Published Apr 26, 2019
Stella & Chewy’s is a leader in the frozen and freeze-dried raw cat food space, but is it a safe, healthy choice for your cat? Find out in our unbiased Stella & Chewy’s cat food review.
The Cats.com Standard—Rating Stella & Chewy’s on What Matters
We’ve analyzed Stella & Chewy’s and graded it according to the Cats.com standard, evaluating the brand on species-appropriateness, ingredient quality, product variety, price, customer experience, and recall history. Here’s how it rates in each of these six key areas.
Ratings
- Species-Appropriateness – 9/10
- Ingredient Quality – 8/10
- Product Variety – 8/10
- Price – 5/10
- Customer Experience – 5/10
- Recall History – 4/10
Overall Score: 6.5/10
We give Stella & Chewy’s cat food a 39 out of 60 rating or a B- grade.
About Stella & Chewy’s
The Stella & Chewy’s story starts in 2003, shortly after company founder Marie Moody adopted an Airedale-Shar-Pei mix named Chewy. After Chewy was diagnosed with distemper, Marie started preparing a raw diet for both Chewy and her other dog, Stella. In between jobs and inspired by the way her pups thrived on a fresh diet, she started delivering homemade raw food to pet guardians around New York City.
The raw food was a hit with New York pet people and soon Stella & Chewy’s was one of the best-known raw pet food companies in the industry.
Sourcing and Manufacturing
Stella & Chewy’s foods are made in the company’s FDA-inspected facility located in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area.
The company sources ingredients from countries including—but not limited to—North America, New Zealand, and Australia. All of their fruits and vegetables are certified organic and sourced from either North or South America, depending on availability. Stella & Chewy’s doesn’t source any ingredients from China.
All of their foods are made using a patented food safety process the company calls SecureByNature®. This process involves high-pressure processing, which is a low-temperature process that leaves the food’s color, texture, flavor, and nutrient value intact while destroying pathogenic organisms.
After production, all Stella & Chewy’s products are subjected to testing by an independent lab. If you’d like to see the results for yourself, you can enter your Stella & Chewy’s product lot code and find the specific product’s safety results.
Has Stella & Chewy’s Cat Food Been Recalled?
Stella & Chewy’s was recalled twice in 2015. Both recalls were due to potential listeria contamination and affected food for both dogs and cats.
What Kinds of Cat Food Does Stella & Chewy’s Offer?
Stella & Chewy’s cat food selection includes frozen raw morsels, frozen raw medallions, freeze-dried morsels, wet food morsels, and wet food paté.
- Perhaps the brand’s most popular offering is its freeze-dried dinner morsels. These are kibble-style chunks of freeze-dried meat that you rehydrate and serve. All of their freeze-dried foods are 98% muscle meat, organs, and bones.
- Stella & Chewy’s frozen raw morsels are chunks of frozen raw meat.
- Stella & Chewy’s mini medallions are patties of shredded raw meat. There are currently just two recipes—chicken and turkey.
- For those interested in a more traditional meal, Stella & Chewy’s offers two types of wet food. Their Marvelous Morsels feature morsels of meat in bone broth and are available in three flavors—chicken, chicken & salmon, and turkey. Purrfect Paté is a smooth food that’s also soaked in bone broth. It’s available in the same three flavors.
Stella & Chewy’s Cat Food – Top 3 Recipes Reviewed
| Product Name | Food Type | Price | Our Grade |
| Stella & Chewy’s Chick Chick Chicken Dinner Morsels | Freeze-Dried | $2.92 per oz | B |
| Stella & Chewy’s Duck Duck Goose Dinner Morsels | Freeze-Dried | $2.92 per oz | B |
| Stella & Chewy’s Tummy Ticklin’ Turkey Dinner Morsels | Freeze-Dried | $2.92 per oz | B |
#1 Stella & Chewy’s Chick Chick Chicken Dinner Morsels Freeze-Dried Raw Cat Food Review
Chicken appears to be the primary protein source in this freeze-dried cat food.
