Complete freeze-dried food for adult cats - pure meat, pure strength
The diet of an adult cat should be in line with its nature – high in meat, rich in protein and easily digestible. Our complete freeze-dried food meets these requirements 100%. It is made from high-quality meat and offal, without grains, fillers and artificial additives.
Cat food is a product meant to cover the entire requirement of an obligate carnivore: animal protein, fat, taurine, vitamins and minerals. A cat is not a small dog and will not manage on a diet built on starch, which is why the first entries in the recipe decide the value of a product more than anything else on the pack.
A cat's health depends on its diet more than the price of that diet would suggest: the recipe translates into muscle mass, the immune system and everyday wellbeing throughout its life. The complete foods from Dr Malou are made by freeze-drying, contain over 90% human grade meat and offal and are composed in line with the guidelines of FEDIAF, the European Pet Food Industry Federation. Below you will find the criteria worth using when comparing them with other products on the market.
Before comparing specific recipes, it is worth distinguishing the forms in which cat food is sold. They differ in water content, in the method of preservation and in cost per day of feeding:
Dry food is kibble with a water content of around 8 to 10%, produced by extrusion at high temperature.
Wet food covers cans, pouches, trays and products in mousse form, preserved by heat sterilisation.
Freeze-dried food is made by freezing the raw material and removing the water from it under vacuum, with no high-temperature processing.
Semi-moist food sits in between and usually requires chemical preservation or a high share of sugars.
The form in itself does not settle quality. In each of these groups you will find products with a short, meat-based recipe and ones in which grain takes first place.
When Should You Choose Dry Food and When Wet Food?
Dry food wins on convenience: it is easy to measure out, stays good for a long time and needs no chilling once opened. The repeated claim that dry food is inherently low in valuable protein is a generalisation, because kibble with a high share of animal raw material does exist. What is overstated, however, is the claim that it strengthens the teeth and prevents tartar: ordinary kibble crumbles on first contact with the tooth and does not remove plaque.
The real limitation of dry food remains its low water content. When you feed a cat dry food, that has to be compensated for. A cat drinks little and rarely makes up the difference from the bowl, so with a dry diet constant access to fresh water is a requirement, not a recommendation.
Wet Cat Food: The Advantages of Wet Food in the Daily Diet
Wet cat food contains 70 to 80% water, so a single meal covers both hunger and a considerable part of the daily fluid requirement. A high water content translates into diluted urine, which matters in preventing lower urinary tract disease.
Wet food also has a lower carbohydrate share than typical kibble and a more pronounced smell. Thanks to its high palatability it makes feeding older animals and those with a reduced appetite easier. The drawback is the short shelf life after opening.
Mixed Feeding: How Do You Combine Dry Food With Wet Food?
Many owners combine both forms, and that is an acceptable solution as long as both products are complete. A rule circulates that a mixed diet should be based on a one to one ratio. It has no grounding in nutritional guidelines: what counts is covering the total daily energy requirement, not an equal split between two bowls.
Freeze-dried food simplifies this pattern, because once water is added it becomes a moist meal, while served dry it acts as a crunchy portion. One pack therefore answers both needs.
The Best Cat Food: What Should Guide Your Choice?
The choice starts with the label, but you need to know how to convert the figures on it. Below are five criteria that genuinely set products apart. When buying a food, it is worth going through them in order rather than being swayed by the name of a product line.
Meat Content and the Conversion to Dry Matter
Foods advertise a high meat content, yet that percentage always refers to the mass of the product together with its water. That is why 70% in a wet food and 70% in a product with the water removed are two completely different values.
To compare two foods fairly, the declaration is converted to dry matter or to energy. It is also worth adding up all the meat entries on the ingredient list, because manufacturers sometimes split them into several items, which visually lowers the share of the first entry.
Which Sources of Animal Protein Are Valuable?
It is not only the amount that matters but also the precision of the description. The entry "chicken meat" carries specific information, "poultry meal" says less, and the collective "products of animal origin" says nothing about the species or the type of raw material.
Foods with a large amount of muscle meat are best complemented with offal, because it is hearts, liver and kidneys that bring taurine and vitamin A in a form a cat can absorb. A recipe based on fillet alone is often poorer than one combining meat with offal in the right proportions, and its nutritional profile is less complete.
Taurine, Minerals and Other Essential Nutrients
Taurine is an amino acid that a cat's body will not produce in sufficient amounts. A shortfall leads to dilated cardiomyopathy and degeneration of the retina, which is why every complete food must deliver it in every portion.
