Nature’s Recipe (Salmon & Rice)
Rating: 
| Price: $$$ | Website
Nature’s Recipe is a food I’ve only seen at Petco, which leads me to believe it may be their house brand, although I am not positive of this. They do some things right and some things wrong, like many of the foods I’d considered to be “mid-grade”. This food does make an astonishingly bad choice however. More on that….
We see salmon, salmon meal and herring meal in this food. This indicates that there are high quality meat products in this food, and since they are fish, they should also supply those very needed Omega fatty acids. That being said, other than rice, the grain choices are awful. Corn as the 2nd and 3rd leading ingredients? Not a good choice at all.
Ah but it gets worse…they actually use “animal digest” in this food. That’s a huge problem. This is a really bad ingredient usually relegated to really cheap foods. Even Iams doesn’t use it! That really hurts my opinion on this food.
Two stars for getting the meat at least right, but pretty much failing the rest.
Where to buy?
What’s good about this food….
Two named meats to match the label, including first ingredient. Rice used as a grain. Herring meal also included.
….and what’s not so good.
Corn as 2nd and 3rd ingredient, animal digest used, calcium carbonate is very high on list.
Ingredients:
Salmon, corn, corn gluten meal, poultry fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), rice, salmon meal, dried egg, beet pulp, herring meal, animal digest, calcium carbonate, dried chicory root, yeast culture, sodium tripolyphosphate, vitamins (vitamin E supplement, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), niacin supplement, inositol, vitamin A supplement, thiamine mononitrate, d-calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), riboflavin supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin K activity), beta-carotene, vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement), potassium chloride, salt, phosphoric acid, L-lysine, choline chloride, malt syrup, minerals (zinc proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, iron proteinate, copper sulfate, copper proteinate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), taurine, L-tryptophan, yucca schidigera extract, rosemary extract, citric acid (used as a preservative).
I’d also like to know if the current grain-free Nature’s Recipe chicken dry food is a good choice. My cat just won’t eat any of the Solid Gold varieties anymore since they changed the formula. I’m interested in a good grain-free dry food that hasn’t been on the Pet Food Recall lists.
Thank you both for the great info! I just switched vets due to a move and needed to look up the exact food I’m feeding my very dearly loved FIV kat. This rating/info came up in my search. My kat only gets a bit of this Salmon recipe mixed in with the Nature’s Recipe Grain-Free Hairball Control Chicken & Potato Recipe….We were doing a gradual switch to the Salmon or possible mix for him.–Any current opinions on the Chicken recipe? Thanks again:-)
This seems out of date because the Natures Recipe I bought in last month lists these as first eight ingredients as…
Salmon, salmon meal, brown rice, chicken meal, pearled barley, brewers rice, pea protein, poultry fat
My cats have been on it for about two months and they love it! They were ravenous over it at the start. I changed them from Iams after 2 got pancreatitis. Their coat has become so soft and silky, that I hope it is improving their internal organs just as much.
However, in the past few weeks, I have seen them scooting their butts on the carpet and this has sparked some concerns and I will be contacting my vet for further advice.
Hi Kristin,
Pet food manufacturers change their ingredients often, making it hard to maintain an accurate review. Generally the ingredients don’t change too much, meaning the ratings stay the same. In the case of this food, it’s a definite improvement. I’d say 3 stars, perhaps 3.5.
Thank you very much for your reply and guidance on a new rating. I really value your knowledge and this is a great site.
An update…I contacted my vet about the vomiting and bottom scootching issues. My vet says this is normal when switching to a grain free, premium food. Because they have eaten foods with high fiber all their lives, their tummy’s take a while to adjust to the new diet.
She recommended adding digestive enzymes and probiotics to their food to aid the digestion process. Feeding canned food every few days will help also. So far so good the last two days after adding these supplements.
Interesting, too, that the main ingredient in the FortiFlora (probiotic) is animal digest. So they are taking it out of the main food ingredients, but then adding it back as a supplement. So should it really have been taken out of the food to begin with?
Since you mentioned animal digest in your original review, I wondered if you had any comments on this.
Thank you again!
Hi Kristin,
Firstly, FortiFlora is a Purina product. I’m not a big fan of Purina period. They claim animal digest is a great ingredient, but not many other sources agree.
In any case, there are other probiotics on the market such as Pet Guard. That uses human grade ingredients, has no animal digest, wheat, soy, corn, or sugar.