Applaws cans look like the most honest food in the aisle. You can see the tuna fillet. There is no gravy hiding anything, no brown paste, no list of thickeners you cannot pronounce.
And that is precisely the problem.
Nearly all Applaws wet food sold in the United States is complementary, not complete. It is missing the vitamin and mineral package a cat needs to live on. Fed as a whole diet, over months, that gap becomes a health problem.
The prices say a lot about Applaws. The Vitality dry food is $27.99 for a 5-pound bag, about $5.60 a pound, the same as Acana’s most expensive bag. The Indoor version is cheaper at $23.99, about $4.80 a pound. And the broth toppers are priced like meals, at about 53 to 56 cents an ounce, slightly more than a complete wet food such as Wellness Complete Health.
Two listing details are handy. The adult Vitality Chicken & Salmon bag says it suits kittens as well as adults, and it costs the same as the Healthy Start kitten bag. And Chewy’s description of the Applaws Tuna in Broth pouches is word for word the same as the one for Reveal’s broth cans, which tells you how similar these two topper ranges are.
Which Applaws is a meal and which is a topper
| Product | Format | Price | Unit cost | Complete meal? | Pick it if |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vitality Chicken & Salmon | Dry, 5 lb | $27.99 | $5.60/lb | Yes | You want Applaws as the meal, for an adult cat or a kitten. |
| Vitality Indoor Turkey & Cod | Dry, 5 lb | $23.99 | $4.80/lb | Yes | Your cat lives indoors. The cheapest complete Applaws. |
| Tuna in Broth pouches | Wet, 12 x 5.3 oz | $35.53 | $0.56/oz | No, a topper | You want to add water and tempt a fussy cat. |
| Fish Selection in Broth | Wet, 12 x 5.5 oz | $35.29 | $0.53/oz | No, a topper | You want to rotate fish toppers. |
Is Applaws complete and balanced?
Applaws dry food and the Vitality range are complete and balanced. Nearly all standard Applaws wet cans sold in the United States are complementary.
A complementary food is not a defective food. It is real, high quality, and perfectly safe fed as intended. What it lacks is the added vitamin, mineral, and amino acid package that lets a food stand as an animal’s entire diet. Applaws leaves those out deliberately, because the whole selling point is a two or three ingredient recipe.
The packaging does say so, but the wording is small and easy to skim past when the front of the can is showing you a beautiful piece of tuna. Look for the phrase complementary pet food, or for intermittent and supplemental feeding only.
The taurine problem, explained plainly
Cats cannot synthesise enough taurine and must get it from food. Complete foods add it as a matter of course. Standard Applaws wet recipes do not add synthetic taurine, relying on what occurs naturally in the fish or chicken.
Natural taurine is real taurine, and a cat eating a varied diet with a complete base will be fine. The risk appears when Applaws becomes the whole diet. Taurine is water soluble and some is lost in processing, so a minimal recipe with no added taurine is not a reliable long term sole source.
Sustained deficiency causes dilated cardiomyopathy, a weakening of the heart, and retinal degeneration that can progress to blindness. Both are well documented in cats and both are avoidable. The Cornell Feline Health Center and the AAHA nutrition guidelines both cover feline nutritional requirements in more depth.
If your cat has been eating only complementary food for a long period, that is worth mentioning to your veterinarian. It is a simple thing to check and a simple thing to correct.
Where Applaws is genuinely excellent
- Elimination diets. A two ingredient can is enormously useful when you are trying to identify a food trigger with your vet’s guidance.
- Hydration. Broth based food gets water into cats who ignore the bowl, and a cat water fountain helps with the same problem, which protects kidneys and the urinary tract over time.
- Tempting a sick cat. Strongly aromatic, visibly real food often works when nothing else does.
- No junk. No artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, or vague meat derivatives anywhere in the range.
Should you buy Applaws?
Buy the Vitality or dry range if you want Applaws as your cat’s actual food. Buy the wet cans as a topper, a hydration boost, or a tool for a vet supervised elimination diet. All of those are good uses and the product is excellent at them.
Skip it if you want one wet food to feed exclusively and do not want to think about labels every time you restock. Our best wet cat food guide covers complete options that need no such care, and our main cat food guide compares full diets across budgets.
Applaws makes some of the cleanest cat food on the market, and the transparency of the ingredient list is genuinely admirable. Nothing in the can is objectionable.
The catch is that most of the range is a topper wearing the packaging of a meal, and a lot of owners never notice. Buy Applaws Vitality Complete & Balanced Chicken & Salmon Meal Recipe High-Protein Adult Dry Cat Food, 5-lb bag if you want Applaws to be dinner, and use the cans for what they are actually designed to do. This article is educational and not a substitute for veterinary advice.
Applaws questions
Q: Is Applaws cat food complete and balanced?
Applaws dry food and the Vitality range are complete and balanced and can be fed as a sole diet. Nearly all standard Applaws wet cans sold in the United States are complementary, meaning they are not nutritionally complete on their own.
Q: Can I feed my cat only Applaws wet food?
No. Most Applaws wet food is complementary and lacks the added vitamins, minerals, and taurine needed for a complete diet. Feed it as a topper on a complete and balanced food instead.
Q: Does Applaws cat food contain taurine?
Standard Applaws wet recipes do not add synthetic taurine and rely on taurine naturally present in fish and chicken. Applaws complete dry food and the Vitality range do include added taurine along with other essential nutrients.
Q: What happens if a cat does not get enough taurine?
Taurine deficiency in cats causes dilated cardiomyopathy, a weakening of the heart muscle, and retinal degeneration that can lead to blindness. Both develop over months and are largely preventable by feeding a complete and balanced diet.
Q: Is Applaws better than Reveal?
Applaws and Reveal are closely comparable. Both make limited ingredient wet food that is mostly complementary, and both offer complete and balanced dry ranges. Choose on which proteins your cat prefers and which is easier for you to buy.
Hello and welcome to The Ideal Cat!
We are some passionate cat owners from different professions. We love our cats and have a lot of experience in how to care for our pets. We are incredibly excited to share our knowledge, experience, and research with you. So you can take good care of your loving cat. We will answer most of the common questions about owning cats, taking care of them, etc. If you have any question contact with us. Thanks for visiting! Enjoy the content.
