Home / Cat food / Nulo / FreeStyle Chicken & Cod Recipe for Cats

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FreeStyle Chicken & Cod Recipe for Cats

Dry food · all cats

A formulated-to-meet, deboned-first dry food from Nulo, denser per cup than 73% of the dry cat foods we've verified. Price-matched at $2.31 per 1,000 kcal, verified 2026-07-13.

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

$53.99 · 14 lb $0.60/day as of 2026-07-13 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 № NULO-F
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 44.4%label: 40% min higher than 82% of dry cat foods
Fat 22.2%label: 20% min no corpus anchor for fat yet
Fiber 4.4%label: 4% max typical — the median dry cat food is 4.5%
Est. carbohydrates ash not disclosed → 8% assumed, so this is an estimate ≈20%diabetic-check target <10% lower than 88% 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 452 kcal/cup3672 kcal/kg denser than 73% of dry cat foods (median 415)
Daily serving½ cups
Cost per day$0.60
Bag lasts—

Cost per 1,000 kcal: $2.31 — price-matched to a current retail listing (14-lb size), verified 2026-07-13. 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)Deboned Chicken · Chicken Meal · Turkey Meal · Whole Peas · Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols & Citric Acid)
Named animal protein first; named meals onlyYes
Legumes in first 10 (FDA DCM inquiry)3 (whole peas, lentils, pea fiber)
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.
 None — no fish meal in this recipe

Safety

FDA recalls — Nulo, since 2023None on record
ManufacturerNot confirmed from label
Label transparency 11 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 4.4% 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≈20% 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.

Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Whole Peas, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols & Citric Acid), Lentils, Deboned Cod, Ground Flaxseed, Natural Flavor, Pea Fiber, Sweet Potato, Choline Chloride, Salt, Vitamin E Supplement, DL-Methionine, Dried Chicory Root, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Zinc Proteinate, Taurine, Zinc Sulfate, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Iron Proteinate, Dried Kelp, Dried Cranberries, Niacin Supplement, Iron Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Copper Sulfate, Vitamin A Supplement, Manganese Proteinate, Thiamine Mononitrate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement, Dried Bacillus coagulans Fermentation Product, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Manganous Oxide, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide, Folic Acid, Sodium Selenite, Calcium Iodate, Rosemary Extract

Nutritional twins

Cheaper close matches

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

Diamond Naturals Active Cat Chicken Meal & Rice Formula
44.4% protein (DM)$1.07 / 1,000 kcal54% less per 1,000 kcal
Taste of the Wild Rocky Mountain Feline Recipe
46.7% protein (DM)$1.68 / 1,000 kcal27% less per 1,000 kcal
Purina ONE +Plus High Protein Salmon & Ocean Whitefish Formula Cat Food
43.2% protein (DM)$1.50 / 1,000 kcal35% 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 Co-packed

FAQ references a 'network of premium pet food facilities' and 'manufacturing partners,' indicating third-party co-manufacturers rather than company-owned plants.

source →
Employs a qualified nutritionist Yes — sourced

Names two full-time PhD nutritionists: Dr. Greg Aldrich (Ph.D. Nutrition, Univ. of Illinois) and Dr. Heather Mendoza (Ph.D. Grain Science/Pet Food Science, Kansas State). Qualified by PhD, not by ACVN/ECVCN veterinary diplomate.

source →
AAFCO feeding trials Undisclosed

No feeding-trial AAFCO statement found on the 63 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 Unconfirmed

1 PubMed-indexed paper 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.

source →
Parent company Apax Partners ↗ Founded 2010 ↗ Headquarters / plant Austin, Texas, USA ↗ FDA recalls on record None on record

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