Like all Stella & Chewy’s freeze-dried foods, the product is 98% muscle meat, organs, and bones. It incorporates a combination of ground chicken with bones, chicken liver, and chicken gizzard—an organ sometimes called a second stomach that’s partially responsible for grinding up food before it passes through the digestive tract.
The remaining 2% of the recipe is composed of nutraceuticals and supplements. The first is pumpkin seed, presumably as a source of fiber. The food also contains fenugreek seed, dandelion, and dried kelp as natural sources of vitamins and minerals.
The food contains a variety of synthetic vitamins, minerals, and amino acids to make it nutritionally complete and balanced.
Overall, this food is high in protein with moderate fat and low carbohydrate content.
The food has 123 calories per ounce.
Ingredients
Chicken (Ground With Bone), Chicken Liver, Chicken Gizzard, Pumpkin Seed, Potassium Chloride, Sodium Phosphate, Choline Chloride, Fenugreek Seed, Dried Pediococcus Acidilactici Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Bifidobacterium Longum Fermentation Product, Dried Bacillus Coagulans Fermentation Product, Taurine, Tocopherols (Preservative), Dandelion, Dried Kelp, Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Copper Proteinate, Riboflavin Supplement, Sodium Selenite, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Manganese Proteinate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Vitamin B12 Supplement.
Ingredients We Liked: Ground Chicken with Bone, Chicken Liver, Chicken Gizzard
Ingredients We Didn’t Like: None
Guaranteed Analysis
Dry Matter Basis
Caloric Weight Basis
Pros
- 98% of the total recipe consists of meat, organs, and bones
- Rich in animal protein
- Free of animal by-products
- Made without artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives
Cons
- May have too much bone
#2 Stella & Chewy’s Duck Duck Goose Dinner Morsels Freeze-Dried Raw Cat Food Review
Duck appears to be the primary protein source in this freeze-dried cat food.
Like all Stella & Chewy’s freeze-dried dinner morsels, this food is meat-based and composed of 98% muscle meat, organs, and bones. It’s made from duck meat and bones, turkey meat and bones, turkey liver, goose, and turkey gizzard.
This blend of poultry ingredients is accented by a blend of supplemental plant ingredients, including pumpkin seed, probiotics, dandelion, and dried kelp. All of the fruits and vegetables in the food are 100% certified organic.
A variety of synthetic vitamins, minerals, and amino acids make it nutritionally complete.
Overall, the food is high in protein with moderate fat and low carbohydrate content.
The food has 149 calories per ounce.
Ingredients
Duck With Ground Bone, Turkey With Ground Bone, Turkey Liver, Goose, Turkey Gizzard, Pumpkin Seed, Potassium Chloride, Sodium Phosphate, Choline Chloride, Dried Pediococcus Acidilactici Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Bifidobacterium Longum Fermentation Product, Dried Bacillus Coagulans Fermentation Product, Taurine, Tocopherols (Preservative), Dandelion, Dried Kelp, Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Copper Proteinate, Riboflavin Supplement, Sodium Selenite, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Manganese Proteinate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Vitamin B12 Supplement.
Ingredients We Liked: Duck with Ground Bone, Turkey with Ground Bone, Turkey Liver, Goose, Turkey Gizzard
Ingredients We Didn’t Like: None
Guaranteed Analysis
Dry Matter Basis
Caloric Weight Basis
Pros
- Contains named meats instead of vaguely-labeled meals and by-products
- Contains a combination of muscle and organ meats
- Primarily made from meat rather than plant ingredients
- Free of artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives
- Low carbohydrate content
Cons
- May be too high in bone
#3 Stella & Chewy’s Tummy Ticklin’ Turkey Dinner Morsels Freeze-Dried Raw Cat Food Review
Turkey appears to be the primary protein source in this freeze-dried cat food.
