Vital Essentials Chicken Hearts Freeze-Dried Cat Treats, 0.8-oz bag

The only organ meat my cat has ever been interested in is when I slice up a chicken heart that comes with the whole chicken I plan to cook. Not the liver, not even some of the neck meat. But slivers of the heart? She thinks that's delicious. So I thought I'd give these freeze-dried chicken hearts a try. She loves them even more! So much easier to give her a treat that's good for her, too. I'm thrilled to discover these treats!

As with any cat product, these treats seem to be hit or miss. My Mainecoon mix absolutely LOVES these treats. He takes it and runs to a corner to eat it, hissing at anyone who comes near him. My other two domestic short hairs don’t care for these. I love that they’re just one ingredient, no additives or anything. I will continue to buy these for the one who enjoys them!

We have a cat that allergic to grain. And it’s difficult to find treat that all 3 of our cats will eat. When I gave them this treat the one cat immediately started to growl at the others so they wouldn’t take his. He never does that with other foods. It’s definitely their favorite from this line of treats. And it doesn’t fall apart like the liver tends to do.

My orange boy, never protests any treats that complement the course of his day. Sometimes we'll drop a few on his dry food supply. He will quickly gobble up the treats and leave his food for later, akin to a kid eating all the marshmallows out of the Lucky Charms! Lol!! After a health scare I started paying more attention to the brands of food that I purchase for him. When I learned the terms and background of ingredients and by products on the labels of his favorite treats thus far - won't brand shame but one of the brands starts with Gree and the other ends in tions... I was devastated and ashamed. Thats when I landed on articles saying freeze dried and raw diets were optimal for cats, I My orange boy, never protests any treats that complement the course of his day. Sometimes we'll drop a few on his dry food supply. He will quickly gobble up the treats and leave his food for later, akin to a kid eating all the marshmallows out of the Lucky Charms! Lol!! After a health scare I started paying more attention to the brands of food that I purchase for him. When I learned the terms and background of ingredients and by products on the labels of his favorite treats thus far - won't brand shame but one of the brands starts with Gree and the other ends in tions... I was devastated and ashamed. Thats when I landed on articles saying freeze dried and raw diets were optimal for cats, I started looking at freeze dried treats to ease him into a new culinary experience. I swear when I dropped 2 hearts in his dry food, he looked up at me like, "'bout doggone time you got it right!!!" Lol!!!!!! When I tell you how he destroyed those hearts and looked at me like his cousins... the almighty TIGER. Yes, if you were ever curious to see your domestic morph into its distant family... drop a few of these. The face, the eyes and I swear their teeth will get sharper! Lol!!! This is a good buy, only caution is you may need to chop them up, chicken hearts have a little bit of size to them.. but he loves them and now has taken to sitting on his hind legs in anticipation of me placing his bowl down. In the 7 years he's been in the family, I've never seen him do that. So Vitals....has the recipe down right. … more

Whether the bag is full or empty, my cat will dig, chew and lick the bag of goodies. I would recommend this to many cats. But if you are squeamish about touching a real chicken heart then buy some gloves. Even my meanest cat turn into a cuddle bug as soon as I pull out the heavy plastic container that hold them. Which remind me, get a container to hold them in. The cat will figure out to open doors, cabinets and god know what else to get this treat.

They are whole hearts, so I cut them up into tiny pieces as training treats. She’ll do just about anything you ask for a chicken heart! Only thing I would change is that they were cut up small already instead of whole hearts.

Last December, one of my cats fell very ill with a mystery illness and lost a LOT of weight (which he didn’t have to lose since he was slim to begin) because he was too nauseated to eat. And although he recovered and has resumed eating, he has struggled to put weight back on ever since. He only ever eats small meals of cat food and all he really wants are treats and chicken or fish. So I decided to give these a try. He gobbled up one entire heart within minutes of me opening the package! It was the most food I’ve seen him eat in one sitting in many months! I will definitely need to order more of these, and maybe a few other kinds for him to try. The only thing I would have negative to say is Last December, one of my cats fell very ill with a mystery illness and lost a LOT of weight (which he didn’t have to lose since he was slim to begin) because he was too nauseated to eat. And although he recovered and has resumed eating, he has struggled to put weight back on ever since. He only ever eats small meals of cat food and all he really wants are treats and chicken or fish. So I decided to give these a try. He gobbled up one entire heart within minutes of me opening the package! It was the most food I’ve seen him eat in one sitting in many months! I will definitely need to order more of these, and maybe a few other kinds for him to try. The only thing I would have negative to say is the whole heart is maybe a bit large as is for a cat. I ripped apart the first one for Bear. But it’s an easy enough fix, I diced up the rest of the bag into manageable pieces to make serving it easier. … more

I don't know what to think about this. When I opened the bag, this was in just one big greasy clump that I could not even pry apart with my fingers :-( I previously purchased the freeze dried Giblets (liver and hearts), and the hearts were nothing like what is in THIS bag, and one of my cats absolutely LOVED the hearts in the Giblets bag. But I was hard pressed to get him to eat a bit of the heart that I cut out of the greasy clump. Now, granted, I live where it is very hot, and we let this box sit outside for a few day because of Covid-19, so that may be why this happened, but we have been doing that for months now and nothing else like this has happened, including to the Giblets. I don't know what to think about this. When I opened the bag, this was in just one big greasy clump that I could not even pry apart with my fingers :-( I previously purchased the freeze dried Giblets (liver and hearts), and the hearts were nothing like what is in THIS bag, and one of my cats absolutely LOVED the hearts in the Giblets bag. But I was hard pressed to get him to eat a bit of the heart that I cut out of the greasy clump. Now, granted, I live where it is very hot, and we let this box sit outside for a few day because of Covid-19, so that may be why this happened, but we have been doing that for months now and nothing else like this has happened, including to the Giblets. So I just don't know if this is a one off, or if they are all this way. I can't recommend this one, but DO recommend the Giblets. … more

My Cat usually eats whats put before him but he hesitated somewhat w/ these. I think they are a tad big for a 1 yr old house cat. But he ate them though.

My cats are what I fondly refer to as garbage disposals. I bought a large amount of different dehydrated treats for them to try out--and this one was their favorite. They turned absolutely feral for them. Will be buying again. Only downside is I have to touch the nasty hearts to get them out of the bag. A small price to pay for happy cats.