Naturea Cat Food Review

#1 Naturea Chicken Complete Wet Food For Cats Review

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We don’t find many cat foods from Portugal (the country imports most of its pet food from Spain and a few other European countries but pet food production in the country is developing. Naturea is one of the smaller companies at this time but it is growing.

Cat lovers who prefer naturally appropriate food for their cats will probably like many of Naturea’s recipes. Naturea emphasizes that they make grain free foods. Many of their foods are grain free.

Their wet cat foods are grain free but many wet foods are grain free since they don’t require the starches that dry foods need for extrusion. One of their wet foods contains quinoa which isn’t technically a grain but some people consider it to be an “ancient grain.” It’s actually an edible seed.

We wanted to take a look at one of their most popular wet foods – Naturea Chicken Complete Wet Food for Cats. This formula contains 60 percent fresh chicken, 39 percent water, and minerals and derivatives of vegetable origin according to the Naturea web site.

Along with being grain free, it is gluten-free and contains no GMOs (genetically-modified organisms). It has no preservatives and no artificial flavors.

The recipe doesn’t contain many ingredients but it seems to be high in quality.

We do need to point out that Naturea appears to use carrageenan in their wet foods, or they did back in 2016, even though it is not listed among the ingredients. We refer you to this online exchange from that time between a customer and the company. European guidelines concerning ingredient information sometimes allow for a certain vagueness. We don’t know if the food still uses carrageenan or not. The EU prohibits the use of carrageenan in infant formula but it is permitted in other food items at levels of 75 mg/kg body weight per day.

Note that we did find discrepancies in the guaranteed analyses between the percentages on the home web site and the food as sold through online retailers. The Naturea web site lists the food as having 11 percent protein and containing 60 percent chicken. Online retailers have the food listed as having 9 percent protein and 45 percent chicken. The remaining 15 percent of the chicken is chicken liver. We will use the percentages provided by retailers in the guaranteed analysis below.

You might chalk these issues up to errors, language problems, or one-time mistakes but we checked retailers in multiple countries, using multiple languages. Naturea lists their percentages as “Typical Analysis” instead of “Guaranteed Analysis” and there can be some slight differences between these percentages.

However, we checked different Naturea canned foods and their technical pages. There was a consistent pattern of differences between the guaranteed analyses and ingredients claimed on the web site and the information provided through retailers. We didn’t find these differences in their dry foods; only for the wet foods. Perhaps the company simply hasn’t updated their web site but this is something that needs to be addressed.

We were not able to find confirmed calorie information for Naturea’s wet foods anywhere online. We can provide an estimate.

Calorie Content (ME Calculated): 86 calories per 100 grams; 24 calories per ounce of food

Guaranteed Analysis

Crude Protein: 9%

Crude Fat: 4%

Crude Fiber: 0.5%

Moisture: 81%

Ash: 2%

Dry Matter Basis

Protein: 47.37%

Fat: 21.05%

Fiber: 2.63%

Carbs: 18.42%

Caloric Weight Basis

Protein: 40.51%

Fat: 43.73%

Carbs: 15.76%

Pros

• Chicken and chicken liver are good sources of protein and other nutrients
• The food is grain free, gluten-free, GMO-free, and contains no artificial preservatives or flavors

Cons

• The difference in information on the Naturea web site and from the retailers is a concern
• The can size has been reduced from 85 grams to 80 grams recently

#2 Naturea Lands Grain Free Cat & Kitten Food Review

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According to Naturea, their grain free cat food strictly follows their Naturally Appropriate concept. It is feed based on what cats really need.

Along with salmon meal, chicken meal, rabbit meal, and anchovies meal as the first ingredients, the food also contains sweet potatoes, fruit, vegetables, aromatic herbs and seaweed. Naturea says their foods are always low in carbs.

Tapioca is the fifth ingredient. It’s a starch from the cassava plant. It’s low in nutrients but it’s frequently used in grain free foods, especially when peas and legumes are not used. It is high in carbs but dry foods do require some kind of starch to hold the food together for cooking and extrusion.

Naturea states that this formula was created by vets and nutritionists. It is suitable for all kinds of cats, of all ages. They also say that the ingredients were approved for human consumption.

According to the company, the food contains 80 percent animal origin ingredients, specifically rabbit, chicken, salmon, and herring.