Like the other products on this list, this recipe is a freeze-dried food made with 98% meat, organs, and bones. This time turkey is the meat of choice, ground with bones and mixed with turkey liver and gizzard.
In accordance with Stella & Chewy’s usual formula, the food contains pumpkin seed as a source of fiber and trace nutrients along with probiotics, dandelion, and dried kelp.
The food is fortified with vitamins, minerals, and amino acids to make it nutritionally complete and balanced.
Overall, this food is rich in protein with moderate fat and low carbohydrate content.
The food has 139 calories per ounce.
Ingredients
Turkey With Ground Bone, Turkey Liver, Turkey Gizzard, Pumpkin Seed, Potassium Chloride, Sodium Phosphate, Choline Chloride, Dried Pediococcus Acidilactici Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Bifidobacterium Longum Fermentation Product, Dried Bacillus Coagulans Fermentation Product, Taurine, Tocopherols (Preservative), Dandelion, Dried Kelp, Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Copper Proteinate, Riboflavin Supplement, Sodium Selenite, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Manganese Proteinate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Vitamin B12 Supplement.
Ingredients We Liked: Turkey with Ground Bone, Turkey Liver, Turkey Gizzard
Ingredients We Didn’t Like: None
Guaranteed Analysis
Dry Matter Basis
Caloric Weight Basis
Pros
- Made primarily from meat, organs, and bones with minimal plant content
- Free of animal by-products
- Rich in protein
- Free of potentially-harmful additives
- Low carbohydrate content
Cons
- May have too much bone matter
What Do Customers Think Of Stella & Chewy’s Cat Food?
Stella & Chewy’s cat food product listings receive almost exclusively positive reviews, with most customers saying their cats loved the food. Some say it helped to improve their cats’ health.
Excessive bone content is the top complaint about Stella & Chewy’s cat food. Like some other makers of raw and freeze-dried food, Stella & Chewy’s cat food contains ground bone. Some say they use too much. Too much bone increases the food’s mineral content, including magnesium, calcium, and phosphorus.
According to a guide on the Raw Feeding Community website, a whole chicken is about 27-32% bone, while a typical prey animal like a mouse or rabbit is closer to 5-10% bone. Stella & Chewy’s doesn’t disclose how much bone content is each of their recipes, but they do reveal the foods’ phosphorus content.
The company claims that all of their freeze-dried and frozen foods have the same phosphorus content. That’s 0.45% to 0.67% on an as-fed basis. Tummy Ticklin’ Turkey frozen raw food, for example, is 0.61% phosphorus on an as-fed basis. This translates to roughly 3.9g per 1000 calories. That’s twice the AAFCO’s recommended amount for growing kittens.
Stella & Chewy’s has another problem—a lack of transparency and an unwillingness to provide valuable information to their customers.
As a cat food reviewer, I’ve contacted numerous companies asking for typical values of certain nutrients—protein, fat, carbohydrates, ash, and moisture. So far, every company has been more or less willing to share these values. When I contacted Stella & Chewy’s, the customer support representative refused to share this basic information.
I’m not alone in this experience. These Feline Diabetes forum users are also frustrated by Stella & Chewy’s refusal to share important nutritional information.
Dr. Lisa Pierson, DVM has spent hundreds of hours gathering this type of information to add to her extensive cat food chart. Cat food brands from Tiki Cat to Fancy Feast have willingly provided typical nutrient data, helping people around the world understand what’s in their cat’s food. When Dr. Pierson contacted Stella & Chewy’s requesting typical nutrient analysis data for her cat food chart, they demanded that she sign a confidentiality agreement before providing it.
Regardless of what Stella & Chewy’s tells customers, the typical nutrient analysis is not a trade secret. Many companies share it on their website for anyone to read. It’s the same information that we expect from every “Nutrition Facts” label on our own food.
