Home / Cat food / Nulo / FreeStyle Paté Chicken & Chicken Liver Recipe for Cats

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Nulo FreeStyle Paté Chicken & Chicken Liver Recipe for Cats

Wet food · all cats

A formulated-to-meet, chicken-first wet food from Nulo, denser per can than 81% of the wet cat foods we've verified. Cat-food pricing isn't in our corpus for this SKU yet, so cost-per-day isn't shown — the composition numbers below are fully verified.

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

$23.88 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 732 wet 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
Dry food is ~5-10% water, wet food ~75-82%, so as-fed numbers are on two different scales. As-fed values shown small. How the conversion works →
Protein 45%label: 9% min lower than 77% of wet cat foods
Fat 30%label: 6% min no corpus anchor for fat yet
Fiber 5%label: 1% max no corpus anchor for wet-food fiber yet
Est. carbohydrates ash not disclosed → 8% assumed, so this is an estimate ≈5%diabetic-check target <10% typical — the median wet cat food is 4.6%
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 3%as used in carb estimate no corpus anchor for ash yet

Calories & cost — for your 10-lb adult cat

Calorie density 112 kcal/can— kcal/kg denser than 81% of wet cat foods (median 74)
Daily serving2¼ cans
Cost per day—
Bag lasts—

Cost per 1,000 kcal not available yet — this cat food isn't price-matched to a retail listing in our corpus yet. Serving math uses standard veterinary energy formulas — see the formula.

Standards & ingredients

AAFCO statement
what this means
Two claims exist: formulated to meet a profile, or fed to real cats in an AAFCO trial. Which is stronger, and how rare it is →
 Formulated to meet · all_life_stages
First five ingredients (by pre-cooking weight)Chicken · Chicken Broth · Chickpeas · Chicken Liver · Pumpkin
Named animal protein first; named meals onlyYes
Legumes in first 10 (FDA DCM inquiry)1 (chickpeas)
BHA / BHT preservativesNone on label
Carrageenan (thickener)None
Ethoxyquin
why unknown
A preservative added by a fish-meal supplier need not appear on the finished label, so no label can prove its absence. Why we show gaps →
 None — no fish meal in this recipe

Safety

FDA recalls — Nulo, since 2023None on record
ManufacturerNot confirmed from label
Label transparency 6 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 5% 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≈5% carbohydrate (dry-matter, estimated) is under the ~10% DM target some vets use for diabetic/low-carb cats. 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 above is computed from this list. Why order is by pre-cooking weight, and how splitting bends it →

Chicken, Chicken Broth, Chickpeas, Chicken Liver, Pumpkin, Coconut Oil, Tricalcium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride, Inulin, Guar Gum, Salt, Choline Chloride, Magnesium Sulfate, Taurine, Salmon Oil, Iron Amino Acid Chelate, Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, Vitamin E Supplement, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Thiamine Mononitrate (source of Vitamin B1), Vitamin A Supplement, Nicotinic Acid (Vitamin B3), Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Calcium Iodate, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Calcium d-Pantothenate (source of Vitamin B5), Riboflavin Supplement (Vitamin B2), Sodium Selenite, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of Vitamin B6), Folic Acid, Cholecalciferol (source of Vitamin D3), Biotin, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity)

5 ingredients in this list are ones we hold sourced evidence on , and 1 of them is genuinely contested rather than merely unpopular online.

  • Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) · ingredient 3ContestedA pulse (legume), also called garbanzo bean, used in grain-free foods for plant protein and carbohydrate. Chickpeas are among the pulses (with peas and lentils) cited in the FDA's open 2018 investigation into diet-associated canine DCM.
  • Fish oil (EPA + DHA omega-3) · ingredient 15Well supportedMarine-source omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) from fish oil. A randomized, double-blinded controlled trial (Roush 2010) found improved weight-bearing in dogs with osteoarthritis, and a 2022 meta-analysis identified clear clinical analgesic efficacy for omega-3-enriched diets and supplements.
  • Prebiotics (chicory root / inulin, FOS) · ingredient 9NeutralFermentable fibers (chicory-derived inulin and fructooligosaccharides) that feed colonic bacteria and are readily fermented to short-chain fatty acids in dogs. Feeding studies show they shift fecal microbiota composition and are well tolerated at typical inclusion levels, but clear health benefits beyond compositional change are not yet established.
  • Guar Gum · ingredient 10NeutralA soluble, viscous fiber from the guar bean used in small amounts to thicken and stabilize foods, mostly wet formulas. At higher dietary inclusion it can lower the digestibility of dry matter and protein in dogs, but it also produces metabolic effects such as reduced post-meal insulin and cholesterol; at the low levels used as a thickener these effects are minor.
  • Taurine (supplemental) · ingredient 14NeutralA sulfur amino acid that dogs can normally synthesize from methionine and cysteine, so it is not classically essential for them. However, some breeds (e.g., golden retrievers) and some diets are linked to low taurine status and dilated cardiomyopathy: an observational study (Ontiveros 2020) associated non-traditional, largely grain-free diets with taurine deficiency and DCM-consistent echocardiographic changes in golden retrievers, though causation and mechanism remain under investigation.

Nutritional twins

Priced close matches

This food has no verified price yet — these are the closest label matches that do.

Blue Buffalo BLUE Wilderness Adult Cat Turkey Recipe
45.5% protein (DM)$9.47 / 1,000 kcal
Fromm Four-Star Chicken & Duck Pâté Wet Cat Food
45.5% protein (DM)$18.71 / 1,000 kcal
Tiki Cat After Dark Chicken, Chicken Liver & Quail Recipe
45.5% protein (DM)$19.32 / 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 →