Simply Nourish
Rating: 
| Price: $$ | Website
Simply Nourish from PetSmart
Simply Nourish is a PetSmart brand of food, available instore and online. It comes in a couple of flavors: Chicken & Rice and Turkey & Oatmeal (targetted at indoor cats). This review will focus on the Chicken & Rice recipe for adult cats, but all recipes are similar.
First up we have Chicken and Chicken Meal which puts us on the right track for a decent food, but sadly this is followed up by rice flour, not “rice” as is suggested by the title. Rice flour is pretty worthless in a pet food, it’s a cheap filler and can lead to bowl distress and diabetes. This is sad to see, and they’d be better off bumping up the oatmeal we find lower down the ingredient list.
Canola Oil is the next ingredient and a good source of omega fats for healthy joints and a shiny coat. It’s unusual seeing canola oil so high up in the ingredient list, but it’s possible the bulk of the food is the chicken and rice flour.
There’s a range of dried fruits and veggies which is good, but not as good as the fresh ingredients we find in better rated brands. Still, it’s better to have dried ingredients than nothing.
Weighing up the food I’ll give it 3 stars. There’s worse foods available, but also better foods. The upside is the price, so if PetSmart is your local store then this is an ok option.
Where to buy?
What’s good about this food….
Chicken & Chicken Meal as the top ingredients.
….and what’s not so good.
Rice flour as a cheap filler, and very dominant in this food.
Ingredients:
Chicken, Chicken Meal, Rice Flour, Canola Oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), Natural Flavor, Tomato Pomace, Oatmeal, Dried Chicory Root, Flaxseed, Dried Cranberries, Dried Carrots, Dried Sweet Potatoes, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, L-ascorbyl-polyphosphate, Vitamin A Supplement, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin D Supplement, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement), Minerals (Zinc Sulfate, Ferric Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Choline Chloride, Potassium Chloride, Taurine.
They stopped making the can food! Help! Any suggestions?
I need to hear comments on simply nourish can cat food. My cat loves it as I stupidly fed him it before reading entire label. It comes from Taiwan which I’ve always heard one should avoid for pet foods. He likes the chicken stew and chicken tuna. I’m very concerned lately since I’ve noticed a ‘chemical’ smell in it. Anybody notice that? Is it a additive meant to keep it preserved and how safe is it if so? I stopped feeding it to him and it’s the only canned food he will eat so I don’t have very happy kitty right now! I read petco has a canned food called soulistic which is suppose to be similar so will check it out.
Hi Sherri,
Simply nourish stews are the only canned cat food my cats will eat as well. My one year old kitty Remi has been extremely ill lately though and vomiting excessively with diarrhea. The vet actually kept him overnight. I’m still waiting on the call saying I can go pick him up. I don’t know if his food is the cause, but I won’t be giving him simply nourish anymore. It’s much too difficult to get any pertinent information on this brand. Just wondering how the soulistic worked out for you and your kitty. Is it similar to the simply nourish?
It’s from Thailand, not Taiwan.
Simply Nourish is manufactured in the US with US ingredients, per customer service rep 6/29/17.
I started feeding my 3 cats- 13 yrs, 8 yrs, & 18 mths Simply Nourish, both ‘Chicken & Fish’ and ‘Chicken & Turkey’ dry types and they really like it. But now after about 6 months, 2 of them have much softer stool (not diarrhea, just formless). I’m not sure if the food is the cause but they haven’t been getting can food lately so I have to figure it out to see if they need a change. The 18-mth old is the most recent adoptee (in January) so his stool was taken to the Vet since it started with him first; no sign of bacteria/worms/etc. so it was suggested it might be the food.
I have 3 cats (Two 15 year olds and one 3 year old) on the grain free chicken and fish version, and have noticed the same stool problem has developed recently. Iat also been about 6 months of them being on the food.. Please let us know what you find as this can’t be good..
Pets love it!Both our cats and dog love it but u need to make catfood in the 10.5 Oz can like the dogfood.
Their senior cat food is a bit of a different formula and could use its own review. The first few ingredients are: “Chicken, Chicken Meal, Oatmeal, Rice Flour, Canola Oil (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols)”, so Oatmeal is higher up on the list.
Futhermore – it’s one of only a few brands that includes glucosamine (300mg) and chondroitin (200mg). When Petsmart was out I spent a long time looking for another food with these supplements and it’s surprisingly hard to find. My 14 year old kitty appreciates it!