Positive Reviews
“I have struggled to find a food that doesn’t cause my cat intestinal discomfort. I recently found Stella and Chewys and made the switch, and I’m so glad we did. My cat hasn’t had a single problem since. Not only is the food much easier on her digestive system, but she loves it. She’s yelling for her dinner the minute I get home. It’s well-worth the price for us to see her so much more comfortable and happy.” – Jenna, reviewing Stella & Chewy’s Tummy Ticklin’ Turkey Dinner Morsels
“My bengal cat loves the duck! We give him 11 morsels in the morning and 11 morsels in the evening with dry kibble in between. It is easier to prepare when we crush them up before adding water. Takes just a minute and it’s ready to go! I like the fact that it is a raw diet but is also convenient.” – Pwhited813, reviewing Duck Duck Goose Dinner Morsels
Negative Reviews
“I keep reading about the benefits of raw, and this freeze-dried product seemed like a good idea. It’s competitively priced considering the quality of the ingredients, so I figured I’d give it a try as a topper. My guys, all 3 of them, seem to love it. But then I realized that the phosphorous count is more than double their regular canned food! The phosphorous comes from a natural source — bone meal and yes cats need phosphorous in their diet and would naturally eat the bones of prey, but I’m afraid the amount is not balanced. Bone meal is high up on the ingredients list. I don’t really feel like this is safe for my cats’kidneys long term. I would consider it if they changed the formula and had a lower phosphorous count. Just because something is natural, that doesn’t mean it’s healthy.” – Marioninnyc, reviewing Stella & Chewy’s Chick Chick Chicken Dinner Morsels
“This food is reliable, but not predictable – huh? My cat has eaten this food for several years, but I can never trust the formula – in one bag, the little pellets will be firm and well formed; but in the next bag, the pellets will be nothing more than petfood “chaf / dust”. very frustrating.” – Patricia, reviewing Stella & Chewy’s Duck Duck Goose Dinner Morsels
How Much Does Stella & Chewy’s Cat Food Cost?
Stella & Chewy’s freeze-dried cat food costs between $2 and $3 per ounce, but since the food is so light, it’s misleading to use price per ounce as your only measurement. Instead, let’s think in terms of cost per day. By evaluating the food’s cost by price per day, we can compare it to other products.
According to the company’s feeding instructions for a 10-lb cat, it would cost approximately $2.53 per day to feed your cat Stella & Chewy’s freeze-dried cat food.
Overall, Is Stella & Chewy’s A Good Choice?
Stella & Chewy’s is a leading option for those interested in feeding a raw or freeze-dried diet. Their recipes deliver straightforward, meat-first nutrition without unnecessary additives or carbohydrate content.
However, their frozen and freeze-dried raw foods appear to contain too much bone. Because they contain so much bone, Stella & Chewy’s freeze-dried and frozen raw foods tend to be high in phosphorus and may not be a good choice for cats with kidney disease or those trying to minimize their cats’ phosphorus intake for any other reason.
This issue, combined with the company’s lack of transparency, are things to consider before choosing Stella & Chewy’s as your cat’s new food.
Where To Buy Stella & Chewy’s Cat Food?
While most of their selection is sold online, you can only buy Stella & Chewy’s frozen and wet foods at local pet stores—they’re not available through any online retailers. The rest of the Stella & Chewy’s lineup is available on Amazon, Chewy, PetFlow, and Only Natural Pet.
You make it hard to compare their products. You list some by calories/oz, others calories/cup.
Also, you liked the ingredient pumpkin seeds in two of the three, didn’t like it in the remaining flavor.
Bill, thanks for pointing this out. I’m editing the piece now to make it consistent. Thanks.
Thanks Mallory! Stella & Chewy seem to have a conflict of their own.
Their support person didn’t seem to understand the issue I tried to relay.
The medallions recommendation for a 14 lb cat was 7.5 (23 cal) medallions totaling 173 calories which matches most sites range for an adult cat. However their morsel products recommend 1.25 cups totaling 528 calories. (423 per cup) That makes no sense, and one fat cat.
