A formulated-to-meet, salmon-first wet food from Blue Buffalo, denser per can than 99% of the wet cat foods we've verified. Price-matched at $11.49 per 1,000 kcal, verified 2026-07-12.
THE FACTS, ONE SENTENCE —data as JSON· reference cat 10 lb · updated 2026-07-12
Joint, kidney, dental or heart concerns? Labels can't honestly answer those — that's vet territory. Why we don't checkmark them →
The evidence
The Verified Label
Every food on this site gets this exact panel — same fields, same order, sourced from the official label — so brands finally become comparable. Dots show where this food sits among all 732 wet cat foods we've verified.
Verified LabelThe standardized pet-food panel
VPFD № BLUE-B verified 2026-07-12
Composition — dry-matter basis
why dry matter
Moisture hides the real recipe: dry food is ~5-10% water, wet food ~75-82%. Removing water puts every food on one scale, so these are the only nutrition numbers that can be compared across foods. As-fed label values shown small.
Protein40.9%label: 9% minlower than 90% of wet cat foods
Fat40.9%label: 9% minno corpus anchor for fat yet
Fiber6.8%label: 1.5% maxno corpus anchor for wet-food fiber yet
Est. carbohydrates ash not disclosed → 8% assumed, so this is an estimate · this estimate came out negative — a known artifact of the flat ash assumption on very lean/high-protein foods; read as "very low," not literally<1%diabetic-check target <10%lower than 77% of wet cat foods
Magnesium as fed: not yet verified why 0.12% DM
A commonly cited veterinary target for helping manage struvite-crystal (urinary) risk in cats is magnesium under roughly 0.12% on a dry-matter basis. This is a general, label-checkable guideline — not a diagnosis, and not a substitute for your vet, especially for cats with a history of urinary issues.
Not yet verifiedmagnesiumno threshold to check — magnesium not in our verified record
Ash 8% assumed — not disclosed on label3%as used in carb estimateno corpus anchor for ash yet
Calories & cost — for your 10-lb adult cat
Calorie density201 kcal/can1290 kcal/kgdenser than 99% of wet cat foods (median 74)
Daily serving1¼ cans
Cost per day$3.00
Bag lasts—
Cost per 1,000 kcal: $11.49 — price-matched to a current retail listing, verified 2026-07-12. Serving math uses standard veterinary energy formulas — see the formula.
Standards & ingredients
AAFCO statement
what this means
Two kinds of AAFCO claims exist. Most foods are only "formulated to meet" nutrient profiles — a paper calculation. A smaller set carry the stronger claim: fed to real cats in AAFCO-procedure trials ("Animal feeding tests using AAFCO procedures substantiate…").
Formulated to meet · maintenance
First five ingredients (by pre-cooking weight)Salmon · Chicken Liver · Chicken · Fish Broth · Potatoes
Named animal protein first; named meals onlyYes
Legumes in first 10 (FDA DCM inquiry)None
BHA / BHT preservativesNone on label
Carrageenan (thickener)Yes
Ethoxyquin
why unknown
When a fish-meal supplier adds ethoxyquin, U.S. rules don't require it on the finished label — so no label can prove its absence for recipes containing fish meal. We report this as a gap rather than guessing.
None — no fish meal in this recipe
Safety
FDA recalls — Blue Buffalo, since 2023None on record
ManufacturerNot confirmed from label
Label transparency 7 of 15 standard fields
Green = verified favorable · amber = gap in the record · red = verified unfavorable · gray = not disclosed / neutral fact.
Source: official label source (official) · anchors: 732 verified wet cat foods · how to read this label
The fit
For your cat, specifically
Checked for a 10-lb adult cat with urinary health + a low-carb goal — the same published criteria our finder uses. Change your cat above and these update.
✓
Validated for adult catsAAFCO statement covers adult maintenance.
·
Urinary fit — can't assessMagnesium is not disclosed on this label, so the urinary/struvite check cannot be run — most cat food labels omit it entirely (only a small share of the cat foods we've verified disclose magnesium at all).
·
Fiber 6.8% DMNot selected as a concern for your cat — shown here for reference.
·
Sensitive stomachNot selected for your cat — but shown here for reference.
·
Contains chickenNot selected as a concern for your cat — shown here for reference.
✓
Estimated carbs fit a low-carb target<1% carbohydrate (dry-matter, estimated) is under the ~10% DM target some vets use for diabetic/low-carb cats. (this specific estimate came out negative — a known artifact of the flat ash assumption on very lean, high-protein/fat foods; read it as "very low," not as the literal number) Estimate only — not a lab measurement, and ash was assumed rather than disclosed on this label.
The source material
The full ingredient list
Every flag on the Verified Label is computed from this list. Ingredients are ordered by pre-cooking weight — the first five carry the most information.
The four questions the WSAVA nutrition guidelines tell you to ask a pet-food company. Every answer is sourced or marked as an undisclosed gap — never guessed. This is the "is it made competently?" axis that star-rating sites skip.
Owns its manufacturingMixed
Same source also states: 'Blue Buffalo sources and produces everything from its own facilities or from partners across the United States.' Indicates a mix of own facilities plus third-party co-manufacturers.
Blue Buffalo's professional site states doctorate-level animal nutritionists on staff. dvm360 (via search, not fetched) reports Laura B. Gaylord, DVM, DACVIM (Nutrition) — a board-certified veterinary nutritionist — and Matt Panasevich, PhD, work at Blue Buffalo; the true value rests on the fetched bluevetconnect quote.
14 PubMed-indexed papers carry this brand's name in an author affiliation — but without a recognized pet-nutrition research arm we can't confirm these are the company's own studies rather than unrelated name matches (surnames, the taxonomic family "Canidae", institutions). We don't count it as confirmed research.