Freeze Dried Cat Food vs Treats

Freeze dried cat food is meant to fill the bowl on its own, while freeze dried treats are meant for a bite between meals, and the label statement is how you tell them apart. The two can look the same in the bag. They are not the same product.

Complete food and treats are different products

Open two bags side by side and the contents can match: pale cubes, a crunch, a smell of fish or chicken. What differs is the job the maker wrote on the label. A food is formulated to be the whole meal, day after day. A treat is formulated to be a small extra, and its directions say so.

Merck Veterinary Manual describes cats as obligate carnivores, with some requirements that differ from a dog's and that only a diet including animal tissue can meet. That is the reason a cat food is written for cats from the start and not scaled down from a dog recipe. A treat makes no such attempt, because it is not asked to carry the meal.

The feeding directions give the second clue. AAFCO's label guide requires a complete and balanced food to state an amount per weight of cat, while directions are optional on a product labeled as a treat, so a treat bag may suggest a few pieces as a reward or say nothing at all.

Put the three clues together: the statement, the directions and the shape of the ingredient list. A bag where all three point the same way is what it says it is. A bag where they disagree, say a treat that lists a daily amount by the cat's weight, deserves a second look before it is the only thing in the bowl.

The words complete and balanced on a label

AAFCO describes the nutritional adequacy statement as the line in which a maker states that a food is complete and balanced for a particular life stage, such as growth, reproduction, adult maintenance or a combination of these. FDA lists the product name, the net quantity, the maker's name and address and the ingredient list in order of weight among the parts a pet food label carries. Find the statement and you have found the product's purpose.

Treats work differently. AAFCO's guide gives intermittent or supplemental feeding only as the wording for a product that is not complete and balanced, and it exempts a product plainly labeled on the front as a snack, treat or supplement from carrying an adequacy statement at all. If you see the intermittent wording, or the front says treat, the bag is not a meal, however much it looks like one.

The ingredient list helps too, but it cannot settle the matter. A single fish on the list tells you what the treat is made of. It does not tell you that a cat could live on it, and the missing statement is how the label says so.

Read the front panel as well as the back. A bag meant to be the whole meal says complete and balanced somewhere on it. If you find no statement and the front does not say treat or snack either, ask the maker what the product is for before it goes in the bowl.

When a treat is used as a topper

A topper is a treat crumbled over a cat's regular food. It is the one place where a treat does a job in the bowl. Sniff and Shift freeze dries pink salmon in small batches in Malvern, Pennsylvania, and the bag is labeled for dogs and cats; the salmon is imported. Crumbled between your fingers over a bowl, it is what most owners mean by a topper.

The trade off is the one every topper carries. A topper makes a bowl more interesting to a cat that has gone off the usual dinner, and it adds calories the bowl did not have. Use a pinch, not a spoonful, and count it. The arithmetic is laid out in how many treats a day.

One habit is worth building: crumble the treat in your palm over the bowl, so you can see how much is going in. Pouring from the bag hides it.

A jar on the counter makes a topper easier to manage. Keep a small jar near the cat's bowl with a spoon beside it, and the pinch becomes a habit with a size. Keep the main bag sealed, and let the jar hold only what you will use in a few days.

Why this site sells treats only

This site sells treats and chews. It does not carry a complete cat food, so nothing here is meant to replace what is in the bowl, and the raw feeding notice says the same of every product on the site.

That is a deliberate choice. Complete foods are a different kind of purchase, with a different set of questions, and a cat's whole diet deserves a page of its own and a label that says complete and balanced. For treats, the freeze dried cat treats collection is sorted by protein, and best freeze dried cat treats compares the fish and meat cubes one by one.

The practical effect is a short rule for the shelf here. Every item is a treat or a chew, meant for a bite between meals, and none is meant to sit in the bowl alone. If a bag elsewhere says complete and balanced, that bag is food, and it is a different purchase.

Common questions

How can I tell if a freeze dried bag is food or a treat?

Look for a complete and balanced statement. A food carries it, with feeding amounts by the cat's weight. A treat either says intermittent or supplemental feeding only, or is labeled as a treat or snack on the front, which AAFCO exempts from the statement.

Can I crumble a treat over my cat's regular food?

Yes, that is what a topper is, and a pinch is enough. Count it as treat calories for the day.

Do treats and complete foods use the same ingredients?

Often they do, which is why the bags can look alike. The difference is in how the maker formulated and labeled the product, not in the cube.

Does this site sell freeze dried cat food?

No. It sells treats and chews only, and none of them is meant to replace a cat's regular food.