Daily Essentials
9Lives Daily Essentials is a dry adult cat food with grains. Its first ingredients are whole ground corn, chicken by-product meal and soybean meal. It has an Ingredients score of 28/100, a Nutrition score of 4.8/10 and 7 items on our Avoid List. The lowest price we found is $0.89/lb (28 lb bag at Chewy).
Label checked Oct 26, 2026 · Price checked Oct 27, 2026
How It Scores
The first 5 ingredients count for 70%, the rest for 30%.
- Whole Ground Corn
- 1 / 5
- Corn
- Chicken By-Product Meal
- 2 / 5
- By-product meal
- Soybean Meal
- 1 / 5
- Soy
- Corn Protein Meal
- 1 / 5
- Plant protein concentrate
- Whole Wheat
- 1 / 5
- Wheat
- Other ingredients
- 1.8 / 5
- Average of the other 18 ingredients
Avoid List
7The label lists menadione (synthetic vitamin K3), titanium dioxide (artificial color), Yellow 5 (artificial color), Red 40 (artificial color), BHA (synthetic preservative), Yellow 6 (artificial color), Blue 2 (artificial color).
The number of unwanted additives on the label, counted separately from the two scores: 0 is best. How we score
Adult targets. Values as listed on the label.
- Protein 28%
- 3.6 / 5
- Full points between 35% and 45%
- Fat 9%
- 3.3 / 5
- Full points between 15% and 22%
- Carbohydrates 41%
- 1.8 / 5
- Full points between 15% and 25%. Our estimate: the label does not list ash.
- Fiber 3%
- not scored
- Shown for information.
- Unnamed animal source
- × 0.75
- Animal Fat, Meat And Bone Meal do not name the animal. Score before: 6.4/10.
What Is in It
Dry matter means the food with the water taken out. It lets you compare foods with different moisture fairly.
| On the label | Dry matter | |
|---|---|---|
| Protein (min) | 28% | 31.8% |
| Fat (min) | 9% | 10.2% |
| Fiber (max) | 3% | 3.4% |
| Ash | not listed | - |
| Carbohydrates (estimate) | 41% | 46.6% |
| Moisture (max) | 12% | - |
| Calories | 3,400 kcal/kg · 310 kcal/cup | |
Label numbers are limits, not exact amounts: protein and fat are minimums, fiber and moisture are maximums.
Labels do not list carbohydrates, and this one does not list ash either. We estimate carbohydrates by assuming 7% ash, a typical value for dry cat food, and subtracting everything else from 100.
First 5 Ingredients
Ingredients are listed by weight, heaviest first. The first few usually make up most of the food.
All Ingredients (Label Order)
Whole Ground Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Soybean Meal, Corn Protein Meal, Whole Wheat, Animal Fat (Preserved With Mixed Tocopherols), Meat And Bone Meal, Natural Flavor (Preserved With Mixed Tocopherols), Salmon Meal, Phosphoric Acid, Salt, Choline Chloride, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin Supplement, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source Of Vitamin K Activity), Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Titanium Dioxide, Taurine, Yellow 5, Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganous Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Sodium Selenite, Calcium Iodate), Red 40, BHA (Used As A Preservative), Lactic Acid, Yellow 6, Blue 2, Rosemary Extract
Estimated Monthly Cost
By your cat's weight, using the maker's daily amount and the cheapest bag. Your cat may eat more or less.
The maker gives the daily amount as a range by weight. We worked out the amount for each weight from that range, so it is an estimate.
Bags and Stores
Prices were checked by hand on the date shown and may have changed. Store links may earn us a commission at no cost to you. How this works
Similar Price, Better Ingredients
Same age group, a higher Ingredients score, a Nutrition score no more than 0.5 lower and no more unwanted additives, at most 20% more per pound.
Last checked: Oct 26, 2026 ·Maker's page ·Suggest a correction