Daily Essentials Chicken, Beef & Salmon

Safety and recall record

We found 2 recalls for this brand line since 2016. Older and less related recalls count for less.

• 2017Serious. 9Lives Meaty Pâté and Seafood & Poultry canned cat food: possibly low thiamine. Source−3
• 2018Serious. 9Lives Protein Plus canned cat food: possibly low thiamine. Source−3

Nutrition standards (WSAVA)

The World Small Animal Veterinary Association guidelines tell owners to ask a pet food company who formulates its food and how qualified they are, who makes it, what quality checks it runs, and whether it publishes research. If a company can't or won't answer, WSAVA says to be cautious. We use the answers each maker gave the Pet Nutrition Alliance, which puts those questions to pet food companies.

Maker: J.M. Smucker pet foods (sold to Post Holdings in 2023).

• ✓Qualified nutritionist. Employs a full-time nutritionist with a PhD in animal nutrition.6/8
• ½Makes its own food. Owns 50% of the plants that make its food; uses a contract manufacturer for the rest.3/6
• ✓Answers the questions. Answered the survey and shared nutrient data on request.5/5
• ✗Published research. No in-house research program publishing in peer-reviewed journals that we could find.0/6

What owners say

Rated 4.7 out of 5 across 5,281 ratings on Chewy. Ratings from a small number of shoppers get pulled toward the average, so for scoring this counts as 4.68.

Value

At $13.99 for 12 lb, this costs $0.75 per 1,000 kcal, well below the middle of the dry cat foods we graded.

For a 10 lb neutered adult cat (about 261 kcal a day), that works out to about $0.20 a day, before treats.

Details

Grades compare products within the same category only. We don't test products ourselves or judge individual recipes, and every food here is sold as complete and balanced. Nutrition standards rate the maker against WSAVA's questions, using answers collected by the Pet Nutrition Alliance in 2022. How we grade.