It's kind of like potato chips. Unhealthy but an occasional indulgence won't do any harm. Like kids, cats will eat anything that tastes good to them and may even get addicted and refuse to eat anything else. So limit any treat to a few pieces a week or so.
Healthy treats to give are freeze dried meat treats. There are various brands: PureBites, Halo Liv-A-Littles, Vital Essentials, Northwest Naturals, etc.
With most treats like those (the cheap kibble like ones) I think of like each treat as a cookie, so if I buy them my cats only get a few each and not everyday. I've bought them PureBites chicken, and they love them (so do the dogs). It's just freeze dried chicken, nothing else added. They have other flavors too but I've only tried out the chicken and chicken with catnip so far.
My problem is, it started out as a treat, but turned into dinner.
Spoiled her.
Found out it is not really good for her.
But she still looks for it at dinner time.
If I could find something to replace it, that is good for her, all will be good.
I know treats, like chips, are not suppose to be meals.
But since I already spoiled her, I'd like to keep her happy.
Cats I've had in the past, ate almost anything. All males.
This one, female, is just a finicky eater.
She will be happier if she is healthy, even something like plain freeze dried meat, although a healthy treat, is not a complete meal and will cause malnutrition issues. There are no treats that can replace whole meals, however the freeze dried meats can be sprinkled on top of the food as a topper. I don't see a problem giving them everyday in addition to the food. PureBites for example I know even makes a specific food topper product but there are several other brands that make toppers as well, maybe something like that would work?
You might look at the friskies natural party mix. It’s ingredients are quite a bit better. If she doesn’t like healthier options she might like those at least. You definitely only wanna give 5-10 kibbles MAX a day. If she likes them around dinner perhaps you can sprinkle a few of the naturals on her dinner or some wet kitty food for a dessert type meal after her real dinner.
Lots of good suggestions.
Have them written down, so i can go to see what is available here.
I didn't know there was a natural party mix. I may have to look for that.
Towards the end, I was putting a few of the party mix under the Purina one.
She would dig out the party mix and eat it first, then come back later and eat the purina one.
Spoiled cat.
Party Mix is what I fed my cat when I first met her and was trying to make friends with her. She loved them and lives with me now so obviously it worked. They're not the healthiest though, so I now feed her the hairball tuna Greenies - she is completely obsessed with these and they don't constipate her like other dry treats have done before.