Over the years, many cat owners have complained that temptation treats have acted like ‘poison for their cats’ health. But have they really? Even though these statements have not been investigated by pet food experts yet, let’s look at the facts and figures and logically determine if temptation treats are good for cats. So Are Temptations treats good for cats or not?
In this article, we will go over what exactly temptation treats are, their ingredients, and whether they are good for your cat. Let’s dive in.
Is it safe to give treats to your cat?
Before we touch on the topic of temptation treats, have you ever thought about why cats are given treats? Isn’t feeding them regular food enough?
Cats don’t need treats, but they can be given treats as a method of appreciation. Treats are a ‘treat’ for your cat; they can be addictive if given too many too often.
While your cat may expect a treat often depending on how you train it, you should keep in mind that not each treat but you pick from the cat food store is going to be healthy for your cat.
Many brands that create cat treats do not use good quality ingredients, and this, in turn, affects the health of your cat.
A good treat is supposed to have good nutritional value and a delicious taste so that it feels like a treat to the cat.
Therefore, if the constituents of the treats are unhealthy, it is best to avoid feeding any kind of treats to your cat altogether.
What are tempting cat treats?
Yes, almost all treats are tempting for cats, but this is different. Temptations is a renowned brand that sells a vast variety of cat treats.
It is meant to be used to treat your cat and is in no way a means to replace regular food. They even warn cat owners not to do this exchange, and use treats occasionally, as they are meant.
Temptation cat treats can be addictive for cats, so don’t be surprised if your cat asks for more after eating a good amount.
However, in many cases, cats that ingested temptation treats have fallen ill and many have required serious medical attention, which raised many questions about what exactly is added in temptations treats.
Speaking of which, let’s look at the ingredients breakdown of temptations treats for cats.
Temptation cat treats ingredients
As mentioned above, temptations treats have many different varieties and flavors, so naturally, not all of them will have the same ingredients. But the base ingredients are mostly alike so we’ll mention them here for some context:
- Wheat Flour
- Natural and Artificial flavoring
- Salt
- Meat by-products
- Animal fat
- Chemicals and preservatives
- Cheese
- Vitamin and mineral extracts
- Corn
These are all the summarized ingredients you will find on the product label, plus-minus the flavors and varieties.
Let’s look into some of these a little more closely.
Corn and corn-based ingredients
Not only is a large portion of corn added in temptations, but it is also commonly added in many cat foods despite it causing allergies to cats.
Corn itself isn’t harmful, but if it is processed and mixed with various seasonings in the food, then it can cause allergic reactions and make your cat sick.
Besides corn, other such grains and ingredients with corn can cause an increase in the carbohydrate levels of your cat which is not good for it.
Other grains can be anything like:
- Canola
- Soy
- Non-organic Salmon
- Cottonseed
While digesting these grains the liver of the cat exerts a lot of effort so this can cause liver problems as well.
Animal Fat
Many inexperienced cat owners think that animal fat is good for the cat because after all, cats need fat right?
But they couldn’t be more wrong. Cats need fat, yes, but not saturated fats. They need fats that are unsaturated and in a regulated amount, such as fish oil, or just fish.
Animal fat is an example of saturated fat. However, the label of temptations treats can be a bit misleading; they don’t mention the type of fats included in the vague term ‘animal fat’.
Well, ‘animal fat’ in temptations includes the skin and fat from injured, wounded, dead, and even animals with some sort of disease.
Not only is this ethical, but also very harmful for cats. Of course, they make it taste all nice and yummy with flavorings, because who will know where the fats come from?
Meat by-products
As per Google, by-products mean, “An unintended but inevitable secondary result.”
Based on this definition, and the examples around us, we can conclude that by-products aren’t something we should reuse, because it provides no benefit.
Talking about temptations, meat by-products usage is very common, and they use a variety of those as well.
Some of the examples of waste products that are used are:
- Livers
- Lungs
- Chicken feet
- Brain
- Kidney
- Intestines
- Head
- Improperly developed eggs
- Stomach
These by-products are kept in the worst conditions before being processed into the cat food. They are even let to be kept in warm conditions where they can become breeding grounds for bacteria and parasites, and then the same thing is passed into the treats.
So the next time you purchase a pack of treats for your feline friend, look closely at the labels and if it says meat by-products, then chances are that the waste of dead zoo animals, euthanized pets, and dying animals was used to profit off with the treats.
Final verdict: Are tempting cat treats good for cats?
It might be scary to even let your cat near temptations after hearing about the poisoning of many cats by the same food.
But you should know that even though temptations uses some very questionable ingredients in its products, the complaints of poisoning and death of cats could have other reasons attached to it.
Temptations treats are mostly intended for adult cats, maybe a cat that was fed the treats already had a disease that went undiagnosed and caused death.
There are not many ways to find out if the ingredients mentioned above will harm your cat. But there is always a risk because they have individually been declared harmful by food experts.
It is, without a doubt, your job as a cat owner to cross-check all the ingredients of whatever treats you feed your cat. This is the only way you can protect your cats’ health and save it from unwanted allergies and possible fatality.
That said, there are better and healthier treat options than temptation treats available which will tick all your boxes, and make your cat satisfied. We would advise you to avoid using temptations because it is not good for cats.
Temptations treats alternative
You can try to feed your cat temptations treats if the above ingredients satisfy you, or you can choose to feed your cat an alternate, healthier treat for being a good cat.
Some similar brand options available in the market are:
- Purina cat treats
- Instinct cat treats
- Icelandic cat treats
- Orijen cat treats
- Fruitables cat treats
Some of these brands have their drawbacks, but as per our analysis, the products used by temptations are much worse.
Purina’s Fancy feast and Friskies are good options too, but they have their own set of limitations. Always weigh the pros and cons before sticking to a certain brand of treats for your cat.
Do note that every treat you feed your cat should be in moderation; excessive intake will cause health problems down the line because as we said, treats are not a replacement for actual cat food.
Conclusion
Overall, temptations cat treats have a few unethical and harmful ingredients added in, which makes us wonder why this food is declared safe for cats.
Surely many other cat owners wonder the same thing after hearing cases about cat poisoning and other diseases.
Some of the harmful ingredients in the treats are corn and corn-based products, animal-saturated fats, artificial flavoring, and animal by-product additions.
We do not recommend temptations for cats, especially if it is young cats because it can be fatal if a severe allergy arises.
Lastly, if you treat your adult cat with temptations and notice signs of allergies or any other problem, make sure you take your cat to the vet immediately for a checkup.
It is also a good practice to choose a treats brand for your cat after consulting your vet. You don’t want to slowly kill your cat with the wrong choice of treats.
