Trader Joe’s Advent Calendar for Cats

Last Updated on December 12, 2021

During the 2020 holiday season, Aldi introduced a cat treat Advent calendar. I thought it would be fun to include my family’s cat in the Christmas fun, so I bought a calendar for her. Unfortunately, my cat didn’t think much of the treats inside the Aldi cat Advent calendar. She was initially interested, and she tried to eat a few treats, but they were too chewy and she eventually gave up on them.

Then I noticed that Trader Joe’s — cousin to Aldi — also sells its own Advent calendars for either cats or dogs. Hoping for a better experience, I bought a TJ’s cat Advent calendar.

Trader Joe’s Advent Calendar for Cats cost $5.99 for 5.11 ounces at the time of publication. The calendar features 25 doors with a small pouch of treats behind doors 1-24, with a larger pouch of treats behind door number 25 for Christmas Day.

According to the Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer, these cat treats are made with 60% antibiotic free Atlantic salmon and 40% dried seaweed. Ingredients are Atlantic salmon, tapioca starch, vegetable glycerin, and dried seaweed meal.

Nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)

The guaranteed analysis is as follows:

• Crude protein: (min.) 11%
• Crude fat: (min.) 11%
• Crude fiber: (max.) 1.5%
• Moisture: (max.) 17%
• Omega-3 fatty acids: (min.) 0.98%

The small treat pouches for December 1st through December 24th have 18 calories, while the large treat pouch for December 25th has 86 calories.

The package suggests feeding these treats as a between-meal snack, a treat, or a reward. It recommends breaking the treats into smaller pieces. The treats are recommended for intermittent feeding only. Store the treats in a cool, dry place.

I opened up the doors for the first few days of treats to see what they looked like, as well as the final door for the larger treat package. While the doors all have perforations, they aren’t the easiest to open and they took some fiddling to pry open. Once you open the doors, the bagged treats inside come in four different shapes: hearts, stars, square-ish shapes, and fish.

Day one.

Treats for each day are packed in small plastic bags. I opened the bag for day one so my cat could try the treats. The bags aren’t easy to open by hand, and I finally had to grab a pair of scissors.

One day’s worth of cat treats.

That aside, my cat loved these treats. She immediately ate all of the treats for the first day and sniffed around, hoping for more.

My cat chowing down.

She clearly liked the taste, and she didn’t seem to have any trouble with the texture of these treats like she did with the Aldi cat calendar treats.

Yum!

This cat Advent calendar from Trader Joe’s looks like it’s a win. I think I’ll be picking this up again next year.

The Verdict:

Trader Joe’s Advent Calendar for Cats features individually wrapped cat treat pouches behind 25 doors, with one door for each day in December from the 1st to Christmas Day. The treats are made of a mix of salmon and dried seaweed, and our cat loved them and made short work of each day’s treats. Recommended.