The food also contains Mannan Oligosaccharides (MOS) and Inulin (source of FOS). MOS are a source of prebiotics which is good for your cat’s gut. FOS are a soluble dietary fiber.

The food does contain lucerne (alfalfa) but it is the 8^th ingredient. Lucerne/alfalfa is a member of the pea family but this far down the ingredient list it probably won’t pose a problem to many pets. Alfalfa does provide vitamin K and small amounts of some other nutrients.

Overall, this looks like a good food. Many grain free foods, even those for cats, are packed with peas, lentils, and legumes which can pose digestive and other problems for cats. However, this grain free food relies on tapioca and some potato for starch. These ingredients are found after the first four ingredients which are all good sources of animal protein.

We would recommend Naturea Lands Grain Free Cat & Kitten Food.

Calorie Content (ME Calculated): Metabolisable Energy 3900 kcal/kg

Guaranteed Analysis

Crude Protein: 34.5%

Crude Fat: 20%

Crude Fiber: 2.5%

Moisture: 8%

Ash: 10%

Dry Matter Basis

Protein: 37.5%

Fat: 21.74%

Fiber: 2.72%

Carbs: 27.17%

Caloric Weight Basis

Protein: 31.92%

Fat: 44.94%

Carbs: 23.13%

Pros

• Good sources of animal protein
• Grain free without large amounts of peas, lentils, and legumes
• Includes MOS (prebiotics) and FOS (soluble dietary fiber)
• No artificial flavors or preservatives, gluten-free, no wheat, corn, or rice.

Cons

• Tapioca can be a problem for cats that are obese or diabetic

#3 Naturea Naturals Dry Food for Cats & Kittens Review

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If your cat likes dry cat food but prefers something besides Naturea Lands, he’s in for a surprise. Instead of a typical dry food with grains, Naturea has a dry food line called Naturals that features 75 percent fish or chicken.

Although this food and Naturea Lands grain free are both high in animal/fish protein, the recipes for the foods are quite different. For example, this dry food uses no tapioca.

The first ingredients in Naturea Naturals Dry Food (chicken) are: Fresh deboned chicken, dehydrated chicken, dehydrated potato, chicken fat, and hydrolyzed chicken liver. There is plenty of chicken protein in these first ingredients. The chicken liver is also a good source of protein, iron, folate, vitamin A, B vitamins, and other vitamins and minerals. Dehydrated potatoes provides the starch necessary for the extrusion process.

Brewer’s yeast has multiple uses in pet foods. It is used to improve taste and to add extra protein. In recent years it’s been found to also be beneficial for the microbiome in the gut.

Naturea Naturals dry food has a number of ingredients – most of them quite recognizable – that are good for cats like fish oil and dried whole egg. Plus, this is another grain free food that doesn’t contain lots of peas, legumes, and lentils. The food does contain carob, the pods that are sometimes used as a substitute for chocolate. (It is not chemically close to chocolate and won’t harm your pet.) Portugal happens to be the largest producer of carob. They are using carob here in some fashion, perhaps to add some sweetness to the food or it could be a thickener. Carob is a good source of fiber so that might be its purpose in the cat food.  Carob seeds, in the form of locust bean gum, are sometimes used in wet pet foods, but it’s unusual to see carob in a dry pet food.

We found one reference to carob used in dog food here. Carob has also been used to feed livestock. You can visit this page for more information about different kinds of carob.

Overall, Naturea Naturals Dry Food for Cats & Kittens looks like a good food. It seems to be high in animal protein and the other ingredients appear to be healthy for cats. Both the salmon and chicken recipes are recommended.

Calorie Content (ME Calculated): 4200 Kcal/kg

Guaranteed Analysis

Crude Protein: 32%

Crude Fat: 18%

Crude Fiber: 2%

Moisture: 8%

Ash: 7.5%

Dry Matter Basis

Protein: 34.78%

Fat: 19.57%

Fiber: 2.17%

Carbs: 35.33%

Caloric Weight Basis

Protein: 29.57%

Fat: 40.4%

Carbs: 30.03%

Pros

• High in animal protein
• Gluten-free, no corn, wheat, or soy
• No preservatives, no artificial flavors
• Does not contain large amounts of peas, lentils, or legumes

Cons

• Carob is a member of the pea family; it has been used to feed livestock but not a lot is known about its long-term use in cat foods