Sheba Cat Food Review

Sheba cat food is made by Mars, Inc., one of the largest pet food manufacturers in the world. In January 2011 Mars Petcare US announced that the food would be discontinued due to economic factors. However, Sheba was not long gone from the U.S. market. It is now available in pull-tab cans instead of plastic trays. SHEBA Entrées are made with real beef, poultry, or seafood as the first ingredient. Sheba uses no grains or corn in their cat foods and they use sustainably-sourced fish products.

Who Manufactures Sheba?

Sheba is manufactured by Mars, Incorporated. In the U.S., Sheba is made by Mars Petcare US which also makes brands such as Pedigree for dogs, Cesar Canine Cuisine, Whiskas for cats, and other brands. The company is headquartered in Franklin, TN and has more than 15 manufacturing facilities in the U.S.

Sheba Cat Food Recalls

• We did not find any recalls related to Sheba cat food in the FDA database or online.

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Overall Sheba Cat Food Reviews and Analysis

Sheba is immensely popular with the people who buy it, along with their cats. If you check the products on the Sheba pages you will find literally hundreds of reviews – most of them favorable. Even if you check less biased sites online, Sheba cat foods typically get very good reviews.

Sheba currently makes several different product lines: Perfect Portions Premium Pates; Premium Pates in Natural Juices; Premium Cuts in Gravy; and their Variety Packs (12 and 24-counts) of some of their different products.

Perfect Portions includes eight different entrees – chicken, turkey, salmon, beef, chicken & liver, chicken & tuna, seafood, and whitefish & tuna. Perfect Portions consists of two single servings in one package. These foods contain no grains or corn. Using the chicken entree as an example, the food (one serving) has 11 percent crude protein, 5 percent crude fat, 1.5 percent crude fiber, 78 percent moisture, 3 percent ash, and 0.05 percent taurine. The first five ingredients in this food are: Chicken, Chicken Broth, Meat By-Products, Chicken Liver, and Poultry By-Products.

Premium Pates in Natural Juices features nine entrees: chicken, turkey, salmon, whitefish & tuna, beef, chicken & liver, chicken & tuna, seafood, and cod & shrimp. These pates have no grain or corn. Using the cod & shrimp entree as an example, the food has 12 percent crude protein, 4 percent crude fat, 1.5 percent crude fiber, 78 percent moisture, 3 percent ash, and 0.05 percent taurine. The first five ingredients in this food are: Cod, Meat Broth, Poultry By-Products, Meat By-Products, and Chicken.

Premium Cuts in Gravy comes in five entree flavors: chicken, turkey, salmon, tuna, and mixed grill. These foods also have no grains or corn. Using the turkey entree as an example, the food has 10 percent crude protein, 2.5 percent crude fat, 1.5 percent crude fiber, 80 percent moisture, 3.2 percent ash, and 0.05 percent taurine. The first five ingredients int his food are: Turkey, Turkey Broth, Chicken Broth, Chicken, and Meat By-Products.

For Sheba’s Variety Packs you should check the specific products included in the packs for nutrient and ingredient information.

Overall, Sheba’s foods look like they contain some good ingredients. They have meat protein as the first ingredient and many people will like the fact that they do not use grains or corn. Many people will also be pleased that Sheba uses responsibly-sourced fish. The foods do not use artificial preservatives but some of them do contain added color, which is a concern. It’s always puzzling why pet food companies add color to foods because pets don’t care about the color of the food. It’s strictly done to appeal to the human buyer – and most of us don’t want artificial colors.

The foods do use meat and poultry by-products. More on this below when we review an individual food. We think that Sheba looks like a better than average food that most cats (and their people) will like, though we have a few points of concern.

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Individual Recipe Review Sheba Premium Pates in Natural Juices Salmon Entree:

Donnalonna @ Chewy.com says…

My two cats love the pate formula only so I’m so glad Chewy has a wide selection of Sheba pate. Love the auto delivery makes my life easier. The ingredients in Sheba compare to the higher grade cat foods with good protein and no fillers.

We chose the Salmon Entree from Sheba’s Premium Pates in Natural Juices at random. All of the selections for this product line seemed to have lots of recommendations and were well-liked by customers who rated them.

The salmon entree has a nutrient profile that is very similar to the example used above (the cod & shrimp entree). It has 12 percent crude protein, 4 percent crude fat, 1.5 percent crude fiber, 78 percent moisture, and 0.05 percent taurine. It differs from the cod & shrimp entree in that it has 3.7 percent ash instead of 3 percent ash. As many people know, ash is the inorganic mineral content left over when the organic portion of the food has been burned off. The mineral content can be any combination of calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and other trace minerals. Most canned pet food has a limit of about 3 percent ash so the ash in this salmon entree is a little high. One thing you should know is that when ash is higher it means that there is less food. But we are dealing with tenths of a percent in this case, so it’s not that big an issue. I do suggest you read about ash and other cat food ingredients on this site.

The first five ingredients in this food are Salmon, Meat By-Products, Meat Broth, Chicken Liver, and Chicken. So, the first ingredient is fish (a meat/fish protein), which is good in any pet food. There are also three other meat (and organ meat) sources of protein in the first five ingredients, so it looks like this food has plenty of meat protein for your cat. Some people do not encourage you to feed too much fish to your cat for various reasons – the possibility of allergies, the belief that cats can become addicted to fish and refuse to eat other foods, the possibility of mercury contamination from certain kinds of fish, and so on. However, many cats do enjoy fish and you should be able to feed it to your cat in moderation – just not for every meal.

