The market for pet food is thoroughly saturated, yet there are still times when a new food breaks through and outshines the oldies. Crave has recently become a well-loved food for cat owners that want to feed their kitties high-quality meals.
Crave has become popular primarily based on the idea that it is free of many harmful substances and will help make your cat healthier. However, is it worth trying something new? Crave has a wide variety of options, from wet to dry and kitten to adult foods.
Crave cat food is a brand that began production only recently in 2017 as a subsidiary of one of the world’s biggest pet companies, Mars Petcare. This brand focuses explicitly on advertising its focus on producing high-quality cat foods at an affordable price. These are high-protein foods for kitties that need a little more support.
All of the various kinds of Crave’s cat foods are manufactured in North America. They advertise that they try to source all their ingredients from North America, keeping it as local as possible. This doesn’t encompass all of them, and certain ingredients come from China, such as vitamins and minerals.
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Which Types of Cats Is Crave Best Suited For?
Crave cat food is supposed to cater to the wild needs of your kitty. They are natural prowlers and hunters. If they are indoor and outdoor cats, then they get even more exercise and need more support in their diet.
Crave is a cat food that professes to contain higher amounts of protein than other cat foods do. Protein has a great deal of value in cat food, especially for the active kitty. They do not need many fats and carbohydrates to stay healthy, so Crave cat food has cut that out of many of the food.
Discussion of the Primary Ingredients (Good and Bad)
Protein Content
The protein content of Crave’s food is one of their pride points as a brand. They want to supply cats with a healthy food source that is high in protein to keep them healthy throughout any of their daily activities.
Typically, an adult cat needs anywhere from 35-40% protein in their diet. Often, wet food packs a bigger protein punch, but this isn’t always the truth.
In Crave’s guaranteed analysis on most of their food, your kitty receives a minimum amount of crude protein, 40%. It can be even higher than this in some of the recipes, meaning that it more than lives up to a cat’s daily requirements.
Not only does this food have plenty of protein in it, but it is also sourced from ingredients that are safe and healthy for your cat. Depending on the meal’s featured meat, it will have real turkey, chicken, duck, salmon, or ocean fish.
Using real meat instead of byproducts also means an easier source for your kitty to digest and you know what types of meat you are giving them.
Grain-Free
Another factor in this food is the reduced amount of carbohydrates that it contains. This quantity helps your kitty maintain proper weight. Most foods in a commercial diet contain more carbs than cats need, and most cats would prefer if they got to make a choice.
Since this diet is one that doesn’t include any grains, it is easier to reduce the carbs that fill up many cat foods. There is no weight, soy, or corn product in this food. Instead, there are carbs from peas and flaxseed in small amounts.
Taurine Quantity
Taurine is an amino acid that plays an essential part in the metabolic processes for most living things. It might have antioxidant properties, but it is still needed to support an animal’s proper digestion.
Most cat foods now include a percentage of taurine that they include in their food. Cats only need a maximum of 0.02% of taurine in their daily diet because their bodies cannot store too much at one time. There is a bit more than necessary in this food, but it is at least there as an essential ingredient. The minimum amount of taurine in most Crave food is 0.16%.
This cat food from Crave has a wider variety of protein sources than most of their other foods. The primary proteins come from real turkey, chicken, and duck meat. The turkey and chicken are the first two ingredients, meaning they are present in the recipe in greater amounts than anything else. Duck is the ninth ingredient, so it takes a lesser role in this food.
Like the rest of their meals, the food is grain-free and doesn’t contain any by-product meal, corn, wheat, or soy protein. The lack of these ingredients aid your cat’s digestion because these are not natural substances that cats would typically have.
This recipe is one of the most popular that Crave has put out. The cats that try it seem to love it and grow healthier because of it.
Calorie Breakdown:
Pros
Grain-free diet
High sources of quality protein
Most popular among cats and owners
Cons
Duck is not in as high quantities as advertising leads you to think
2. Crave Grain-Free Dry Cat Food With Salmon & Ocean Fish
Crave doesn’t offer too much of a variety among their recipes as of yet. They do seem to have a couple of primary categories of foods. The first are those that get their protein sources from land birds like chicken, turkey, and duck. The second category, which this recipe falls into, focuses on protein sourced from fish.
Although there are recipes that feature only salmon, this one contains both salmon and ocean fish for a different flavor. This doesn’t mean that the protein is entirely sourced from these advertised meats, though. Salmon is the first ingredient in this food, but this is closely followed by chicken meal. The ocean fish finds a place further down the list and is from menhaden fish.
Just like other foods, this is an entirely grain-free diet. There is no wheat, corn, or soy. Instead, the carbohydrates come from peas, alfalfa meal, lentils, and flaxseed, all in smaller amounts.
Calorie Breakdown:
Pros
High source of salmon
Contains no grains or by-product meals
Carbohydrates come from healthier sources
Cons
Misleading amount of chicken in an otherwise fish-based food
3. Crave Wet Cat Food With Salmon & Chicken in Loaf
It is important to note that Crave isn’t only known for its dry cat food since they also produce wet cat food in pâté, loaf, and gravy forms. This recipe comes in a loaf form, making it easy to mix the wet food with dry food. Doing so is actually a recommendation from Crave to maximize the daily nutrition in their diet.
Crave wet cat food comes from a minimum of 65% animal sources. They are still quite high in protein and entirely grain-free, excluding wheat, corn, and soy. The food is made from 43% chicken, 14% salmon, and 8% pork, making it high in protein and filled with healthy meat sources.
The moisture content in this food is 77.1%. This recipe is meant for adult cats that want to be supported similarly to their wild feline ancestors.
Calorie Breakdown:
Pros
High in protein
Filled with valuable protein sources
Easily mixed with dry food
Cons
Small quantities can require a great deal of food to feed your cat
What Other Users Are Saying
MyPetNeedsThat — “Because there is no soy, wheat, or corn in the recipe for Crave cat food, you often find that cats that have more of a sensitive stomach can easily eat again.”
All About Cats — “Crave cat food isn’t nutritionally fabulous, but it does do better than many other foods that can be sold at discount and grocery stores.”
Amazon — Amazon is one of the world’s largest resale companies with a review system that outshines most others on the internet. As pet owners, it is valuable to verify what other people think of Crave cat food. Check these reviews out by heading here.
Conclusion
While Crave might not stand out from the crowd in terms of overall nutritional value, it does pack a veritable punch of high-standard protein. Coupled with the fact that it is entirely grain-free, which is healthier for cats, it is a great budget option to feed your hungry kitties.
Crave recommends feeding cats a combination of their wet and dry food, and there are only a couple of variations of these. Make sure that when you switch their food, you do it slowly so it is easier on their digestion, whether it is wet, dry, or mixed.
Christian is the Editor-in-Chief of Excited Cats and one of its original and primary contributors. A lifelong cat lover, now based in South East Asia, Christian and his wife are the proud parents of an 11-year-old son and four rescue cats: Trixie, Chloe, Sparky, and Chopper.
