so here i have the instinct canned food
with smalls ground food this one is the bird which is chicken this one is the cow
and this one is the other bird which is turkey and this one is also turkey let's give the two
piggy piggies over here oh griffin's going for it right away look over here ash your own look
oh ash went right for smalls griffin's going for smalls as well let's give gracie the cow
she went for canned food first let's see what charlie wants
oh he went right for smalls so instead of his regular canned food he went right for smalls
so i gave the boys some of the beef they left the canned food
and went right for the beef i gave gracie some of the birds she's cleaning off the plate
very good gracie looks like charlie left the canned food let's give charlie some
cow charlie you want some more come on charlie he's eating off gracie's plate
let's move the cow to his plate and see what he does oh goes for it right away overall smalls is
a really great cat food i'm impressed with the fresh quality that they have and use and the
variety that they also have because variety is key all four of my mom's cats really like this product
but let's take a look at the nutritional analysis and review the product hey friends it's jess and
griffin ash gracie and charlie quick disclaimer this video is not sponsored i did not get paid
to make this video but my mom did receive some free samples so that we could test and review the
products so smalls offers three different types of proteins they have chicken only turkey only and
cow only and then they also have a combination of chicken and turkey the bird recipes come in
three different forms so there's ground smooth and pulled cow comes in smooth and ground the
smoothing ground is very similar to the wet canned pate type shape and the pulled is almost like
shredded meat my mom's four cats actually like to be pulled the most but they also ate the ground
and the smooth cat food so the pros of small's wet cat food is that the word recipe is in the name
so recipe means that there's going to be between 25 and 94.9 of the named ingredient whether it's
chicken turkey or beef compared to a product that has width or flavor in the product's name
those are going to have significantly less of the named ingredients there's also meat only in the
product's name so instead of saying something like chicken and veggies or turkey and rice
it just says chicken turkey or cow when you have a combination like that it's going to be that
composition is the meat and the veggies combined so sometimes it gets a little tricky because there
could be a little bit more veggies than there are meat but with small's cat food they have more meat
they also include specifically named ingredients so for example there's chicken breast turkey thigh
cow heart turkey liver and so on so instead of just saying chicken meat it says chicken thigh
all of their protein options are less than five percent carbs on a dry matter basis they actually
state this on their website which is very rare to come by so that's a huge pro that they're
transparent about the number of carbs that are in their cafe so all the other cat food brands make
you figure it out yourself because afco doesn't require this on the label i would say that their
pulled recipes are closest to what the cat would eat in the wild i mean it is technically cooked
but at least it's shredded and there's chunks of meat for your cat to chew on now chewing on
chunks of meat isn't the same as chewing on whole prey or chewing on raw meaty bones but
chewing on something is better than just lapping up a bunch of liquids and pates let me know in the
comments what type of texture your cat likes the most because cats can often develop an addiction
and a pickiness to that specific texture so i'm curious to see what your cat fancies
all of the textures have the same ingredients so each recipe is the same regardless of the texture
that you get for the bird recipe it's chicken based so there's chicken chicken liver green beans
peas water sufficient for processing chicken hearts kale canola oil and the rest are synthetic
supplements so i would say a pro here is that they have chicken chicken liver and chicken heart
but i would say that a con here is that they include the veggies you know there is a little
bit of veggie material in the stomach contents of the cat's prey so technically they would
consume some veggies so i'm hopeful that this is a very small amount but it is pretty high
up on the list but then again the rest of the ingredients are all synthetic supplements so
a con right there is that there's still a long list of synthetic supplements and another con that
i would mention is that these actual ingredients aren't listed on the label you have to go on
their website so it's kind of smart on their part because if they ever change their formula
they can still use the same packaging but for us the consumer we have to remember okay i have to go
to their website to make sure that the ingredients are the same and you won't really be able to
compare side by side unless they specifically put on their website or email their customers and say
hey we changed our formula here's what it was before here's what it was after another con is
that they add canola oil i understand why they do it for the fatty acids but canola oil isn't
something that the cat would eat in his natural habitat so that's definitely a con right there
but also on their website in the ingredients and the nutritional analysis they do break down the
percentages of each ingredient which i think is great some other cat food brands the better ones
do this on their website but again it's not on the actual label so you'll have to look at the website
basically every time you order to make sure that it's the same and they do list that the green
beans are less than four percent the peas are less than four percent the majority of the product is
chicken another pro here is that the protein to fat ratio is great so you want to have about
half the amount of fat compared to the protein and again there's low carbs which is always ideal for
cats now their other bird recipe is turkey based and the ingredients are turkey thigh turkey liver
green beans peas kale canola oil and the rest look like synthetic supplements so again we have
the same pros and cons basically because there's a long list of synthetic supplements but they also
tell you that this premix is about two percent and the majority of the ingredients are turkey
would also slide in a con here is that there's turkey there's muscle meat with the thigh and the
heart and there's liver which is great but that's like the minimum requirement that you should have
ideally you would have more variety in the muscle meats and the secreting organs but frankly
typically this is going to be what you'll see with chicken and turkey is most of the time it's just
heart and liver although with raw cat food brands you will see the addition of gizzard and i also
reviewed raw paws pet food they include turkey fries which are the testes a secreting organ and
again cats would eat the entire prey in the wild the stomach contents and all the secreting organs
that's what helps balance out the diet so that explains why they have to add back these synthetic
supplements to round out the diet and complete the diet because they can't include every single piece
of the bird give me a polydactyl thumbs up if this is helpful so far so more cat parents looking to
upgrade their cat's food can find this video thank you so much the cow recipe is beef based
and the ingredients are beef beef liver green beans water sufficient for processing spinach
and it looks like that's it except for the synthetic supplements so i would say here
a con is that there are even fewer meat based ingredients with the other ones we had heart but
this one we don't see heart so i'm looking through the ingredients and it doesn't list beef heart but
then under it says ingredients by percentage and it does say beef heart so i think that they need
to clarify if there is actually beef heart in it you know listed in the ingredients here maybe a
pro is that they use spinach instead of green beans so you have a little bit of variety and
again they list those by the percentages and it's a small amount not ideal but at least it's a small
amount like if you think of the mouse's stomach or the bird's stomach it's very small probably
about two or three percent of the entire body and it's going to be filled with some of the
pre-digested plant material that the prey just ate so it would be around two or three percent
of the veggie material when the cat eats the whole prey i would say another con here is that the fat
percentage is very close to the protein percentage this is very common when it comes to beef which is
it's not ideal but at the same time your cat does need variety in the proteins that he eats
so when you have only white meat you need some red meat also so i think using a combination of
all three of these recipes would be a great way to round out your cat's diet so small's wet cat food
is shipped frozen and it comes in an insulated cooler with dry ice and all of the pieces of
the cooler are biodegradable so that's really cool it's corn based you can just rinse it in the sink
and it'll just break down and come into nothing so it's lightly cooked and then frozen and then
shipped to you and then you would thaw it in the refrigerator i would say about 24 hours or maybe
a day and a half before you want a portion and serve it then you can just cut off the tip of the
wrapper and then scoop it out and they have little divider lines that tell you how much of a portion
is worth 50 calories overall i would definitely say that this is still better than most of the
canned foods that are on the shelves at least it has fresh ingredients there's no diseased decay
and carcasses that they include in it everything's specifically named and it's human grade quality so
it's the same type of ingredients that you and i would buy at the grocery store for ourselves if
your cat is still super picky about upgrading to something like this the human grade wet cat food
i would suggest to try just food for cats because it has a little bit of fish in there that usually
entices cats to eat you can check out my review of that right over meow thanks for watching
i can fly again