What’s actually in Instinct Raw Boost Mixers?
The ingredient panel reads: chicken (including ground chicken bone), chicken liver, pumpkinseeds, chicken heart, carrots, apples, butternut squash, turkey liver, turkey heart, ground flaxseed, montmorillonite clay, dried kelp, broccoli, mixed tocopherols (for freshness), apple cider vinegar, salmon oil, rosemary extract, blueberries, and dried chicory root.
Format is freeze-dried raw, preserved through sublimation (water removed under vacuum at low temperature) rather than cooking. The product is produced in USA with cage-free chicken and non-GMO produce. Critically, the AAFCO statement reads "intended for intermittent or supplemental feeding only" — this distinguishes it from complete-and-balanced cat foods (which carry either "formulated to meet" or "feeding-trial-substantiated" AAFCO language). Guaranteed analysis: 42% crude protein minimum / 35% crude fat minimum / 5% crude fiber maximum / 5% moisture maximum. On a dry-matter basis this is roughly 44% protein and 37% fat — nutrient-dense, but intentionally not balanced to serve as a standalone diet because a topper is meant to complement rather than replace a primary food’s vitamin and mineral profile. Shop on Amazon →
The good stuff
The opening is exactly what you want from a high-quality topper: chicken muscle with ground bone at one, chicken liver at two. Cats are obligate carnivores whose taurine, vitamin A, B12, iron, and copper requirements are best met from organ meats and whole-prey analogues. Ground bone at position one delivers bioavailable calcium and phosphorus in their natural ratio. Turkey liver and turkey heart join chicken liver as organ-stacking in positions two, seven, and eight.
The non-GMO produce inclusions are unusually clean for the category. Pumpkinseeds (position three) contribute zinc and magnesium. Carrots, apples, butternut squash, broccoli, and blueberries are whole-food rather than fractionated starch ingredients. Dried kelp and montmorillonite clay add trace minerals. No peas, no lentils, no pea protein isolate, no legume-fraction-stacked ingredient list. For owners concerned about legume-heavy formulations flagged in the ongoing FDA DCM investigation, this panel avoids the common red flags.
No grains, no potato, no corn, no wheat, no soy, no by-product meal, no added sugar, no artificial colors or flavors. Mixed tocopherols as preservative rather than BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin. Salmon oil provides EPA/DHA on top of the chicken’s natural fat. This is a notably spare panel for a topper at the premium price point.
Practical benefit — a topper lets owners add fresh/raw nutrition to an existing complete-and-balanced base diet without committing to full fresh-format feeding (which can run $5-12 per cat per day as a primary food). Crumbled or rehydrated on top of a premium kibble or canned-wet base, Raw Boost Mixers contributes organ-meat and whole-food nutrition at a manageable per-day cost.
The not-so-good stuff
Not a complete diet. This is the single most important thing to understand about Raw Boost Mixers. The AAFCO "intermittent or supplemental feeding" statement means the product is not formulated to meet the complete Cat Food Nutrient Profile on its own — feeding it as a sole diet will lead to nutritional gaps (specific vitamins, specific minerals, specific amino-acid ratios) that can cause long-term health problems. If you see a freeze-dried product described as a "mixer," "topper," "meal enhancer," or "boost," always check the AAFCO statement before considering it as a primary food.
Pathogen control is not publicly documented. Instinct’s consumer-facing materials on instinctpetfood.com do not explicitly name HPP (high-pressure processing), test-and-hold batch screening, or equivalent pathogen-control protocols for the Raw Boost Mixers line. Under Fresh Food Rubric v1.0 §4.5, raw-format products without disclosed pathogen control carry a −3 default deduction. The CDC, AVMA, and AAFP have issued guidance that raw pet food is not appropriate for households with infants, immunocompromised adults, adults over 65, or pregnant adults — even when HPP-treated. Without documented HPP or test-and-hold, Raw Boost Mixers sits on the more cautious side of this guidance.
