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.
- Nearly all Applaws wet cat food sold in the United States is complementary rather than complete and balanced.
- Applaws dry food and the Vitality range are complete and balanced and can be fed as a cat’s sole diet.
- Standard Applaws wet recipes do not contain added synthetic taurine, relying instead on taurine naturally present in fish and chicken.
- Taurine deficiency in cats causes dilated cardiomyopathy and retinal degeneration, both of which are largely preventable through diet.
- Applaws recipes are limited ingredient with no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives, which makes them useful for elimination diets.
Our Top Picks
Applaws Vitality Complete & Balanced Chicken & Salmon Meal Recipe High-Protein Adult Dry Cat Food, 5-lb bag
Applaws Tuna in Broth Limited Ingredient Wet Cat Food, 5.3-oz pouch, case of 12
Applaws Healthy Start Complete & Balanced Chicken Recipe High-Protein Dry Kitten Food, 5-lb bag
Applaws range compared
| Product | Best for | Size | Price | Complete or topper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applaws Vitality Complete & Balanced Chicken & Salmon Meal Recipe High-Protein Adult Dry Cat Food, 5-lb bag | Best complete meal | Dry bag | $27.99 | Complete |
| Applaws Healthy Start Complete & Balanced Chicken Recipe High-Protein Dry Kitten Food, 5-lb bag | Best for kittens | Dry bag | $27.99 | Complete |
| Applaws Vitality Indoor Complete & Balanced Turkey & Cod Recipe High-Protein Adult Dry Cat Food, 5-lb bag | Best for indoor cats | Dry bag | $23.99 | Complete |
| Applaws Tuna in Broth Limited Ingredient Wet Cat Food, 5.3-oz pouch, case of 12 | Best topper | Cans | $35.53 | Complementary |
| Applaws Fish Selection in Broth Variety Pack Wet Cat Food, 5.5-oz can, case of 12 | Best variety topper | Variety pack | $35.29 | Complementary |
| Applaws Loin Salmon Filet Grain-Free Cat Treats, 1.06-oz loin, case of 12 | Best treat | 12 loins | $19.31 | Treat |
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.
The 6 Applaws products, reviewed
Applaws Vitality Complete & Balanced Chicken & Salmon Meal Recipe High-Protein Adult Dry Cat Food, 5-lb bag: best complete meal
The Vitality dry range is where Applaws becomes an actual meal rather than a garnish. It carries the added vitamins, minerals, and taurine that the wet cans deliberately leave out, so it is complete and balanced and can be fed on its own. If you want to feed Applaws as your cat’s real food, this is the shelf to look at.
Applaws Healthy Start Complete & Balanced Chicken Recipe High-Protein Dry Kitten Food, 5-lb bag: best for kittens
Healthy Start is the complete and balanced kitten option, and the completeness matters enormously here. A growing kitten fed an incomplete diet does not simply grow slowly, it can develop lasting problems. If you like the brand and you have a kitten, this bag is the safe way to feed it.
Applaws Vitality Indoor Complete & Balanced Turkey & Cod Recipe High-Protein Adult Dry Cat Food, 5-lb bag: best for indoor cats
Vitality Indoor with turkey and cod, adjusted for cats who burn fewer calories and cough up more hair. Complete and balanced like the rest of the Vitality dry line. A sensible everyday base if your cat lives entirely indoors and you want to top it with the wet cans.
Applaws Tuna in Broth Limited Ingredient Wet Cat Food, 5.3-oz pouch, case of 12: best topper
Tuna in broth, and the ingredient list is close to nothing: fish, broth, sometimes a little rice. It looks like tuna because it is tuna. Excellent for adding moisture or tempting a cat off a hunger strike. It is complementary, so it belongs on top of a complete food and not in place of one.
Applaws Fish Selection in Broth Variety Pack Wet Cat Food, 5.5-oz can, case of 12: best variety topper
A fish selection variety pack, useful because rotating proteins helps stop a cat locking onto one flavor and refusing everything else. Same clean ingredient philosophy and the same complementary caveat. Buy it as a topper and it is very good at that job.
Applaws Loin Salmon Filet Grain-Free Cat Treats, 1.06-oz loin, case of 12: best treat
Whole salmon loin, freeze dried into a strip. It is a single ingredient treat, which is rare and genuinely useful if your cat has food sensitivities and you are trying to work out the trigger. Snaps into smaller pieces so one loin stretches across several days.
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.
Who should 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.
The bottom line on Applaws
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.
Frequently asked 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: Is Applaws good quality cat food?
Yes, on ingredients Applaws is high quality. Recipes are limited ingredient with no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives, and the meat is visibly whole. The limitation is nutritional completeness in the wet range, not ingredient quality.
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 good for cats with allergies?
Applaws limited ingredient recipes can be useful in an elimination diet because they contain very few ingredients, which makes identifying a trigger easier. Run any elimination diet under veterinary supervision rather than alone.
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.
