On the shelf, Stella & Chewy’s freeze-dried morsels cost about four times as much per ounce as the brand’s canned food. Take the water out of both and that gap closes, then flips. More on that below, because it changes which format is really the expensive one.
Raw feeding splits cat owners more sharply than almost any other topic, and both camps have a real point.
Stella & Chewy’s freeze-dried morsels are about as close to a prey diet as you can buy without handling actual raw meat.
The brand was also recalled twice in one year over listeria, which is precisely the risk raw feeding carries. Both facts belong in the same article.
The raw question, handled honestly
This is the section that matters, and it deserves both sides rather than a position.
The nutritional case is real. Freeze-drying removes water at low temperature rather than cooking, so the food is minimally processed. Including organs and bone matters: taurine concentrates in heart tissue, liver supplies vitamin A that cats cannot convert from beta-carotene, and bone provides calcium and phosphorus in roughly the right ratio. Nutrients arrive in the ingredients rather than being added back synthetically.
The safety case is also real. Listeria, salmonella and E. coli occur naturally in raw animal protein. Freeze-drying is not sterilisation: it removes water, which suppresses bacterial growth without reliably killing what is already present. Raw pet food manages this through high-pressure processing, careful sourcing and testing, and those controls are good rather than absolute.
What happened here. Stella & Chewy’s was recalled twice in 2015 over potential listeria, in July and December, covering both dog and cat products. No pet or human illnesses were reported in connection with them. There have been no recalls since, which is a decade of clean record.
Who should be cautious. Households with infants, elderly or immunocompromised members carry more risk from raw pet food, because the exposure route is human handling rather than the cat. The AVMA sets out its position on raw diets, and it is worth reading before deciding rather than after.
If you do feed raw: treat it exactly like raw chicken in your kitchen. Separate utensils, wash hands and surfaces, do not leave it out, and refrigerate once rehydrated.
Freeze-dried, and how to feed it
Freeze-dried food behaves differently from both kibble and cans, and getting this wrong is the most common mistake with the format.
Rehydrate it. Freeze-dried morsels are dry by definition, and feeding them dry gives your cat concentrated food with none of the moisture that makes raw feeding worthwhile in the first place. Add warm water and let it absorb for a few minutes.
- Warm water, not hot. Heat is unnecessary and warming raw food is a food safety question rather than a preference one.
- Portions are small. The food is dense, so compare cost per rehydrated serving rather than per bag. The bag price looks alarming and the per-meal maths is better than it first appears.
- Refrigerate leftovers once rehydrated, and treat them like leftover raw meat rather than leftover cat food.
- Transition slowly. Raw is a substantial change and an abrupt switch commonly causes digestive upset.
- It works well as a topper over a complete cooked food, which captures much of the benefit at a fraction of the cost and the handling.
Not a therapeutic diet. Cats with chronic kidney disease need controlled protein and phosphorus set by a vet, and a high-meat raw food is not that. The same applies to any cat on a prescribed diet.
Compare with Feline Natural, which takes a similar whole-prey freeze-dried approach, and our best wet cat food guide for cooked alternatives.
Is freeze-dried really four times the price?
Not once you account for water. On Chewy the freeze-dried morsels run $2.43 to $2.58 per ounce (36 ounces for $87.40 to $93.00), while a case of 24 Purrfect Pate or Savory Shreds cans works out to about $0.62 per ounce.
But a can is mostly water. The morsels are listed at 5% moisture at most, and one retailer lists the pate at about 78%. Compare what is left once the water is gone and the morsels cost roughly $2.56 per dry ounce, against about $2.82 for the pate.
Two honest caveats. The 78% figure comes from a third-party listing rather than Stella & Chewy’s itself, and dry matter is not the same as calories, so treat this as a rough guide rather than a cost per meal. And when you rehydrate the morsels (which you should), the water comes from your tap instead of a can.
The cooked range is the quiet option
Half this brand’s cat range is ordinary cooked wet food, and it gets overlooked because raw is the headline.