Thanks again,
Bill-
Odd, indeed. I’m not too surprised—in my experience, Stella & Chewy’s doesn’t have the strongest customer support chops. At the end of the day, the per-ounce values are what matter, and you can use a scale to eliminate issues coming from variations in volume. Thanks again for pointing out this issue. It was an easy enough fix and makes the article a lot more useful/credible.
Have a good one!
Hi, what do you think of the Freeze Dried Raw coated kibble options from them? Are they a decent buy?
Hi Seth, that’s a great question! Their raw-coated kibble is okay. The carbohydrates are still high, but you’re getting nice meat-heavy nutrition with a boost from the raw coating. That said, I wouldn’t really recommend it unless your cat absolutely refuses to eat anything but kibble. I’d rather see someone feeding 50:50 raw and kibble, though—at least they’d be giving their cat a moisture boost that way.
I have been in touch with customer service from this company for the last week. I requested the full analysis for the raw coated kibble, as they do not state the carb content anywhere. The representative that I emailed was extremely helpful and sent the requested info to me. I found the carb count to be terribly high – over 25% – and the rep replied that it was higher due to being ‘kibble’ that needed carbs to hold together. I stated that I do understand that, but I can buy Purina with a lower carb content, so all the raw in it was sort of wasted since high carb diets will result in a cat who is diabetic. They asked for a copy of my invoices, which I sent to them. They are sending vouchers for the entire 25lbs of kibble that I have on hand.
So, while customer service has been lacking in the past, I think it is great now. Since my kitty loves the freeze dried nuggets, I will drive the 50 miles needed to reach a pet store that carries them and hand select based on how many are broken down to powder. Kitty will not eat the dust mixed with warm water at all. So, my experience was very positive!! And I will stand up for their service now as being superb.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience—it’s very good to know that the customer service seems to have improved.
Thanks for your reply. My cat is currently eating a mix of Sheba perfect portions wet food and blue wilderness chicken crunchy food. I’m looking for a healthier crunchy food, if I’m understanding correctly the blue wilderness stuff isn’t bad but it’s not particularly great either. I looked at every pet store near me trying to find Dr Elseys Clean Protein and none of them carried it. Might have to order online.
He is VERY picky, I’ve been trying to get him on 100% wet food but he just can’t shake the kibble. He doesn’t like any change in his diet, I’ve tried multiple high quality wet foods and he won’t eat anything besides the Sheba.
Hi, I am trying to incorporate freeze-dried raw into my underweight, 13-year old kitty’s diet, and she loves both Stella and Chewy’s and Primal and they’ve helped her reach a healthier weight. Anyway in deciding which to settle her in to, i wanted to take phosphorous into account as a old-cat precaution, and came here because you guys do such thorough reviews. it confused me though, as to which has less…am i just missing something? Perhaps i am just not understanding the following text excerpted from the 2 reviews (and of course it’s hard to find this info on Stella’s!, in search of clarity!). thanks!
primal:
Primal products tend to be relatively high in phosphorus, with typical phosphorus content around 1.0% or roughly 2 grams per 1,000 calories. That’s close to the recommended amount for growing kittens and certainly too high for a cat with kidney disease.
stella:
The company claims that all of their freeze-dried and frozen foods have the same phosphorus content. That’s 0.45% to 0.67% on an as-fed basis. Tummy Ticklin’ Turkey frozen raw food, for example, is 0.61% phosphorus on an as-fed basis. This translates to roughly 3.9g per 1000 calories. That’s twice the AAFCO’s recommended amount for growing kittens.
The percentage looks higher on Primal food due to the fact that it’s measured on a dry matter basis, not “as-fed”, but Stella & Chewy’s food definitely seems to be higher in phosphorus. The grams per 1,000 calories value is more reliable than the percentage.
