Smalls Cat Food Reviewed

Smalls Cat Food is pet food made from real, raw ingredients like chicken, chicken liver, and gizzard to provide the appropriate protein content a carnivore needs.

Smalls adds herring oil for fat and sweet potatoes for carbohydrates, and all of their ingredients are humanely harvested and sustainably sourced. It uses limited ingredients to make frozen and freeze-dried raw cat food.

Smalls Cat Food is made in Chicago, IL, USA.

It is made with sustainably sourced ingredients. They freeze their food raw or freeze-dry their food after gently cooking it to make it safe for animal consumption.

Smalls freeze-dried and frozen ingredients are minimally processed to be turned into frozen raw food and raw kibble, but they do not make typical dry food. They use things like chicken breast and ground beef as the foundation for their recipes and add green beans and potatoes for carbs and fiber before they form it into one of two available textures: frozen raw and freeze-dried raw. Their basic production process is chop, steam, and freeze.

The first step is to mince the ingredients so they can be formed into kibble or packaged after being frozen. The ingredients are steam-cooked gently and then frozen to lock in nutrients. From there, it is shipped to cat owners for their cats to enjoy.

Yes, Smalls Cat Food is good.

Their use of raw ground chicken, beef, and turkey in their cat food recipes is key to the nutrition they provide pets. They only use human-grade ingredients to ensure your pet is receiving high-quality ingredients, and they formulate a meal plan for your pet with a questionnaire at the beginning of the process.

All of this is put in place so you can be sure when you receive Smalls products, you are receiving high-end food options from a high-quality cat food brand. The use of raw ingredients may even help alleviate some cat health issues.

Their freeze-dried foods are healthy options, although Smalls recommends adding human-grade raw foods to ensure a complete nutritional profile.

Since there are various Smalls formulas for cats, we will take a look at some recipes and their basic features.

Smalls cat food is a subscription service costing anywhere from $30-$130 per month, depending on your subscription level. They use only real, raw meat and ingredients that are either frozen or freeze-dried to lock in the natural nutrient density of the food. Their headquarters are in New York, and their food is produced in Chicago in a USDA-certified facility.

After completing the questionnaire, you will receive a sampler to decide what formulas will work best for your pet. After deciding what product you want and officially signing up for the service, you will begin to receive regularly scheduled packages.

Inside a Smalls pet food subscription box, you will receive their fresh or freeze-dried food product or products for your dog or cat and any toys, treats, or litter you choose to add to your subscription. Using code “catconcierge” will save you 33% on your first order.

Reviews of Smalls and their products are outstanding. Almost anywhere you look, you will find 8, 9, and 10-star reviews raving about their products and their services.

These reviews often cite free sampler packs, ethical sourcing of ingredients, and the ability to edit, skip, or cancel your subscription at any time as the reason for such high remarks. We couldn’t find critical reviews that expressed dissatisfaction with anything except the price, and even that wasn’t enough to dissuade many reviewers from giving it a 10/10 score.

Smalls has you fill out an introduction form of several questions regarding your pet.

The ingredients in Smalls pet products are all human-grade and come from ethical sources. They use things like chicken thigh, chicken breast, and chicken liver in the Smalls chicken recipes and turkey thigh and chicken liver in their other bird recipes.

Their beef recipes offer 90% lean beef, beef liver, and beef hearts. No meat goes unnamed in their recipes, you will not see a generic “liver” ingredient, and you will always know what kind of animal that liver came from.

Vegetables like green beans, kale, and peas are used for vitamins, carbs, and fiber. All of which are grown on organic and sustainable farms. They supplement their food with vitamins and minerals to fortify it with complete and balanced nutrition. All of this makes their food slightly higher in calories, but the ingredients are whole and natural. This means your cat will need to eat less of them to feel just as full.

You will never see artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives in their food, nor will you see feed-grade grains or things like guar gum and xanthan gum. Smalls keeps it as real as possible when it comes to the ingredients in their foods.

This is one of the most popular Smalls recipes. It is a high-protein fresh cat food made with fresh chicken breast and chicken heart and adds green beans for vitamins. Added vitamins make this a more complete nutritional food. We aren’t a fan of their use of vegetable oil as a fat additive.

Guaranteed analysis:

This recipe uses 90% lean ground beef, beef liver, and beef hearts for necessary vitamins and proteins. All of this is great, the only potential problem is the use of vegetables early on in the ingredients list.

Guaranteed analysis:

This is made with turkey thigh as the primary ingredient and followed by chicken liver. Green beans are third, which is not generally ideal for meat-eaters. Every ingredient after chicken liver, in fact, is plant-based which may not be the healthiest option for some cats.

Guaranteed analysis:

With turkey thigh, chicken liver, green beans, peas, and kale, it seems as though this recipe relies heavily on vegetables for nutritional value. This might not be ideal for cat health, but the vegetable content is relatively low, even though it is ranked highly in the ingredient list.

Guaranteed analysis:

This recipe consists of freeze-dried raw turkey, turkey thigh, gizzard, and vegetables for vitamins and fiber. The nutrient profile is balanced even if there is a big reliance on vegetables for some micronutrients.

Guaranteed analysis:

Finely ground duck, duck heart, and duck gizzard are the bulk of this formula. These are all great sources of protein and minerals. Goat’s milk, herring oil, and duck egg are also used to add texture and more balanced nutrition. All of this together makes for a fantastic food made without the use of vegetables.

Guaranteed analysis:

Yes, Smalls Cat Food has been recalled in the past.

They have been recalled twice. Once in March 2019 and again in June 2021. In March 2019, certain packages of “Diamond Dust” chicken liver, powder were recalled from the supplier of the powder and this caused Smalls to recall the packages of food which used that ingredient. In 2021, they had refrigeration problems that may have contaminated the food as it is made without preservatives.

A Smalls subscription will cost you between $30 and $130, depending on your subscription level.

Yes, Smalls Cat Food is worth it as long as you can afford it.

Smalls offers human-grade foods for your pet made of whole prey ingredients. They do not skimp on their recipes, and their ingredients are responsibly sourced. So, when you are buying a Smalls product, you are supporting a company that is eco-conscious and self-aware.

Smalls is, however, a high-end pet food company, and the raw food options they provide can come at a steep price.