Beyond that, the quality of a recipe is decided by mineral proportions: the calcium to phosphorus ratio affects the skeletal system and the immune system, while a controlled magnesium level matters for the urinary tract. A food that delivers the full set of essential nutrients needs no additional supplementation.
What to Avoid When Buying Cat Food
A short recipe is easier to assess than a long one. Check that it contains none of the following:
Grain as the main ingredient, because a cat digests starch poorly and an excess of carbohydrates burdens its energy balance.
Artificial colourings, which mean nothing to the animal, because a cat does not choose its food by sight.
Flavour enhancers, which mask poor quality raw material.
Artificial preservatives, unnecessary in products preserved by physical means.
Sugar, caramel and excess salt, which serve no purpose in a cat's diet.
Grain-Free Cat Food: When Is It Needed?
A diet with no added grain is closer to the natural needs of a cat, which in the wild eats prey rather than kernels. In animals with a confirmed intolerance and with a sensitive digestive system, a grain-free recipe is often a solution that markedly improves digestion.
It is worth knowing the limits of that argument, though. An allergy to cereal protein is rarer in cats than a reaction to poultry or beef protein, so removing grain alone does not solve the problem if the source of the allergy lies elsewhere.
Grain-Free Food and Carbohydrates: What Replaces the Grain?
In grain-free recipes the grain is usually replaced with sweet potato, pumpkin, peas or tapioca, and these are not always alternatives with real nutritional value. Grain-free foods are therefore not automatically low in carbohydrates, because starch from these sources behaves similarly in the body.
Quality is decided by the total carbohydrate share and by whether the replacement has a nutritional function or purely a technological one. Pumpkin brings fibre and vitamin E, while pure tapioca starch brings virtually nothing.
Is Grain-Free Food Always Better?
No. The popular claims that grain-free food is by definition easily digestible, free from artificial additives and life-extending for a cat are not supported. The absence of grain is one feature of a recipe, not a guarantee of the quality of the whole.
Dr Malou foods contain no grain and no maize, but that follows from the high-meat profile chosen for the recipes, not from an assumption that every kernel is harmful.
Cat Food for Every Age: From Kitten to Senior
Nutritional needs change throughout an animal's life, so one recipe will not serve every stage. The right food for a kitten will not meet the nutritional needs of a senior, and the other way round.
Food for Small Kittens and Young Cats
A kitten weaned at around four weeks of age needs food with a high concentration of energy. Its protein requirement per kilogram of body weight is many times higher than an adult animal's, and the guideline values are given on a dry matter basis, not on the mass of the product with its water.
A few rules bring order to this period:
Up to the fourth week, the mother's milk remains the basis, and where it is unavailable, special kitten milk is given, never cow's milk.
Between the fourth and eighth week, solid food is introduced, ideally moist, because in texture it resembles what the kitten knows from nursing.
Up to the twelfth month, food intended for kittens applies, with a higher calorie content, DHA for healthy development of the nervous system and a controlled calcium to phosphorus ratio.
The frequency of meals is initially around four to five times a day, roughly every four hours.
In the Dr Malou range, kittens up to twelve months of age have Chicken with Goat's Milk and Egg Yolk, which once rehydrated has a soft texture that eases the move to solid food.
Food for Adult Cats
In an adult animal the aim is to keep body weight stable while preserving muscle mass, and the state of health is verified by regular weighing. An indoor cat burns less than a cat with outdoor access, so the same food calls for a different portion rather than a different recipe.
For adult cats, Dr Malou has prepared three freeze-dried complete foods: Chicken with Chicken Hearts, Chicken with Salmon and Duck with Lamb. Duck with Lamb works where poultry is poorly tolerated, because it is built on different protein sources than the other recipes.
Food for Senior Cats
In older cats the metabolism slows, but the requirement for easily digestible protein stays high. Lowering its supply speeds up the loss of muscle mass, which is one of the more common mistakes in feeding elderly animals.
Practical matters count too: a weakening sense of smell and tooth loss mean that a moist, aromatic meal is sometimes the only one a senior eats willingly. Serving it as a mousse or a thick mash makes eating easier still.
Food for Neutered Cats
After the procedure the energy requirement falls by as much as a third, while appetite usually grows. Excess weight is therefore the most common problem in this group, and with it the risk of diabetes and urinary stones rises.
In practice the approach comes down to three things: reducing the portion rather than changing the whole diet, keeping the protein supply high, and increasing the amount of water in the food. That is precisely why moist meals work well for neutered cats, giving greater volume at the same number of calories and helping to maintain a healthy weight.
Cat Food for Food Allergies and a Sensitive Stomach
Food reactions in cats most often involve poultry and beef protein, and they show up as itching around the head and neck, excessive licking or chronic gastrointestinal upsets.
