What’s in a cat treat that makes it at treat? With people, fat and sugar usually do the trick. But cat treats seem to have ingredients similar to food.
Not necessarily. Cat treats could absolutely contain junk food ingredients like salt and sugar/sorbitol, for example. (as well as starch, food colouring, cereal grains, mystery meat…)
I suspect that like people treats, the difference is palatability at the expense of nutritional balance.
Human treats are full of nutrients that we physiologically crave but only need in small quantities, like simple sugar or fat or salt.
Cat treats are typically very calorically dense, so they can easily contribute to obesity. They are also unbalanced in being higher protein for their small serving size, which is what makes them attractive. Even though the majority of a cat’s diet should be protein, I have the impression that treats cross over into “too much” territory (probably because of their concentration).
Relevant anecdote: in the late '90s, when I was working at Quaker Oats, the woman who ran our division was partially responsible for creating the cat-treat category, earlier in her career.
At that time, Quaker had a pet-food division, making brands like 9 Lives, Kibbles’n Bits, and Cycle. At that time, while dog treats (Milk Bone, Liv-a-Snaps, etc.) were popular, there really wasn’t a “cat treat” category, as people generally thought that cats didn’t care about them.
My former colleague was, at that point, a brand manager in Quaker’s pet food group, and they were doing some testing of a new formulation of cat kibble. She owned a cat, and took some samples of the new formulation home – and discovered that her cat was just mad for it. That gave her an idea for there possibly being a market for treats for cats; she talked with her R&D person, who said, “that prototype doesn’t taste that great – I can make something that will be even tastier.” (I don’t know exactly what the R&D person did to “make it tastier,” though I imagine that it was largely what @gnoitall described.)
My former colleague struggled to convince her bosses that there could be a market for cat treats, so she and the R&D person made a bunch of samples of a new formulation, and gave them to all the cat owners that they knew. They then collected testimonials from the cat owners, which came down to, “my cat loves these treats – when are you going to bring them to the market?” The testimonials convinced senior management at Quaker to proceed with full-scale testing, and then introduction of it.
That test product became Pounce.
Weird. I was going to ask the same question a few days ago.
The treats I normally give my cat, I’ll give them a few bits and they’re perfectly satisfied.
But then I got this cat treat stuff that comes in a tube and you squeeze it out like toothpaste.
I gave some to my cat and as soon as I took it away he started to freak out. Meowing at me really loud to give him more. Like a drug addict or something.
Have had this cat for more than 10 years and never seen him act like that.
It was so weird. It made me wonder what the hell they’re putting in that stuff.
A good example, as, according to their own ingredients listing All Products | Pounce® Cat Treats
it contains all the essential food groups: fat, salt, flour, food coloring, artificial flavor, “by-products”…
Cats dig taurine.
If you look at any regular dry cat food, you’re going to find the same ingredients. Now, you can make an argument about it vs “premium” cat food, but that’s not really the topic at hand.
That sounds like a bunch of bull. You’d think they’d dig feline instead. 
Interesting question. I’ve wondered this as well, since we have two cats and they love cat treats, despite the fact that they appear to be no different than pieces of dry cat food.
Extra salt is possible, though too much sodium in a cat’s diet is bad for their kidneys, so we’re very careful about the types and amounts of human food we give them. So I doubt any more than maybe a trace amount of extra sodium goes into cat treats. Sugar is highly doubtful, since cats do not have taste bud receptors for sweetness.
I read somewhere that cats should not eat dog food is because it doesn’t contain enough taurine for a cat diet. Taurine is necessary, and IIRC, cats will be unhealthy without enough of it. Dogs and cats are different animals, though delightful ones.
I suspect you missed the joke.
Sure I did, hahaha. Or maybe it should be meow meow meow. I was just adding info about cat diet since that is the topic of the thread.
“Taurine has many functions in the body including working as a neurotransmitter in the brain.”-Wiki
I, for one, welcome our new feline masters.
Well, sure. FWIW I went to “cats.com” and searched through the list of all the dry cat food for the ingredients of the one with the highest rating: https://cats.com/dr-elseys-cat-food-review and it has fats (from chicken fat, flaxseed, and salmon oil) as well as taurine, salt, and potassium chloride. What it does not have is anything like cereals or food colouring. It says the calories are 54% from protein and 40% from fat, and 6% from carbohydrates.
A friend of mine buys 40lb bags of the cheapest cat food to feed some outside cats that wander around his house. I take an empty 3oz Pounce bottle over and fill it up. That’s my cats “treats”. He thinks they’re great.
I had to eliminate store bought cat treats for the Siamese. They’re very skinny cats and need to eat their food and when cat treats are in the house they won’t touch it.
I make chicken liver treats for them. They love them but will eat regular cat food as well.
I bought Jojo and Hari some treats. I think they’re Walmart brand ‘Special Kitty’
They like them pretty well.
But, Bear and Meeko know they’re here. I swear those cats are geniuses.
They sniff around if the cat flap opens to the garage.
I gotta get them gone before it causes a cat riot.
Interesting story @kenobi_65
Cats don’t can’t taste sweet.
Never claimed they could. I said many cat “treats” contain sugar. Example:
OTOH a reasonable person would not expect cat food to contain sugar. Or am I wrong?
Of course, cat treats are “food” in the sense that they are edible and have at least some nutritional value.
What, if anything, would be lacking if a cat ate only cat treats and no other food?