Hi. You should update the review here & rating as I am not sure if it was avail before, but their current indoor grain free cat recipe the fish&chicken is outstanding! Simply Nourish™ SOURCE Indoor Adult Cat Food – Grain Free, High Protein, Fish & Chicken -http://www.petsmart.com/featured-shops/cat-food/simply-nourish-trade-source-indoor-adult-cat-food-grain-free-high-protein-fish-chicken-zid36-25936/cat-36-catid-800644?var_id=36-25936&_t=pfm%3Dcategory#RatingsDetail
Both cats love this food even more than their wet food! They have great coats and very little/non-smelly stool. Recommend this food 100%.
I’m looking for a decent cat food for my budget is simply Nourish Source good and what about the grain free and limited ingredient kind
Animal digest isn’t just euthanized animals…..if your food is chicken then the animal digest is from chicken. Its cleaned and safe for your pets. Basically a natural filler. A lot of food has it in them. And the food is manufactured here in the US . THATS WHAT YOU NEED TO LOOK AT. if its manufactured in China its not all that safe. There’s always a riSK. This food is awesome. My dog does amazing with it. The oatmeal has really helped her dry skin. And she’s very very healthy. Way better thaN BlueBuffalo that stuff is just crap. The kibble alone is amazing but its the life source bits that harm your pets.
Simply Nourish is fully USA made with USA ingredients, per rep 6/29/17.
Simply Nourish Puppy food consistently gives our puppies diarrhea. We learned this only after expensive vet visits and after our carpeting was ruined. Simply Nourish Puppy Food is crap – literally.
We also got Simply Nourish Adult food. While the Father will eat anything, the Mother averts her face from Simply Nourish and eats only after long hesitation.
What a disappointment!
My Mylo is almost 8 & has always had digestive problems. It was almost an everyday thing to clean up vomit. We tried brand after brand with no success. We recently switched to Simply Nourish Duck & Oatmeal after researching better ingredient options. She’s never felt better. The vomiting has stopped, she’s frisky again & cleans her bowl everyday. No more searching for us.
After talking to my mom, we both had been feeding to our cats before they got UTIs. Hers is female, mine male. Neither have ever gotten a UTI until feeding this food to them.
I have 4 indoor cats. Two have had multiple UtiS since starting this about a year ago. One of those two has soft stool. A third vomits several times a week. The fourth has lost all the hair on her back legs. I’m searching for a new food! I’ve had multiple cats all my life and never had this much trouble! I feel meow mix would be better!
Omg! My two cats too!! I have one that literally just got out of surgery ten minutes ago to have stones removed and was blocking her urethra. They are sisters only two years old!!! First used purina pro plan which the rescue had them on then switched after a year to simply nourish kitten! One that just had surgery only had one UTI long ago and the other has had 3 which with the third one two weeks ago stater fed her on s/d science diet and hopefully we are dissolving the stones!!??? My girl today after surgery I was told her bladder doesn’t look healthy like it’s been going on for awhile but she never had any symptoms or issues except the one UTI until this morning she was crying Hindi g growling in pain!
Hi all. Get all of your pets on raw food. Nourished Pet is great but I dont think its on line yet. Its more expensive but really worth it. No more vet bills and my cats are healthier than they have ever been. The 13 yr old and the 5 yr old play like kittens now. Pay now or pay later!
Hi Jamie, if you’re feeding s/d then make sure it’s canned. Feeding a dry food to a cat with urinary issues won’t really help, even if it’s designed for “urinary care”. Water intake is important for such conditions
Our dog is having cluster seizures and we are desperate for a safe dog food, without herbal extracts and all the other bad stuff. We have just bought a bag of Simply Nourish at Pet Smart, thinking we had an answer and now I see online that it is made in China. I called the number on the bag and after seeming confused that I even asked, she started telling me how the salmon comes from Alaska and the lamb from New Zealand, etc. etc. Still couldn’t tell me if any ingredients came from China. How can these companies get away with this?
We have had many cats/kittens since 2001 and tried everything from cheap stuff to blue buffalo to simply nourish. We have been using this for the past 3 years I think after leaving blue buffalo. Our newest rescue, Belle, came in Dec 2014 weighing 8 lbs, she’s now 11lbs all thanks to nourish just 3 months later!! We have ALL 5 OF OUR FURBABIES ON THIS!! Have NEVER had a problem since!!
