"Hey, wait just a doggone minute," I hear you saying. (I have exceptionally good hearing.) "Those are not Trader Joe's cat treats. You didn't even start the blog post title with 'Trader Joe's.'"
Estimating just from what I see on the shelves at my local TJ's, I would guess that about 95% of the items (excluding alcoholic beverages) sold there are, indeed, branded by Trader Joe's. (Who actually makes them is information that TJ's never discloses.) This particular item is one of the rare ones sold by TJ's without its own branding. So I claim it's a legitimate subject for this blog, despite the lack of the TJ's name.
If I had looked at the list of ingredients while I was in the store, I never would have purchased this. Lucy (my cat) doesn't like fish, or anything fishy. Heck, she won't even listen to Phish! And the first ingredient here is "Anchovy & Sardine Meal." So it's no surprise that she turns up her adorable little nose at these fish-shaped morsels.
Lucy has three different kinds of treats kept in my desk drawer. (OK, it's more of a cubby-hole cleverly disguised as a drawer. Whatever.) When she wants one, she sits down next to that drawer and looks up at me with begging eyes.
Would you like to see what happens when I give her one of what I call her "sardine treats" instead of one of the two kinds she actually likes? Of course you would.
(Please note that this blog is now officially "multi-media.")
Anyway, you can see that she walks away rather than stoop to eating these things. However, she always comes back later, when she's a little hungrier, and reluctantly nibbles it from the floor, before returning to her begging spot to try for something better. That's why I keep giving them to her, one a day. They are, after all, high in protein, high in omega oils, and low in carbs. I imagine that they're good for her, though what I know about cat nutrition would fit inside one of these treats. But once these are gone, I won't buy more. It's a lot more fun to give her things she actually enjoys.
Will I buy it again?
Weren't you listening? I just answered that: No.
Addendum
The day after I shot that little video, Lucy upped her game. She didn't even wait to sniff the treat to find out whether it was one she wanted. She apparently now recognizes which container holds the icky treats--and she walked away haughtily as soon as I brought it out.
Addendum #2
Now it has been another several days since I wrote that, and she has stopped coming back to eat the fish treats altogether. I'm giving up on them. I'll see if Nina's cat likes them.
Bonus cat video
If you want to see how Lucy reacts when she really likes a treat, you can amuse yourself for ten minutes with this recording of her first experience with a chunk of freeze-dried turkey meat from a company called "Whole Life." She was already a few minutes into this frenzy when I picked up my camera and started recording. Short version: She goes bonkers for it.
Nina's View
Loki LURVES these treats, which should be no surprise since he's quite happy to eat fishy-flavored food. He likes them better than the Greenies which are his usual reward for Kitty Excellence.
Nina's View
ReplyDeleteLoki LURVES these treats, which should be no surprise since he's quite happy to eat fishy-flavored food. He likes them better than the Greenies which are his usual reward for Kitty Excellence.