Purina Moist and Meaty Review 2024

Purina Moist and Meaty is a unique brand that stands between dry dog food and wet dog food. To find out more about this this Purina line, read our complete Purina Moist and Meaty review. 

Unlike most dog foods that easily fall into the dry dog food or wet dog food category, this food is different. It is crafted with small, kibble-like pieces ​​— but these are much more moist than your average dry food. 

This food may be a good option for those with pickier dogs. The moist texture is often tempting to most dogs, even if they don’t seem to have much of an appetite.

Purina Moist and Meaty dog foods meet all AAFCO standards, and are relatively inexpensive. However, they accomplish this mainly by cutting corners with ingredients. 

We wouldn’t exactly call this brand “meaty,” as their recipes are packed with lower-quality protein and disappointing meat ingredients. Because of this, we find it difficult to recommend it to most owners. 

To find out if this food may be suitable for your canine, keep reading below. 

Purina Moist and Meaty Overview

The Nestle Purina pet food company owns Purina Moist and Meaty. As one of the biggest dog food companies in the world, this manufacturer owns many different dog food brands. If you’ve ever shopped for dog food, you’ve likely found one of their foods sitting on the shelf. 

Purina makes all of their dog foods in the same facilities in the United States. Some of their ingredients do come from international suppliers, however, including China. 

This brand isn’t considered a budget dog food, but it is incredibly inexpensive. It is best for small dogs due to the individually packaged containers, which have smaller portion sizes. 

You could use it for larger dogs, but you’d have to open many different packages to feed your larger canine a full meal. This can reduce the savings you might otherwise experience with this food. 

Many people find this to be an excellent alternative to wet dog food. It is moist and soft like wet food but lacks much of the smell and mess. And, if the smell of wet food often bothers you, this can be an appropriate option. 

This dog food brand includes five different recipes. Here is a quick list:

1. Moist & Meaty Burger with Cheddar Cheese Flavor Dry Dog Food
2. Moist & Meaty Steak Flavor Dry Dog Food
3. Moist & Meaty Rise & Shine Awaken Bacon and Egg Flavor Dry Dog Food
4. Moist & Meaty Chopped Burger Dry Dog Food
5. Moist & Meaty High Protein With Real Chicken & Beef Dry Dog Food

All of these recipes are pretty similar, except for the high protein option, which includes slightly different ingredients from the rest. 

We chose the Moist & Meaty Burger with Cheddar Cheese Flavor Dry Dog Food to represent the other foods in this review.

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Recipe and Label Analysis

Here, you’ll find our detailed analysis of the Moist & Meaty dog food. 

Moist & Meaty Burger with Cheddar Cheese Flavor Dry Dog Food

Ingredient List: Beef By-Product, Soy Flour, Soy Grits, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Water, Wheat Flour, Corn Syrup, Beef, Phosphoric Acid, Calcium Carbonate, Beef Fat Preserved With Mixed-Tocopherols, Salt, Soybean Oil, Sorbic Acid (A Preservative), Cheese Powder (Source Of Cheddar Cheese Flavor), Calcium Propionate (A Preservative), Added Color, Minerals [Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite], Dl-Methionine, Vitamins [Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin (Vitamin B-3), Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate (Vitamin B-5), Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B-1), Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement (Vitamin B-2), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B-6), Folic Acid (Vitamin B-9), Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Vitamin K), Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Biotin (Vitamin B-7)], Choline Chloride, Ethoxyquin (A Preservative), Yellow 6, Red 40, Yellow 5.

* Bold denotes controversial items

Estimated Nutrient Content

Method	Protein	Fat	Carbs
Guaranteed Analysis	18%	7%	NA
Dry Matter Basis	27%	10%	55%
Calorie Weighted Basis	25%	24%	51%

Crude Fiber: 3%

Moisture: 33%

Calorie Content: 474 kcal/pouch

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Ingredient Analysis

Overall, this dog food has very low-quality ingredients. 

The first ingredient listed is beef by-product. This ingredient contains all the leftovers of the cow after the human-grade meat is removed. 

It includes everything from hair to hooves to organs — anything that humans don’t typically eat. 

Some of these ingredients are high-quality, such as organ meats. However, many of them do not have much nutrition. They are far less digestible than whole meats or meat meals.

The next ingredient is soy flour. This additive is a soybean derivative that is very high in protein. 

Its primary purpose is to inexpensively boost the protein content of the food (after all, soybeans are cheaper than meat). However, this protein is vegetable-based and has a low biological value. 

Not all protein is made equal. 

Therefore, we don’t recommend it in any dog food, especially so high on the ingredient list. 

The third ingredient is soy grits. Again, this ingredient is high in veggie-based protein, and so contains fewer amino acids than animal protein. 