Salmon is a good protein for most cats unless they have an allergy or food sensitivity to fish.

The grilled chicken recipe has the following first five ingredients: chicken broth, chicken, liver, wheat gluten, and meat by-products. Nutritionally, it’s approximately 46 percent protein and 54 percent fat. That may sound high in fat but the fat contains lots of marine-sourced omega-3 fatty acid which is good for your cat’s heart, skin, coat, brain, and other organs; and a good source of omega-6 fatty acid in a good ratio to the omega-3s. It’s also a good source of Thiamin, Niacin, Vitamin B6 and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Vitamin B12 and Selenium.

The next ingredient is meat by-products. Later in the list the food also includes poultry by-products. Many people will tell you that meat by-products and poultry by-products are less desirable ingredients because they are not named ingredients. They are a little vague and don’t specify the kind of meat or poultry used. This is true. If this were a dog food then people would certainly be howling about it. But cats, as confirmed carnivores, have such a need for meat that even some experts are willing to overlook meat by-products and poultry by-products in order to make sure foods have lots of meat protein instead of using plant sources of protein. With dogs many companies use named sources of meat and poultry but they increase the protein content by using peas and lentils or grains. This is far less acceptable for cats. If you have to choose between plant sources of protein and meat and poultry by-products in your cat’s food, by all means choose the meat and poultry by-products so your cat has more meat protein.

The third ingredient in the food is meat broth which is likely water that remains from cooking meat for the food. Foods like this entree, labeled “in natural juices,” are allowed to have up to about 78 percent moisture by the FDA, which is what we see in the guaranteed analysis.

The fourth ingredient is chicken liver. Liver is good for cats in small amounts. It typically makes up about 5 percent of a cat’s diet when they hunt on their own and raw feeders usually include 5-10 percent organ meat (which includes liver) in their cat’s diet. It’s not good for cats to have too much liver, however. Too much can be harmful because liver contains lots of vitamin A and D and cats can overdose on these vitamins. Liver usually costs less than muscle meat which is why some pet food companies use it so liberally. Like fish, liver is something that should be fed in moderation and not every day. Chicken liver has about 63 percent protein, 35 percent fat, and 2 percent carbs. Besides vitamins A and D, it’s a good source of Thiamin, Zinc, Copper and Manganese, and a very good source Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Vitamin B12, Pantothenic Acid, Iron, Phosphorus and Selenium.

The fifth ingredient in this food is chicken. Most cats can eat chicken without any problem and it’s a very common cat food ingredient. Chicken is about 60-80 percent protein and 20-40 percent fat. It’s a good source of Vitamin B6 and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Niacin and Selenium.

Other ingredients of interest in this food include guar gum which comes from guar beans. People argue about guar gum but it’s the thickener that gives a cat food texture and holds it into a pate shape, as it does in this food. It’s found in lots of human foods such as ice cream. It even has some laxative effects which might be beneficial for certain cats.

The food does contain added color, as we mentioned above. It seems that Sheba could leave out this ingredient and no one would miss it. Certainly not your cat. And the food contains natural flavor. Natural flavor is problematic because the FDA considers lots of things “natural” that you and I probably wouldn’t call natural. It can include certain forms of MSG (monosodium glutamate) – a flavor enhancer; or diacetyl, the buttery flavoring used in microwave popcorn. If flavoring in cat food is an important issue for you, check this site for some suggestions.

Despite a couple of iffy ingredients, we like Sheba’s Premium Pate in Natural Juices Salmon entree. It looks like a food with lots of meat content, no corn, wheat, or soy; no other grains, no artificial preservatives, and low in carbohydrates.

Calorie Content:

This food contains an estimated 25 calories per ounce of food but we could not locate calorie information from Sheba. This calorie figure seems very low – it came from the figures provided in the guaranteed analysis. Adult cats (indoors) generally need about 20 calories per pound of body weight per day; outdoor cats usually require about 35 calories per pound per day.

 Calorie Content (Calculated): 1130 kcal ME/kg, 42 kcal ME/portion

Guaranteed Analysis

Crude protein, Min, 12.0%

Crude fat, Min 4.0%

Crude fiber, Max 1.5%

Moisture, Max 78.0%

Ash, Max 3.7%

Taurine, Min 0.05%

Nutritional Statement

This entree is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Cat Food Nutrient Profiles for all life stages.

Dry Matter Basis: This food has an estimated 54.5 percent protein, 18.2 percent fat, 6.8 percent fiber, and 3.6 percent carbohydrates. (AAFCO recommendations for protein for adult cats are a minimum of 26 percent; and 30 percent for growing kittens; and 9 percent fat for both adult cats and growing kittens.)

Final Thoughts

We think that Sheba’s Premium Pate in Natural Juices Salmon entree – and the other Sheba foods – look good. We don’t mind the meat by-products and poultry by-products for most healthy adult cats. If you have an older cat or a cat with a special health issue then you might want to spend more money and buy a cat food that doesn’t use any meat or poultry by-products since these cats could use the highest quality sources of meat protein. But if your cat likes Sheba, we think the foods are good. There are a couple of ingredients we would change, but, overall, it looks good.