Dreamies Creamy Adult Cat & Kitten Treats with Scrumptious Salmon

A creamy treat is only half a treat. The other half is the half-minute a cat will stand still beside your hand to get at it, which is why they get bought by people who cannot otherwise get near their cat with a brush, a pill or a set of nail clippers.

The front of the pack says salmon and the ingredient list says something more measured. Meat and animal derivatives come first; fish and fish derivatives follow, including salmon at 4%; then derivatives of vegetable origin, oils and fats, and milk and milk derivatives including milk protein at 0.5%. Taurine is added, there is no added sugar and no artificial colours or flavours. The pack is 40g and it is cleared for adult cats and kittens alike, so a household with both does not need two boxes.

• 40g pack, for adult cats and kittens
• Salmon declared at 4%, within fish and fish derivatives
• Milk and milk derivatives including milk protein 0.5%
• With taurine; no added sugar, no artificial colours or flavours
• Complementary — a treat rather than a meal
• Dreamies make a chicken version of the same thing

The salmon is 4%. It is sold as Scrumptious Salmon and the first ingredient is unnamed meat and animal derivatives; the salmon is a flavour rather than the substance. That is normal for the category and it is not a reason to avoid it, but it is a reason not to think of it as a fish treat. Mars publish no analytical constituents and no calorie figure for this one, and no per-day number of tubes, so it cannot be fitted into a cat's daily allowance with any precision. Nothing supplied to us says how many tubes a 40g pack contains.

Who it's for: owners of a cat who needs bribing rather than feeding — the one who hides at grooming time, the one who has to be tablets on Tuesdays, or a kitten you are trying to teach that hands are good news.