My cat is 15 was on Blue Buffalo, was sick with virus, wouldn’t eat and was looking bad. Lost a couple of pounds. Was told to try Simply Nourish, turkey and oatmeal. Put both dry foods out and he started to eat Simply Nourish but not other. He is now very healthy again…..still eating SN but won’t look at Blue Buffalo. Shiny hair, running around playing, back to himself. So I think you may say things about this food but the truth is in the CAT. I rated it a 10, because it gave me my buddy back.
So is simply nourish good to give the cats? I just switched to that.
I dislike any food with protein “meal” in it. All meal really is, is processed animal throwaway parts (including euthanized pets). The process of extruding and cooking pet foods also removes most of the nutritional value. In addition, cats are obligate carnivores, so grains, fruits, and vegetables are a big minus in cat foods and are basically just fillers.
That said, I am giving this brand a go, just because it’s better than what my cat is currently eating and it would take a miracle for a 16 year old cat to successfully transfer to prey model raw.
From what I have read, what you are describing is animal by products, and not animal meal. “Chicken meal” for instance is the same as the ingredient of “chicken”, it is just dehydrated. It has exactly the same source product as the ingredient of “chicken.”
You are thinking of *by-product* meal, which is made of clean, ground up animal parts, organs, and eggs. This is still safe and healthy to eat. Cats would eat all parts of the bird in the wild anyways.
From what I’ve been reading, “meal” is the dehydrated meat. Are you sure it’s throw away parts?
Carly, you are way off track. Meal in a quality food is simply the meat with water removed. In the case of the food I feed, Chicken MEAL is the first ingredient. I know that the chicken meal is derived from hormone and steroid free chicken, and taken from the breast and thigh meat only. So…..because MEAL weighs less than the Chicken meat with water in it, this is a FANTASTIC food.
With pet food, you can almost always do better. But on a budget, this is a great cat food for the price. Now, I use the Source High Protein line (Chicken & Turkey flavor), so it might differ a bit. I have really picky eaters and they all love this brand. Also, my bigger kitty lost 3/4 of a pound in 7-8 months after we switched to this brand, which the vet said was a healthy weight loss rate, and in another year she will be out of the overweight zone. I hope to slowly transition to a better brand when my income increases, but as a graduate student on a budget, this is a great brand for the price.
WHY is this cat food’s packaging so wasteful?
Each can has a cardboard liner around it AND a plastic lid, both of which get thrown in recycling with the can, but neither of them is needed.
Hi Bonnie, this review is for their dry food, but I agree with your sentiments.
I believe Bonnie is referring to the dry food. If you look at the current bag, it now does include animal digest.
I have had cats some years before, and thought I was feeding them decent food. Recently, four stray kittens showed up at our door; we fostered them, got three adopted, but had to keep the leader of the pack. She was special.
This time, I did some research on kitten food, I thought I was feeding my kitten some good quality food. I didn’t know that “rice flour” was just filler. Further, I noticed “Animal Digest” as an ingredient. Huh? What is that?? I called PetSmart, as “Simply Nourish” is a store brand. They couldn’t figure out what it was, and I have been waiting for an answer for a few days now. However, it did NOT sound like something very wholesome, and I immediately changed her food
It is the new term for animal by-products! I just fed my newly adopted dog two meals of this, now I’m taking it back. I am totally anti by-product with my animals.
It’s a liquid broth from when animals (namely by-products) are rendered. It’s in many foods, either listed as animal digest, palatant, or even “natural flavor”.
who actually manufacturers Simply Nourish dog food?
wow you freeked me out with animal digest. I checked my bag chicken and turkey and it is not listed maybe because it is grain free. What I would like to know is where is it manufactured from I saw some one say they thought China and that is a NO NO in my book.
It is not manufactured in China, nor are the ingredients from China. Beware of gossip.
This may help clear it up for you:
“FDA testing determined that the pet food ingredient ‘animal digest’ to be a likely source of pentobarbital – the drug used to euthanize animals. Thus, the pet food ingredient ‘animal digest’ can start with animal protein “such as” euthanized animals – any euthanized animal.”
So animal digest is basically processed euthanized pets.
I noticed that when they changed the packaging for the turkey indoor cat food that they added “animal digest” to the ingredients. I’m really curious exactly what it is and if it’s good for your cat.
The old packaging DOES NOT have Animal Digest, they added it when they changed their packaging, which confuses me…
Hi Chris, animal digest is a broth created from cooking up undisclosed animal tissues using chemical or enzymatic hydrolysis to produce a “flavoring”. It’s not a pleasant ingredient, and it provides little to no nutritional value.
Steve, Purina have similar problems figuring out what’s in their food! – https://twitter.com/PetFoodRatings/status/503817647373307905/photo/1