These cat treats are essentially little nuggets of animal digest which, while not necessarily unhealthy in moderate quantities, are clearly addictive to a lot of cats. A web search for "my cat is addicted to Temptations" will show that my experience was not unique.

My parents give their cats Temptations. While I was living with them, they would give them to my cat too. My cat, who had previously had a pretty normal attraction to food, became transfixed on the pantry where he knew the Temptations were stored. He was no longer interested in my company, and only sought me out so he could lure me to the kitchen where he would sit and stare at that closed pantry door. When I opened it, he'd start yowling and fighting to get inside. Sometimes he would even attack my leg if I tried leaving the kitchen without giving him a Temptation. It was shocking and upsetting to see my sweet, gentle little cat acting this way. I'd known this cat for 5 or so years at this point, and it completely changed his personality. He just didn't give a shit about anything but his next Temptation.

I established new rules for cat treats. They are not to be stored in open containers, they are not to be stored at cat height, and they are not to be fed to my cat. Ever. After a few weeks, his temperament returned to normal, but a mild fixation on that bottom shelf of the pantry lingered for much longer.

[–] arrow74@lemmy.zip 28 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I worked at a pet store back in college and this old lady would sometimes come in and load 2 carts top to bottom with temptations. She said it was the only "food" her cat would eat. I tried to tell her it wasn't food, but no luck.

I wonder if her situation started in a similar way to your story.

[–] CanadianCarl@sh.itjust.works 7 points 18 hours ago

I feel bad for that cat. I also knew someone who bragged about having their cat declawed.

[–] SGforce@lemmy.ca 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Friend's cat got fatty liver disease from them. Cat knew to bug each person living there one after the other for an infinite supply.

[–] hazl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 17 hours ago

Tragic, and so reminiscent of addict behaviour in humans. Always with the "one last hit".

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago (3 children)

The fuck? Is this a real story? My husband tosses the cats 2-3 of those when he gets up, they still eat normally and never ask me for them. And one of them is a motherfucker who will try to steal the salmon or chicken if we cook either of those, and the other will tear into the dog food bag if we don't decant it into a stronger container. They do request catnip at teatime if I'm home. The cabinet door doesn't even close all the way, they really and truly don't care, they leave it alone. I've never had a cat react that way to those treats.

[–] TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 hours ago

my own cat hardly cares about them, she won't even eat it half of the time
my dads cat however is 100% like the cat in the message above. He's very sweet but is hella addicted. He won't attack however, just meow forever.

we trained him to do tricks though so its a fair tradeoff. No plans to get him off then, just don't give into his meows bc then he'll only meow more

[–] Juice@midwest.social 3 points 14 hours ago

Every kitty's body is different, probably

[–] hazl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 13 hours ago

True story, but only one of the three cats in that house went full crackhead over them. I guess some cats are more vulnerable to addiction than others.

[–] Goodman@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 15 hours ago

Thanks for taking the time to respond, but that sounds genuinely aweful. I've had these treats for my cat as well, but I didn't realize that they could be that addictive.

[–] meliante@lemmy.pt 0 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Nice pasta.

[–] Redjard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Search engines don't find any of the snippets I checked, are you sure it is? Looks unique to me.

[–] meliante@lemmy.pt 4 points 18 hours ago

A pasta starts somewhere.