I found that Stella and Chewy’s Shreds are also VERY high in calcium, which is another issue to watch when it comes to oxalate crystal formation and kidney stones. They told me that they follow AAFCO’s guidelines, but in actuality, their calcium level is TWICE what the AAFCO recommends for Adult cats. When I pointed that out to them, they just kept repeating that the add extra calcium because it is good for the cat. This seems to mirror their excess of bone meal (bone), which is also made of calcium.
As a result of them not being at all interested in my feedback, or attentive to this genuine concerns, I have cut way back on feeling my kitties their foods.
Trying to find high protein low carb food for my cat diagnosed with asthma a d rninitis. On dry food now would like to transition to wet.
You can look up the safety report on the Stella and Chewy website by entering your food’s product lot number? But where is the lot number printed on the packaging? I couldn’t find it by examining the bag of food, and couldn’t find anything on the Stella and Chewy website that indicated how to find it. I’m looking at the Stella and Chewy Raw Blend for cats. No dice.
Good question, Doug! The lot number is simply a string of numbers and/or letters, so it can be tough to find. It’s typically found on the side or bottom of the package, often near the “best before” date. If you can find the date, the lot number should be the combination of numbers/letters printed nearby.
A 10 lb cat is a small female, and that’s $2.53 a day to feed?
Let’s say you have a 20 lb male. That’s $5.06 a day.
5.06 x 365 days x 20 years = $36,938
Got 2 males or 1 male and 2 females? $73,876
Got 2 males and 2 females? $110,814
That’s not including vet bills, litter, etc.
Generally, the average cat should weigh like 10-15 lbs, 20 is more for larger breeds like maine coons. but yeah, having multiple cats is expensive. It’s why I only have one, want to give the best life I can to her
Would you be able to review some of their canned wet food? Im thinking about feeding my cat the chicken and chicken liver pate and want to know you thoughts on it. Thank you!
I second this! I have been feeding the chicken pate and my cat likes it, but I would love to see a review about their pate food on here.
As Bill had pointed out, the dry-freeze dinner morsels are much higher in calories than what the label states. 1kg has 4,440 kcal and the label states that 1 cup has 188 kcal, but this is incorrect, as a cup has about 120 grams or .12 kg. which has 533 kcal. Their label states that 3/4 cup should be fed to a 8 lb cat, which would be an insane amount of calories. Some of their packages expresses the calories per oz instead, in which case the morsels have 125 kcal per oz and given that 3/4 cup has about 3 oz of dry food, you’d be giving your cat roughly double the amount of calories per day.
Stella & Chewy’s tends to refer to the rehydrated quantity, which is likely the issue here—an excellent point to note.
YOU DID NOT SPECIFY KITTEN FOOD…
Hello Chris, all of the Stella & Chewy’s foods listed here are formulated for all life stages, making them appropriate for both kittens and adult cats.
What I really want to know is do cats like it. Reviews can and are bought. I only care if cats like it, which you completely failed to cover.
Hi! Thank you for your review. My cats are picky eaters, so they will only eat kibble. I found Stella and Chewy’s coated kibble, and I want to try it out because my cats are eating Chicken Soup for the Soul and don’t seem very energetic, and are always in grumpy moods since switching to that brand. Do you think it would be worth the switch?
Hmmm, I would first talk with a vet to confirm that these grumpy moods and reduced energy are related to the food. Stella & Chewy’s food might help, but I would also consider any of the options on our list of the best dry cat food on the market.
I have always been confused about the kcals of the dinner morsels. I don’t give them to my cat every day, but when I do, it is 6-7 morsels, rehydrated for a main meal. I switch to these instead of some of his other wet food, that is lots of moisture, but not kcals. I like to keep variety in his diet. How do I figure the kcals of the morsels? Put them in a dry measuring cup before reconstituting them or a liquid measuring cup before adding water
You can use any sort of measuring cup you like, and the calorie content seems to be based on the volume of the dry food, not rehydrated with water. Hope this helps.
