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1st Choice Healthy Start (Dry) Review

1st Choice Dry Cat Food Review

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Ingredient Analysis

When evaluating a cat food, the first five ingredients can tell you a lot about the quality of a product as they make up the bulk of the product. Ideally, you're looking for quality protein sources with a minimum of cheap starches, fillers or by-products. Continuing down the ingredient list, look for ingredients that resemble real food with a minimal number of unpronounceable chemicals - the same as you would for human food.

1st Choice Healthy Start (Dry) includes the following:

Note - a bolded ingredient in the above tables indicates it is one of the first five ingredients listed by the product manufacturer.

In this case, 1st Choice Healthy Start (Dry)'s most plentiful ingredient listed is chicken, which is considered a quality protein source. It also contains chicken meal as additional quality protein sources.

Additionally, 1st Choice Healthy Start (Dry) also contains as top ingredients rice. These types of ingredients are typically used as bulk-adding fillers and are not required in your cat's diet. However, they are sometimes used to help maintain the kibble shape in dry foods.

Allergen alert: This product contains fish meal, salmon oil and dried egg product which may be problematic for cats who suffer from seafood or eggs food allergies.

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Nutritional Analysis*

Compared to the other 2849 cat foods in our database, 1st Choice Healthy Start (Dry) has:

• significantly less protein than average
• more carbohydrates than average
• more fat than average
• less fiber than average
• significantly less moisture than an equivalent wet food

In general, cats have been shown to do better with a higher protein, medium fat, lower carb diet with sufficient moisture. However, specialty diets as recommended by your veterinarian may prioritize a different nutritional breakdown.

Calorie Breakdown

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All the product information on this page is based on data collected from the manufacturer's product website as retrieved on May 22, 2022.

The authoritative source for ingredient lists and nutritional analysis for any pet food is always the pet food manufacturer.

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Ingredients

Ingredients as published by the cat food manufacturer:

Chicken, Chicken Meal, Rice, Chicken Fat Naturally Preserved With Mixed Tocopherols, Pea Protein, Dried Egg Product, Fish Meal, Brown Rice, Pearled Barley, Oat Groats, Natural Flavor, Beet Pulp, Pea Fiber, Whole Flaxseed, Salmon Oil (a Source Of Dha), Dried Tomato Pomace, Potassium Chloride, Lecithin, Choline Chloride, Salt, Calcium Propionate (as A Preservative), Calcium Carbonate, Yeast Extract (a Source Of Mannan-oligosaccharides), Taurine, Sodium Bisulfate, Dl-methionine, Chicory Extract (a Source Of Inulin), Ferrous Sulfate, Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C), L-lysine, Zinc Oxide, Sodium Selenite, Alpha-tocopherol Acetate (a Source Of Vitamin E), Nicotinic Acid, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Calcium Iodate, Manganous Oxide, D-calcium Pantothenate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin A Supplement, Cholecalciferol (a Source Of Vitamin D3), Zinc Proteinate, Biotin, Dried Spearmint, Dried Parsley, Green Tea Extract, Manganese Proteinate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Cobalt Carbonate, Folic Acid, Copper Proteinate.

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*Note that nutritional percentages reported are only estimated values, and are indicated as such as (est). Each cat food manufacturer is required by law to publish a Guaranteed Analysis, which defines each product's maximum values of fiber and moisture in addition to the minimum values of protein and fat contained within. Optionally, manufacturers may also publish a product's ash content. When they are not published an average of 3% ash for wet food, and 6% ash for dry food, will be used. Because exact nutritional percentages are not available and all calculated values (including carbohydrate percentages and calorie amounts) are determined using these minimum and maximum published values and therefore may differ from actual values. Any other manufacturer published values in a product's Guaranteed Analysis is done at the manufacture's discretion, and is not used in any of the calculations done by CatFoodDB.

Although a high score may be indicative of a higher-quality product it is not a guarantee. Similarly, a low score may or may not indicate an inferior product. The best food for your cat is the one that meets their individual needs.

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