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What's actually in I and Love and You?
We analyzed I and Love and You Naked Essentials Indoor Health Chicken + Turkey, a dry kibble formulated for adult indoor cats. The first ingredients are chicken, chicken meal, turkey meal, dried peas, pea protein, pea starch, menhaden fish meal, ground miscanthus grass, chicken fat, and turkey.
The guaranteed analysis lists 40% crude protein, 11% fat, 6% fiber, and 10% moisture. On paper, a 40% protein figure looks strong, and the lineup opens the right way: chicken is a whole, named meat, while chicken meal and turkey meal are concentrated rendered meats that pack more protein per gram than fresh meat does once the water is removed. Menhaden fish meal a little further down adds a marine protein source along with naturally occurring omega-3 fatty acids. For an obligate carnivore, an animal that is built to run on protein and fat from meat, having three or four animal proteins anchor the recipe is a genuine positive.
The complication sits right in the middle of that opening run. Ingredients four, five, and six are dried peas, pea protein, and pea starch, three pea-derived components stacked back to back. We'll dig into why that matters in the sections below, because it changes how you should read that 40% protein number. Ground miscanthus grass supplies most of the fiber, chicken fat provides energy and palatability, and the formula carries added taurine (an essential amino acid cats cannot make in adequate amounts on their own), L-carnitine, and a probiotic in the form of dried Bacillus coagulans. Importantly, this food is labeled complete and balanced for adult maintenance under AAFCO standards, not for all life stages, so it is built for grown cats rather than kittens. Shop on Amazon →
The good stuff
The biggest strength is the protein lineup at the very top. Chicken, chicken meal, and turkey meal occupy the first three slots, which means several named animal sources, not a single token meat followed by fillers, form the backbone of the recipe. Chicken meal and turkey meal in particular are protein-dense once rendered, and menhaden fish meal adds a fourth animal source plus omega-3s that cats use directly. For a kibble in this price tier, leading with this many recognizable meats is a real point in its favor.
The clean label is the second genuine positive. There is no corn, no wheat, and no soy, the three grain and legume fillers that crowd the ingredient lists of many grocery-aisle cat foods and add carbohydrate a cat has little dietary need for. Cats have no meaningful requirement for carbohydrates, so keeping those common cheap fillers out is a sensible choice, even though, as we'll see, the peas reintroduce some plant content of their own.
The "Indoor Health" positioning is also a legitimate, thoughtful angle rather than just marketing. The formula is built to be lower in calories for less active, indoor cats that tend toward weight gain, and the lower 11% fat figure is part of how it hits that target. It also adds L-carnitine, an amino-acid compound that helps the body convert fat into usable energy and is commonly included in weight-management diets. For an overweight or sedentary apartment cat, a moderate-calorie food with added L-carnitine is a reasonable, evidence-based approach to managing weight.
Finally, the supporting cast does a few smart things. Added taurine protects against the heart and eye problems linked to taurine deficiency, which is non-negotiable in any cat food. The included probiotic, dried Bacillus coagulans, is a spore-forming strain that survives the kibble-making process well and supports digestive health. Those are real inclusions that go beyond the bare minimum.
The not-so-good stuff
The load-bearing concern is the trio of stacked peas. Dried peas, pea protein, and pea starch sit at positions four, five, and six, back to back. Pea protein in particular is a concentrated plant-protein isolate, and its presence so high on the list means a meaningful share of that headline 40% crude protein is coming from peas rather than from animal muscle. This practice is sometimes called protein-splitting or plant-protein boosting: by splitting peas into several components and adding a protein isolate, a formula can lift the total crude-protein figure on the label without that protein necessarily coming from meat. It's not deceptive or dangerous, and pea protein is digestible, but it does mean the animal-based share of the protein is lower than the 40% number suggests at first glance. For an obligate carnivore that thrives on animal protein with its complete amino-acid profile, that's the single most important caveat to weigh.
The fat content is the second issue. At 11%, this food is on the low side for a cat. Some of that is by design, since the "Indoor Health" formula is meant to be lower in calories for weight control, but cats use fat as a primary energy source and it carries flavor and essential fatty acids. For an active cat, a kitten (which this food isn't designed for anyway), or a cat that needs to maintain weight, 11% fat is modest, and you may find a more active cat is hungrier on it.
The adult-maintenance label is a real limitation worth stating plainly. This food is approved for adult maintenance only, not for all life stages, so it is not appropriate as a sole diet for kittens or for pregnant or nursing cats, who have higher protein, fat, and calorie needs. If you have a growing kitten or a multi-cat household with mixed ages, that narrows where this food fits.
The last concern is menadione sodium bisulfite complex, a synthetic form of vitamin K3. It appears low on the list as a vitamin K source, but it's the kind of inclusion most premium foods deliberately avoid. Menadione is banned from over-the-counter human supplements in some countries because high doses have been linked to safety concerns, and its use in pet food is debated, with critics noting a lack of long-term feeding studies. To be fair and proportionate: the amounts used in pet food are small, it is permitted by AAFCO, and there is no proven harm at those levels. But given that many comparable foods meet a cat's vitamin K needs without it, its presence here is a mark against an otherwise reasonably clean label.
How it compares
At a C grade (65/100), I and Love and You lands in the middle of the cat foods we've scored. In the same grain-free, value-minded tier, American Journey (B/76) edges it out. Both avoid corn, wheat, and soy and both use peas, but American Journey delivers a bit more usable animal protein for the money, which lifts it into the "good" tier where this food sits just below.
A similar story plays out against Canidae (B/78), another grain-free option that leans on a high-protein, meat-forward recipe. Wilderness scores ten points higher, again largely because more of its protein traces back to animal sources rather than to stacked plant components. If your priority is maximizing animal protein, those two are the stronger picks in this price range.
It's worth keeping the grade in perspective, though, because a C is not a poor food. I and Love and You's 65 actually beats a mass-market staple like Purina Pro Plan (C/58). Both land in the C tier, but I and Love and You's cleaner label, with three named meats up front and no corn, wheat, or soy, earns it the higher score of the two. So while it trails the value-tier leaders, it still comes out ahead of some far more widely sold options.
The bottom line
I and Love and You Naked Essentials Indoor Health Chicken + Turkey earns a C grade (65/100) from KibbleIQ, and that's a fair reflection of a genuinely middle-of-the-pack food with real strengths and real weaknesses. On the plus side, three named animal proteins lead the recipe, it skips corn, wheat, and soy, and it adds taurine, a probiotic, and L-carnitine for a sensible indoor weight-management angle. On the other side, three stacked pea ingredients mean the 40% protein figure leans partly on plants rather than animal muscle, the 11% fat is low for an active cat, it's approved for adult maintenance only rather than all life stages, and it includes menadione (synthetic vitamin K3) that many premium foods leave out. If you have a less active adult indoor cat and you want a clean-label, grain-free food at a reasonable price, this is a perfectly defensible choice, just know that you can find more animal protein per dollar a tier up. Shop on Amazon →