
But I stopped feeding the Budster Temptations before I knew any of that, and for an entirely different reason: The little guy turned into a full-fledged kitty crack addict when he ate them.
Like any cat, Bud loves his treats, but when I fed him Temptations he had a one-track mind: The first thing he’d do in the morning was follow me to the kitchen, sit in front of the treat cabinet and meow incessantly for his precious Temps. It got to the point where he was turning his nose up at wet food he’d always liked and pestering me for Temptations instead. He was going full-on Gollum from Lord of the Rings.
I weaned him off once, stupidly folded less than a year later when I bought a bag for him on impulse (we were out of treats and the grocery store did not have any other kind), and had to wean him off the kitty crack a second time when he returned to his cracktastic ways.
Nowadays the little dude gets natural treats with non by-product meat as the main ingredients, and he behaves like a normal cat: He still loves his snacks, but he doesn’t ignore his wet food and howl at me for kitty crack.
tl;dr: Serve the Temps at your own risk. 🙂
Pain In The Bud 
Aren’t humans supposed to taste like pork? Aka “long pig”?
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I’ll ask Buddy, he’s an expert in biting humans.
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Be careful when you ask!
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My clowder has never been given Temptations. The addiction angle was scary enough.
Btw, unless I am mistaken, Mars is also the parent company of a major veterinary clinic organization who refuses to ban declawing in their practices. Mars will not get any of my money if I can help it.
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I did not know that so I looked it up and Mars’ veterinary division stopped doing elective declawing in 2020. That’s still way too long to be mutilating cats. I’m glad they no longer do it, but it shows that veterinary groups are usually among the biggest proponents of declawing because it’s a money maker. Here in New York, the state veterinary lobby was adamantly opposed to the declawing ban.
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Yes, Bravo to New York! My own state of California could have been the first state, but its leaders enjoy that vet money too much to ban declawing. Nevada recently balked at legislation also. I don’t understand how this mutilation is still accepted by so many as the norm. Sick.
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I never understood the point of cat treats. They’re empty calories, they cost money, and – at least in the case of Temptations – turns cats into wild-eyed addicts. My cats DO get treats: we have catnip parties, we play with the laser pointer, they get taken for spins on my revolving office chair (which, amazingly, they actually enjoy), they get to lick mostly empty bowls that held tuna or ice cream. .
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Because they like them and it’s nice to give them a treat once in a while. It’s not like it’s their main food source. People make a huge deal out of it but dang a couple treats here and there isn’t going to be a problem unless you have a cat that can’t control itself. Ok so they are empty calories but our 8 love them so we give them some once in a while.
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There are healthy treats too, thankfully, and anything that a cat likes but doesn’t get all the time can be used as a treat. For Bud it’s cheese. Tiny cubes of Gouda or American that he gets once in a while.
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