Hi,
Thank you so much for the analysis and review. I am wondering whether you folks can review some of their dry kibbles. My cats enjoyed their freeze-dried coated kibbles and seemed to have a very reasonable price compared to other kibbles.
Best
Very good idea. We’ll consider it! There are a lot of interesting raw kibble products out there that we haven’t covered yet, so I agree that it would be a good option to review.
Whats the flavour of the freeze-dried food on the second Lab report ?
It’s their Absolutely Rabbit Dinner Morsels.
I have inherited all my cats by helping out the local representatives from feral cat societies. In the case of catching, fixing, and vetting momma cats with kittens, I try to keep them together when they get re-homed, but there seems to always be one kitten too smart or too squirrelly to catch. So after a year in the high desert, I have a cat again by default, and have converted my roommates into kitty lovers. She is quite the hunter, and before I switched her to Chewy and Stella (rabbit) two weeks ago, she was catching and eating wildlife (mice, rats, gophers, moles) every three days or so. I haven’t seen a single kill since I made the switch to Stella – which she LOVES by the way.
I’m curious as to why cat food is not made up of ground up rodents like bloodmeal, which is what zoo’s feed their cat species. Is it the “gross humans out” factor? In fact, I’ve been considering purchasing live mice at the pet food store and feeding one to my baby girl daily. She would love the thrill of killing her own prey as well. Any thoughts or suggestions on that idea?
Enna, that’s the question we should all be asking! So, there are a few companies exploring the option of using rodents in cat food, and there are a few reasons why it hasn’t taken off more than it has so far. One, and perhaps the main reason, is that it probably strikes a lot of cat people as being “icky”. Mice would not be considered a human food ingredient, and they’re not on the list of USDA-approved ingredients. Of course, that hasn’t stopped the industry from using plenty of other ingredients that couldn’t legally go on our own plates, but I think there is a perception issue nonetheless. The other reason is that it’s quite expensive to make cat food with these animals. That’s why forward-thinking companies like Muridae use turkey, chicken, or other meats as their first ingredient before mouse. A lot of cat food is made from slaughterhouse scraps, and a mouse-based food is kind of the opposite; you have to raise and slaughter 4+ whole mice per can, and there’s not much you can do with any scraps or waste product (to my understanding). You can read more about some of the obstacles and challenges for these brands here.
Regarding letting her hunt her own mice, I think that would be a very cat-appropriate idea. You might get some raised eyebrows, but I think you’d only offend human sensibilities, and it would be perfectly in alignment with the real “way of the world” for cats. Alternatively, you can buy pre-killed frozen mice from Hare Today and feed those. They also offer a lot of other whole prey options that are great for cats, like baby quail, chicks, rats, and bunnies.
Mallory, thank you so much for your informative reply. I know that many people feel that letting kitty outdoors is cruel but I like to accept them for the wonderful animals they are, and just try to add to their lives (as they do to mine!) Keep up the great work!
I wonder about the Ash in the foods. How can this be acceptable? Is it a needed ingredient, or filler? They don’t list it on the packaging like I’ve seen in the past. THanks!
It’s neither, really—”ash” includes anything that isn’t organic in the food, e.g. vitamins and minerals. It’s not something that’s added to the food but a crude measure of the percentage of the food that is neither protein nor fat nor carbohydrates.
This is a question. I give your freeze-dried raw salmon and
chicken dinner morsels, three or four a day, to my 4 year old
cat as a snack, in addition to his vet-prescribed diet.
He loves them and it seems to encourage his eating of
his routine diet. He usually goes to his water bowl after
eating his snack but not always. Is this ok? Is it ok if
I don’t hydrate the morsels?
The morsels are really dry, with even lower moisture content than a regular dry food, so what you’re seeing is kind of like you drinking some water after having dry crackers or popcorn. It’s not bad to give a dry treat once in a while, but it is ideal for cats to have a high-moisture diet overall.
Hi can you explain the lab report for this food , is there any harmful additives found in the food that i should be worried about?