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Rating
- Meat is the first ingredient – 1 Star
- Uses some unnamed meats – 1 Star
- Above average protein content – 1 Star
- Less than 4 controversial ingredients – 1 Star
- Catological Discretionary Rating – 0.5 Star
Whole Life LifeBites Chicken is one of our top 2 choices for best human grade cat food.
Here’s a few important points:
- Quality protein, including organ meat
- Limited ingredient, minimal fillers
- Minimal whole food produce ingredients for vitamins and minerals
The Whole Life LifeBites product line includes 3 freeze-dried 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.
Whole Life LifeBites Chicken was selected to represent the other products in the line for this review.
Whole Life LifeBites Chicken
Freeze-Dried Cat Food
| Estimated Nutrient Content |
| Protein | Fat | Carbs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guaranteed Analysis | 49% | 25% | NA |
| Dry Matter Basis | 51% | 26% | 10% |
| Calorie Weighted Basis | 41% | 51% | 8% |
Estimated Dry Matter Nutrient Content
Fiber (guaranteed analysis)
3%
Calories/100g
429
Is real, named meat the first ingredient?
Yes
Ingredients
Chicken, Sweet Potato, Chicken Liver, Peas, Yogurt, Pumpkin, Cranberry, Flaxseed, Chia Seed, Tricalcium Phosphate, Vitamins and Minerals (Choline Chloride, Taurine, Zinc Proteinate, Vitamin E Supplement, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Thiamin Mononitrate, Potassium Iodide, Vitamin D3 Supplement).
Ingredients in red are controversial or of questionable quality.
Ingredient Breakdown
The first ingredient in this cat food 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 second ingredient is sweet potato. OK, but with reservations.
Normally sweet potatoes are a good source of carbohydrates and fiber, with less sugar than beets.
However, cats do not require carbohydrates like this, and while it won’t necessarily hurt the cat, it is not biologically appropriate.
It may be hard to digest, and is unnecessary.
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 peas. OK, but with reservations.
Peas are a quality carbohydrate, but cats don’t need much in the way of carbohydrates.
They are full of fiber, but also contain a fair amount of protein, which we should keep in mind when judging the meat content of this food.
There probably aren’t many peas in here, but there really doesn’t need to be any.
The fifth ingredient is yogurt. OK, but with reservations.
Yogurt has live active cultures, which are a source of probiotics and great for digestion.
While milk products are not usually good for cats, yogurt has enzymes that pasteurized milk lacks, like lactase, that help it digest in a cat’s belly.
This means most cats should not have an upset tummy after eating yogurt.
However, there are other ways of getting these cultures into the food, and you may not want to risk feeding a milk product to your cat.
The sixth ingredient is pumpkin. Good.
Pumpkin is a high quality dietary fiber for cats, and is recommended over other ingredients like rice.
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 utilizes the proteinate form of some minerals, which may be easier to digest and more bioavailable for your cat. This is usually a sign of a high quality cat food.
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 Whole Life LifeBites
From top to bottom, this is an above average freeze-dried product.
From the quality meat ingredients, including organ meat, to the limited ingredients, to the addition of vitamins and minerals, this just ticks many of the right boxes.
This is a great example of the type of food you should be feeding your cat.
Since 2 of the top 3 ingredients are meat, we can assume that this is a meat-based cat food, even though peas are the fourth ingredient.
There is likely not enough pea protein to degrade the quality of the protein.
To review, on a dry matter basis, this food is 51% protein, 26% fat, and 10% carbs.
As a group, the brand has an average protein content of 51%, and average fat content of 26%, and an average carb content of 10%.
Compared to the other 2000+ foods in our database, this food has:
- Above average protein.
- Above average fat.
- Average carbs.
Because it contains limited ingredients, but is mostly made up of quality meat products, our rating for this brand is 4.5 stars.
Highly recommended.
Whole Life 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 food.
Usually these things are non-life-threatening, and we think it’s important to take a moment to be thankful about just how few recalls there really are in the industry, considering the enormous volume of 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 Whole Life brand in the past:
- We could find no instances of a recall in Whole Life’s history.
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 Whole Life Freeze-Dried 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 20% off and free shipping on lots of orders.