Per-serving cost is high for a non-standalone product. Because the mixer supplements a primary diet, the total feeding cost is (primary food cost) + (mixer cost). A full freeze-dried-raw primary diet like Stella & Chewy’s Freeze-Dried Raw Cat (A/90) may be a simpler cost conversation than kibble-plus-mixer, depending on the owner’s pairing.
The B grade in our rubric reflects the §16 mixer-format cap, not a formulation concern. On ingredient quality alone the panel would support a higher score. The cap exists because AAFCO supplemental products by definition cannot anchor a primary-diet recommendation — we don’t want a "Best Cat Food Overall" guide listing a product that cats can’t eat as a sole diet.
How to use a topper correctly
A topper makes sense in three scenarios: (1) you want to add fresh/raw nutrition to a complete-and-balanced dry or canned base diet without the budget commitment of full fresh-format feeding; (2) you have a picky cat and want to boost meal palatability with a high-aroma freeze-dried protein layer; (3) you want whole-food produce and organ-meat density on top of a formulated diet without the food-safety considerations of a fully raw primary diet.
Good base-diet pairings include premium dry kibble like Wellness CORE (A/90), Orijen Cat (A/91), or Acana Cat (A/90); canned-wet like Tiki Cat After Dark (A/90) or Weruva Paw Lickin' Chicken (B/78); or cooked-fresh like Smalls Smooth Bird Fresh Chicken (A/90). Typical use is a small portion (a few pieces crumbled dry or rehydrated with water) on top of the primary meal 1-2 times per day.
Do not use Raw Boost Mixers as a primary diet. Do not use it as more than 25% of daily caloric intake without veterinary guidance. If you want a complete-and-balanced freeze-dried raw primary diet, the Instinct Raw Boost complete line is a different product with "complete and balanced" AAFCO substantiation — Mixers is specifically the supplemental SKU.
How it compares and where it fits (not fits)
As a topper, this is the strongest single option in our catalog. It is not, however, interchangeable with our primary-diet fresh-format reviews: Smalls (A/90), Stella & Chewy’s Freeze-Dried Raw Cat (A/90), Primal Freeze-Dried Cat (A/90), Honest Kitchen Grain-Free Cat (A/90), Tiki Cat After Dark (A/90), and Weruva Paw Lickin' Chicken (B/78) are all AAFCO-complete primary diets that can be fed as a sole diet. Raw Boost Mixers cannot.
This topper does not belong in "Best Cat Food Overall" or "Best Fresh Cat Food" primary-diet guides. If you are shopping for a primary diet, start with our Best Fresh Cat Food guide for fresh-format primary diets, or our Best Grain-Free Cat Food guide for dry options. Raw Boost Mixers belongs in a future "Best Cat Food Toppers" category guide that surfaces supplemental products specifically.
Against the brand-level Instinct (B/78) dry kibble entry and the Instinct Raw Boost (B/79) complete-and-balanced kibble-plus-freeze-dried blend, Raw Boost Mixers shares the same B-tier score but is a fundamentally different product category — a standalone topper rather than a complete-and-balanced primary food.
The bottom line
Instinct Raw Boost Mixers Cage-Free Chicken Recipe earns a B grade (79/100) under the Fresh Food Rubric v1.0 mixer-format scoring. Strong ingredient quality, non-GMO whole-food inclusions, organ-meat stacking, and clean preservatives make this the strongest topper in our catalog. The B cap reflects its AAFCO supplemental label — toppers complement primary diets; they don’t replace them. If you want to add fresh/raw nutrition to a premium complete-and-balanced base diet, this is a genuinely good option. If you are shopping for a primary cat food, start with a complete-and-balanced A-tier option instead: Wellness CORE (A/90) for dry, Tiki Cat After Dark (A/90) for canned-wet, or Smalls (A/90) for cooked-fresh. Shop on Amazon →