Heart to Tail Pure Being Advent Calendar for Cats (2022)

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With the growing popularity of Advent calendars for every taste and interest — from chocolate to wine to LEGOs to crafting — it’s no surprise that Advent calendars for pets have become a thing. In previous years, Aldi has sold calendars for cats and for dogs. Aldi’s cousin, Trader Joe’s, has also sold Advent calendars for cats and dogs.

However, in years past, Aldi has had some difficulty getting the formula right for both the cat and dog Advent calendars. Our own cat tried to eat the treats in the cat calendar but couldn’t. It seemed like they were too hard to chew. We also heard reports that the dog calendars weren’t always much better. Ultimately, Aldi ended up recalling its cat and dog Advent calendars in 2021 because they posed a potential choking hazard for pets.

So when I spotted Advent calendars for cats and dogs in the 2022 Aldi Advent calendar lineup, I was intrigued. They had to have changed the treats, right? I headed out to Aldi on National Advent Calendar Day to pick up several calendars for the humans in my household along with a calendar for our furry feline family member.

Much to my delight — and my cat’s — the 2022 calendar has been revamped. My cat can attest that the treats in this new calendar are all delicious, and she didn’t seem to have any trouble getting them down.

Keep reading for more information about the new cat Advent calendar at Aldi.

The Heart to Tail Pure Being Advent Calendar for Cats cost $7.99 for a 4.3-ounce package at the time of publication. This calendar was made in Thailand.

Information about the different types of cat treats, including ingredients and guaranteed analysis. (Click to enlarge.)

This is an Aldi Find, so it’s only in stores for a short time. Each store gets one shipment, and after that sells out, they’re gone until next year. Aldi does not offer online ordering for products that aren’t in stock at your local store.

What’s Inside the Calendar:

The first two days of treats (Chicken Flakes).

What the calendar tray looks like when you slide it out of the box. This is the whole month’s worth of treats, with the Chicken Flakes in the two left columns, Chicken Soft Bites in the two middle columns, Salmon Puree in the center, and Cat Biscuits in the two right columns.

This calendar contains four different types of cat treats:

• Cat Biscuits, which consist of fairly large, crunchy, fish-shaped treats in red, green, and brown/yellow colors. Ingredients are wheat flour, salmon, sunflower oil, catnip, sugar, soybean lecithin, cochineal extract, tea, and turmeric. I’m not sure why sugar needs to go in cat treats, and the inclusion of tea is unusual, but my cat quickly crunched these up. These have 2320 kcal/kg per 1.4 kcal/treat.
• Chicken Soft Bites, which are small rectangles that look similar to the treats in the old cat Advent calendars at Aldi, but unlike the old cat treats, my cat easily ate these. Ingredients are chicken, pea protein, vegetable glycerin, potato starch, fructooligosaccharides, and salt. These have 2630 kcal/kg per 1.3 kcal/treat.
• Chicken Flakes, which are small flakes of dried meat that look somewhat similar to bacon bits or beef jerky crumbs. Ingredients are chicken, salmon, vegetable glycerin, potato starch, taurine, and salt. These have 2682 kcal/kg per 0.4 kcal/treat.
• Salmon Puree, which comes in a squeezable tube and is behind the door for Christmas Day only. Ingredients are water, salmon, tapioca, starch, carrageenan, and taurine. This has 520 kcal/kg per 7.28 kcal/treat.

Closeup of the Chicken Flakes and Chicken Soft Bites inside the packaging.

The calendar starts with two days of the Chicken Flakes, then two days of the Chicken Soft Bites, and then two days of the Cat Biscuits. It repeats that pattern until you get to day 25, or Christmas Day, when you open the final large door to reveal the Salmon Puree tube.

Closeup of the Chicken Soft Bites and Cat Biscuits inside the packaging.

The doors on the box are easy enough to open. They feature cardboard tabs like most Advent calendars. Each day’s worth of treats is sealed for freshness, and the box directions indicate you can use a butter knife to cut the seal for each day. (I used a steak knife for more efficient cutting.) The box recommends storing these treats in a cool, dry place.

What The Aldi Reviewer Cat Thought:

The Aldi Reviewer Cat taste tested each of the different treats and came back to the box, hoping for more.

As mentioned above, our senior kitty, whom we fondly call The Aldi Reviewer Cat here, loved this cat Advent calendar. She immediately came up to me when I broke the seal on the first day’s worth of treats, so these not only taste good to cats, but they also smell appealing to cats.

For testing purposes, I opened one door for each of the different treat varieties and let her sample a few pieces of each. (We’ll save the rest to feed her throughout December.) She liked all of the treats of every kind and quickly ate up each one I offered her.

The Aldi Reviewer Cat sampling the Salmon Puree tube.

I also went ahead and gave her the Salmon Puree tube in box number 25 for Christmas Day. I’ve seen Aldi sell these recently as limited-time Aldi Finds but had never tried them with my cat before. My cat was interested as soon as I began pulling on the tab to open the tube.

The tube indicates you can feed this puree by hand with your cat licking directly out of the tube like you might eat a yogurt tube, or you can squirt it into a bowl or feed as a topper on other cat food. I initially tried feeding it to my cat straight out of the tube, but the consistency was thin enough that it got messy if I tried to squeeze any puree toward the top. I ended up with small globs of puree falling on my cat or dribbling down my hand, and if I didn’t squeeze it up fast enough, my cat started gnawing on the tube itself. Ultimately, I squirted the contents into a bowl for my cat.

Overall, all of the treats in this box were a hit with my cat, and this calendar is a huge improvement over previous years. I’m glad I didn’t pass this up. I think my cat is glad, too.

The Verdict:

After a few years of buying Aldi cat Advent calendars that my cat couldn’t or wouldn’t eat, Aldi has finally perfected its holiday offering for feline friends. The Heart to Tail Pure Being Advent Calendar for Cats for 2022 is a lot better than cat calendars we’ve seen at Aldi in the past. It features four different types of cat treats in different shapes and textures, and our cat — The Aldi Reviewer Cat — heartily approves of all of them. If you’re on the fence about trying the Aldi cat calendar, go ahead and get it. Your cat will thank you.