- No handling considerations. Purrfect Pate and Savory Shreds are cooked, so they are exactly as safe to handle as any other tin.
- Shreds carry more moisture than pate, which is the more useful distinction for a cat that ignores the water bowl.
- Cheaper per serving than the freeze-dried range, substantially so.
- A sensible middle path: cooked wet food as the diet, freeze-dried raw as an occasional topper. You get the moisture, the palatability and most of the ingredient quality without daily raw handling.
- Check the label for the AAFCO statement as with any brand, since toppers and complete foods sit side by side.
Stella & Chewy’s recipes side by side
The split that matters is raw versus cooked, and then protein.
| Recipe | Format | Price | Per oz | Pick it if |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chick Chick Chicken Morsels, 36 oz | Freeze-dried raw | $87.40 | $2.43 | You want to try raw. The easiest starting point. |
| Duck Duck Goose Morsels, 2 x 18 oz | Freeze-dried raw | $89.24 | $2.48 | Your vet wants a novel protein for an elimination diet. |
| Yummy Lickin’ Salmon & Chicken Morsels, 2 x 18 oz | Freeze-dried raw | $93.00 | $2.58 | Your cat prefers fish but you want poultry in the bowl too. |
| Purrfect Pate Chicken & Salmon, 24 cans | Cooked wet | $77.56 | $0.62 | You like the brand but would rather not handle raw. |
| Savory Shreds Tuna & Mackerel, 24 cans | Cooked wet | $77.56 | $0.62 | Your cat drinks very little. Shreds in liquid add moisture. |
| Purrfect Pate Tuna & Pumpkin, 24 cans | Cooked wet | $76.56 | $0.61 | You want a recipe with a little fibre in the rotation. |
Who Stella & Chewy’s suits, and who should skip it
Buy the freeze-dried range if you want minimally processed food with organs and bone included, you are comfortable handling raw product, and nobody in the household is immunocompromised. Duck Duck Goose is genuinely useful for elimination diets.
Buy the cooked wet range if the nutrition appeals but the raw handling does not, which is a completely reasonable position. Compare in our main cat food guide.
Where I land on Stella & Chewy’s
Excellent raw food from a company that had two listeria recalls in a single year and none in the decade since. Both halves of that sentence are true and neither cancels the other.
Raw feeding is a legitimate choice made with open eyes: handle it like raw meat, rehydrate it, and skip it if anyone in the house is vulnerable. The cooked range is there if you would rather not. Stella & Chewy’s Chick Chick Chicken Dinner Morsels Freeze-Dried Raw Cat Food, 36-oz bundle is the place to start. This article is educational rather than veterinary advice.
Stella & Chewy’s FAQ
Q: Has Stella & Chewy’s been recalled?
Yes, twice in 2015, both over potential listeria contamination and affecting dog and cat products. No pet or human illnesses were reported in connection with them, and there have been no recalls since.
Q: Is freeze-dried raw cat food safe?
Freeze-drying removes water rather than sterilising, so it suppresses bacterial growth without reliably killing what is present. Listeria, salmonella and E. coli occur naturally in raw animal protein, and the risk is managed through high-pressure processing, sourcing and testing rather than eliminated.
Q: Should I rehydrate freeze-dried cat food?
Yes. Feeding it dry gives concentrated food without the moisture that makes raw feeding worthwhile. Add warm water and let it absorb for a few minutes, then refrigerate any leftovers and treat them like leftover raw meat.
Q: Who should avoid raw cat food?
Households with infants, elderly or immunocompromised members carry more risk, because exposure comes from human handling rather than from the cat. The AVMA publishes a position on raw and undercooked animal-source protein in pet diets.
Q: What is the difference between the raw and cooked ranges?
The freeze-dried morsels are raw and require the same handling care as raw meat. Purrfect Pate and Savory Shreds are conventional cooked wet food with no special handling considerations, and they cost noticeably less per serving.
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