High fructose corn syrup appears as the fourth ingredient. Just like for humans, this is a relatively poor choice for dogs. 

Sugar is empty calories and does not provide any nutrition. It is unnecessary. 

Further down on the list, wheat flour appears. Wheat flour has little nutritional value and primarily works to increase the overall calorie content cheaply. It is not a preferred ingredient in the least. 

Right after it, corn syrup is listed. This ingredient does not have any nutritional content for dogs. It’s empty calories and nothing more.

Most of the other ingredients won’t have a significant impact on the food. They are mainly added vitamins and minerals, which are common in any dog food. 

However, there are a few ingredients that we worry about — such as soybean oil. 

Soybean oil is included in this food as a fat additive. It does contain omega-three and omega-six fatty acids. However, it is not as good of an option as flaxseed oil or animal fat. Soybeans are notorious for being high in pesticides.

Added color is also included further down the list. No dog cares about the color of its food, so this is purely for the benefit of the owner and a completely unnecessary ingredient. 

Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex is listed as a vitamin K supplement in the extensive list of added vitamins. Vitamin K is not listed as a required nutrient to add to dog food by the AAFCO. 

Furthermore, this ingredient may be linked with liver toxicity. 

Ethoxyquin is used as a preservative. However, this ingredient is quite controversial. 

It may be linked with an increase of hemoglobin pigment in the liver and various other harmful substances.

This food is also missing quite a few things. It does not contain any chelated minerals, which may reduce the amount of nutrients your dog absorbs. 

Usually, these minerals are only associated with higher-quality dog foods — which this brand is not. 

It also doesn’t include any probiotics. When your dog is only eating commercial food, it must support their digestive health. They can’t receive probiotics from anywhere else.

We were also disappointed by the apparent lack of whole meat. Beef does appear further down on the ingredient list, but it truly makes up very little of this food. 

When you consider the moisture content, beef likely makes up very little of this food at all. It is primarily there so that the company can say it is — not to provide much nutrition to your canine. 

Based on this information, this food simply isn’t the healthiest food choice for your dog. 

Nutrition Analysis

This dog food contains a meager amount of protein — 18% on the guaranteed analysis. This is below the usual amount for dry food, though this food isn’t exactly dry. 

It is also relatively low in fat, at only 7%. Fat is extremely good for dogs and should be where they are getting much of their calories from. 

Instead of being high in protein and fat, this dog food appears to be high in carbohydrates. While companies are not required to list these percentages in their dog food, the lack of protein and fat leaves plenty of room for carbs in this formula. 

Overall, this appears to be a low-quality food as far as the ingredient and nutritional analysis go. There simply isn’t much here for your canine. 

It may be tasty, but your dog is not going to get many nutrients. 

Purina Moist & Meaty Reviews

The Purina Moist & Meaty dog food reviews are pretty good in most cases. 

People seemed to like that it provided some variety to their dog’s diet. If your dog is not interested in the usual dry food, this soft food may fit. It seems designed explicitly for pickier dogs. 

Dog owners with senior canines also reported that this food was helpful. In many cases, these dogs will not eat dry food due to their teeth or other health complications.

This food prevents them from needing to feed their aging dog wet food. 

However, many people did report that they were disappointed with the ingredients. When a food contains high fructose corn syrup and soy flour, you can expect people to be unsure. 

One reviewer stated this about Moist & Meaty Burger with Cheddar Cheese Flavor Dry Dog Food:

“It does the job of getting my dog to eat her dry kibble, but when I read the back of the box, there’s so much soy and other weird ingredients. This is an aternative to cooking every week for my dog, but it’s, admittedly, a lazy alternative. I’ll try to give this to my dog when I just don’t have the time or meat to make her some home-cooked food,”

You can read more Purina Moist & Meaty reviews on Chewy.

Purina Moist & Meaty Recalls

Purina Moist and Meaty has never undergone a recall. For the most part, this seems to be a relatively safe food. 

Purina has had recalls on other brands, but these are primarily voluntary, which means that the company discovered the problem and recalled the food without prompting from the FDA.

Based on its size and scope, this company has far fewer recalls than you would expect. Compared to other companies, they produce very safe dog food. 

To keep up with new recalls, we recommend heading to the FDA website. 

Alternatives

If you’re looking for alternatives to Purina Moist & Meaty, then there are many options out there for you. 

Here are some of our favorites:

Conclusion

We generally do not recommend this dog food for any canine — even those that need a softer food. It would be a much better option to purchase them wet food, even though you will have to deal with a bit of a mess. 

This food simply does not include very high-quality ingredients. High fructose corn syrup and soy grits appear very high on the ingredient list, for instance.

Overall, this food simply isn’t a good option. You may add it as an occasional treat, but it should be very occasional.