The approach of choice is an elimination diet based on a single protein source, ideally one the animal has not encountered before. With cats this calls for consistency: every treat given outside the plan invalidates the result of the trial. Single-ingredient products help here, for example Lamb Liver 100% or Salmon 100%, along with Quail Egg Yolk, an alternative for animals allergic to hen's eggs. The diagnosis and the course of the diet are agreed with a vet, because the shape of the cat's diet from then on depends on it.
Functional and Veterinary Cat Food: When Should You Use Them?
Functional foods contain ingredients that support specific areas of health and are available without a veterinary recommendation. In the Dr Malou range the freeze-dried soups play that role: cranberry in the Urinary variety supports the urinary tract, barley grass helps to move hairballs through the digestive tract, and pumpkin supports the working of the intestines.
Veterinary diets are a different category. They have a modified mineral or protein composition and are used only with a specific diagnosis, under the supervision of a practice. Giving them to a healthy animal is not prevention but an unnecessary restriction of nutrients.
How Do You Serve Dr Malou Food in Your Cat's Daily Life?
Freeze-dried food is served dry or after adding warm but not hot water. Rehydrated, it has a natural aroma more pronounced than any kibble, which can be decisive with fussy animals, because with a cat a great deal really is a matter of taste and smell rather than nutritional value.
A few rules for everyday feeding:
Set the daily requirement according to the feeding table on the pack, then verify it against the animal's body weight.
The number of meals for an adult cat is usually two to four a day, at set times.
The temperature of the meal should be close to room temperature, because food straight from the fridge loses its aroma.
A change of food proceeds gradually over at least seven days, and for animals with a sensitive digestive system over as much as two weeks.
Water must always be available, whatever the type of food.
The freeze-dried soups let you add variety to your cat's diet without changing the protein source, so variety need not mean the risk of a food reaction. The complete foods are also available in samples, so you can check your cat's taste preferences before buying a larger pack and give it time to get used to a new recipe.
Rankings, Reviews and Price: Which Cat Food Will Be the Best?
A ranking of the best foods can be a helpful starting point, but it will not show which of those foods suits your cat, because the order in a list depends on the criteria chosen by its author. One rewards meat content, another the range of flavours, another the cost per kilogram. Owners' reviews, in turn, speak about palatability and tolerance, and those can be wildly different in two animals fed the same product.
When comparing prices, the sensible measure is not the price of the pack but the cost of a daily portion. Products with the water removed are served in small amounts, so the difference per day of feeding is often smaller than the price tag suggests.
You recognise the best food for a particular cat by the fact that the animal keeps a healthy weight, has a glossy coat, passes formed stools and has the energy to play. These four signals point to the best food more effectively than any comparison list and are the simplest proof of suitable feeding.
Cat Food: Frequently Asked Questions
Which cat food is best for dental health?
No food replaces tooth brushing or dental check-ups. Only kibble with a special fibrous structure has any plaque-removing effect, not standard pieces, so prevention rests on dental care rather than on the choice of food.
Does complete cat food need supplementation?
No. A complete food delivers the full set of essential nutrients in the right proportions, including taurine, vitamins and minerals. Adding preparations on your own initiative can upset the balance, especially with fat-soluble vitamins.
Can a cat eat dry food only?
It can, but that calls for keeping an eye on water intake. It is safer to include moist food in the diet, because a cat rarely drinks as much as it needs, and a chronic shortfall in fluid puts a strain on the kidneys and urinary tract.
How does freeze-dried food differ from air-dried food?
Air-dried food loses its water at raised temperature, while freeze-dried food loses it by sublimation under vacuum after being frozen first. The freeze-dried product retains more nutritional value along with the natural taste and aroma of the raw material.
What can you do when a cat's taste preferences make changing food difficult?
Extend the transition period, serve the meal at room temperature and try adding warm water to the freeze-dried food, which releases the aroma. Refusal to eat lasting more than a day calls for contact with a practice, because in a cat going without food quickly affects the liver.
How do you store freeze-dried food in everyday feeding?
Keep the pack in a dry, cool place away from sunlight, and once opened close it tightly or transfer the contents into an airtight container. A fridge is not needed; a prepared meal, however, is used within a day.
Freeze-drying preserves the full biological value of the food: amino acids, vitamins and enzymes that support the health of the kidneys, urinary system and skin. This is nutrition that is close to the natural hunting instinct of the cat - in a safe, pure and extremely tasty form.
This is the perfect diet for picky, sensitive cats and those to whom you want to provide the highest quality daily nutrition.
