![]() ![]() So, in 2016 we decided it was time to start conversations about the benefits of treating cats and inspire little moments of fun between pet parents and their cats. In the UK, cat treats are bought by fewer households than dog treats, primarily because cat owners do not think about the benefits of treating their cats as much as dog owners do. Hooper says: “At Dreamies, we know that there’s nothing quite like a shared moment with your cat and our goal has always been to create a brighter world for cats and cat owners. Was the relaunch of Dreamies a specific attempt to bring the cat treats market up to the level of dog treats sales? So in the past six years we have been feeding our cats a lot of treats, and a lot of that impetus came from the Dreamies rebranding, and the planting of the seed that our cats deserve treats. Cat treat sales alone had leapt by £20 million in a single year – a rise of 13.4 per cent year on year. That had changed dramatically by the time The Grocer did a pet food analysis special in September this year. Quoting a Kantar survey from the previous summer, The Grocer reported that the cat treats sector – including all drinks, treats and non main-food goods – was worth around £157m and fewer than half of cat owners bought treats for their pets in every 12 week period.Įarly Dreamies’ adverts show cats crazy enough to break through walls for the pet treats (Dreamies) Dreamies in their current incarnation were relaunched with their colourful packets and cartoon cat branding about six years ago.Īccording to a piece in the food industry magazine, The Grocer, in January 2016, the cat treats market was far behind dog treats in terms of sales. If you’re a cat owner of some vintage, you might think that Dreamies and other cat treats are a relatively recent phenomenon, and you’d be right. So if you are in any way averse to cat owners being referred to throughout as “pet parents”, and the animals themselves as “furry friends”, then apologies in advance. That might have informed the tone of the replies. I replied that it would be fairly light in tone – as my pieces generally are – but factual, as well. The answers went through a few rounds of approval at executive level, I understand, and before I received them back I was asked what tone I’d be taking in the piece. I had been hoping to speak to someone at Mars Petcare UK directly, and after a few days of emailing their PR department, I was allowed to send in some questions. In lockdown people have been spending more time with their animals and that means the pets are just crying at us more for treats during the day A Dreamie-addicted cat can not only hear the rustling of a Dreamie pack from three streets away, they can distinguish between that and the – to the untutored human ear – identical crinkling of, say, a packet of microwave rice or a bag of Maltesers. You may have seen the TV ads for Dreamies, in which a cat owner shakes the bag of treats and the pets come running. But I suspect it isn’t just feline comradeship she’s merely seeing which of the two piles could possibly be slightly bigger so she can elbow Maurice out of the way for it. When anyone in the house relents and places a small clutch of them near the cats’ food bowls in the kitchen, she will – on first glance, rather sweetly – look round and wait until our other cat Maurice comes running in. And then she remembers, and insinuates herself lithely between my ankles, and finds her voice, the high-pitched, insistent miaow she only ever deploys when she wants one thing: Dreamies.įor the benefit of non-cat people, Dreamies are packets of biscuity treats. She will sometimes fix me with a curious, pensive gaze, as though trying to work out what I’m actually for. She doesn’t sit on laps, she hates to be picked up to the point of anxiety.
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