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Cat Chow Complete With Salmon Dry Cat Food

Dry food · all cats · made by Nestle Purina PetCare Company

A formulated-to-meet, chicken-first dry food from Cat Chow, lighter per cup than 56% of the dry cat foods we've verified. Price-matched at $1.30 per 1,000 kcal, verified 2026-07-12.

THE FACTS, ONE SENTENCE — data as JSON · reference cat 10 lb · updated 2026-07-12

$6.94 · 3.15 lb $0.34/day as of 2026-07-12 Check price →
Your catupdates every number on this page
10 lb

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 283 dry cat foods we've verified.

Verified LabelThe standardized pet-food panel
VPFD № CAT-CH
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.
Protein 36.4%label: 32% min lower than 69% of dry cat foods
Fat 13.6%label: 12% min no corpus anchor for fat yet
Fiber 3.4%label: 3% max lower than 81% of dry cat foods
Est. carbohydrates ash not disclosed → 8% assumed, so this is an estimate ≈37.5%diabetic-check target <10% higher than 87% of dry 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 verifiedmagnesium no threshold to check — magnesium not in our verified record
Ash 8% assumed — not disclosed on label 8%as used in carb estimate no corpus anchor for ash yet

Calories & cost — for your 10-lb adult cat

Calorie density 410 kcal/cup3737 kcal/kg typical — the median dry cat food is 415 (median 415)
Daily serving¾ cups
Cost per day$0.34
Bag lasts—

Cost per 1,000 kcal: $1.30 — price-matched to a current retail listing (3.15-lb size), 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 · all_life_stages
First five ingredients (by pre-cooking weight)Chicken by-product meal · ground yellow corn · corn protein meal · whole grain wheat · rice
Named animal protein first; named meals onlyYes
Legumes in first 10 (FDA DCM inquiry)1 (soybean meal)
BHA / BHT preservativesNone on label
Carrageenan (thickener)None
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.
 Can't be determined from label

Safety

FDA recalls — Cat Chow, since 2023None on record
ManufacturerNestle Purina PetCare Company, St. Louis, MO 63164 USA
Label transparency 10 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: 283 verified dry 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 3.4% 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.
✕
Too many estimated carbs for a low-carb target≈37.5% carbohydrate (dry-matter, estimated) is over the ~10% DM target some vets use for diabetic/low-carb cats. Estimate only — not a lab measurement. See lower-carb options →

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.

Chicken by-product meal, ground yellow corn, corn protein meal, whole grain wheat, rice, soybean meal, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols, salmon, liver flavor, fish meal, calcium carbonate, phosphoric acid, salt, choline chloride, potassium chloride, taurine, MINERALS [zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite], VITAMINS [Vitamin E supplement, niacin (Vitamin B-3), Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate (Vitamin B-5), thiamine mononitrate (Vitamin B-1), riboflavin supplement (Vitamin B-2), Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride (Vitamin B-6), folic acid (Vitamin B-9), Vitamin D-3 supplement, biotin (Vitamin B-7), menadione sodium bisulfite complex (Vitamin K)], Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 2

Wet ingredients like fresh chicken by-product meal shrink once cooked — which is why named meals appearing high on the list matter: they keep meaningful animal protein after moisture is removed.

Nutritional twins

Cheaper close matches

Verified foods with a closely matching label at a meaningfully lower cost per 1,000 kcal.

Rachael Ray Nutrish Rachael Ray® Nutrish™ Real Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe Whole Health Blend Dry Cat Food
36.3% protein (DM)$0.94 / 1,000 kcal27% less per 1,000 kcal
Friskies Gravy Swirl'dsame maker family
34.1% protein (DM)$0.91 / 1,000 kcal30% less per 1,000 kcal
IAMS PROACTIVE HEALTH Healthy Adult with Chicken
35.6% protein (DM)$0.94 / 1,000 kcal28% less per 1,000 kcal

Label-composition matches only: same species, form, and growth stage; same primary protein where both are known; grain-free preserved; protein within 4 points and fat within 4 points, and estimated carbs within 8 points, on a dry-matter basis. Not a medical or quality recommendation.

The maker

Who makes this — and how they back it up

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 manufacturing Owns its plants

Nestlé Purina owns and operates its own U.S. factories.

source →
Employs a qualified nutritionist Yes — sourced

Arleigh Reynolds, DVM, board-certified in veterinary nutrition, employed by Nestlé Purina PetCare (maker of this brand).

source →
AAFCO feeding trials Undisclosed

No feeding-trial AAFCO statement found on the 10 labels we’ve verified for this brand, and no company-wide claim was found either. Most pet foods are only "formulated to meet" AAFCO profiles (a paper calculation) rather than fed to real animals in trials — this is common, not necessarily a red flag.

Peer-reviewed research Yes — sourced

157 PubMed-indexed papers carry "Nestlé Purina" in an author affiliation (animal/pet-domain filtered) — a reproducible floor, not a total.

source →
Parent company Nestlé Purina PetCare ↗ Headquarters / plant St. Louis, Missouri, USA ↗ FDA recalls on record None on record

Full company scorecard, sources, and every SKU we've verified for this brand: Cat Chow brand page →