Crave Grain-Free Food Tray Cat Food (Wet) Review And Nutritional Analysis

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Crave Grain-Free Food Tray Chicken Cuts in Gravy is one of our top 5 choices for best wet cat foods overall.

Here are a few important points:

• Lots of meat
• Includes organ meat for a more natural, vitamin-rich meal
• Almost no carbohydrates
• Near-perfect macronutrient profile

The Crave Grain-Free wet cat food product line includes 10 recipes/flavors.

Each recipe below includes its related AAFCO nutrient profile when available on the product’s official webpage or packaging: Growth (G), Maintenance (M), All Life Stages (A), Supplemental (S) or Unspecified (U).

The star rating is a rough average of all of the flavors in a single line of food. If an individual recipe scored lower or higher, we will mark that below, next to the flavor.

• Crave Grain-Free Food Tray Chicken Pate (M)
• Crave Grain-Free Food Tray Chicken & Beef Pate (M)
• Crave Grain-Free Food Tray Salmon & Trout Pate (M) 4.5 Stars
• Crave Grain-Free Food Tray Salmon Pate (M) 4.5 Stars
• Crave Grain-Free Food Tray Turkey & Duck Pate (M)
• Crave Grain-Free Food Tray Turkey (M)
• Crave Grain-Free Food Tray Chicken Cuts in Gravy (M) 4.5 Stars
• Crave Grain-Free Food Tray Turkey & Duck Cuts in Gravy (M) 4.5 Stars
• Crave Grain-Free Food Tray Chicken & Beef Cuts in Gravy (M)
• Crave Grain-Free Food Tray Turkey Cuts in Gravy (M) 4.5 Stars

Crave Grain-Free Food Tray Chicken Cuts in Gravy was selected to represent the other Crave wet cat food products in the line for this review.

Ingredient Breakdown

The first ingredient in this cat food is chicken broth. Good.

Instead of using water for processing, chicken broth is added for moisture.

Broth may contain vitamins and nutrients from the original animal (chicken, in this case), that water would lack.

This is usually a sign of a high-quality wet cat food.

The second ingredient is chicken. Good.

While quality of the individual ingredient can vary, chicken is a good protein source for cats.

It’s also important to note that chicken contains about 70% water, so when it is processed and cooked for use in cat food, it will become a smaller part of the total recipe.

The third ingredient is chicken liver. Good.

Liver is an important organ meat that your cat would eat in the wild to get extra protein, vitamins, and minerals.

This is usually a sign of a high quality food.

The fourth ingredient is pork plasma. Good.

Plasma, or blood with red blood cells removed, is a gelling agent or thickener.

It is a more biologically appropriate ingredient than wheat gluten or other plant materials.

It may have some benefits for digestibility, and makes the food taste and feel better to cats.

The fifth ingredient is chicken heart. Good.

You may not love the sound of it, but your cat sure does.

Organ meat has vital nutrients your kitty needs.

It is pure muscle, which means it’s full of protein. It also has minerals and important vitamins that white meat does not have.

This is usually a sign of a high quality food.

The sixth ingredient is tapioca starch. OK, but with reservations.

Used in many grain-free recipes as a starch to bind the food together.

While it’s not very nutritional and doesn’t compare well to grains in some cases, there’s likely not enough of it to cause any digestive issues for your cat.

This recipe includes a number of other ingredients, but once you get down this far, none of them will be in large enough quantities to make a real difference, except for the added vitamins and minerals. 

However, there are still a few things you should know about. 

This recipe uses xanthan gum as a binding agent. While this is usually a harmless ingredient and is used in plenty of cat and human foods, some research suggests that cats with inflammatory bowel disease should not consume xanthan gum.

To read a more in depth article about any of the ingredients listed here, check out our Cat Food Ingredient Wiki (currently under development).

The Catological Verdict on Crave Grain-Free Wet Cat Food

From top to bottom, this is an above average cat food.

From the abundance of meats, including organs, to the lack of carbohydrates, to the addition of important minerals and vitamins, this just ticks all of the boxes.

This is a perfect example of the type of food you should be feeding your cat.

Since meat shows up frequently, and right at the top of the ingredient list, we can assume that this is a meat-based cat food, with enough meat to make it biologically appropriate for a cat’s dietary needs.

To review, on a dry matter basis, this food is 50% protein, 19% fat, and 6% carbs.

As a group, the brand has an average protein content of 53%, and average fat content of 26%, and an average carb content of 0%.

Compared to the other 2000+ foods in our database, this food has:

• Above average protein.
• Above average fat.
• Below average carbs.

Because it is full of quality meat products and biologically appropriate, our rating for this brand is 5 stars.

Highly recommended.

Crave Cat Food Recall History

We do not believe that a recall indicates a low-quality food or company, and we respect the fact that sometimes things happen that cause a manufacturer to recall a cat food.

Usually these things are non-life-threatening, and we think it’s important to take a moment to be thankful for just how few recalls there really are in the industry, considering the enormous volume of cat food produced.

However, we do believe that a history of recalls may point to a larger issue with a company, and that discerning consumers want to know who they’re buying from, especially when it comes to something as important as the food you feed your beloved cat. 

Here is a list of recalls that have affected the Crave brand in the past:

• Crave has never had a recall as far as we can ascertain.

If you want to stay up to date on the latest recall information affecting your cat’s food, sign up to our email list and receive an email every time a recall is announced. We’ll also let you know about any updated ratings, recipe changes, or new cat foods on the market. (Our alert system will be launched shortly, check back soon.)

Where To Buy Crave Grain-Free Cat Food

We recommend purchasing your pet products from Chewy.com. They continually prove that they walk the walk while talking the talk, and I’ve never dealt with a more dedicated pet-parent base of people than those who work at Chewy. 

Plus, they offer up to 40% off first autoship orders with free shipping.